January 20

Events
Up to 1900
250 - Emperor Decius begins widespread persecution of Christians in Rome
1265 - The English Parliament conducts its first meeting.
1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes King of Poland.
1356 - Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.
1523 - Christian III is forced to abdicate the thrones of Denmark and Norway.
1576 - The city of Leon in Mexico is founded.
1649 - King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland goes on trial for treason and 'high crimes'.
1778 - James Cook lands on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i.
1783 - Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain.
1788 - The third and main part of the First Fleet of convicts from Great Britain arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides to move the convict colony slightly further along the coast to Port Jackson, present-day Sydney, Australia.
1801 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
1839 - Battle of Yungay: Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia.
1840 - Jules Dumont D'Urville's expedition to Antarctica discovers Adelie Land.
1841 - Hong Kong comes under British control.
1855 - LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents the roller coaster.
1877 - Last day of the Constantinople Conference, which results in an agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.
1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
1887 - Off the Brazilian coast, British immigrant ship Kapunda collides with the barque Ada Melmore, causing it to sink within 5 minutes, killing 297 of the 313 people on board, including all women and children.
1887 - The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a naval base.
1892 - The first basketball game under rules invented by James Naismith takes place in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1901 2000
1905 - The Egyptian Bridge in Saint Petersburg, Russia, collapses.
1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
1921 - Turkey's first constitution is adopted.
1929 - In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking movie filmed outdoors, is released.
1934 - The photography and electronics company Fujimovie is founded in Tokyo.
1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His son, Edward VIII, succeeds him.
1937 - At his second inauguration, Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first US President to be inaugurated on January 20.
1941 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to start a third term in office. He starts his fourth term on this date in 1945 and dies shortly after.
1941 - World War II: A German police officer is murdered in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.
1942 - Senior Nazi officials meet at the Wannsee Conference, to plan the Holocaust.
1945 - World War II: Hungary agrees to an Armistice with the Allies.
1945 - World War II: Germany begins with the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia.
1949 - Harry S. Truman proposes Point Four program to help the world's less developed areas.
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President of the United States; he is the first President from the Republican Party since Herbert Hoover left office in 1933.
1960 - Hendrik Verwoerd announces a vote on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
1961 - John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as President of the United States.
1969 - Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States.
1972 - Pakistan launches its nuclear weapons program.
1977 - Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.
1980 - Jimmy Carter announces that the US will not participate at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.
1981 - The Iran hostage crisis ends within minutes of Ronald Reagan becoming US president.
1985 - President Ronald Reagan is inaugurated for the second time. He becomes the first president in over a decade to serve two terms.
1986 - In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is marked as a federal holiday for the first time.
1987 - Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.
1989 - George H. W. Bush becomes President of the United States succeeding President Ronald Reagan.
1990 - Soviet forces kill civilians in Baku, Azerbaijan.
1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law around the country, worsening the civil war between the mainly Muslim North and mainly Christian South, which would become South Sudan in 2011.
1992 - Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 people.
1993 - Bill Clinton becomes President of the United States, as the first Democratic President since Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.
1995 - Jean-Claude Juncker becomes Prime Minister of Luxembourg. He is Europe's longest-serving Prime Minister at the time he leaves office on December 4, 2013.
1996 - Yasser Arafat is elected Palestinian President.
1999 - The China News Service announces new government limits on internet use.
From 2001
2001 - In a coup in the Philippines, Joseph Estrada is replaced as President by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
2001 - George W. Bush becomes President of the United States.
2006 - People report seeing a bottlenose whale in the Thames in London. It dies late the next day after failed attempts to lead it back to the sea.
2007 - A three-man team, only on skis and kites completes a 1759-kilometer (1093-mile) journey to the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, becoming the first people to do this without mechanical help.
2009 - Barack Obama becomes the first African American President of the United States.
2013 - Barack Obama starts his second term as President of the United States, becoming the third US president in a row to serve two terms in office.
2014 - The European Rosetta comet chaser spacecraft is reawakened after a 31-month hibernation on its way to attempt landing on a comet.
2016 - A terrorist attack is carried out on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan, killing 21 people.
2016 - Scientists announce that they are "90% certain" of the existence of a 9th planet in the solar system beyond the Kuiper belt.
2017 - Donald Trump becomes President of the United States.
Births
Up to 1900
225 - Gordian III, Roman Emperor (d. 244)
1292 - Elisabeth of Bohemia (d. 1330)
1435 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese Shogun (d. 1490)
1488 - Sebastian Munster, German humanist and teacher (d. 1552)
1554 - King Sebastian of Portugal (d. 1578)
1573 - Simon Marius, German astronomer (d. 1624)
1703 - Joseph-Hector Fiocco, Flemish composer and violinist (d. 1741)
1716 - King Charles III of Spain (d. 1788)
1732 - Richard Henry Lee, American statesman (d. 1794)
1761 - Giovanni Domenico Perotti, Italian composer (d. 1825)
1775 - Andre-Marie Ampere, French physicist (d. 1836)
1783 - Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (d. 1860)
1798 - Anson Jones, President of Texas (d. 1858)
1812 - Thomas Meik, Scottish engineer (d. 1896)
1832 - William Larrabee, 13th Governor of Iowa (d. 1912)
1834 - George D. Robinson, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
1855 - Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
1867 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (d. 1944)
1873 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish writer (d. 1950)
1876 - Josef Hofmann, Polish inventor, composer and pianist (d. 1957)
1878 - Ruth St. Denis, American dancer (d. 1968)
1880 - Walter W. Bacon, American politician, 60th Governor of Delaware (d. 1962)
1889 - Allan Haines Loughead, American aviation executive (d. 1969)
1891 - Mischa Elman, Ukrainian-born violinist (d. 1967)
1894 - Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976)
1894 - Harold Gray, American cartoonist (d. 1968)
1895 - Gabor Szego, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1985)
1896 - George Burns, American actor and comedian (d. 1996)
1896 - Isabel Withers, American actress (d. 1968)
1898 - U Razak, Burmese politician (d. 1947)
1899 - Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese television pioneer (d. 1990)
1899 - Clarice Cliff, English ceramic artist (d. 1972)
1901 1950
1902 - Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993)
1907 - Paul Wessely, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
1910 - Joy Adamson, Austrian-Czech conservationist (d. 1980)
1911 - Alfredo Foni, Italian footballer (d. 1985)
1913 - Cleon Skousen, American writer and political theorist (d. 2006)
1915 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
1920 - Federico Fellini, Italian movie director (d. 1993)
1920 - DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)
1920 - Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian writer and ski jumper (d. 2006)
1922 - Ray Anthony, American jazz musician and actor
1922 - Don Mankiewicz, German-American screenwriter and inventor (d. 2015)
1923 - Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer (d. 2015)
1923 - Slim Whitman, American singer (d. 2013)
1924 - Yvonne Loriod, French pianist (d. 2010)
1925 - Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan priest, politician and activist
1926 - Vitaly Vorotnikov, Soviet politician (d. 2012)
1926 - Patricia Neal, American actress (d. 2010)
1926 - David Tudor, American pianist and composer
1930 - Buzz Aldrin, American Apollo 11 astronaut
1931 - David Lee, American physicist
1931 - Hachidai Nakamura, Japanese songwriter and pianist
1932 - Lou Fontinato, Canadian ice hockey player
1933 - Don Thompson, British athlete (d. 2006)
1934 - Tom Baker, British actor
1936 - Frances Shand Kydd (d. 2004), mother of Diana, Princess of Wales
1939 - Chandra Wickramasinghe, Sri Lankan-British mathematician and astronomer
1940 - Mande Sidibe, Prime Minister of Mali (d. 2009)
1941 - Pierre Lalonde, Canadian singer and television presenter
1943 - Armando Guebuza, President of Mozambique
1945 - Eric Stewart, British musician and songwriter
1945 - Christopher Martin-Jenkins, British sportscaster and cricket journalist (d. 2013)
1946 - David Lynch, American movie director
1946 - Vladimir Merta, Czech singer-songwriter, journalist and writer
1947 - Cyrille Guimard, French cyclist
1948 - Mel Pritchard, English musician
1948 - Natan Sharansky, Russian-Israeli physicist and politician
1948 - Nigel Williams, English novelist
1949 - Goran Persson, former Prime Minister of Sweden
1950 - Mahamane Ousmane, former President of Niger
1950 - Liza Goddard, British actress
1951 1975
1952 - Ian Hill, British musician
1952 - Paul Stanley, American musician
1952 - Ute Hommola, German athlete
1953 - Jeffrey Epstein, American financier and convicted sexual abuser
1954 - Rudy la Scala, Venezuelan singer-songwriter
1955 - McKeeva Bush, Cayman Islands politician
1956 - Bill Maher, American writer, comedian and political activist
1956 - Maria Larsson, Swedish politician
1957 - Andy Sheppard, English jazz saxophonist
1958 - Lorenzo Lamas, American actor
1959 - R. A. Salvatore, American science fiction author
1960 - Apa Sherpa, Nepalese Sherpa mountaineer
1963 - David Baszucki, Founder of Roblox
1963 - James Denton, American actor
1964 - Ozzie Guillen, Venezuelan baseball player
1965 - Colin Calderwood, Scottish footballer
1965 - Greg Kriesel, American musician
1965 - Heather Small, British singer
1965 - Sophie, Countess of Wessex
1966 - Rainn Wilson, American actor
1966 - Stacey Dash, American actress
1969 - Nicky Wire, British musician
1970 - Skeet Ulrich, American actor
1971 - Gary Barlow, British singer (Take That)
1971 - Derrick Green, American singer
1971 - Wakanohana Masaru, Japanese sumo wrestler
1972 - Nikki Haley, American politician, 116th Governor of South Carolina
1973 - Stephen Crabb, British politician
1973 - Mathilde, Queen Consort of Belgium
1973 - Josh Weston, American gay porn actor (d. 2012)
1974 - Alvin Harrison, American athlete
From 1976
1976 - Kirsty Gallacher, British television presenter
1977 - Sid Wilson, American musician (Slipknot)
1978 - Sonja Kesselschlaeger, German athlete
1979 - Will Young, British singer
1979 - Rob Bourdon, American musician (Linkin Park)
1980 - Philippe Cousteau, Jr., French-American oceanographer
1981 - Owen Hargreaves, English footballer
1981 - Freddy Guzman, Dominican baseball player
1982 - Joe Swash, English actor
1983 - Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
1984 - Olivia Hallinan, English actress
1984 - Lil Scrappy, American rapper
1984 - Federico Peluso, Italian footballer
1985 - Johan Erikson, Swedish ski jumper
1985 - Marina Inoue, Japanese voice actress
1987 - Marco Simoncelli, Italian motorcycle racer (d. 2011)
1987 - Evan Peters, American actor
1991 - Polona Hercog, Slovenian tennis player
1995 - Joey Badass, American rapper
1995 - Calum Chambers, English footballer
1999 - Shannon Tavarez, American actress (d. 2010)
Deaths
Up to 1900
250 - Pope Fabian
842 - Theophilos, Byzantine Emperor (b. 813)
1156 - Bishop Henry, patron saint of Finland
1191 - Fredrick VI, Duke of Swabia (b. 1167)
1410 - King Martin of Aragon (b. 1356)
1479 - King John II of Aragon (b. 1397)
1568 - Myles Coverdale, English Bible translator
1612 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
1639 - Mustafa I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1591)
1666 - Anna of Austria (b. 1601)
1745 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1697)
1770 - Charles Yorke, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1722)
1779 - David Garrick, English actor (b. 1717)
1819 - King Charles IV of Spain (b. 1748)
1837 - John Soane, English architect (b. 1753)
1841 - Minh Mang, Vietnamese Emperor (b. 1791)
1848 - King Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
1852 - Onomatsu Midorinusuke, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1794)
1859 - Bettina von Arnim, German writer (b. 1785)
1891 - King David Kalakaua of Hawaii (b. 1836)
1892 - John Couch Adams, English mathematician and astronomer (b. 1819)
1900 - John Ruskin, English art critic (b. 1819)
1901 2000
1901 - Zenobe Gramme, Belgian engineer (b. 1826)
1913 - Jose Guadalupe Posada, Mexican engraver and illustrator (b. 1852)
1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
1940 - Omar Bundy, American general (b. 1861)
1957 - James Brendan Connolly, American athlete (b. 1865)
1971 - Minanogawa Tozo, Japanese sumo wrestler (b. 1903)
1971 - Broncho Bill Anderson, American actor, director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1880)
1973 - Amilcar Cabral, Guinea-Bissau politician (b. 1924)
1979 - Gustav Winckler, Danish singer (b. 1925)
1983 - Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
1984 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
1989 - Alamgir Kabir, Bangladeshi director, producer and screenwriter (b. 1938)
1990 - Hayedeh, Iranian singer (b. 1942)
1990 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
1993 - Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born actress (b. 1929)
1994 - Matt Busby, Scottish football player and manager (b. 1909)
1996 - Gerry Mulligan, American musician (b. 1927)
1997 - Curt Flood, American baseball player (b. 1938)
1998 - Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (b. 1923)
From 2001
2003 - Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b. 1903)
2005 - Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
2005 - Miriam Rothschild, English conservationist (b. 1908)
2008 - Louis de Cazenave, French World War I veteran and supercentenarian (b. 1897)
2009 - Stephanos II Ghattas, Patriarch of the Egyptian Coptic Church (b. 1920)
2011 - Sexy Cora, German pornographic actress (b. 1987)
2012 - Jiri Raska, Czech ski jumper (b. 1941)
2012 - Etta James, American singer (b. 1938)
2014 - Claudio Abbado, Italian conductor (b. 1933)
2014 - Vern Benson, American baseball player (b. 1924)
2015 - Anatol Hrytskievich, Belarussian historian (b. 1929)
2015 - Hitoshi Saito, Japanese gymnast (b. 1961)
2015 - Edgar Froese, German musician (b. 1944)
2015 - Ricardo dos Santos, Brazilian surfer (b. 1990)
2015 - James Walker, Australian television writer (b. 1973)
2016 - Edmonde Charles-Roux, French writer (b. 1920)
2016 - George Weidenfeld, Baron Weidenfeld, Austrian-British publisher, philanthropist and newspaper columnist (b. 1919)
2016 - Ronald Greenwald, American rabbi and activist (b. 1934)
2016 - David G. Hartwell, American editor, publisher and critic (b. 1941)
Observances
Armed Forces Day (Mali)
Martyrs' Day (Azerbaijan)
Inauguration Day (United States) every four years, last in 2013 and next in 2017. Public inauguration of the US president is on January 21 if the 20th is a Sunday (like in 2013).