January 3

More commonly this day is known as buzzball day with the official party celebrated at 29 Garden Place in the Land of the Gods.

### Up to 1900

- 1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
- 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther.
- 1749 – The first issue of the Danish newspaper _Berlingske Tidende_ is published.
- 1777 – American general George Washington defeats a British–Hessian Army under Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis in the Battle of Princeton.
- 1795 – Catherine II of Russia and Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor complete a treaty agreeing to the Third Partition of Poland.
- 1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
- 1823 – Stephen A. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the Mexican government.
- 1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first President of Liberia.
- 1851 – French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault experiments with the Foucault pendulum to prove that the Earth rotates.
- 1861 – Delaware votes to remain in the United States, and not to secede.
- 1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan.
- 1870 – Building work on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City begins.
- 1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, measuring  in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the world's largest telescope at the time.

### 1901–2000

- 1908 – The Kaziranga National Park is created in Assam, northeastern India.
- 1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys Almaty in present–day Kazakhstan.
- 1918 – Finland officially gains independence from the Russian Empire.
- 1919 – Paris Peace Conference: Emir Faisal of Iraq and Chaim Weizmann agree to develop a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in the Middle East.
- 1925 – Benito Mussolini declares that he is taking dictatorial powers in Italy.
- 1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers who had been fired by the United Fruit Company.
- 1934 – A mine explosion at Ossegg, Bohemia, kills 142 people.
- 1938 – Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the March of Dimes.
- 1945 – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all US naval forces in preparation for planned attacks against Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
- 1956 – Fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
- 1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 – Alaska becomes the 49th state of the United States. William Egan becomes the first State Governor of Alaska.
- 1959 – Separatists in the Maldives declare the creation of the United Suvadive Republic.
- 1961 – Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kavelax, Finland, killing all 25 people on board.
- 1961 – The United States ends diplomatic relations with Cuba.
- 1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
- 1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights comes into effect.
- 1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
- 1980 – Francisco de Sa Carneiro becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.
- 1987 – Aretha Franklin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- 1990 – Panama's leader Manuel Noriega surrenders to United States forces.
- 1992 – The United States and Russia officially establish diplomatic relations.
- 1993 – In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
- 1994 – More than 7 million people from the former apartheid homelands receive South African citizenship.
- 1994 – A Tupolev Tu–154 of Baikal Air crashes near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing all 148 people on board.
- 1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched to Mars.
- 2000 – The last original weekday _Peanuts_ comic strip is published.

### From 2001

- 2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604, a Boeing 737, crashes into the Red Sea off Egypt, killing 148 people.
- 2007 – Kenya closes the border with Somalia and deports Somali refugees.
- 2009 – The first part of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis Block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
- 2011 – Jerry Brown replaces Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California.
- 2015 – Boko Haram militants enter Baga in Northern Nigeria and kill up to 2,000 people in the coming days.
- 2018 – Computer analysts report two major security vulnerabilities named "Meltdown" and "Spectre", affecting the microprocessors of all the computers in the world.
- 2026 – United States strikes in Venezuela occurs and Nicolás Maduro and his wife  Cilia Flores are captued.

### Up to 1900

- 106 BC – Cicero, Roman lawyer and political philosopher (d. 43 BC)
- 1196 – Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1231)
- 1698 – Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet (d. 1782)
- 1722 – Fredrik Hasselqvist, Swedish traveller and naturalist (d. 1752)
- 1733 – Richard Arkwright, English inventor (d. 1792)
- 1777 – Elisa Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon (d. 1820)
- 1789 – Carl Gustav Carus, German polymath (d. 1869)
- 1793 – Lucretia Mott, American women's rights activist (d. 1880)
- 1794 – Joseph Lebeau, 2nd Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1865)
- 1802 – Félix Dupanloup, French bishop (d. 1878)
- 1806 – Henriette Sontag, German soprano (d. 1854)
- 1810 – Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, French geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer (d. 1897)
- 1812 – Elisha M. Pease, Governor of Texas (d. 1883)
- 1817 – Thomas E. Bramlette, Governor of Kentucky (d. 1875)
- 1819 – Charles Piazzi Smyth, Italian–Scottish astronomer (d. 1900)
- 1819 – Thomas H. Watts, Governor of Alabama (d. 1892)
- 1829 – Konrad Duden, German teacher, philologist and lexicographer (d. 1911)
- 1831 – Savitribai Phule, Indian social activist and educator (d. 1897)
- 1840 – Father Damien, Belgian missionary and doctor in Hawaii (d. 1889)
- 1861 – Ernest Renshaw, British tennis player (d. 1899)
- 1861 – William Renshaw, British tennis player (d. 1904)
- 1862 – Matthew Nathan, British Governor of Queensland (d. 1939)
- 1865 – Henry Lytton, British actor and opera singer (d. 1936)
- 1874 – Henry Newton, American golfer (d. 1946)
- 1875 – Alexandros Diomidis, 145th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1950)
- 1876 – Wilhelm Pieck, German politician (d. 1960)
- 1879 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
- 1883 – Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
- 1884 – Raoul von Koczalski, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1948)
- 1886 – Grigory Neujmin, Georgian–Russian astronomer (d. 1946)
- 1887 – Helen Parkhurst, American educator, writer and lecturer (d. 1973)
- 1888 – George B. Seitz, American movie director and writer (d. 1944)
- 1892 – J. R. R. Tolkien, English writer (d. 1973)
- 1894 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)
- 1895 – Borys Lyatoshynsky, Ukrainian composer (d. 1973)
- 1897 – Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)
- 1897 – Pola Negri, Polish–American actress (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Carolyn Haywood, American children's writer (d. 1990)

### 1901–1950

- 1901 – Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnamese politician (d. 1963)
- 1905 – Anna May Wong, Chinese–American actress (d. 1961)
- 1906 – William Wilson Morgan, American astronomer (d. 1994)
- 1907 – Ray Milland, Welsh actor and director (d. 1986)
- 1909 – Victor Borge, Danish comedian and pianist (d. 2000)
- 1910 – John Sturges, American director and producer (d. 1992)
- 1912 – Federico Borrell Garcia, Spanish Republican soldier (d. 1936)
- 1915 – Mady Rahl, German actress (d. 2009)
- 1916 – Bernard Greenhouse, American cellist (d. 2011)
- 1916 – Betty Furness, American actress (d. 1994)
- 1916 – Maxene Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Dorothy Morrison, American actress
- 1919 – Herbie Nichols, American pianist and composer (d. 1963)
- 1920 – Siegfried Buback, Attorney General of Germany (d. 1977)
- 1920 – Renato Carosone, Italian pianist (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Chetan Anand, Indian movie director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
- 1921 – Jean-Louis Koszul, French mathematician (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Bill Travers, British actor and director (d. 1994)
- 1923 – Abd El Aziz Muhammad Hegazi, Prime Minister of Egypt (d. 2014)
- 1926 – George Martin, English music producer (d. 2016)
- 1926 – W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th United States Secretary of the Treasury and former Director of the Jewish museum in Berlin
- 1927 – Nazmiye Demirel, First Lady of Turkey (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, Indian politician (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Sergio Leone, Italian movie director (d. 1989)
- 1930 – Robert Loggia, American actor (d. 2015)
- 1932 – Coo Coo Marlin, American racing driver (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Eeles Landström, Finnish athlete
- 1932 – Dabney Coleman, American actor
- 1934 – Carla Anderson Hills, American politician
- 1937 – Glen A. Larson, American director, producer and screenwriter (d. 2014)
- 1938 – Ove Andersson, Swedish rally driver (d. 2008)
- 1939 – Arik Einstein, Israeli singer (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Bobby Hull, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1942 – Laszlo Solyom, former President of Hungary
- 1942 – John Thaw, British actor (d. 2002)
- 1943 – Jarl Alfredius, Swedish journalist (d. 2009)
- 1944 – Van Dyke Parks, American singer-songwriter, producer and actor
- 1944 – David Atherton, English conductor
- 1945 – Stephen Stills, American musician
- 1945 – David Starkey, English historian
- 1946 – John Paul Jones, English musician (Led Zeppelin)
- 1947 – Fran Cotton, English rugby player
- 1948 – Manfred Kokot, German athlete
- 1949 – Sylvia Likens, American torture victim (d. 1965)
- 1950 – Victoria Principal, American actress

### 1951–1975

- 1952 – Gianfranco Fini, Italian politician
- 1952 – Esperanza Aguirre, Spanish politician
- 1953 – Mohammed Waheed Hassan, former President of the Maldives
- 1953 – Peter Taylor, English footballer
- 1955 – Palmolive, Spanish–English drummer
- 1956 – Mel Gibson, Australian–American actor and director
- 1956 – Guy Ryder, British labour activist
- 1958 – Shim Hyung-rae, South Korean movie maker
- 1960 – Daniela Schadt, German journalist
- 1962 – Gavin Hastings, Scottish rugby player
- 1963 – Stewart Hosie, Scottish politician
- 1963 – Till Lindemann, German singer (Rammstein)
- 1967 – Magnus Gustafsson, Swedish tennis player
- 1968 – Kent Carlsson, Swedish tennis player
- 1969 – Michael Schumacher, German racing driver
- 1969 – Gerda Weissensteiner, Italian bobsledder and luger
- 1971 – Sarah Alexander, British actress
- 1971 – Cory Cross, American ice hockey player
- 1972 – Janek Kiisman, Estonian footballer
- 1975 – Danica McKellar, British actress
- 1975 – Thomas Bangalter, French DJ and producer (Daft Punk)

### From 1976

- 1976 – Angelos Basinas, Greek footballer
- 1977 – Lee Bowyer, English footballer
- 1977 – Michelle Stephenson, English singer (Spice Girls)
- 1978 – Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model
- 1978 – Mike York, American ice hockey player
- 1979 – Dina Tersago, Belgian model and television host
- 1981 – Eli Manning, American football player
- 1982 – Park Ji-yoon, South Korean singer, actress and model
- 1982 – Lasse Nilsson, Swedish footballer
- 1984 – Billy Mehmet, Irish footballer
- 1984 – Maximilian Mechler, German ski jumper
- 1985 – Linas Kleiza, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1986 – Dana Hussain, Iraqi athlete
- 1986 – Jessica O'Rourke, American soccer player
- 1986 – Lloyd, American singer
- 1988 – Ikechi Anya, Scottish footballer
- 1988 – Matt Frattin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Ayaka Umeda, Japanese singer (AKB48)
- 1989 – Kohei Uchimura, Japanese gymnast
- 1989 – Alex D. Linz, American actor
- 1991 – Darius Morris, American basketball player
- 1992 – Doug McDermott, American basketball player
- 1993 – Kevin Ware, American basketball player
- 1995 – Kim Seol-hyun, South Korean actress and singer
- 1997 – Rahul Shah, Indian cricketer
- 2003 – Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate change activist

### Up to 1900

- 235 – St. Anterus, Pope
- 323 – Jin Yuandi, Chinese Emperor (b. 276)
- 492 – Pope Felix III
- 502 – Genevieve of Paris, Patron Saint of Paris
- 1322 – King Philip V of France (b. 1293)
- 1437 – Catherine of Valois, wife of King Henry V of England (b. 1401)
- 1543 – Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, first European to visit California (b. 1499)
- 1571 – Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1505)
- 1641 – Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer (b. ca. 1619)
- 1670 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (b. 1608)
- 1701 – Prince Louis I of Monaco (b. 1642)
- 1705 – Luca Giordano, Italian painter (b. 1634)
- 1785 – Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)
- 1795 – Josiah Wedgwood, English pottery maker (b. 1730)
- 1863 – John Branch, Governor of North Carolina (b. 1782)
- 1875 – Pierre Larousse, French editor and encyclopedist (b. 1817)
- 1881 – Anna McNeill Whistler, mother of James Whistler (b. 1804)
- 1895 – James Merritt Ives, American lithographer and businessman (b. 1804)

### 1901–2000

- 1903 – Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)
- 1904 – Larin Paraske, Finnish runic singer (b. 1834)
- 1915 – James Elroy Flecker, English poet, writer and playwright (b. 1884)
- 1916 – Grenville M. Dodge, American general (b. 1831)
- 1923 – Jaroslav Hasek, Czech novelist (b. 1883)
- 1927 – Carl Runge, German mathematician (b. 1856)
- 1933 – Wilhelm Cuno, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
- 1933 – Jack Pickford, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
- 1943 – Walter James, 5th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1863)
- 1945 – Edgar Cayce, American psychic (b. 1877)
- 1946 – William Joyce, Irish Nazi propagandist (executed) (b. 1906)
- 1950 – Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (b. 1884)
- 1956 – Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)
- 1959 – Edwin Muir, Scottish poet, writer and translator (b. 1887)
- 1967 – Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (b. 1911)
- 1974 – Gino Cervi, Italian actor (b. 1901)
- 1979 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
- 1980 – Joy Adamson, Czech conservationist and writer (b. 1910)
- 1980 – Lucien Buysse, Belgian cyclist (b. 1892)
- 1981 – Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last grandchild of Queen Victoria (b. 1883)
- 1982 – Fritz Laband, German footballer (b. 1925)
- 1988 – Rose Auslander, German poet (b. 1901)
- 1988 – Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1905)
- 1989 – Sergei Lvovich Sobolev, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)
- 1992 – Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (b. 1897)

### From 2001

- 2001 – José Greco, flamenco dancer (b. 1918)
- 2002 – Freddy Heineken, Dutch CEO of Heineken (b. 1923)
- 2003 – Sid Gillman, American football coach (b. 1911)
- 2004 – Des Corcoran, 37th Premier of South Australia (b. 1928)
- 2004 – Leon Wagner, American MLB All-Star (b. 1934)
- 2005 – Jyotindra Nath Dixit, Indian national security advisor and former foreign secretary (b. 1936)
- 2005 – Will Eisner, American comic book artist and pioneering graphic novelist (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Koo Chen-fu, Chinese negotiator with the PRC (b. 1917)
- 2006 – Bill Skate, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (b. 1954)
- 2008 – Yo Sam-Choi, South Korean boxer (b. 1972)
- 2008 – Werner Dollinger, German politician and economist (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Pat Hingle, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2010 – Mary Daly, American theologian and scholar (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Josef Skvorecky, Czech writer (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Sergiu Nicolaescu, Romanian movie director, actor and politician (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Burry Stander, South African cyclist (b. 1987)
- 2014 – Leon de Wolff, Dutch journalist (b. 1948)
- 2014 – George Goodman, American economics professor (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Phil Everly, American singer and musician (Everly Brothers) (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Alicia Rhett, American actress (b. 1915)
- 2014 – Saul Zaentz, American movie producer (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Edward Brooke, American politician, United States Senator from Massachusetts (b. 1919)
- 2015 – Derek Minter, British motorcycle racer (b. 1932)
- 2015 – Bernice Madigan, American supercentenarian (b. 1899)
- 2015 – Olga Knyazeva, Russian fencer (b. 1954)
- 2016 – Peter Naur, Danish computer scientist (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Bill Plager, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1945)
- 2016 – C. B. Forgotston, American political blogger (b. 1945)
- 2016 – Igor Sergun, Russian military officer (b. 1957)
- 2016 – Paul Bley, Canadian jazz pianist (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Stephen W. Bosworth, American diplomat (b. 1939)
- 2016 – Amby Fogarty, Irish footballer (b. 1933)
- 2016 – Demmus Hentze, Faroese politician (b. 1923)
- 2016 – Peter Powell, English kite maker (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Georg Nees, German academic and artist (b. 1926)
- 2016 – Tommy Sale, English rugby league player (b. 1918)
- 2017 – Charles J. Colgan, American politician (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Rolf Noskwith, German–British businessman (b. 1919)
- 2017 – Igor Volk, Ukrainian–Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
- 2017 – Rodney Bennett, British television director (b. 1935)
- 2017 – Martin Brandtner, American Marine Corps general (b. 1938)
- 2017 – Mike Buchanan, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1932)
- 2018 – Fred Bass, American bookseller (b. 1928)
- 2019 – Herb Kelleher, American businessman (b. 1931)
- 2020 – Qasem Soleimani, Iranian general (b. 1957)
- 2022 – Beatrice Mintz, American embryologist (b. 1921)
- 2022 – Viktor Saneyev, Georgian triple jumper and Olympic champion (b. 1945)

## Observances

- Statehood Day (Alaska)
- Perihelion, on or around this date, when Earth is at its closest point to the Sun during its orbit.