January 16

Events
Up to 1900
27 BC - Octavian Caesar given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate (people who were in charge of the Roman Empire).
378 - General Sijay K'ak' conquers Tikal in present-day Guatemala.
550 - Gothic Wars: The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
929 - Emir Abd-ar-rahman III declares himself caliph, thereby establishing the Caliphate of Cordoba.
1219 - A North Sea flood kills 36,000 people.
1362 - A great wave in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.
1412 - Medici family made official bankers (money handlers) of the Papacy.
1456 - Painter Filippo Lippi marries with Lucrezia Buti, a young nun from the convent of Saint Margherita.
1492 - The first grammar (how words form sentences) of a modern language, in Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella.
1511 - A major North Sea flood occurs, as several communities have to be evacuated in Ostfriesland, present-day northwest Germany.
1547 - Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar (an emperor) of Russia.
1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.
1572 - The Duke of Norfolk is tried for betraying a country for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore The Catholic Church in England.
1581 - English Parliament (group of lawmakers) outlaws The Roman Catholic Church.
1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes was made into books in Madrid.
1707 - The Parliament of Scotland agrees to the Act of Union. Soon after, Scotland unites with England and Wales to form Great Britain.
1761 - British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
1777 - Vermont declares that it is separate from New York.
1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1786 - Virginia enacts the Statute of Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson.
1795 - French take control of Utrecht, Netherlands.
1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruna.
1839 - The United Kingdom takes Aden, Yemen, from the Ottoman Empire.
1847 - John C. Fremont is made Governor (a kind of leader) of the new California Territory.
1862 - Hartley Colliery Disaster: 204 men and boys are killed in a mining disaster in England.
1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, making the United States Civil service, is passed.
1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounced its claims to the Samoan islands.
1901 2000
1909 - Ernest Shackleton's journey finds the magnetic South Pole.
1917 - German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, telling about a German-Mexican team against the United States
1919 - Temperance movement: The 18th Amendment to the US constitution, authorizing Prohibition (ban of alcohol), was passed by the Congress of the United States. It went into effect one year later, on January 16, 1920.
1920 - Founding date of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc.
1924 - Eleftherios Venizelos becomes Prime Minister of Greece for a fourth time.
1938 - Benny Goodman plays at Carnegie Hall.
1939 - The Irish Republican Army begins a bombing and sabotage campaign in England.
1941 - World War II: On the Rockall sandbank, British passenger ship Oropesa is torpedoed by a German U-boat, killing 106 people.
1942 - The crash of TWA Flight 3 kills all 22 people on board, including actress Carole Lombard.
1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Fuhrerbunker.
1956 - President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt agrees to take over Palestine again.
1957 - The Cavern Club opens in Liverpool, England.
1961 - Mickey Mantle becomes the highest paid baseball player by signing a $75,000 contract.
1962 - Filming of the first James Bond movie, Dr. No, begins in Jamaica.
1964 - The first musical version of Hello, Dolly! opens at New York City's St. James Theatre.
1966 - The Metropolitan Opera House opens at Lincoln Center in New York City.
1969 - Czech student Jan Palach kills himself by self-immolation (self-burning) in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
1969 - Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only such transfer accomplished with a space walk.
1970 - Buckminster Fuller gets the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.
1970 - Curt Flood goes to court, saying that Major League Baseball had gone against the American anti-trust laws (laws against a group of people controlling many companies).
1977 - The Marx Brothers were entered into the Motion Picture Hall of Fame.
1979 - The Shah of Iran leaves Iran with his family and goes to Egypt.
1986 - Herbert W. Armstrong, the maker of the Worldwide Church of God (the Church of God in Philadelphia Era) died.
1988 - Sports reporter Jimmy "the Greek" Snyder is fired by CBS a day after saying in public that African Americans had been made to produce stronger children during slavery.
1991 - American serial killer Aileen Wuornos confesses that she killed six men.
1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel (people who are against something) leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City. This ends a 12-year civil war that killed at least 75,000 people.
1995 - An avalanche strikes the village of Sudavik, in Icelands West Fjords, killing 14 people.
1995 - The Great Leader of Baltic Kingdom Sir Karl Eerik Jahu of Nommeville is born.
1996 - A coup in Sierra Leone removes Valentine Strasser from power. His deputy, Julius Maada Rio, succeeds him.
1997 - Ennis Cosby, the only son of actor Bill Cosby, is killed by a person with a gun while changing a flat tire in Los Angeles, California.
1998 - NASA says that John Glenn will return to space when Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off in October 1998.
2000 - In Sacramento, California a company's truck carrying evaporated milk is driven into the state capitol building killing the driver.
From 2001
2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Desire Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2002 - A student shoots 6 people at the Appalachian School of Law. Three of those shot die.
2002 - John Ashcroft says that so-called "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh would be tried in a court in the United States.
2002 - Everyone in the United Nations Security Council makes an arms embargo and make Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban not being able to use money.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which will be its final one. Columbia disintegrates 16 days later on re-entry.
2004 - Goatse.cx (a shock site is shut down by the Christmas Island Registry)
2005 - Adriana Iliescu has a baby at age 66 and becomes the oldest woman in the world, at the time, to do so.
2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf becomes President of Liberia. She is the first female President in Africa.
2007 - A bomb attack on a university in Baghdad kills 65 people.
2013 - An estimated 41 international workers are taken hostage in an attack on the town of In Amenas in Algeria. Many die a few days later, during an attempted Algerian-led rescue operation.
2016 - A terrorist attack is carried out on a hotel in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, killing 28 people.
2016 - The International Atomic Energy Agency announces that Iran has properly dismantled its nuclear weapons programme, allowing the United Nations to end sanctions immediately.
2019 - British Prime Minister Theresa May wins a vote of confidence in her government, a day after her proposed Brexit deal was heavily defeated.
Births
Up to 1900
972 - Emperor Shengzhong of Liao in China (d. 1031)
1093 - Isaac Komnenos, Byzantine prince (d. 1152 or after)
1245 - Edmund Crouchback, 1st Earl of Lancaster (British title) (d. 1296)
1409 - Rene of Anjou, King of Naples (d. 1480)
1516 - Bayinnaung, King of Burma (d. 1581)
1604 - Loreto Vittori, Italian poet and composer (d. 1670)
1634 - Dorthe Engelbretsdatter, Norwegian poet (d. 1716)
1675 - Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French soldier, diplomat and author (d. 1755)
1728 - Niccolo Riccinni, Italian composer (d. 1800)
1731 - Tyge Rothe, Danish writer (d. 1795)
1749 - Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist (d. 1803)
1795 - Carl Christian Rafn, Danish archaeologist (d. 1864)
1802 - Friedrich Julius Stahl, German politician, philosopher and lawyer (d. 1861)
1815 - Henry W. Halleck, American Civil War general (d. 1872)
1821 - John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky Senator 1861, Confederate General and US Vice President (d. 1875)
1834 - Robert R. Hitt, American politician (d. 1906)
1836 - Francis II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1894)
1838 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)
1844 - Ismail Quemali, Albanian nationalist (d. 1919)
1853 - Ian Standish Monteith Hamilton, British general (d. 1947)
1853 - Vladimir Sergeyevich Solovyov, Russian philosopher (d. 1900)
1853 - Andre Michelin, French industrialist (d. 1931)
1855 - Eleanor Marx, British activist and author (d. 1898)
1858 - Elwood Mead, American engineer (d. 1936)
1859 - Jon Magnusson, Prime Minister of Iceland (d. 1926)
1868 - Armin Otto Leuschner, American astronomer and philosopher (d. 1953)
1870 - Juri Jaakson, Estonian politician (d. 1942)
1872 - Henri Busser, French composer (d. 1973)
1872 - Edward Gordon Craig, English actor, producer and director (d. 1966)
1874 - Robert W. Service, Canadian poet (d. 1958)
1878 - Harry Carey, American silent movie actor (d. 1947)
1885 - Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer and translator (d. 1967)
1885 - Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, Polish politician (d. 1947)
1886 - John Hamilton, American actor (d. 1958)
1896 - Ruth Rose, American screenwriter (d. 1978)
1897 - Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (d. 1972)
1898 - Margaret Booth, American movie editor (d. 2002)
1900 - Edith Frank, mother of Anne Frank (d. 1945)
1901 1950
1901 - Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
1901 - Fulgencio Batista, President of Cuba (d. 1973)
1902 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (d. 1945)
1907 - Paul Nitze, American government official (d. 2004)
1908 - Ethel Merman, American actress, singer (d. 1984)
1910 - Dizzy Dean, American baseball player on the Baseball Hall of Fame (d. 1974)
1910 - Walter Schellenberg, German SS officer (d. 1952)
1911 - Eduardo Frei Montalva, 28th President of Chile (d. 1982)
1912 - Franz Tumler, Austrian story teller (d. 1998)
1915 - Leslie H. Martinson, American television and movie director (d. 2016)
1917 - Buddy Lester, American actor (d. 2002)
1917 - Justin Ahomadegbe-Tometin, President of Benin (d. 2002)
1918 - Allan Ekelund, Swedish movie producer (d. 2009)
1918 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer and producer (d. 1996)
1920 - Stephanos II Ghattas, Egyptian Coptic Church Patriarch (d. 2009)
1921 - Francesco Scavullo, photographer (d. 2004)
1922 - Ernesto Bonino, Italian singer (d. 2008)
1923 - Anthony Hecht, American poet (d. 2004)
1924 - Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
1925 - Amelia Vargas, Cuban actress (d. 2019)
1927 - Jerrold Meinwald, American chemist (d. 2018)
1928 - William Kennedy, writer
1931 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)
1932 - Dian Fossey, American zoologist (studies animals) (d. 1985)
1933 - Susan Sontag, American writer (d. 2004)
1934 - Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano
1935 - Udo Lattek, German footballer and coach (d. 2015)
1935 - A.J. Foyt, automobile racer
1935 - Inger Christensen, Danish writer (d. 2009)
1936 - Peter Bares, German composer (d. 2014)
1936 - Michael White, Scottish theatre and film producer (d. 2016)
1937 - Francis George, American cardinal (d. 2015)
1938 - Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria, Spanish aristocrat (d. 2015)
1940 - Franz Muntefering, German politician
1942 - Rene Angelil, Canadian singer and manager (d. 2016)
1942 - Barbara Lynn, American singer
1943 - Brian Ferneyhough, composer
1944 - Dieter Moebius, German musician (d. 2015)
1944 - Judy Baar Topinka, American politician (d. 2014)
1944 - Jim Stafford, singer
1944 - Ronnie Milsap, American country music singer
1945 - Birte Tove, Danish actress (d. 2016)
1946 - Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
1946 - Ronnie Milsap, singer
1946 - Katia Ricciarelli, Italian opera singer
1947 - Laura Schlessinger, psychiatrist, radio talk show host
1947 - Sara Jane Olson, American political activist
1948 - John Carpenter, American movie director
1948 - Dalvanius, New Zealand entertainer (d. 2002)
1948 - Giorgio Demetrio Gallaro, Italian bishop
1948 - Gregor Gysi, German politician
1948 - Anatoly Solovyev, Soviet cosmonaut
1948 - Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player
1950 - Debbie Allen, American actress, dancer and choreographer
1950 - Caroline Munro, actress
1950 - Daniel Vischer, Swiss politician (d. 2017)
1951 1975
1952 - Fuad II of Egypt
1953 - L. Blaine Hammond, NASA astronaut
1954 - Wolfgang Schmidt, German discus thrower
1954 - Nancy Richards-Akers, novelist (d. 1999)
1954 - Vasili Zhupikov, Russian footballer (d. 2015)
1955 - Jerry M. Linenger, NASA astronaut
1956 - Martin Jol, Dutch footballer and coach
1957 - Jurijs Andrejevs, Latvian footballer
1957 - Ricardo Darin, Argentine actor, screenwriter and director
1957 - Paul Holmes, English politician
1958 - Lena Ek, Swedish politician
1958 - Tony Pulis, Welsh footballer and coach
1958 - Andris Skele, Prime Minister of Latvia
1958 - Anatoli Boukreev, Russian climber (d. 1997)
1958 - Andriy Bal, Ukrainian footballer (d. 2014)
1959 - Sade, Nigerian singer
1959 - Juanita Bynum, American televangelist
1961 - Paul Raven, British musician (d. 2007)
1963 - James May, British television presenter
1965 - John Carver, British footballer and manager
1969 - Roy Jones, Jr., American boxer
1969 - Neil Back, English rugby player
1970 - Brendan O'Hare, Scottish drummer
1971 - Sergi Bruguera, Spanish tennis player
1971 - Jonathan Mangum, American actor and comedian
1972 - Greg Page, Australian musician (The Wiggles)
1972 - Radivoje Manic, Serbian footballer
1974 - Kate Moss, English supermodel
1974 - Mattias Jonsson, Swedish footballer
From 1976
1976 - Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, Bahamian athlete
1977 - Jeff Foster, American professional basketball player
1979 - Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
1979 - Muntadhar al-Zaidi, Iraqi journalist
1979 - Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
1980 - Albert Pujols, Dominican baseball player
1980 - Lin-Manuel Miranda, American stage actor, composer, singer and playwright
1980 - Seydou Keita, Malian footballer
1981 - Bobby Zamora, English footballer
1981 - Nick Valensi, American guitarist
1981 - Vlad Munteanu, Romanian footballer
1982 - Tuncay Sanli, Turkish footballer
1983 - Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
1983 - Andriy Rusol, Ukrainian footballer
1983 - Derek Riordan, Scottish footballer
1984 - Craig Beattie, Scottish footballer
1984 - Stephan Lichtsteiner, Swiss footballer
1985 - Daisuke Sakata, Japanese footballer
1985 - Pablo Zabaleta, Argentine footballer
1985 - Craig Jones, English motorcycle racer (d. 2008)
1986 - Aija Andrejeva, Latvian singer
1986 - Mason Gamble, American actor
1986 - Irina Kuzmina, Latvian tennis player
1986 - Daiki Niwa, Japanese footballer
1987 - Lauren McAvoy, British fashion model
1987 - Park Joo-ho, South Korean footballer
1988 - Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
1988 - FKA twigs, English singer-songwriter, producer and dancer
1989 - Paul Sweeney, Scottish politician
1989 - Yvonne Zima, American actress
1991 - Matt Duchene, Canadian ice hockey player
1992 - Maja Keuc, Slovenian singer
1995 - Takumi Minamino, Japanese footballer
Deaths
Up to 1900
378 - Great Jaguar Paw, Mayan King of Tikal
654 - Gao Yifu, Chinese chancellor (b. 596)
960 - Patriarch Polyeuctus of Constantinople
1327 - Nikephoros Choumnos, Byzantine scholar and statesman (b. 1250)
1369 - Peter I of Cyprus (b. 1328)
1387 - Elizabeth of Bosnia, Queen of Hungary and regent (b. 1340)
1554 - Christiern Pedersen, Danish humanist (b. 1484)
1710 - Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (b. 1675)
1747 - Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)
1750 - Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshal (b. 1667)
1794 - Edward Gibbon, historian (b. 1737)
1806 - William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
1809 - John Moore, British general (b. 1761)
1817 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman (b. 1759)
1834 - Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician (b. 1769)
1886 - Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian opera composer (b. 1834)
1891 - Leo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)
1901 2000
1901 - Hiram Revels, United States Senator (b. 1822)
1907 - Helene Napoleone Bonaparte, French noblewoman, might be a daughter of Napoleon (b. 1816)
1912 - Georg Heym, German writer (b. 1887)
1917 - George Dewey, admiral (high title in the Navy) (b. 1837)
1919 - Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, President of Brazil (b. 1848)
1935 - Fred Barker, American criminal (b. 1901)
1935 - Ma Barker, American criminal (b. 1871)
1936 - Albert Fish, American serial killer (put to death by court) (b. 1870)
1942 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)
1942 - Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, British royal (b. 1850)
1957 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)
1957 - Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, English Governor-General of Canada (b. 1874)
1962 - Ivan Mestrovic, carving maker (b. 1883)
1969 - Vernon Duke, Russian-American composer and songwriter (b. 1903)
1971 - Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist (b. 1890)
1972 - Teller Ammons, 28th Governor of Colorado (b. 1895)
1972 - Ross Bagdasarian, actor and songwriter (b. 1919)
1979 - Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)
1979 - August Heissmeyer, German SS officer (b. 1897)
1981 - Bernard Lee, British actor (b. 1908)
1982 - Red Smith, sports columnist (b. 1905)
1986 - Herbert W. Armstrong, evangelist (religious person), writer, and publisher (b. 1892)
1988 - Ballard Berkeley, British actor (b. 1904)
1993 - Jon Pall Sigmarsson, Icelandic strength athlete (b. 1960)
1993 - Glenn Corbett, American actor (b. 1930)
1995 - Eric Mottram, poet, teacher, critic, and editor (b. 1924)
2001 2015
2001 - Laurent-Desire Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (assassinated; death officially confirmed on January 18)
2002 - Michael Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)
2002 - Eddie Meduza, Swedish composer (b. 1948)
2002 - Bobo Olson, American boxer (b. 1928)
2002 - Ron Taylor, American actor (b. 1952)
2004 - Kalevi Sorsa, former Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1930)
2005 - Marjorie Williams, Washington Post columnist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair (b. 1958)
2007 - Rudolf August Oetker, German businessman (b. 1916)
2007 - Ron Carey, American actor (b. 1935)
2009 - John Mortimer, British lawyer and writer (b. 1923)
2009 - Andrew Wyeth, American painter (b. 1917)
2011 - Steve Prestwich, Australian musician (b. 1954)
2012 - Gustav Leonhardt, Dutch keyboardist, conductor and musicologist (b. 1928)
2013 - Yevdokiya Mekshilo, Russian cross-country skier (b. 1931)
2013 - Pauline Phillips, American columnist and radio host (b. 1918)
2014 - Russell Johnson, American actor (b. 1924)
2014 - Ruth Duccini, American actress (b. 1918)
2014 - Hiroo Onoda, Japanese soldier (b. 1922)
2015 - Ian Athfield, New Zealand architect (b. 1940)
2015 - Ted Harrison, Canadian artist (b. 1926)
2015 - Rimma Markova, Russian actress (b. 1925)
2015 - Miriam Akavia, Israeli writer and Holocaust survivor (b. 1927)
2015 - Yao Beina, Chinese singer b. 1981)
2015 - Andrew Benson, American biologist (b. 1917
2015 - Stuart Loory, American journalist (b. 1932)
From 2016
2016 - Ted Marchibroda, American football player (b. 1931)
2016 - Carina Jaarnek, Swedish singer (b. 1962)
2016 - Rudy Migay, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1928)
2017 - Eugene Cernan, American astronaut (b. 1934)
2017 - Amin Nasir, Singaporean footballer (b. 1968)
2017 - William A. Hilliard, American journalist (b. 1927)
2017 - Franz Jarnach, German actor and musician (b. 1943)
2017 - Peter Jones, Australian politician (b. 1933)
2017 - Charles "Bobo" Shaw, American jazz drummer (b. 1947)
2017 - Steve Wright, American bass guitarist (b. 1950)
2018 - Bill Bain, American management consultant (b. 1937)
2018 - George Bandy, American politician (b. 1945)
2018 - Bradford Dillman, American actor (b. 1930)
2018 - Kingdon Gould Jr., American diplomat (b. 1924)
2018 - Peter Groeger, German actor (b. 1933)
2018 - Madalena Iglesias, Portuguese actress and singer (b. 1939)
2018 - Jo Jo White, American basketball player (b. 1946)
2018 - Anatoly Glushenkov, Russian politician (b. 1942)
2018 - Madalena Iglesias, Portuguese actress and singer (b. 1939)
2019 - John C. Bogle, American investor and writer (b. 1929)
2019 - Mirjam Pressler, German writer and translator (b. 1940)
2019 - Chris Wilson, Australian musician (b. 1956)
2019 - Yu Min, Chinese nuclear physicist (b. 1926)
Observances
Teacher's Day (Thailand)
Flag Day (Israel)
Days of the year