January 20

Events

• 1156 - According to legend, freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of the lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
• 1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the Houses of Parliament.
• 1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
• 1356 - Edward Balliol resigns as King of Scotland.
• 1523 - Christian II was forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
• 1667 - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kyiv, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusiv.
• 1783 - Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
• 1801 - John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
• 1840 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
• 1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• 1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
• 1891 - James Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state.
• 1892 - At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played.
• 1921 - The first constitution of Turkey was adopted, which made fundamental change in the source and exercise of sovereignty.
• 1929 - The movie In Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.
• 1936 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
• 1937 - The coldest temperature in California is recorded by Boca station at -45° Fahreinheit.
• 1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
• 1942 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide the "final solution to the Jewish problem".
• 1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
• 1945 - Hungary drops out of the Second World War, agreeing an armistice with the Allies.
• 1952 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1954 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
• 1958 - Elvis Presley receives his draft notice.
• 1964 - Meet the Beatles, the first Beatles album in the United States, is released.
• 1969 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
• 1975 - Michael Ovitz founds Creative Artists Agency.
• 1981 - Iran releases 52 American hostages bare minutes after Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States.
• 1986 - Martin Luther King, Jr, day was celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
• 1986 - The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
• 1987 - Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in the Lebanon.
• 1990 - Black January - bloody crackdown of Azeri protest demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
• 1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
• 1994 - In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel but soon drops out.
• 1996 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority.
• 1999 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet bars.
• 2002 - Inauguration of Churches Uniting in Christ.
  

  Births

• 225 - Gordian III, Roman emperor (d. 244)
• 1435 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Ashikaga shogun (b. 1490)
• 1798 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (d. 1858)
• 1804 - Eugène Sue, French novelist (d. 1857)
• 1812 - Thomas Meik, engineer (d. 1896)
• 1837 - David Josiah Brewer, U.S. Supreme Court justice (d. 1910)
• 1856 - Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch, women's rights activist (d. 1940)
• 1873 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish author, Nobel prize winner (d. 1950)
• 1876 - Józef Hofmann, Polish pianist (d. 1967)
• 1878 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer (d. 1968)
• 1894 - Walter Piston, American composer
• 1896 - George Burns, American actor, comedian (d. 1996)
• 1900 - Colin Clive, British Actor (d. 1937)
• 1906 - Aristotle Onassis, industrialist (d. 1975)
• 1907 - Paula Wessley, actress (d. 2000)
• 1910 - Joy Adamson, naturalist, writer (d. 1980)
• 1915 - C. W. Ceram, author (d. 1972)
• 1915 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan
• 1918 - Esquivel, musician (d. 2002)
• 1920 - Federico Fellini, film director (d. 1993)
• 1920 - DeForest Kelley, actor (d. 1999)
• 1920 - John O'Connor, Cardinal of New York City (d. 2000)
• 1921 - Bernt Engelmann, author (d. 1994)
• 1924 - Slim Whitman, American country music singer
• 1925 - Ernesto Cardenal, theologian, author and politician
• 1926 - Patricia Neal, actress
• 1926 - David Tudor, pianist and composer (d. 1996)
• 1928 - Peter Donat, Canadian actor
• 1929 - Arte Johnson, actor
• 1929 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, NASCAR race car driver (d. 1964)
• 1929 - Bob Denard, French mercenary
• 1930 - Buzz Aldrin, astronaut
• 1934 - Tom Baker, British actor
• 1937 - Dorothy Provine, American dancer, actress
• 1939 - Paul Coverdell, American politician (d. 2000)
• 1940 - Carol Heiss, Olympic figure skating gold medalist
• 1946 - David Lynch, film director
• 1948 - Natan Sharansky - Soviet-Israeli physicist, politician
• 1949 - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
• 1950 - Mahamane Ousmane, former President of Niger
• 1951 - Ian Hill, British musician (Judas Priest)
• 1952 - Paul Stanley, musician, of the rock band KISS
• 1956 - Bill Maher, actor, comedian, political analyst
• 1958 - Lorenzo Lamas, actor
• 1963 - James Denton, American actor
• 1968 - Melissa Rivers, American reporter, actress
• 1969 - Skeet Ulrich, actor
• 1976 - Gretha Smit, Olympic speed skating silver medalist
• 1979 - Rob Bourdon, American musician (Linkin Park)
  

  Deaths

• 1156 - Bishop Henry, patron saint of Finland
• 1479 - John II of Aragon (b. 1397)
• 1612 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
• 1779 - David Garrick, actor (b. 1717)
• 1848 - Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
• 1850 - Adam Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (b. 1779)
• 1891 - David Kalakaua, King of Hawaii
• 1907 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor of the Periodic table (b. 1834)
• 1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
• 1944 - James McKeen Cattell, first professor of Psychology in U.S. (b. 1860)
• 1962 - Robinson Jeffers, poet
• 1965 - Alan Freed, disk jockey (b. 1922)
• 1971 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, actor, director, writer, producer
• 1984 - Johnny Weissmuller, Olympic swimming gold medalist, actor (b. 1904)
• 1990 - Barbara Stanwyck, actress (b. 1907)
• 1993 - Audrey Hepburn, actress (b. 1929)
• 1996 - Gerry Mulligan, musician (b. 1927)
• 1997 - Curt Flood, baseball star
• 1998 - Bobo Brazil, professional wrestler
• 2002 - Carrie Hamilton, American actress
• 2003 - Al Hirschfeld, caricaturist
• 2003 - Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (b. 1947)
• 2003 - Nedra Volz, American actress
• 2004 - Guinn Smith, American athlete (b. 1920)
• 2005 - Per Borten, former Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
• 2005 - Roland Frye, American English literature professor and theologian
• 2005 - Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Polish journalist, writer, politician (b. 1913)
• 2005 - Miriam Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist and author (b. 1908)
  

  Holidays and observances

• The Eve of St. Agnes
• Presidential Inauguration Day in the United States
• day of Saint Sebastian in Catholic church. Also holiday in Rio de Janeiro as he is the city's saint
  

  External links

• BBC: On This Day