January 21
January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the
Gregorian calendar. There are 344 days remaining (345 in
leap years).
*
1189 -
Philip II of France and
Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the
Third Crusade.
*
1276 -
Innocent V becomes
Pope.
*
1287 - The treaty of San Agayz is signed.
Minorca is conquered by King
Alfons III of Aragon.
*
1525 - The
Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when
Conrad Grebel,
Felix Manz,
George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in
Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
*
1643 -
Abel Tasman discovers
Tonga.
*
1720 -
Sweden and
Prussia sign the
Treaty of Stockholm.
*
1789 - The first American novel,
The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in
Boston, Massachusetts.
*
1793 - After being found guilty of
treason by the
French Convention,
Louis XVI of France is
guillotined.
* 1793 -
Russia and
Prussia partition
Poland.
*
1853 -
Russell L. Hawes patents the
envelope-folding machine.
*
1861 -
American Civil War:
Jefferson Davis resigns from the
United States Senate.
*
1864 - The
Tauranga Campaign starts during the
Maori Wars.
*
1887 - The
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed.
* 1887 -
Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any
Australian capital city.
*
1899 -
Opel Motors opens for business.
*
1908 -
New York City passes the
Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.
*
1911 - The first
Monte Carlo Rally.
*
1915 -
Kiwanis International founded in
Detroit, Michigan.
*
1919 - Meeting of the First
Dáil Éireann in the Mansion House
Dublin,
Sinn Féin adopts
Ireland's first constitution. The first engagement of
Irish War of Independence, Sologhead Beg, County Tipperary.
*
1924 -
Vladimir Lenin dies and
Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
*
1925 -
Albania declares itself a republic.
*
1941 -
World War II:
Australian and
British forces attack
Tobruk,
Libya.
*
1950 -
Alger Hiss is convicted of
perjury.
*
1954 - The first
nuclear-powered submarine, the
USS Nautilus, is
launched in
Groton, Connecticut by
Mamie Eisenhower, then the
First Lady of the United States.
*
1958 - The last
Fokker C.X in military service, the
FAF FK-111 target tower, crashed killing the pilot and winch-operator.
*
1968 -
Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to
The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring
Simon a
Grammy for
Best Original Score.
* 1968 -
Vietnam War:
Battle of Khe Sanh - One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
*
1969 - An experimental underground
nuclear reactor at
Lucens Vad,
Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
*
1976 - Commercial service of
Concorde begins with London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
*
1977 -
President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all
American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to
Canada.
*
1980 - Golds alltime high of US $850 was created.
*
1985 - Because
January 20 had fallen on a
Sunday,
Ronald Reagan's public inaugural ceremony (for his second term as
President) was moved to
Monday, January 21. Due to bad weather, the ceremony was held indoors in the
United States Capital Rotunda.[
1]
*
1997 -
Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the
United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
*
1999 -
War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the
United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of
cocaine on board.
*
2002 -
Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
*
2004 -
Canada: The residence of
reporter Juliet O'Neill is searched by the
RCMP investigating leaks concerning the deportation of
Maher Arar.
* 2004 -
NASA's
MER-A (the Mars Rover
Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with
Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from
Earth on
February 6th.
*
2005 - In Belize's
capital city, the
unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into
riots.
*
1804 -
Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (d.
1887)
*
1824 -
Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate Army general (d.
1863)
*
1825 -
Imre Madách, Hungarian writer (d.
1864)
*
1829 - King
Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (d.
1907)
*
1848 -
Henri Duparc, French composer (d.
1933)
*
1851 -
Reinhard Hetze, South american religious pioneer (d.
1939)
*
1855 -
John Moses Browning, American inventor (d.
1926)
*
1860 -
Karl Staaff,
Prime Minister of Sweden (d.
1915)
*
1867 -
Ludwig Thoma, German writer (d.
1921)
* 1867 -
Maxime Weygand, French general (d.
1965)
*
1883 -
Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (d.
1929)
*
1884 -
Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d.
1981)
*
1885 -
Leadbelly, American blues and folk musician (d.
1949)
* 1885 -
Umberto Nobile, Italian politician (d.
1978)
*
1887 -
Georges Vezina, Canadian hockey player (d.
1926)
*
1895 -
Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (d.
1972)
*
1897 -
René Iché, French sculptor (d.
1954)
*
1905 -
Christian Dior, French fashion designer (d.
1957)
* 1905 -
Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (d.
1978)
*
1906 -
Igor Moiseyev, father of balletic folk dance
*
1912 -
Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist,
Nobel laureate (d.
2000)
*
1918 -
Richard D. Winters, War hero
*
1921 -
Howard Unruh, American mass murderer
*
1922 -
Telly Savalas, American actor (d.
1994)
* 1922 -
Paul Scofield, English actor
*
1923 -
Lola Flores, Spanish singer (d.
1995)
*
1924 -
Benny Hill, British actor, comic and singer (d.
1992)
*
1926 -
Steve Reeves, American actor (d.
2000)
*
1936 -
Koji Hashimoto, Japanese film director (d.
2005)
*
1938 -
Altair Gomes de Figueiredo, Brazilian football player
*1938 -
John Savident, actor
*
1939 -
Wolfman Jack, disk jockey and actor (d.
1995)
*
1940 -
Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
*
1941 -
Plácido Domingo, Spanish-born tenor
* 1941 -
Richie Havens, American musician
* 1941 -
Ivan Putski, Polish professional wrestler
*
1942 -
Mac Davis, American musician
* 1942 -
Edwin Starr, American singer (d.
2003)
*
1946 -
Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (d.
2004)
*
1950 -
Billy Ocean, West Indian musician
*
1953 -
Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
*
1955 -
Jeff Koons, American artist
*
1956 -
Robby Benson, American actor
* 1956 -
Geena Davis, American actress
* 1956 -
Lewis Berman, American computer scientist
*
1958 -
Michael Wincott, Canadian actor
*
1962 -
Marie Trintignant, French actress (d.
2003)
*
1963 -
Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-born basketball player
* 1963 -
Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
*
1965 -
Jam Master Jay, American disc jockey (d.
2002)
*
1968 -
Charlotte Ross, American actress
*
1969 -
Tsubaki Nekoi, member of the
mangaka group
CLAMP*
1971 -
Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
* 1971 -
Doug Weight, American ice hockey player
* 1971 -
Brian Giles, Major League Baseball Player
*
1972 -
Chan Marshall, American musician (
Cat Power)
* 1972 -
Alan Benes, Professional baseball player
*
1975 -
Nicky Butt, English footballer
*
1976 -
Emma Bunton, English singer (
Spice Girls)
*
1977 -
Al Baxter, Australian rugby player
* 1977 -
Philip Neville, English footballer
*
1978 -
Andrei Zyuzin, Russian ice hockey player
*
1979 -
Brian O'Driscoll, Irish rugby player
* 1979 -
Byung-Hyun Kim, Korean baseball player
*
1981 -
Andy Lee, rapper in the korean group
Shinhwa*
1981 -
Jamie Dalrymple, English Cricketer
* 1981 -
Dany Heatley, Canadian hockey player
* 1981 -
Izabella Miko, Polish-born actress and model
*
1983 -
Moritz Volz, German footballer
*
1991 -
Paige and Ryanne Kettner, American actresses (twins}
*
2004 -
Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway*
304 -
Saint Agnes (martyred)
*
1118 -
Pope Paschal II*
1519 -
Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer
*
1527 -
Juan de Grijalva, Spanish conquistador
*
1546 -
Azai Sukemasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b.
1491)
*
1609 -
Joseph Justus Scaliger, French protestant scholar (b.
1540)
*
1638 -
Ignazio Donati, Italian composer
*
1683 -
Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, British politician (b.
1621)
*
1699 -
Obadiah Walker, English writer (b.
1616)
*
1706 -
Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (b.
1649)
*
1710 -
Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (b.
1638)
*
1722 -
Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, English supporter of
William III of England (b.
1661)
*
1731 -
Thomas Woolston, English theologian (b.
1669)
*
1766 -
James Quin, English actor (b.
1693)
*
1773 -
Alexis Piron, French writer (b.
1689)
*
1774 -
Mustafa III,
Ottoman Sultan (b.
1717)
*
1793 - King
Louis XVI of France (executed) (b.
1754)
*
1795 -
Samuel Wallis, English navigator
*
1814 -
Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, French writer and botanist (b.
1737)
*
1831 -
Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet (b.
1781)
*
1851 -
Albert Lortzing, German composer (b.
1801)
*
1870 -
Alexander Herzen, Russian writer (b.
1812)
*
1872 -
Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b.
1791)
*
1881 -
Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councilor (b.
1802)
*
1891 -
Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b.
1842)
*
1901 -
Elisha Gray, American inventor (b.
1835)
*
1914 -
Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (b.
1857)
*
1919 -
Gojong of Joseon, Emperor of Korea (b.
1852)
*
1924 -
Vladimir Lenin, Russian Revolutionary (b.
1870)
*
1926 -
Camillo Golgi, Italian physician,
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine laureate (b.
1843)
*
1928 -
George Goethals, American army engineer (b.
1858)
*
1931 -
Felix Blumenfeld, Russian composer and conductor (b.
1863)
*
1932 -
Giles Lytton Strachey British writer (b.
1880)
*
1933 -
George A. Moore, Irish novelist (b.
1852)
*
1948 -
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b.
1876)
*
1950 -
George Orwell, British writer (b.
1903)
*
1955 -
Archie Hahn, American athlete (b.
1880)
*
1956 -
Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (b.
1883)
*
1959 -
Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b.
1881)
* 1959 -
Carl Switzer, American actor (b.
1927)
*
1961 -
Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b.
1887)
*
1967 -
Ann Sheridan, American actress (b.
1915)
*
1968 -
Will Lang Jr., Chief Bureau Director of LIFE Magazine (b.
1914)
*
1977 -
Sandro Penna, Italian poet (b.
1906)
*
1984 -
Jackie Wilson, American musician (b.
1934)
*
1985 -
James Beard, American chef and author (b.
1903)
* 1985 -
Eddie Graham, wrestler (b.
1930)
*
1987 -
Charles Goodell, American politician (b.
1926)
*
1989 -
Billy Tipton, American musician (b.
1914)
*
1993 -
Charlie Gehringer, baseball player (b.
1903)
*
1997 -
Colonel Tom Parker, American manager of
Elvis Presley (b.
1909)
*
1998 -
Jack Lord, American actor (b.
1920)
*
1999 -
Susan Strasberg, American actress (b.
1938)
*
2001 -
Byron De La Beckwith, American white supremacist (b.
1921)
* 2001 -
Chung Ju-yung, Korean industrialist (b.
1915)
*
2002 -
Peggy Lee, American singer (b.
1920)
*
2004 -
Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer (b.
1929)
*
2005 -
Parveen Babi, Indian actress (b.
1955)
* 2005 -
John L. Hess, American journalist (b.
1917)
* 2005 -
Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (b.
1907)
*
2006 -
Ibrahim Rugova, President of
Kosovo and historical leader of the Kosovo Albanian people (b.
1944)
*
Catholicism - Feast day of
Saint Agnes.
*
Mauritius -
Thaipoosam Cavadee.
*
National Hugging Day*
UN Arms Day*
BBC: On This Day*
NY Times: On this day*
On this day in CanadaJanuary 20 -
January 22 -
December 21 -
February 21 â€"
listing of all days
