January 12



Events

Up to 1900 
 475 - Basiliscus becomes Emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
 1528 – Gustav Vasa becomes King of Sweden.
 1539 - The Treaty of Toledo is signed by King Francis I of France and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.
 1554 - Bayinnaung is crowned King of Burma.
 1616 - The city of Belem, in the present-day state of Para, Brazil, is founded by Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco.
 1807 - A ship loaded with gunpowder explodes, killing 151 people in the Dutch city of Leiden.
 1846 - In France, a General Amnesty is given to people who took part in the French Revolution.
 1848 - The Palermo Rising takes place in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
 1866 – The Royal Aeronautical Society is founded in London.
 1872 – Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum; the first coronation in Axum for over 200 years.
 1888 - The Schoolhouse Blizzard sweeps across the Great Plains states of the United States, killing 200 people, many of them schoolchildren.
 1895 – The United Kingdom's National Trust is founded.
 1898 – Ito Hirobumi becomes Prime Minister of Japan for a third time.
 1899 - 13 crew members and 5 apprentices are rescued from stricken schooner Forest Hall by the Lynmouth Lifeboat, after getting into difficulty off Devon, England.

1901  2000 
 1905 - The Riksdagshuset, the seat of Sweden's parliament, is inaugurated in Stockholm, after eight years of building work.
 1906 - Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet begins widespread social reforms after a landslide victory in the United Kingdom Election.
 1908 – A long-distance radio signal is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
 1915 - The United States House of Representatives rejects giving women the vote.
 1918 - In Finland a law takes effect that makes Jews full Finnish citizens.
 1920 - French passenger steamer Afrique is blown against a reef on France's coast during a storm, and sinks, killing 575 out of the 609 people on board.
 1921 - After the Black Sox Scandal, Kenesaw Mountain Landis is elected Major League Baseball's first commissioner.
 1922 – Prime Minister of France Aristide Briand resigns.
 1932 – Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate, representing Arkansas.
 1937 - Melilla, a Spanish territory bordering Morocco, becomes a German submarine base during the Spanish Civil War.
 1945 – A magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Japan kills 1,900 people.
 1959 - The Caves of Nerja are rediscovered in Spain.
 1962 - Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first US combat mission of the war, takes place.
 1964 – Rebels in Zanzibar revolt and proclaim a republic.
 1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future revival.
 1969 - The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League in the final of the Super Bowl, in one of the biggest shock results in American football history.
 1970 – Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian Civil War.
 1971 - The sitcom All in the Family is first broadcast on CBS.
 1976 - The last Spanish troops withdraw from Western Sahara.
 1991 – The United States Congress authorises military force in reaction to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
 1998 – Nineteen European Nations agree to forbid human cloning.

From 2001 
 2001 - Downtown Disney opens to the public at Disneyland resort in Anaheim, California.
 2004 – The ocean liner RMS Queen Mary 2 makes its first voyage.
 2005 – Deep Impact launches on board a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
 2006 – A stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage kills 362 Muslim pilgrims.
 2010 – 2010 Haiti earthquake: A major earthquake hits Haiti, killing over 200,000 people, and leaving millions of people homeless.
 2016 - A bomb attack in Istanbul, Turkey, kills at least 10 people, most of them German tourists.
 2019 - The roof of a mine in Shenmu in the People's Republic of China's Shaanxi province collapses, killing at least 21 people.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1483 - Henry III of Nassau-Breda, German nobleman (d. 1538)
 1562 – Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy (d. 1630)
 1576 - Petrus Scriverius, Dutch writer (d. 1660)
 1580 – Jan Baptist von Helmont, Flemish scientist (d. 1644)
 1588 - John Winthrop, English-born politician (d. 1649)
 1628 - Claude Perrault, French folklorist (d. 1703)
 1711 - Gaetano Latilla, Italian composer (d. 1788)
 1716 - Antonio de Ulloa, Spanish general and politician (d. 1795)
 1723 - Samuel Langdon, American college educator (d. 1797)
 1724 - Frances Brooke, English writer and playwright (d. 1789)
 1729 - Edmund Burke, Irish statesman and philosopher (d. 1797)
 1737 – John Hancock, American merchant and statesman (d. 1793)
 1746 – Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss educator (d. 1827)
 1751 – Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (d. 1825)
 1772 - Mikhail Speransky, Russian statesman, liberal reformer and professor of Mathematics (d. 1839)

1801  1900 
 1808 - Wilhelm Philippe Schimper, Alsatian botanist and geologist (d. 1880)
 1810 – Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1859)
 1822 - Etienne Lenoir, French engineer (d. 1900)
 1846 - Prince Geatan, Count of Girgenti, son of Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies and Infante of Spain (d. 1871)
 1849 - Murphy J. Foster, Governor of Louisiana (d. 1921)
 1849 - Jean Béraud, Russian-French painter (d. 1935)
 1852 - Joseph Joffre, French general (d. 1931)
 1853 - Gregorio Ricci-Curbastro, Italian mathematician (d. 1925)
 1856 – John Singer Sargent, American painter (d. 1925)
 1863 – Swami Vivekananda, Indian philosopher (d. 1902)
 1869 - Bhagwan Das, Indian politician and educator (d. 1958)
 1873 – Spiridon Louis, Greek athlete (d. 1940)
 1874 - James Juvenal, American rower (d. 1942)
 1876 - Fevzi Cakmak, Turkish field marshal and Prime Minister (d. 1950)
 1876 – Jack London, American writer (d. 1916)
 1877 - Frank J. Corr, American politician (d. 1934)
 1878 - Ferenc Molnár, Hungarian writer and journalist (d. 1952)
 1879 - Anton Uesson, Estonian politician and engineer (d. 1942)
 1882 - Milton Sills, American actor (d. 1930)
 1884 - Texas Guinan, American actress (d. 1933)
 1890 - Johannes Vares, Estonian poet, physician and politician (d. 1946)
 1892 – Mikhail Gurevich, Russian engineer (d. 1976)
 1893 – Hermann Göring, Nazi official (d. 1946)
 1894 - Georges Carpentier, French boxer (d. 1975)
 1896 - Keen Johnson, American politician, 45th Governor of Kentucky (d. 1970)
 1899 – Paul Hermann Müller, Swiss chemist (d. 1965)
 1899 - Pierre Bernac, French baritone (d. 1979)

1901  1950 
 1903 - Igor Kurchatov, Russian physicist (d. 1960)
 1905 - Tex Ritter, American country music singer and actor (d. 1974)
 1906 - Emmanuel Levinas, French philosopher (d. 1995)
 1907 - Sergei Korolev, Russian rocket scientist (d. 1966)
 1908 – Jean Delannoy, French director (d. 2008)
 1910 – Luise Rainer, German actress (d. 2014)
 1910 - Géry Leuliet, French bishop (d. 2015)
 1910 - Patsy Kelly, American actress (d. 1981)
 1916 – Pieter Willem Botha, South African politician (d. 2006)
 1917 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Indian spiritualist (d. 2008)
 1920 - Katja of Sweden, Swedish fashion designer (d. 2017)
 1923 - Ira Hayes, American marine who raised the US Flag on Iwo Jima (d. 1955)
 1923 - Alice Miller, Polish-born Swiss psychologist, author and painter (d. 2010)
 1925 - Katherine MacGregor, American actress (d. 2018)
 1925 - Bill Burrud, American television host (d. 1990)
 1926 - Ray Price, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
 1926 - Shumon Miura, Japanese writer (d. 2017)
 1926 – Morton Feldman, American composer (d. 1987)
 1927 - Ignatz Bubis, chairman of the Federal Council of Jews in Germany (d. 1999)
 1927 - Leopoldo Federico, Argentine musician, arranger, director and producer (d. 2014)
 1928 - George E. R. Kinnear II, American admiral (d. 2015)
 1929 – Jaakko Hintikka, Finnish philosopher (d. 2015)
 1929 - Alasdair MacIntyre, Scottish-American philosopher
 1932 - Des O'Connor, British television presenter and entertainer
 1933 – Michael Aspel, British television presenter
 1933 - Boris Khimichev, Russian actor (d. 2014)
 1934 - Ebrahim Nafae, Egyptian journalist (d. 2018)
 1936 - Sir William McAlpine, 6th Baronet, British engineering businessman (d. 2018)
 1936 - Raimonds Pauls, Latvian pianist and composer
 1936 - Brajanath Ratha, Indian poet (d. 2014)
 1936 - Jennifer Hilton, Baroness Hilton of Eggardon, English police officer and politician
 1937 - Vicente Sardinero, Spanish opera singer (d. 2002)
 1937 - Marie Dubois, French actress (d. 2014)
 1944 – Joe Frazier, American boxer (d. 2011)
 1944 - Vlastimil Hort, Czech-German chess player
 1944 - Jim Gray, American computer scientist (d. 2007)
 1946 - George Duke, American keyboardist (d. 2013)
 1946 - Hazel Cosgrove, Lady Cosgrove, Scottish lawyer and judge
 1948 – Gordon Campbell, Canadian politician
 1948 - Brendan Foster, English athlete and athletics commentator
 1949 - Bagrat de Bagration y de Baviera, Spanish royal (d. 2017)
 1949 – Ottmar Hitzfeld, German football manager
 1949 – Haruki Murakami, Japanese writer
 1949 - Kentaro Haneda, Japanese composer (d. 2007)
 1949 - Hamadi Jebali, Tunisian politician
 1950 – Dorrit Moussaieff, former First Lady of Iceland
 1950 - Sheila Jackson-Lee, American politician
 1950 - Patrice Dominguez, French tennis player (d. 2015)

1951  1975 
 1951 – Kirstie Alley, American actress
 1951 – Rush Limbaugh, American radio personality, writer and political commentator
 1951 - Larry Hoppen, American singer-songwriter and musician (Orleans) (d. 2012)
 1952 - Walter Mosley, American writer
 1952 - John Walker, New Zealand runner
 1954 - Felipe Rose, American musician
 1954 – Howard Stern, American radio personality and writer
 1956 - Marie Colvin, American journalist (d. 2012)
 1958 - Alexander Pochinok, Russian economist and politician (d. 2014)
 1958 - Christiane Amanpour, Iranian-British journalist
 1959 - Nick Nairn, Scottish celebrity chef
 1959 – Per Gessle, Swedish songwriter and musician (Roxette)
 1959 - Blixa Bargeld, German musician
 1960 - Oliver Platt, American actor
 1960 - Dominique Wilkins, American basketball player
 1961 – Andrea Carnevale, Italian footballer
 1962 - Joe Quesada, American comic book writer and artist
 1964 – Jeff Bezos, American entrepreneur, founder of Amazon.com
 1964 - Laura Gildemeister, Argentine tennis player
 1964 - Clare Holman, British actress
 1965 - Rob Zombie, American musician
 1966 - Olivier Martinez, French actor
 1968 – Heather Mills, British activist
 1968 – Mauro Silva, Brazilian footballer
 1969 – David Mitchell, British writer
 1970 – Zack de la Rocha, American musician
 1970 - Raekwon, American rapper
 1971 – David McAllister, German politician
 1971 - Scott Burrell, American basketball player
 1971 - Peter Madsen, Danish engineer, entrepreneur and murder suspect
 1972 - Priyanka Gandhi, Indian politician
 1972 - Espen Knutsen, Norwegian ice hockey player
 1973 - Hande Yener, Turkish singer
 1974 - Tor Arne Hetland, Norwegian cross-country skier
 1974 – Melanie Chisholm, British singer, formerly of the Spice Girls
 1975 - Jocelyn Thibault, Canadian ice hockey player
 1975 - Jason Freese, American musician

From 1976 
 1976 - Piolo Pascual, Filipino actor, director and producer
 1978 – Bonaventure Kalou, Ivorian footballer
 1979 - Lee Bo-young, South Korean actress and model
 1979 – Grzegorz Rasiak, Polish footballer
 1981 - Amerie, American singer-songwriter, producer and actress
 1981 - Tony Lochhead, New Zealand footballer
 1982 - Paul-Henri Mathieu, French tennis player
 1982 - Dean Whitehead, English footballer
 1984 - Oribe Peralta, Mexican footballer
 1984 - Andrew Chan, Australian drug trafficker (d. 2015)
 1986 - Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, Argentine-Italian footballer
 1986 - Kieron Richardson, English actor
 1987 - Naya Rivera, American actress and singer
 1987 - Edoardo Mortara, Italian racing driver
 1988 - Claude Giroux, Canadian ice hockey player
 1989 - Axel Witsel, Belgian footballer
 1990 – Sergey Karjakin, Ukrainian-born Russian chess player
 1991 – Pixie Lott, English singer-songwriter and actress
 1992 - Mao Kobayashi, Japanese model and singer
 1992 - Georgia May Jagger, English model
 1993 – Zayn Malik, English singer (One Direction)
 1994 - Emre Can, German footballer
 1996 - Ai Hashimoto, Japanese actress and fashion model
 1996 - Ella Henderson, English singer-songwriter
 1998 - Nathan Gamble, American actor

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 690 - Benedict Biscop, English saint (b. 628)
 1167 - Aelred of Rievaulx, English saint (b. 1110)
 1321 - Maria of Brabant, Queen of France (b. 1256)
 1519 – Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1459)
 1665 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician and lawyer (b. 1601)
 1674 - Giacomo Carissimi, Italian composer (b. 1605)
 1705 – Luca Giordano, Italian artist (b. 1634)
 1735 - John Eccles, English composer (b. 1668)
 1759 – Anne, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange (b. 1709)
 1781 - Richard Challoner, English bishop (b. 1691)
 1829 – Friedrich von Schlegel, German poet (b. 1772)
 1834 – William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
 1856 – L'udovit Stur, Slovakian politician and writer of the Slovak language (b. 1815)
 1875 – Tongzhi Emperor of China (b. 1856)
 1875 - Thomas E. Bramlette, Governor of Kentucky (b. 1817)
 1897 – Isaac Pitman, British inventor (b. 1813)

1901  2000 
 1909 - Hermann Minkowski, Polish-German mathematician (b. 1864)
 1911 - Georg Jellinek, German public lawyer (b. 1851)
 1916 - Georgios Theotokis, Greek politician, 80th Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1844)
 1921 - Gervase Elwes, English tenor (b. 1866)
 1926 - Austin Chapman, Australian politician (b. 1864)
 1934 - Paul Kochanski, Polish violinist and composer (b. 1887)
 1938 – Gösta Ekman, Swedish actor (b. 1890)
 1943 - Jan Campert, Dutch composer and writer (b. 1902)
 1960 - Nevil Shute, English writer (b. 1899)
 1962 - Ariadna Tyrkova-Williams, Russian journalist and activist (b. 1869)
 1964 - Boss Johnson, Canadian politician (b. 1890)
 1965 - Lorraine Hansberry, American writer, playwright and director (b. 1930)
 1974 - Princess Patricia of Connaught (b. 1886)
 1976 – Agatha Christie, English writer (b. 1890)
 1977 - Henri-Georges Clouzot, French movie director and screenwriter (b. 1907)
 1983 - Rebop Kwaku Baah, Ghanaian musician (b. 1944)
 1983 – Nikolai Podgorny, President of the USSR (b. 1903)
 1997 – Charles B. Huggins, Canadian cancer researcher (b. 1901)
 1999 - Betty Lou Gerson, American voice actress (b. 1914)

2001  2015 
 2002 – Cyrus Vance, United States Secretary of State (b. 1917)
 2003 – Maurice Gibb, British singer (Bee Gees) (b. 1949)
 2003 – Leopoldo Galtieri, Argentine military leader (b. 1926)
 2004 - Olga Aleksandrovna Ladyzhenskaya, Russian mathematician and physicist (b. 1922)
 2005 – Amrish Puri, Indian actor (b. 1932)
 2007 - Alice Coltrane, American jazz musician (b. 1937)
 2009 – Claude Berri, French movie director (b. 1934)
 2009 – Arne Naess, Norwegian philosopher (b. 1912)
 2010 - Daniel Bensaïd, French philosopher (b. 1946)
 2010 - Notable victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, including:
Zilda Arns, Brazilian pediatrician and aid worker (b. 1934)
Georges Anglade, Haitian writer (b. 1944)
Serge Marcil, Canadian politician (b. 1944)
Flo Mcgarrell, Italian artist (b. 1974)
Hédi Annabi, Tunisian diplomat (b. 1943)
Jimmy O, Haitian hip hop musican (b. 1974)
 2012 - Reginald Hill, British writer (b. 1936)
 2012 – Bill Janklow, American politician, former Governor of South Dakota (b. 1939)
 2013 - Koto Okubo, Japanese supercentenarian (b. 1897)
 2014 - Alexandra Bastedo, British actress (b. 1946)
 2014 - Frank Marth, American actor (b. 1923)
 2014 - John Horsley, British actor (b. 1920)
 2014 - John Button, British racing driver (b. 1943)
 2015 - Elena Obraztsova, Russian mezzo-soprano (b. 1939)
 2015 - Carl Long, American baseball player (b. 1935)
 2015 - James Naanman Daman, Nigerian bishop (b. 1956)
 2015 - Frank Glazer, American pianist and composer (b. 1915)
 2015 - Steve Gold, British computer scientist (b. 1956)
 2015 - Robert Gover, American writer (b. 1929)
 2015 - Paul Morgan, Welsh rugby player (b. 1974)
 2015 - Bonnie Christensen, American children's book writer and illustrator (b. 1951)

From 2016 
 2016 - Ivan Bukavshin, Russian chess player (b. 1995)
 2016 - Andrew Smith, American basketball player (b. 1990)
 2016 - Robert Black, Scottish serial killer (b. 1947)
 2016 - Rose Chibambo, Malawian politician (b. 1928)
 2016 - William Needles, American actor (b. 1919)
 2016 - Dave Sime, American sprinter (b. 1936)
 2016 - Carolyn D. Wright, American poet (b. 1949)
 2017 - Giulio Angioni, Italian writer and anthropologist (b. 1939)
 2017 - Meir Banai, Israeli singer (b. 1961)
 2017 - William Peter Blatty, American writer (b. 1928)
 2017 - Anthony King, Canadian-British political scientist (b. 1934)
 2017 - Milton Metz, American radio and television sports presenter (b. 1921)
 2017 - Vsevolod Murakhovsky, Ukrainian-Russian politician (b. 1926)
 2017 - Graham Taylor, English football manager (b. 1944)
 2018 - Frankie Muse Freeman, American civil rights attorney (b. 1916)
 2018 - John V. Tunney, American politician, former United States Senator from California (b. 1934)
 2018 - Jean-Louis Koszul, French mathematician (b. 1921)
 2018 - Keith Jackson, American sportscaster (b. 1928)
 2018 - Doodhnath Singh, Indian writer (b. 1936)
 2018 - Eddy Beugels, Dutch cyclist (b. 1944)
 2018 - Bella Emberg, English actress (b. 1937)
 2018 - Pierre Pincemaille, French organist
 2019 - George Brady, Czech-Canadian Holocaust survivor (b. 1928)
 2019 - Etsuko Ichihara, Japanese actress (b. 1936)
 2019 - Joe M. Jackson, American United States Air Force officer (b. 1923)
 2019 - Batton Lash, American comic book writer and activist (b. 1953)
 2019 - Jaime Rosenthal, Vice president of Honduras (b. 1936)
 2019 - Patricia Wald, American judge (b. 1928)

Observances 
 Memorial Day (Turkmenistan)
 National Youth Day (India)
 Zanzibar Revolution Day (Tanzania)

Days of the year