Events

Up to 1900 
 1066 – Edward the Confessor, King of England, dies. The resulting crisis leads to the Norman conquest of England later the same year.
 1463 – Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
 1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed, Burgundy becomes part of France.
 1500 – Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
 1527 – Martyrdom of Felix Manz, a Swiss Anabaptist.
 1554 – Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
 1675 – Battle of Colmar, French army beats Brandenburg.
 1757 – Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty used for regicides.
 1759 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
 1769 – James Watt patents his steam engine.
 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
 1813 – Denmark is declared bankrupt.
 1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
 1854 – The San Francisco steamer sinks, 300 dead.
 1895 – Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
 1896 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
 1900 – Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.

1901  2000 
 1909 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
 1913 – First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
 1914 – Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
 1919 – The German Workers' Party is founded. It later becomes the Nazi Party.
 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
 1940 – FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
 1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
 1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
 1948 – Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
 1949 – US President Harry S. Truman unveils his "Fair Deal" program.
 1956 – Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel."
 1957 – Major league baseballer Jackie Robinson retires.
 1961 – Television: Mr. Ed debuts.
 1964 – Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
 1968 – Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
 1970 – Soap opera All My Children premieres.
 1971 – The first one-day international cricket match takes place between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
 1972 – President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
 1973 – Netherlands recognizes East Germany.
 1974 – An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six, and damages hundreds of houses.
 1974 – Warmest recorded temperature in Antarctica, at 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit).
 1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
 1976 – Cambodia is renamed Democratic Kampuchea.
 1980 – Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer.
 1984 – Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
 1987 – US President Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
 1991 – Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, South Ossetia, beginning the 1991-1992 South Ossetia War.
 1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands spilling 84,700 tonnes of oil.
 1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
 1996 – Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
 1997 – Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
 2000 – The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.

From 2001 
 2002 – Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.
 2005 – Scientists discover the dwarf planet Eris, near the edge of the Solar System.
 2008 – Mikheil Saakashvili is re-elected as President of Georgia.
 2012 – Portia Simpson-Miller becomes Prime Minister of Jamaica for a second time.
 2015 – The Euro currency plunges to its lowest value in over nine years, while Asian stock markets also experience difficulties.

Births

Up to 1800 
 1209 – Richard I, Earl of Cornwall, King of the Romans (d. 1272)
 1425 – Henry IV of Castile (d. 1474)
 1548 – Francisco Suarez, Spanish theologian (d. 1617)
 1587 – Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer (d. 1641)
 1592 – Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (d. 1666)
 1614 – Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (d. 1662)
 1640 – Paolo Lorenzani, Italian composer (d. 1713)
 1667 – Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (d. 1740)
 1679 – Pietro Filippo Scarlatti, Italian composer, organist and choirmaster (d. 1750)
 1696 – Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect (d. 1757)
 1717 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, British statesman (d. 1793)
 1744 – Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, Asturian statesman, author and philosopher (d. 1811)
 1762 – Constanze Mozart, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (d. 1842)
 1767 – Jean-Baptiste Say, French economist (d. 1832)
 1779 – Zebulon Pike, American general and explorer (d. 1813)

1801  1900 
 1833 – Sophus Bugge, Norwegian philologist (d. 1907)
 1834 – William John Wills, Australian explorer (d. 1861)
 1838 – Camille Jordan, French mathematician (d. 1922)
 1846 – Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German writer (d. 1926)
 1855 – King Camp Gillette, American inventor (d. 1932)
 1864 – Bob Caruthers, American baseball player (d. 1911)
 1865 – Julio Garavito Armero, Colombian astronomer (d. 1920)
 1866 – Antonio Maria Baptista, Prime Minister of Portugal (d. 1920)
 1867 – Dimitrios Gounaris, 94th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1922)
 1874 – Joseph Erlanger, American doctor, won the 1944 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1965)
 1876 – Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1967)
 1879 – Marcel Tournier, French harpist and composer (d. 1951)
 1879 – Hans Eppinger, Austrian physician (d. 1946)
 1881 – Pablo Gargallo, Spanish sculptor and painter (d. 1934)
 1891 – Bill Cody, American actor (d. 1948)
 1893 – Paramahansa Yogananda, Indian philosopher and writer (d. 1952)
 1895 – Jeannette Piccard, American priest and aeronaut (d. 1981)
 1895 – Elizabeth Cotten, American singer-songwriter (d. 1987)
 1897 – Theodor Mackeben, German pianist (d. 1953)
 1897 – Kiyoshi Miki, Japanese philosopher (d. 1945)
 1900 – Yves Tanguy, French painter (d. 1955)

1901  1950 
 1902 – Stella Gibbons, English author (d. 1989)
 1904 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (d. 1997)
 1906 – Kathleen Kenyon, British archaeologist (d. 1978)
 1909 – Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (d. 1994)
 1909 – Lucienne Bloch, Swiss-born American sculptor, muralist and photographer (d. 1995)
 1910 – Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete (d. 1949)
 1914 – George Reeves, American actor (d. 1959)
 1917 – Francis L. Kellogg, American diplomat and socialite (d. 2006)
 1917 – Wieland Wagner, German stage director (d. 1996)
 1917 – Jane Wyman, American actress (d. 2007)
 1918 – Dal Richards, Canadian big band leader (d. 2015)
 1919 – Severino Gazzelloni, Italian flautist (d. 1992)
 1921 – Former Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg (d. 2019)
 1921 – Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Swiss writer (d. 1990)
 1921 – John H. Reed, 67th Governor of Maine (d. 2012)
 1923 – Sam Phillips, American music producer (d. 2003)
 1925 – Lou Carnesecca, American basketball coach
 1926 – Walther Leisler Kiep, German politician (d. 2016)
 1928 – Alexander Dalgarno, British physicist (d. 2015)
 1928 – Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistani politician (d. 1979)
 1928 – Walter Mondale, American politician, 42nd Vice President of the United States (d. 2021)
 1928 – Preben Hertoft, Danish sexologist (d. 2017)
 1929 – Aulis Rytkönen, Finnish footballer (d. 2014)
 1931 – Alfred Brendel, Austrian pianist
 1931 – Alvin Ailey, American choreographer and activist (d. 1989)
 1931 – Juan Goytisolo, Spanish writer (d. 2017)
 1931 – Robert Duvall, American actor
 1932 – Umberto Eco, Italian writer and columnist (d. 2016)
 1932 – Raisa Gorbachova, wife of Mikhail Gorbachev (d. 1999)
 1932 – Chuck Noll, American football coach (d. 2014)
 1934 – Phil Ramone, South African-born American sound engineer and record producer (d. 2013)
 1935 – David Ryall, English actor (d. 2014)
 1936 – Florence King, American novelist, essayist and columnist (d. 2016)
 1938 – Juan Carlos I, King of Spain from 1975 to 2014
 1938 – Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Kenyan writer
 1938 – Terry Davis, British politician
 1940 – Veikko Kankkonen, Finnish ski jumper
 1941 – Hayao Miyazaki, Japanese film director, producer, animator and screenwriter
 1941 – Chuck McKinley, American tennis player (d. 1986)
 1942 – Maurizio Pollini, Italian classical pianist
 1944 – Ed Rendell, 45th Governor of Pennsylvania
 1946 – Prince Tomohito of Mikasa, Japanese royal (d. 2012)
 1946 – Diane Keaton, American actress, movie producer and director
 1947 – Mike DeWine, American politician
 1947 – Kathrine Switzer, American author, television commentator and marathon runner
 1947 – Rita Kühne, German athlete
 1948 – Ted Lange, American actor
 1948 – Giuseppe Impastato, Italian anti-Mafia campaigner (d. 1978)
 1950 – John Manley, Canadian lawyer and politician
 1950 – Peter Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, English lawyer and politician
 1950 – Ioan P. Culiano, Romanian historian, philosopher and author (d. 1991)

1951  1975 
 1952 – Uli Hoeness, German footballer
 1953 – Steve Archer, American singer
 1953 – George Tenet, American former CIA director
 1953 – Mike Rann, 44th Premier of South Australia
 1954 – Alex English, American basketball player
 1954 – Pamela Sue Martin, actress
 1955 – Mamata Banerjee, Indian politician, Chief Minister of West Bengal
 1955 – Jimmy Mulville, English comedian, actor, producer and screenwriter
 1955 – Douglas Chapman, Scottish politician
 1956 – Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German politician, President of Germany
 1958 – Monica Guerritore, Italian actress
 1959 – Clancy Brown, American actor
 1960 – Otar Korghalidze, Georgian footballer
 1960 – Phil Thornalley, English songwriter, producer and musician
 1962 – Suzy Amis, American actress
 1963 – Ralf Loose, German footballer
 1965 – Vinnie Jones, British footballer and actor
 1967 – Joe Flanigan, American actor
 1968 – DJ BoBo, Swiss DJ, singer-songwriter and producer
 1968 – Carrie Anne Inaba, American actress, singer, dancer and choreographer
 1968 – Andrew Golota, Polish boxer
 1969 – Giorgi Baranidze, Georgian politician
 1969 – Marilyn Manson, American rock singer
 1972 – Sakis Rouvas, Greek singer
 1972 – Sascha Schmitz, German singer
 1972 – Luciana Pedraza, Argentine actress, director and screenwriter
 1972 – Philip Davies, English politician
 1973 – Uday Chopra, Indian actor
 1974 – Iwan Thomas, Welsh sprinter
 1975 – Bradley Cooper, American actor

From 1976 
 1976 – Matt Wachter, American bass player
 1978 – Franck Montagny, French Formula One driver
 1978 – January Jones, American actress
 1978 – Emilia Rydberg, Swedish singer
 1979 – Kyle Calder, Canadian ice hockey player
 1979 – Masami Tanaka, Japanese swimmer
 1979 – Blanca Soto, Mexican actress and model
 1980 – Sebastian Deisler, German footballer
 1980 – Santiago Ventura Bertomeu, Spanish tennis player
 1980 – Chema Rodriguez, Spanish handball player
 1981 – Corey Flynn, New Zealand rugby player
 1982 – Janica Kostelic, Croatian skier
 1982 – Darren Mackie, Scottish footballer
 1982 – Jaroslav Plasil, Czech footballer
 1982 – Karel Geraerts, Belgian footballer
 1983 – Sean Dockery, American basketball player
 1984 – Ikechukwu Uche, Nigerian footballer
 1984 – Reinar Hallik, Estonian basketball player
 1984 – Amanda Hearst, American model
 1985 – Diego Vera, Uruguayan footballer
 1985 – Yoon So-yi, South Korean actress
 1986 – Deepika Padukone, Indian actress
 1987 – Kristin Cavallari, American actress
 1988 – Miroslav Raduljica, Serbian basketball player
 1988 – Nikola Kalinic, Croatian footballer
 1989 – Krisztian Nemeth, Hungarian footballer
 1990 – Yang Yo-seok, South Korean singer and dancer
 1990 – Leroy Fer, Dutch footballer
 1991 – Daniel Pacheco, Spanish footballer
 1993 – Franz Drameh, British actor
 1996 – Max Baldry, British actor
 1996 – Emma Bolger, Irish actress
 1999 – Marc Yu, American pianist and cellist

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1066 – Edward the Confessor, King of England (b. 1004)
 1113 – Ulrich I, Duke of Brno, Moravian ruler
 1387 – Peter IV of Aragon (b. 1319)
 1448 – Christopher III of Bavaria, King of Denmark (b. 1416)
 1465 – Charles, Duke of Orleans (b. 1389)
 1477 – Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1433)
 1527 – Felix Manz, Swiss martyr (b. 1498)
 1588 – Qi Jiguang, Chinese general (b. 1528)
 1589 – Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France (b. 1519)
 1713 – Jean Chardin, French explorer (b. 1643)
 1740 – Antonio Lotti, Italian composer (b. 1677)
 1762 – Elizabeth of Russia (b. 1709)
 1771 – John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, British statesman (b. 1710)
 1816 – George Prevost, British officer and diplomat (b. 1767)
 1858 – Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, Austrian field marshal (b. 1766)
 1891 – Emma Abbott, American soprano (b. 1849)

1901  2000 
 1904 – Karl Alfred von Zittel, German palaeontologist (b. 1839)
 1910 – Léon Walras, French economist (b. 1834)
 1910 – Nikolaos Deligiannis, Greek politician (b. 1844)
 1913 – Louis Paul Cailletet, French physicist (b. 1834)
 1919 – Sumako Matsui, Japanese actress (b. 1886)
 1922 – Ernest Shackleton, Irish Antarctic explorer (b. 1874)
 1933 – Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States (b. 1872)
 1941 – Amy Johnson, English pilot (b. 1903)
 1942 – Tina Modotti, Italian photographer, model, actress, revolutionary and political activist (b. 1896)
 1943 – George Washington Carver, American scientist and educator (b. 1864)
 1945 – Julius Leber, German politician and resistance activist (b. 1891)
 1951 – Seo Jae-pil, Korean journalist and politician (b. 1864)
 1952 – Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow, British Viceroy of India (b. 1887)
 1952 – Hristo Tatarchev, Bulgarian revolutionary (b. 1869)
 1956 – Mistinguett, French actress and singer (b. 1875)
 1970 – Max Born, German physicist (b. 1882)
 1971 – Douglas Shearer, Canadian-American sound designer and engineer (b. 1899)
 1976 – John A. Costello, Irish Taoiseach (b. 1891)
 1976 – Mal Evans, English band manager (The Beatles) (b. 1935)
 1979 – Charles Mingus, American bassist and composer (b. 1922)
 1981 – Harold C. Urey, American chemist (b. 1893)
 1985 – Robert L. Surtees, American cinematographer (b. 1906)
 1987 – Herman Smith-Johannsen, Norwegian-Canadian cross country skier (b. 1875)
 1991 – Vasko Popa, Yugoslavian poet (b. 1922)
 1993 – Westley Allan Dodd, American murderer (b. 1961)
 1994 – Tip O'Neill, American politician (b. 1912)
 1997 – Burton Lane, American composer and lyricist (b. 1912)
 1997 – Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, Swedish royal (b. 1912)
 1998 – Sonny Bono, American musician, actor and politician (b. 1935)

From 2001 
 2003 – Roy Jenkins, British politician (b. 1920)
 2003 – Massimo Girotti, Italian actor (b. 1918)
 2004 – Tug McGraw, American baseball player (b. 1944)
 2006 – Merlyn Rees, British politician (b. 1920)
 2007 – Momofuko Ando, Taiwanese businessman (b. 1910)
 2009 – Adolf Merckle, German industrialist (b. 1934)
 2010 – Kenneth Noland, American painter (b. 1924)
 2010 – Toni Tecuceanu, Romanian actor (b. 1972)
 2012 – Frederica Sagor Maas, American screenwriter, playwright and writer (b. 1900)
 2013 – Reg Dean, British supercentenarian (b. 1902)
 2013 – Martha Greenhouse, American actress (b. 1921)
 2014 – Eusébio, Portuguese footballer (b. 1942)
 2014 – Simon Hoggart, English journalist (b. 1946)
 2014 – Carmen Zapata, American actress (b. 1927)
 2014 – Alma Muriel, Mexican actress (b. 1951)
 2014 – Mogens E. Pedersen, Danish journalist (b. 1928)
 2014 – Jerry Coleman, American baseball player (b. 1924)
 2015 – Bernard Joseph McLaughlin, American Roman Catholic bishop (b. 1912)
 2015 – Jean-Pierre Beltoise, French racing driver (b. 1937)
 2015 – Joy Ali, Fijian boxer (b. 1978)
 2015 – Khan Bonfils, English actor (b. 1972)
 2015 – King Sporty, Jamaican-American reggae musician (b. 1943)
 2016 – Jean-Paul L'Allier, Canadian politician (b. 1938)
 2016 – Pierre Boulez, French composer and conductor (b. 1925)
 2016 – Percy Freeman, English footballer (b. 1945)
 2016 – Rudolf Haag, German theoretical physicist and educator (b. 1922)
 2016 – Lev Nikolayevich Korolyov, Russian computer scientist (b. 1926)
 2016 – Michael Purcell, Australian rugby player (b. 1945)
 2017 – Tullio De Mauro, Italian linguist and politician (b. 1932)
 2017 – Jill Saward, English campaigner (b. 1965)
 2017 – Christopher Weeramantry, Sri Lankan judge (b. 1926)
 2017 – Spartak Belyaev, Russian theoretical physicist (b. 1921)
 2017 – Géori Boué, French soprano (b. 1918)
 2017 – Paul Goble, English-American author and illustrator (b. 1933)
 2017 – John Wightman, American politician (b. 1938)
 2018 – Antonio Angelillo, Argentine-Italian footballer (b. 1937)
 2018 – Carlos Heitor Cony, Brazilian journalist and writer (b. 1926)
 2018 – Asghar Khan, Pakistani politician and military officer (b. 1921)
 2018 – Marina Ripa Di Meana, Italian writer, actress and television personality (b. 1941)
 2018 – Jerry Van Dyke, American actor and comedian (b. 1931)
 2018 – John W. Young, American astronaut (b. 1930)

Observances 
 Twelfth Night (Western Christianity) – night to January 6

01-05