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January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 345 days remaining (346 in leap years). In astrology, it is the cusp day, between Aquarius and Capricorn.
Events
- 1156 - According to legend, freeholder
Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of the lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
- 1265 - In Westminster, the first
English parliament conducts its
first meeting.
- 1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
- 1356 - Edward Balliol resigns
as King of Scotland.
- 1513 - Christian II becomes King of Denmark and Norway.
- 1667 - Poland cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and eastern Ukraine to Russia.
- 1801 - John Marshall is
appointed Chief Justice of the
United States.
- 1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
- 1840 - Dumont D'Urville
discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
- 1840 - Willem II becomes King of the
Netherlands.
- 1885 - L.A. Thompson patents
the roller coaster.
- 1887 - The United
States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
- 1891 - James Hogg becomes the first
native Texan to be governor of that state.
- 1892 - At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official
basketball game is played.
- 1921 - Republic of Turkey is declared.
- 1929 - The movie In Old
Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.
- 1936 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
- 1937 - Franklin D.
Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
- 1941 - Franklin D.
Roosevelt is inaugurated for a third term as President of the United States, becoming the only President to be elected to three
terms.
- 1942 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference
in Berlin decide the "final
solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation.
- 1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
- 1945 - Franklin D.
Roosevelt is inaugurated for a fourth term as President of the United States, becoming the only President to be elected to four
terms.
- 1949 - Harry S. Truman is
re-inaugurated as the 33rd President of the
United States.
- 1952 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime
Minister of France.
- 1953 - Dwight D.
Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States.
- 1954 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
- 1957 - Dwight D.
Eisenhower is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
- 1958 - Elvis Presley receives
his draft notice.
- 1961 - John F. Kennedy is
inaugurated as the 35th President of the
United States.
- 1964 - Meet the
Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released.
- 1965 - Lyndon B. Johnson is
re-inaugurated as the 36th President of the
United States.
- 1969 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the
Crab Nebula.
- 1969 - Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States.
- 1973 - Richard M. Nixon is
inaugurated for a second term as President
of the United States.
- 1975 - Michael Ovitz founds
Creative Artists Agency.
- 1977 - Jimmy Carter is
inaugurated as the 39th President of the
United States.
- 1980 - Super Bowl XIV sees
the coronation of the Pittsburgh Steelers as the team of the
1970s as they defeat the Los
Angeles Rams, 31-19.
- 1981 - Ronald W. Reagan is
inaugurated as the 40th President of the
United States and becomes the oldest to take office (69 years and 349 days). Minutes later, Iran releases 52 American hostages that were captive for 444 days.
- 1985 - Super Bowl XIX becomes
the most watched game in history when an estimated 115.9 million people see the San Francisco 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins,
38-16. This game also was the first time television commercials ran for a
million dollars a minute.
- 1985 - Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
- 1986 - Martin
Luther King, Jr., day was celebrated as a federal holiday for the first
time.
- 1986 - The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel
Tunnel.
- 1989 - George H. W.
Bush is inaugurated as the 41st President of the United States.
- 1993 - Bill Clinton is
inaugurated as the 42nd President of the
United States.
- 1994 - In South Carolina,
Shannon Faulkner becomes
the first female cadet to attend The Citadel but soon drops out.
- 1996 - Yasser Arafat is elected
president of the Palestinian Authority.
- 1997 - Bill Clinton starts his
second term as President of the United
States.
- 1999 - The China News
Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially
at Internet bars.
- 2001 - George W. Bush is
inaugurated as the 43rd President of the
United States.
- 2002 - Michael Jordan, now of
the Washington Wizards, plays his first game in Chicago since rejoining the NBA.
The Wizards beat the Chicago Bulls, 77-69.
- 2002 - Inauguration of Churches Uniting in
Christ.
Births
- 225 - Gordian III, Roman emperor (d. 244)
- 1812 - Thomas Meik, engineer (d.
1896)
- 1856 - Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch, women's rights activist (d. 1940)
- 1873 - Johannes
Vilhelm Jensen, Danish author, Nobel prize winner (d. 1950)
- 1878 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer
(d. 1968)
- 1894 - Walter Piston,
composer
- 1896 - George Burns, actor,
comedian (d. 1996)
- 1907 - Paula Wessley, actress (d. 2000)
- 1915 - C. W. Ceram, author (d. 1972)
- 1915 - Ghulam Ishaq
Khan, President of Pakistan
- 1918 - Esquivel, musician (d. 2002)
- 1920 - Federico Fellini,
film director (d. 1993)
- 1920 - DeForest Kelly, actor (d. 1999)
- 1920 - John O'Connor,
Cardinal of New York City (d. 2000)
- 1921 - Bernt Engelmann, author (d. 1994)
- 1925 - Ernesto Cardenal,
theologian, author and politician
- 1926 - Patricia Neal,
actress
- 1926 - David Tudor, pianist and composer (d. 1996)
- 1930 - Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
- 1940 - Carol Heiss, Olympic figure skating
gold medalist
- 1946 - David Lynch, film
director
- 1949 - Göran Persson,
Prime Minister of Sweden
- 1952 - Paul Stanley, musician, of
the rock band KISS
- 1956 - Bill Maher, actor, comedian,
political analyst
- 1958 - Lorenzo Lamas,
actor
- 1969 - Skeet Ulrich, actor
- 1976 - Gretha Smit, Olympic speed skating
silver medalist
Deaths
- 1156 - Bishop Henry, patron saint
of Finland
- 1779 - David Garrick, actor (b.
1717)
- 1848 - Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
- 1850 - Adam
Oehlenschlager, Danish poet (b. 1779)
- 1904 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist and
inventor of the Periodic table (b. 1834)
- 1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
- 1944 - James McKeen
Cattell, first professor of Psychology in U.S. (b. 1860)
- 1962 - Robinson Jeffers,
poet
- 1965 - Alan Freed, disk jockey (b. 1922)
- 1971 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, actor, director, writer, producer
- 1984 - Johnny
Weissmuller, Olympic swimming gold medalist, actor (b. 1904)
- 1990 - Barbara Stanwyck,
actress (b. 1907)
- 1993 - Audrey Hepburn,
actress (b. 1929)
- 1996 - Gerry Mulligan,
musician (b. 1927)
- 1997 - Curt Flood, baseball star
- 2003 - Bill Werbeniuk,
Canadian snooker player (b. 1947)
- 2004 - Guinn Smith, American
athlete
Holidays and observances
January 19 - January 21 -
December 20 - February 20
-- listing of all days
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