January 18

Events
Up to 1900
350 - General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
1126 - Song Dynasty China: Emperor Huizong of Song decides to leave the throne to his son, Emperor Qinzong of Song.
1486 - King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York.
1535 - Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, the present-day capital city of Peru.
1562 - Pope Pius IV re-opens the Council of Trent the its third and final session.
1591 - King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat.
1671 - English pirate Henry Morgan plunders Panama City and sets it on fire, as well as massacring people who live there.
1701 - Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Konigsberg.
1778 - Captain James Cook reaches the Hawaiian Islands, naming them "Sandwich Islands".
1788 - The first members of the First Fleet of convicts from England arrives in Botany Bay, present-day Sydney, Australia.
1825 - Moscow's Bolshoi Theater re-opens.
1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany become the first German Emperor.
1884 - Passenger steamer City of Columbus sinks off Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, killing 103 people, including all women and children on board.
1884 - Dr. William Price tries to cremate his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, eventually leading to a change in UK cremation law.
1886 - The Hockey Association is founded in England, setting out the rules of modern field hockey.
1901 1950
1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco Bay. This is the first successful landing of an aircraft on a ship.
1913 - First Balkan War: Greece secures the northern Aegean Sea islands after defeating the Ottoman Empire navy in the Battle of Lemnos.
1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
1916 - A 611-gram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
1919 - The Paris Peace Conference begins in Versailles.
1919 - Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes the first Prime Minister of newly independent Poland.
1919 - Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
1934 - An earthquake in the present-day Indian state of Bihar kills around 10,000 people.
1941 - World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against then-Italian East Africa.
1944 - For the first time, the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert. Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw are among the musicians performing.
1944 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate Leningrad.
1951 2000
1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian in the NHL, makes his first appearance for the Boston Bruins.
1960 - Capital Airilnes Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles County, Virginia, killing all 50 people on board.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo is found guilty of being the Boston Strangler serial killer.
1969 - United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay, killing all 32 passengers and 6 crew members.
1976 - Lebanese Christian militias carry out the Karantina massacre in Beirut, killing around 1,000 people.
1976 - Bangladesh and Pakistan fully have foreign bilateral relations between Islamabad and Dacca Officials.
1977 - Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of Legionnaires' disease.
1977 - A train crash at Granville, Sydney, Australia, kills 83 people.
1977 - Yugoslavian Prime Minister Dzemal Bijedic, his wife, and six other people are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights finds the UK government guilty of poor treatment of prisoners in Northern Ireland, but finds it not guilty of torture.
1981 - Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston, Texas, skyscraper.
1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.
1993 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is observed in all 50 states of the US for the first time. The holiday was first observed in 1986.
1997 - Borge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and without help.
2000 - A meteor impacts on Tagish Lake in Northern Canada.
From 2001
2002 - The Sierra Leone Civil War is officially declared over.
2003 - A bush fire kills four people in Canberra and destroys over 500 homes.
2005 - The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled in a ceremony in Toulouse, France.
2007 - Hurricane Kyrill, a major storm, hits several countries in Western and Central Europe, killing 44 people in total (including 14 in the UK and 13 in Germany) and causing power failures and major damage.
2009 - A ceasefire is agreed in the Israel-Gaza War. The conflict had started with Operation Cast Lead on December 27, 2008.
2012 - The English language edition of Wikipedia blacks out for 24 hours, from midnight to midnight (Eastern Standard Time) in protest against the SOPA and PIPA internet laws proposed by the United States Congress.
2017 - An avalanche (after two earthquakes) buries a hotel in Abruzzo, Central Italy.
2018 - A bus fire near Aktobe, Kazakhstan, kills at least 52 people.
2019 - Andry Rajoelina takes office as President of Madagascar.
2019 - A fuel pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico, kills at least 85 people.
Births
Up to 1900
885 - Daigo, Emperor of Japan (d. 930)
1519 - Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary (d. 1559)
1543 - Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (d. 1588)
1634 - Madame de Lafayette, French aristocrat and writer (d. 1693)
1641 - Francois-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (d. 1691)
1659 - Damaris Cudworth Marsham, English philosopher (d. 1708)
1669 - Maria Antonia of Austria (d. 1692)
1672 - Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (d. 1731)
1688 - Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1765)
1689 - Montesquieu, French writer (d. 1755)
1751 - Ferdinand Kauer, Austrian composer and pianist (d. 1831)
1779 - Peter Roget, British lexicographer (d. 1869)
1782 - Daniel Webster, American statesman (d. 1852)
1795 - Anna Pavlovna of Russia, Russian-born Queen Consort of the Netherlands (d. 1865)
1813 - Joseph Glidden, American farmer who patented barbed wire (d. 1906)
1815 - Warren De la Rue, British chemist, inventor and astronomer (d. 1889)
1815 - Constantin von Tischendorf, German theologian (d. 1874)
1835 - Cesar Cui, Russian composer (d. 1918)
1840 - Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (d. 1921)
1842 - Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911)
1848 - Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer (d. 1925)
1849 - Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
1849 - Eugene Carriere, French painter (d. 1906)
1850 - Seth Low, American politician, Mayor of New York City (d. 1916)
1854 - Thomas Watson, American telephone pioneer (d. 1934)
1867 - Ruben Dario, Nicaraguan journalist, diplomat and poet (d. 1916)
1868 - Suzuki Kantaro, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1948)
1871 - Benjamin I of Constantinople, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (d. 1946)
1878 - Thomas Edward Campbell, Governor of Arizona (d. 1944)
1879 - Henri Giraud, French general (d. 1949)
1879 - Tane Ikai, Japanese supercentenarian (d. 1995)
1880 - Paul Ehrenfest, Austrian physicist (d. 1928)
1880 - Alfredo Ildefonso Schuster, Italian cardinal (d. 1954)
1881 - Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (d. 1975)
1882 - A. A. Milne, English writer (d. 1956)
1888 - Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer (d. 1989)
1892 - Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (d. 1957)
1892 - Paul Rostock, German surgeon (d. 1956)
1896 - Ville Ritola, Finnish long-distance runner (d. 1982)
1896 - Luigi Bianchi, Italian mathematician (d. 1928)
1898 - Albert Kivikas, Estonian writer and journalist (d. 1978)
1901 1950
1903 - Gladys Hooper, English supercentenarian (d. 2016)
1904 - Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
1905 - Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (d. 2002)
1908 - Jacob Bronowski, Polish-born mathematician, poet, and physicist (d. 1974)
1908 - Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1972)
1911 - Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
1911 - Jose Maria Arguedas, Peruvian novelist, poet and anthropologist (d. 1969)
1914 - Arno Schmidt, German writer (d. 1979)
1914 - William Stafford, American poet (d. 1993)
1915 - Santiago Carrillo, Spanish Communist politician (d. 2012)
1915 - Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (d. 1984)
1918 - Gustave Gingras, Canadian physician (d. 1996)
1918 - Nicholas Oresko, American sergeant (d. 2013)
1919 - Toni Turek, German footballer (d. 1984)
1921 - Yoichiro Nambu, Japanese-American physicist (d. 2015)
1922 - Bob Bell, American clown (d. 1997)
1923 - Gerrit Voorting, Dutch road bicycle racer (d. 2015)
1924 - Max Labovitch, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2018)
1925 - Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
1925 - John V. Evans, former Governor of Iowa (d. 2014)
1927 - Sundaram Balachander, Indian actor, director and producer (d. 1990)
1928 - Alexander Gomelsky, Russian basketball coach
1931 - Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
1932 - Robert Anton Wilson, American writer
1933 - John Boorman, Irish movie director
1933 - Ray Dolby, American engineer and inventor (d. 2013)
1933 - Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations
1934 - Raymond Briggs, English writer and illustrator
1934 - Hendrick Chin A Sen, Surinamese politician
1935 - Gad Yaacobi, Israeli academic and diplomat (d. 2007)
1936 - David Howell, Baron Howell of Guildford, English politician
1937 - John Hume, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
1938 - Anthony Giddens, British sociologist
1938 - Curt Flood, American baseball player (d. 1997)
1939 - Tsuyoshi Yamanaka, Japanese swimmer (d. 2017)
1940 - Iva Zanicchi, Italian singer
1940 - Pedro Rodriguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1971)
1941 - David Ruffin, American singer (d. 1991)
1943 - Kay Granger, American politician
1943 - Paul Angelis, English actor (d. 2009)
1944 - Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
1944 - Alexander Van der Bellen, President of Austria
1945 - Jose Luis Perales, Spanish singer
1946 - Joseph Deiss, Swiss Federal Councilor
1946 - Henrique Pereira Rosa, caretaker President of Guinea-Bissau (d. 2013)
1947 - Takeshi Kitano, Japanese actor and director
1949 - Philippe Starck, French designer
1950 - Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (d. 1982)
1950 - Michael Tomasello, American anthropologist
1951 1975
1951 - Renato Zaccarelli, Italian footballer
1951 - Bob Latchford, English footballer
1951 - Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (d. 1982)
1952 - Michael Angelis, English actor (d. 2020)
1952 - R. Stevie Moore, American singer, songwriter, and home recording pioneer
1953 - Brett Hudson, American actor
1955 - Kevin Costner, American actor
1955 - Frankie Knuckles, American DJ and producer (d. 2014)
1955 - Fernando Trueba, Spanish movie director, screenwriter and producer
1956 - Sharon Mitchell, American actress
1956 - Tom Bailey, British singer (Thompson Twins)
1958 - Jeffrey Williams, American astronaut
1960 - Mark Rylance, British actor
1960 - Peter Charles, British equestrian
1961 - Peter Beardsley, English footballer
1961 - Bobby Hansen, American basketball player
1961 - Mark Messier, Canadian hockey player
1961 - Carole Paulson American writer, humor columnist
1962 - Jeff Yagher, American actor
1963 - Martin O'Malley, former Governor of Maryland
1963 - Vera Pauw, Dutch footballer and coach
1963 - Yury Zakharevich, Soviet-Russian weightlifter
1964 - Richard Dunwoody, British jockey
1964 - Jane Horrocks, British actress
1964 - Nadia Sawalha, British television personality
1965 - Dave Attell, American writer and comedian
1966 - David Bautista, American professional wrestler
1967 - Kim Perrot, American basketball player (d. 1999)
1967 - Ivan Zamorano, Chilean footballer
1967 - Anjem Choudary, English Islamist preacher
1969 - Jesse L. Martin, American actor
1970 - DJ Quik, American rapper
1971 - Jonathan Davis, American musician (KoIan)
1971 - Christian Fittipaldi, Brazilian race car driver
1971 - Pep Guardiola, Spanish footballer and football manager
1972 - Vinod Kambli, Indian cricketer, sportscaster and actor
1972 - Mike Lieberthal, American baseball player
1973 - Crispian Mills, British musician (The Jeevas and Kula Shaker)
1973 - Ben Jealous, African American NAACP leader
1974 - Michael Tunn, Australian television and radio
1974 - Princess Claire of Belgium
1974 - Devon Odessa, American actress
From 1976
1976 - Damian Leith, Irish-born Australian singer
1976 - Subhrajit Mitra, Indian moviemaker
1977 - Didier Dinart, French handball player
1979 - Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer
1979 - Jay Chou, Taiwanese singer and producer
1979 - Willie Collum, Scottish football referee
1979 - Peter Gionta, American ice hockey player
1979 - Ruslan Fedotenko, Ukrainian ice hockey player
1979 - Leo Varadkar, Irish Taoiseach
1980 - Estelle, English singer and songwriter
1980 - Julius Peppers, American football player
1980 - Robert Green, English footballer
1980 - Jason Segel, American actor, writer and screenwriter
1981 - Olivier Rochus, Belgian tennis player
1982 - Quinn Allman, American musician (The Used)
1983 - Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
1984 - Seung-Hui Cho, Korean-American spree killer (d. 2007)
1985 - Riccardo Montolivo, Italian footballer
1986 - Marya Roxx, Estonian singer
1987 - Johan Djourou, Swiss footballer
1988 - Ronnie Day, Australian singer-songwriter
1988 - Angelique Kerber, German tennis player
1990 - Alex Pietrangelo, Canadian ice hockey player
1991 - Britt McKillip, Canadian singer and actress
1991 - Diego Simoes, Brazilian footballer
1993 - Morgan York, American actress
1994 - Kang Jiyoung, South Korean singer, rapper and dancer
1996 - Sarah Gilman, American actress
1999 - Karan Brar, American actor
Deaths
Up to 1900
52 BC - Publius Clodius Pulcher (murdered) (b. 93 BC)
474 - Leo I, Byzantine Emperor (b. 401)
1213 - Queen Regnant Tamar of Georgia (b. c. 1160)
1367 - King Peter I of Portugal (b. 1320)
1425 - Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, English politician (b. 1391)
1471 - Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (b. 1419)
1547 - Pietro Bembo, Italian scholar, humanist and cardinal (b. 1470)
1586 - Margaret of Austria, regent of The Netherlands (b. 1522)
1664 - Moses Amyraut, French theologian (b. 1596)
1677 - Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch merchant (b. 1619)
1803 - Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (b. 1743)
1862 - John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (b. 1790)
1873 - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English writer (b. 1803)
1878 - Antoine Cesar Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1788)
1886 - Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter (b. 1819)
1892 - Anton Anderledy, Swiss Superior General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1819)
1896 - Charles Floquet, French statesman (b. 1828)
1901 2000
1923 - Wallace Reid, actor (b. 1891)
1936 - Rudyard Kipling, British writer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (b. 1865)
1940 - Kazimierz Tetmajer, Polish writer (b. 1865)
1949 - Carlo Ponzi, Italian-American criminal, origin of the term Ponzi scheme (b. 1882)
1951 - Amy Carmichael, Irish missionary (b. 1867)
1952 - Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1903)
1954 - Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
1963 - Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the British Labour Party (b. 1906)
1966 - Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
1967 - Goose Tatum, American basketball player (b. 1921)
1969 - Hans Freyer, German sociologist (b. 1887)
1970 - David O. McKay, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1873)
1971 - Virgil Finlay, American horror illustrator (b. 1914)
1971 - Nora Stanton Blatch Barney, American architect and women's rights activist (b. 1883)
1975 - Gertrude Olmstead, American actress (b. 1897)
1977 - Carl Zuckmayer, German writer (b. 1896)
1977 - Luciano Re Cecconi, Italian footballer (b. 1948)
1977 - Dzemal Bijedic, Prime Minister of Yugoslavia (b. 1917)
1978 - Hasan Askari, Pakistani philosopher, critic and writer (b. 1919)
1978 - Carl Betz, American movie and television actor (b. 1921)
1978 - Walter H. Thompson, English Scotland Yard detective, bodyguard of Winston Churchill (b. 1890)
1980 - Sir Cecil Beaton, English fashion designer (b. 1904)
1982 - Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand writer (b. 1895)
1984 - Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
1985 - Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (b. 1912)
1989 - Bruce Chatwin, English novelist (b. 1940)
1990 - Rusty Hamer, American actor (b. 1947)
1993 - Eleanor Hibbert, English writer
1994 - Denis Henry Desty, English scientist and inventor (b. 1923)
1995 - Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (b. 1903)
1995 - Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire (b. 1937)
1996 - Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, Indian actor (b. 1923)
1997 - Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (b. 1941)
2000 - Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (b. 1897)
From 2001
2001 - Al Waxman, Canadian actor (b. 1935)
2003 - Edward "The Sheik" Farhat, American professional wrestler (b. 1926)
2005 - Lamont Bentley, American actor (b. 1973)
2006 - Jan Twardowski, Polish poet (b. 1915)
2007 - Brent Liles, American musician (Agent Orange/Social Distortion) (b. 1963)
2008 - Georgia Frontiere, American football team owner (b. 1927)
2008 - Frank Lewin, American composer and music theorist (b. 1925)
2008 - John Stroger, first African-American Cook County Board President (b. 1929)
2009 - Tony Hart, British artist and TV presenter (b. 1925)
2009 - Grigore Vieru, Romanian poet (b. 1935)
2009 - Bob May, American actor (b. 1939)
2009 - Zenonas Petrauskas, Lithuanian politician and lawyer (b. 1950)
2010 - Kate McGarrigle, Canadian singer-songwriter (b. 1946)
2011 - Sargent Shriver, American politician (b. 1915)
2013 - Walmor Chagas, Brazilian actor (b. 1930)
2014 - Komla Dumor, Ghanaian journalist (b. 1972)
2014 - Dennis Frederiksen, American musician (b. 1951)
2014 - Sarah Marshall, British-American actress (b. 1933)
2015 - Alberto Nisman, Argentine lawyer (b. 1963)
2015 - Paul O'Grady, Australian politician (b. 1960)
2015 - Kjell Arnljot Wig, Norwegian media personality (b. 1924)
2015 - Piet van der Sanden, Dutch politician (b. 1924)
2015 - Tony Verna, American television producer (b. 1933)
2015 - Jose Carrasco, Peruvian politician (b. 1944)
2016 - Johnny Bach, American basketball player (b. 1924)
2016 - Glenn Frey, American singer-songwriter, producer and actor (b. 1948)
2016 - Michel Tournier, French writer (b. 1924)
2017 - Peter Abrahams, South African-Jamaican writer (b. 1919)
2017 - Red Adams, American baseball player (b. 1921)
2017 - Yosl Bergner, Austrian-Israeli painter (b. 1920)
2017 - Ion Besoiu, Romanian actor (b. 1931)
2017 - David P. Buckson, American politician, Governor of Delaware (b. 1920)
2017 - Rachael Heyhoe Flint, Baroness Heyhoe Flint, English cricketer (b. 1939)
2017 - Johnny Little, Canadian-Scottish footballer (b. 1930)
2017 - William Margold, American pornographic actor and director (b. 1943)
2017 - Roberta Peters, American soprano (b. 1930)
2017 - Robert Timlin, American judge (b. 1932)
2017 - Mike Kellie, English musician and record producer (b. 1947)
2018 - Ishfaq Ahmad, Pakistani nuclear physicist and professor (b. 1930)
2018 - Wallis Grahn, Swedish actress (b. 1945)
2018 - Lucas Mangope, South African politician (b. 1923)
2018 - Nancy Richler, Canadian novelist (b. 1957)
2018 - Stansfield Turner, American admiral (b. 1923)
2018 - Chick Webster, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1920)
2018 - Borys Yukhymovych Steklyar, Ukrainian military officer (b. 1923)
2018 - Javiera Munoz, Swedish singer (b. 1977)
2019 - John Coughlin, American figure skater (b. 1985)
2019 - Cees Haast, Dutch racing cyclist (b. 1938)
2019 - Ivan Vutsov, Bulgarian footballer and coach (b. 1939)
Observances
Royal Thai Armed Forces Day
Revolution Day (Tunisia)
World Religion Day
Days of the year