Events

Up to 1900 
 366 – Many Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine, invading the Roman Empire.
 533 – Mercurius became Pope John II. He was the first pope to use a papal name.
 1492 – Reconquista: Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
 1757 – The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.
 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under command of George Washington hold back a British attack at the Battle of Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
 1788 – Georgia becomes the 4th state to ratify the United States Constitution.
 1793 – Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
 1815 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke, Seaham, County Durham.
 1818 – British Institution of Civil Engineers formed.
 1859 – Erastus Beadle publishes The Dime Book of Practical Etiquette.
 1860 – The discovery of the planet Vulcan was announced at a meeting of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. People later realized that this planet does not exist.
 1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Stones River, which started on December 31, 1862, ends in a Union victory.
 1870 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
 1871 – Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.
 1872 – Brigham Young is arrested for bigamy (25 wives).
 1879 – Fred Spofforth claims the first hat-trick in test cricket. It happens on the Sydney Cricket Ground against England.
 1882 – John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.
 1890 – Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer for the White House.
 1893 – Introduction by Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America: Railroad chronometers.
 1900 – John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.
 1900 – The Chicago Canal opens.

1901  1950 
 1905 – Russo-Japanese War: The Russian fleet surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
 1907 – France officially separates church and state.
 1911 – Two people are killed in a gunfight in East London.
 1917 – The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.
 1920 – Under A. Mitchell Palmer, United States Attorney General, United States Department of Justice agents launch raids against people with leftist and anarchist views, in 30 cities across 23 US States.
 1921 – The Spanish steamship Santa Isabel sinks off the coast of Galicia, killing 213 people. 56 people are rescued.
 1921 – The first religious radio broadcast (KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) .
 1921 – The DeYoung Museum opens in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
 1923 – United States Secretary of the Interior Albert Fall resigns due to the Teapot Dome scandal.
 1929 – Canada and the United States agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.
 1935 – Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
 1941 – World War II: German bombing severely damaged the Llandaff Cathedral, built in 1290 on the bank of the River Taff in Cardiff, Wales.
 1941 – The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program. They plan to build 200 freighters. Over 2,700 ships were built by the end of the war.
 1942 – World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.
 1942 – The United States Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
 1944 – World War II: US and Australian forces land on Papua New Guinea in an attempt to cut off a Japanese retreat.
 1945 – World War II: Nuremberg is severely bombed by the Allies.
 1946 – King Zog is unable to resume his rule over Albania after World War II. He abdicates but still claims to be King of Albania.
 1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín became the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

1951  2000 
 1955 – Panamanian president José Antonio Remon is assassinated.
 1955 – The lost Inca city of Paititi is re-discovered by Hans Ertl.
 1957 – San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.
 1959 – The Soviet Union launches the Luna 1 spacecraft.
 1959 – CBS Radio cancels four soap operas: Backstage Wife, Our Gal Sunday, Road of Life, and This is Nora Drake.
 1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.
 1967 – Ronald Reagan becomes Governor of California.
 1968 – Dr. Christiaan Barnard performs the second successful heart transplant.
 1971 – 66 die in stairway crush at Rangers v Celtic football match, Glasgow, Scotland.
 1974 – Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum US speed limit to 55 miles per hour in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, causing flooding on southern North Sea coasts. 82 people are eventually killed.
 1979 – Sid Vicious goes on trial for the murder of Nancy Spungen.
 1981 – Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, is arrested.
 1983 – The musical Annie is ends its first Broadway run after 2,377 shows at the Uris Theatre.
 1991 – Sharon Pratt Dixon is sworn in as mayor of Washington, D.C. becoming the first African American woman to lead a city of that size and importance.
 1992 – Paraguay becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
 1993 – Leaders of the three warring groups in Bosnia meet to discuss peace plans.
 1996 – The Akademia Nauk stratovolcano on Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula erupts.
 1998 – Russia begins to circulate new rubles to slow inflation and promote confidence.
 1999 – A major snowstorm hits the Midwestern United States, causing  of snow at Milwaukee, Wisconsin and  at Chicago. In Chicago, temperatures drop to , and 68 deaths are reported.

From 2001 
 2002 – Levy Mwanawasa becomes the third President of Zambia.
 2002 – Eduardo Duhalde becomes interim President of Argentina.
 2003 – The spill from the oil tanker Prestige reaches France.
 2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that it will return to Earth two years later.
 2006 – The roof of an ice rink in Bad Reichenhall, Bavaria, collapses, killing 15 people.
 2006 – 12 miners are killed in an explosion at a coal mine in Sago, West Virginia.
 2016 – Saudi Arabia executes 47 prisoners in one day, including Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr.
 2017 – A bomb attack in Baghdad kills at least 35 people.
 2018 – A bus plunges off a cliff near Pasamayo, Peru (to the north of Lima), killing at least 48 people.

Births

Up to 1900 
 869 – Emperor Yozei of Japan (d. 949)
 1462 – Piero di Cosimo, Italian painter (d. 1521)
 1642 – Mehmed IV, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1693)
 1647 – Nathaniel Bacon, English-born American colonist (d. 1676)
 1699 – Osman III, Ottoman Sultan (d. 1757)
 1713 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (d. 1803)
 1727 – James Wolfe, British general in French and Indian War (d. 1759)
 1752 – Philip Freneau, American poet (d. 1832)
 1777 – Christian Daniel Rauch, German sculptor (d. 1857)
 1822 – Rudolf Clausius, German physicist, contributions to thermodynamics (d. 1888)
 1827 – Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, Russian geographer and statistician (d. 1914)
 1833 – Frederick A. Johnson, American politician (d. 1893)
 1834 – Karl Louis Friedrich Dobermann, German dog breeder (d. 1894)
 1836 – Mendele Mocher Sforim, Russian writer (d. 1917)
 1836 – Queen Emma of Hawaii (d. 1885)
 1837 – Mily Balakirev, Russian composer (d. 1910)
 1857 – Martha Carey Thomas, American educator and women's rights activist (d. 1935)
 1859 – Anna Sacher, Austrian hotel owner, Hotel Sacher (d. 1930)
 1862 – Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, Polish-Russian engineer, electrician and inventor (d. 1919)
 1866 – Gilbert Murray, British philologist (d. 1957)
 1870 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor, graphic artist, and poet (d. 1938)
 1871 – Nik Welter, Luxembourg professor, writer and statesman (d. 1951)
 1872 – Albert C. Barnes, American physician, author, collector and philanthropist (d. 1951)
 1873 – Therese of Liseaux, French nun and saint (d. 1897)
 1873 – Antonie Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer (d. 1960)
 1877 – Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)
 1879 – Rudolf Bauer, Hungarian athlete (d. 1932)
 1884 – Oscar Michaux, American writer and movie director (d. 1951)
 1886 – Apsley Cherry-Garrard, British explorer of Antarctica (d. 1959)
 1886 – Florence Lawrence, Canadian actress (d. 1938)
 1889 – Bertram Stevens, Premier of New South Wales (d. 1973)
 1889 – Tito Schipa, Italian tenor and composer (d. 1965)
 1891 – Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect (d. 1990)
 1892 – Edoardo Agnelli, Italian industrialist (d. 1935)
 1895 – Folke Bernadotte, Swedish diplomat (d. 1948)
 1896 – Dziga Vertov, Russian movie maker (d. 1954)

1901  1950 
 1904 – Walter Heitler, German physicist (d. 1981)
 1904 – Sally Rand, American fan dancer (d. 1979)
 1905 – Michael Tippett, English composer (d. 1998)
 1905 – Luigi Zampa, Italian movie director and screenwriter (d. 1991)
 1908 – Lawrence Wetherby, American politician, Governor of Kentucky (d. 1994)
 1909 – Riccardo Cassin, Italian mountaineer (d. 2009)
 1909 – Barry Goldwater, American politician (d. 1998)
 1912 – Renato Guttuso, Italian painter (d. 1987)
 1913 – Anna Lee, English actress (d. 2004)
 1917 – Vera Zorina, dancer, actress (d. 2003)
 1918 – Willi Graf, German activist (d. 1943)
 1918 – Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse, German type designer
 1919 – William Needles, Canadian theatre actor (d. 2016)
 1920 – Isaac Asimov, Russian-born American science fiction writer (d. 1992)
 1920 – Bob Feerick, American basketball player (d. 1976)
 1920 – George Herbig, American astronomer (d. 2013)
 1920 – Anna Langfus, Polish-French writer (d. 1966)
 1922 – Maurice Faure, French diplomat and politician (d. 2014)
 1925 – Irina Arkhipova, Russian opera singer (d. 2010)
 1925 – Giacomo Furia, Italian actor (d. 2015)
 1925 – Larry Harmon, American entertainer and television producer (d. 2008)
 1927 – Gino Marchetti, American football player
 1928 – Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese writer
 1928 – Alberto Zedda, Italian conductor and musicologist (d. 2017)
 1930 – Julius La Rosa, American singer (d. 2016)
 1931 – Toshiki Kaifu, former Prime Minister of Japan
 1931 – James D. Murray, English mathematician
 1933 – Richard Riley, 111th Governor of North Carolina
 1935 – Lolo Soetoro, Indonesian geographer, stepfather of Barack Obama (d. 1987)
 1936 – Roger Miller, American country music singer (d. 1992)
 1936 – Kjell Opseth, Norwegian politician (d. 2017)
 1937 – Martin Lauer, German athlete and Schlager singer
 1938 – Goh Kun, 31st Prime Minister of South Korea
 1938 – Ian Brady, British serial killer (d. 2017)
 1938 – Hans Herbjørnsrud, Norwegian writer
 1939 – Jim Bakker, American televangelist
 1939 – Konstanze Vernon, dancer
 1940 – Saud bin Faisal, Saudi royal and politician (d. 2015)
 1942 – Dennis Hastert, American politician, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
 1942 – Hugh Shelton, American Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
 1943 – Baris Manco, Turkish musician (d. 1999)
 1944 – Prince Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian politician
 1944 – Péter Eötvös, Hungarian composer and conductor
 1945 – Slobodan Praljak, Croatian-Bosnian general and politician (d. 2017)
 1946 – Sonny Ruberto, American baseball player (d. 2014)
 1947 – Alexander Yakushev, Russian ice hockey player
 1947 – Calvin Hill, American football player
 1947 – Jack Hanna, American zoologist
 1947 – David Shapiro, American poet
 1947 – Calvin Hill, American football player
 1947 – Alexander Yakushev, Russian ice hockey player
 1948 – Deborah Watling, British actress (d. 2017)
 1948 – Tony Judt, British historian (d. 2010)
 1948 – Judith Miller, American journalist
 1949 – Christopher Durang, American playwright

1951  1975 
 1951 – Waldir Peres, Brazilian footballer (d. 2017)
 1952 – Indulis Emsis, biologist and politician, former Prime Minister of Latvia
 1952 – Christine Lavin, American singer-songwriter
 1954 – Milovan Rajevac, Serbian footballer and coach
 1954 – Henry Bonilla, American politician
 1954 – Dawn Silva, singer (The Brides of Funkenstein, P-Funk)
 1955 – Tex Brashear, American voice actor
 1955 – Vivien Savage, French singer-songwriter
 1959 – Kirti Azad, Indian cricketer
 1960 – Naoki Urasawa, Japanese manga artist
 1961 – Gabrielle Carteris, American actress
 1961 – Neil Dudgeon, British actor
 1961 – Todd Haynes, American movie director
 1963 – David Cone, American baseball pitcher
 1964 – Luis Moro, Cuban-American actor, producer and screenwriter
 1964 – Pernell Whitaker, American boxer
 1967 – Tia Carrere, American actress
 1967 – Jon Gnarr, Icelandic actor, comedian and politician, Mayor of Reykjavik
 1967 – Francois Pienaar, South African rugby player
 1968 – Goichi Suda, Japanese video game designer
 1968 – Cuba Gooding, Jr., American actor
 1968 – Anky van Grunsven, Dutch dressage competitor
 1969 – William Fox-Pitt, English equestrian
 1969 – Christy Turlington, American fashion model
 1969 – Tommy Morrison, American boxer (d. 2013)
 1969 – Karl-Heinz Grasser, Austrian politician
 1969 – Robby Gordon, American racing driver
 1971 – Renée Elise Goldsberry, American actress and singer
 1972 – Taye Diggs, American actor
 1972 – Rodney MacDonald, 26th Premier of Nova Scotia
 1973 – Lucy Davis, English actress
 1974 – Tricia Helfer, Canadian actress and model
 1975 – Doug Robb, American singer (Hoobastank)
 1975 – Dax Shepard, American actor, comedian, writer and director

From 1976 
 1976 – Paz Vega, Spanish actress
 1976 – Phil Radford, Greenpeace Executive Director
 1978 – Kjartan Sveinsson, Icelandic musician
 1978 – Karina Smirnoff, Ukrainian-American dancer and actress
 1979 – Jonathan Greening, English footballer
 1980 – Paulo da Silva, Paraguayan footballer
 1981 – Hanno Balitsch, German footballer
 1981 – Maxi Rodriguez, Argentine footballer
 1981 – Kirk Hinrich, American basketball player
 1982 – Athanasia Tsoumeleka, Greek race walker
 1983 – Kate Bosworth, American actress
 1985 – Heather O'Reilly, American soccer player
 1985 – Ivan Dodig, Croatian tennis player
 1986 – Asa Akira, Japanese-American pornographic actress
 1986 – Trombone Shorty, American jazz musician
 1987 – Loïc Rémy, French footballer
 1987 – Shelley Hennig, American model and actress
 1988 – Jonny Evans, Northern Irish footballer
 1989 – Bianca Knight, American sprinter
 1991 – Davide Santon, Italian footballer
 1991 – Luis Pedro Cavanda, Belgian footballer
 1991 – Steele Sidebottom, Australian rules footballer
 1993 – Bryson Tiller, American singer-songwriter
 1995 – Renata Notni, Mexican actress and model

Deaths

Up to 1900 
 1512 – Svante, Regent of Sweden (b. 1460)
 1514 – William Smyth, English bishop and statesman (b. 1460)
 1557 – Pontormo, Italian painter (b. 1494)
 1665 – Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician (b. 1601)
 1726 – Domenico Zipoli, Italian composer (b. 1688)
 1850 – Manuel de la Pena y Pena, President of Mexico (b. 1789)
 1861 – Frederick William IV of Prussia (b. 1795)
 1879 – Caleb Cushing, United States Attorney General (b. 1800)
 1892 – George Biddell Airy, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1801)

1901  2000 
 1904 – James Longstreet, American Confederate general (b. 1821)
 1913 – Léon-Philippe Teisserenc, French meteorologist (b. 1855)
 1915 – Carl Goldmark, Hungarian composer (b. 1830)
 1917 – Edward Burnett Tylor, English anthropologist (b. 1832)
 1922 – Pope Benedict XV (b. 1854)
 1936 – Francis Newdegate, Governor of Tasmania (b. 1862)
 1939 – Roman Tmowski, Polish politician (b. 1864)
 1941 – Mischa Levitzki, Russian-born pianist (b. 1898)
 1945 – Bertram Ramsay, British naval commander (b. 1883)
 1948 – Vicente Huidobro, Chilean poet (b. 1893)
 1950 – James Dooley, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1877)
 1950 – Theophrastos Sakellaridis, Greek composer and conductor (b. 1883)
 1951 – William Campion, Governor of Western Australia (b. 1870)
 1955 – José Antonio Remon, President of Panama (b. 1908)
 1960 – Fausto Coppi, Italian composer (b. 1919)
 1960 – Paul Sauvé, 17th Premier of Quebec (b. 1907)
 1960 – Friedrich Adler, Austrian politician and assassin (b. 1897)
 1961 – Daniel Chanis Pinzon, President of Panama (b. 1892)
 1963 – Jack Carson, American actor (b. 1910)
 1968 – Cuno Hoffmeister, German astronomer and geophysicist (b. 1892)
 1974 – Tex Ritter, American actor (b. 1905)
 1986 – Una Merkel, American actress (b. 1903)
 1987 – Harekrushna Mahatab, Indian journalist and politician (b. 1899)
 1989 – Safdar Hashmi, Indian playwright, writer and director (b. 1954)
 1990 – Alan Hale Jr., American actor (b. 1921)
 1994 – Pierre-Paul Schweitzer, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (b. 1915)
 1994 – Dixy Lee Ray, American politician and Governor of Washington (b. 1917)
 1995 – Siad Barre, President of Somalia (b. 1919)
 1997 – Randy California, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1951)
 1999 – Sebastian Haffner, German journalist and writer (b. 1907)
 2000 – Nat Adderley, American jazz musician and composer (b. 1931)

From 2001 
 2001 – William P. Rogers, United States Secretary of State (b. 1913)
 2002 – Armi Aavikko, Finnish singer (b. 1958)
 2006 – Lidia Wysocka, Polish actress (b. 1916)
 2007 – Teddy Kollek, Austrian-born Israeli politician, Mayor of Jerusalem (b. 1911)
 2008 – Galyani Vadhana, Thai princess, sister of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (b. 1923)
 2008 – George MacDonald Fraser, British writer (b. 1925)
 2008 – Lee S. Dreyfus, 40th Governor of Wisconsin (b. 1926)
 2009 – Ryuzo Hiraki, Japanese footballer (b. 1931)
 2009 – Maria de Jesus, Portuguese supercentenarian (b. 1893)
 2011 – Anne Francis, American actress (b. 1930)
 2011 – Pete Postlethwaite, British actor (b. 1946)
 2011 – Richard Winters, American paratrooper (b. 1918)
 2012 – William P. Carey, American investment banker and philanthropist (b. 1930)
 2013 – Teresa Toranska, Polish journalist and writer (b. 1944)
 2013 – Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1945)
 2013 – Mamie Rearden, American supercentenarian (b. 1898)
 2013 – Ned Wertimer, American actor (b. 1923)
 2014 – Elizabeth Jane Howard, English novelist (b. 1923)
 2014 – Dirk Sager, German journalist (b. 1940)
 2014 – Thomas Kurzhals, German keyboardist and songwriter (b. 1953)
 2014 – Bernard Glasser, American director and producer (b. 1924)
 2015 – Lam Po-chuen, Hong Kong dubbing artist (b. 1951)
 2015 – Arthur A. Neu, American politician (b. 1933)
 2015 – Little Jimmy Dickens, American country music singer (b. 1920)
 2015 – Noel Cobb, British philosopher, psychologist and author (b. 1938)
 2015 – Tihomir Novakov, American physicist (b. 1929)
 2015 – Abu Anas al-Libi, Libyan Al-Qaeda member (b. 1964)
 2015 – Basil Hansen, Australian ice hockey player (b. 1926)
 2015 – Danny Dunton, English speedway rider and promoter (b. 1924)
 2015 – Roger Kitter, English actor (b. 1949)
 2016 – Nimr al-Nimr, Saudi cleric (b. 1959)
 2016 – Michel Delpech, French singer (b. 1946)
 2016 – Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan, Indian politician (b. 1924)
 2016 – Frances Cress Welsing, American psychiatrist and author (b. 1935)
 2016 – Gisela Mota Ocampo, Mexican politician (b. 1982)
 2016 – Marcel Barbeau, Canadian artist (b. 1925)
 2016 – Shigeji Kaneko, Japanese boxer (b. 1931)
 2016 – Matt Hobden, English cricketer (b. 1993)
 2017 – John Berger, English art critic, writer and painter (b. 1926)
 2017 – Viktor Tsaryov, Russian footballer (b. 1931)
 2017 – Albert Brewer, American politician, 47th Governor of Alabama (b. 1928)
 2017 – Jean Vuarnet, French skier (b. 1933)
 2017 – François Chérèque, French trade unionist (b. 1956)
 2017 – Richard Machowicz, American navy SEAL (b. 1965)
 2017 – René Ballet, French journalist and author (b. 1928)
 2017 – Tom Harpur, Canadian classicist, journalist, theologian an priest (b. 1929)
 2018 – Frank Buxton, American actor (b. 1930)
 2018 – Rick Hall, American songwriter and recording producer (b. 1932)
 2018 – Ferdinando Imposimato, Italian judge and politician (b. 1936)
 2018 – Lawal Kaita, Nigerian politician (b. 1932)
 2018 – Ali Akbar Moinfar, Iranian politician (b. 1928)
 2018 – Thomas S. Monson, American religious leader, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1927)
 2019 - Daryl Dragon, American songwriter (Captain & Tennille) (b. 1942)
 2022 - Richard Leakey, Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist and politician (b. 1944)

Observances 
 New Year's Day Bank Holiday (Scotland)
 Ancestry Day (Haiti)
 Berchtold's Day (Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Alsace)

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