1600 Samuel Pepys began his famous diary.
1735 Paul Revere was born in Boston.
1752 Betsy Ross was born in Philadelphia.
1892 Ellis Island in New York Harbor opened.
1899 End of Spanish rule in Cuba
1919 J. D. Salinger was born in New York City.
1959 Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba.
January 2 -
366 The Alemanni crossed the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire.
1900 ‘Open Door Policy’ to promote U.S.-
1920 Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russian SFSR.
1892 J. R. R. Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State.
1946 “Lord Haw-
1965 William Kenney was born.
1977 Apple Computer was incorporated.
2009 First block of the blockchain Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, was established by Satoshi Nakamoto.
2014 Phil Everly died in Burbank, California at age 74.
1334 Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, was born.
1958 The first artificial Earth satellite, Sputnik 1, fell to Earth after 3 months in orbit.
1959 Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
1960 Albert Camus died in Villeblevin, France at age 46.
1961 Erwin Schrödinger died in Vienna at age 73.
1965 T. S. Eliot died in London at age 76.
1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming became the first female governor inaugurated in the U.S.
1933 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began on San Francisco Bay.
1951 Lisbeth and Walter Roessler were married.
2005 Eris, largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, discovered (using images originally taken on October 21, 2003).
1924 Earl Scruggs was born in Shelby, North Carolina.
1946 Syd Barrett was born in Cambridge, England.
1977 Dr. Robert Hugh Wilson died.
1994 Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit.
1854 Birthday of fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
1894 William Kennedy Dickson received a patent for motion picture film.
1920 New York State Assembly refused to seat five duly elected Socialist assemblymen.
1927 First transatlantic telephone call was made, New York City to London.
2013 American television host Huell Howser died in Palm Springs, California at age 67.
2015 Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris.
871 Alfred the Great led a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.
1880 Joshua “Emperor” Norton died in San Francisco at age 61.
1918 Woodrow Wilson announced “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.
1931 Rock impresario Bill Graham was born in Berlin.
1935 Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
1947 David Bowie was born in London.
1982 The breakup of AT&T.
1768 In London, Philip Astley staged the first modern circus.
1941 Folk singer Joan Baez was born on Staten Island, New York City.
2014 American poet Amiri Baraka died.
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1776 Common Sense, a 50-
1917 William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody died in Denver at age 70.
1937 Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis was released in Germany.
1961 Dashiell Hammett died in New York City at age 66.
2009 Coosje van Bruggen died in Los Angeles, CA at age 66.
2016 David Bowie died in Manhattan, New York City at age 69.
1904 Walter S. Roessler was born in Metz.
1906 Albert Hofmann, Discoverer of LSD-
1992 Christina Johns and Daniel Wilson were married in Tilden Park, Berkeley, California.
2007 Robert Anton Wilson died in Capitola, California at age 74.
2016 William A. “Bill” Del Monte, the last survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, died in Marin County, California at age 109.
1876 Jack London was born in San Francisco.
1990 Romania outlawed the Communist Party.
2006 During the ‘Stoning of the Devil’ ritual, last day of the Hajj, Mina, Saudi Arabia, a stampede killed at least 362 pilgrims.
888 Odo, Count of Paris, became King of the Franks.
1941 James Joyce died in Zürich at age 58.
1993 Margo Skinner Leiber died in San Francisco at age 71.
1892 Hal Roach was born in Elmira, New York.
1967 A Gathering of the Tribes for a Human Be-
1973 Elvis Presley’s live Aloha from Hawaii concert was broadcast via satellite.
1977 Anaïs Nin died in Los Angeles at age 73.
1929 Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta.
1943 The Pentagon was completed in Washington, D.C.
1967 The first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles.
2001 Wikipedia encyclopedia went online.
2019 Carol Channing died in Rancho Mirage, California at age 97.
1412 The Medici family was appointed official banker of the Papacy.
1707 Scottish Parliament ratified the Act of Union, creation of Great Britain followed.
1991 The Allied war against Iraq began.
1706 Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston.
1773 The Resolution, sailing under Captain James Cook, became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1873 Modoc warriors defeated the U.S. Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold.
1929 Popeye the Sailor Man first appeared in Thimble Theatre comics by Elzie Segar.
1946 First session of UN Security Council.
2012 Johnny Otis died in Los Angeles at age 90.
2019 Mary Oliver, poet, died at age 83.
1911 Eugene B. Ely landed on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco Bay, the first aircraft landing on a ship.
1932 Robert Anton Wilson was born in Brooklyn, New York.
1809 Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston.
1853 Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore debuted.
1893 Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder premiered at the Lessing Theater in Berlin.
1935 Owsley Stanley was born in Kentucky.
1939 Phil Everly was born in Chicago.
1978 Last German made Volkswagen Beetle left VW’s plant in Emden.
2008 John Stewart of The Kingston Trio died.
250 Pope Fabian was martyred in Emperor Decitus’ Christian persecutions in Rome.
1920 Film director Federico Fellini was born in Rimini, Kingdom of Italy.
1920 Actor DeForest Kelley was born in Toccoa, Georgia.
1920 American Civil Liberties Union was founded.
2012 Etta James died In Riverside, California at age 73.
2018 United States federal government shut down when the Senate failed to pass a temporary funding bill.
1525 Swiss Anabaptist Movement was founded in Zürich.
1535 French Protestants were burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.
1960 Thomas R. Phipps was born.
1976 The Concorde supersonic jet passenger service began.
1977 U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardoned nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.
1506 First Swiss Guards arrived at the Vatican.
1901 Queen Victoria of England died at age 81 after reigning for 64 years.
1571 The Royal Exchange opened in London.
1910 Django Reinhardt was born in Liberchies, Belgium.
1912 International Opium Convention signed at The Hague.
1950 The Knesset resolved that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1989 Salvador Dali died in Figueres, Spain at age 84.
1997 Madeleine Albright became first woman to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.
2004 Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo) died in Windsor, Vermont at age 76.
41 Roman Emperor Caligula assassinated by his own Paetorian Guards.
1848 James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of 1849.
1862 Bucharest proclaimed capital of Romania.
1918 Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People’s Commissars effective February 14.
1920 Amedeo Modigliani died in Paris at age 35.
1935 The first canned beer, “Krueger’s Cream Ale,” was sold by the Krueger Brewing Co. in Richmond, Virginia.
1986 Voyager 2 passed Uranus.
1759 Poet Robert Burns was born in Alloway, Scotland.
1850 Labor leader Samuel Gompers was born in London.
1919 The League of Nations was founded.
1949 The first Emmy Awards were presented.
1915 Rocky Mountain National Park was established by act of U.S. Congress.
1925 Paul Newman was born in Shaker Heights, Ohio.
1302 Dante Alighieri exiled from Florence.
1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.
1832 Lewis Carroll was born in Daresbury, England.
1942 Singer-
2006 Western Union discontinued its Telegram and Commercial Messaging services.
2014 Pete Seeger died In New York City at age 94.
1393 King Charles VI of France was nearly killed when several dancers’ costumes caught fire during a masquerade ball.
1521 Diet of Worms began (ran until May 25).
1754 The word serendipity coined by Horace Walpole in a letter to Horace Mann.
1929 Claes Oldenburg was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
1939 William Butler Yeats died in Menton, France.
1986 U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded.
1986 Harry Otto Fischer died.
1986 L. Ron Hubbard died in Creston, California at age 74.
2016 Paul Kantner died in San Francisco at age 74.
1737 Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, England.
1834 U.S. President Andrew Jackson ordered the first ever use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.
1845 The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe first published in the New York Evening Mirror.
1880 W. C. Fields, juggler, was born in Darby, Pennsylvania.
1888 Poet and illustrator Edward Lear died in Sanremo, Italy at age 75.
1899 Painter Alfred Sisley died in Moret-
1956 American journalist H. L. Mencken died in Baltimore at age 75.
1963 Poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.
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1847 Yerba Buena, California was renamed San Francisco, California.
1860 Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russian Empire.
1882 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born in Hyde Park, New York.
1948 Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in New Dehli, India at age 78.
1606 Guy Fawkes was executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.
1848 John C. Frémont was court-
1862 Alvan Graham Clark discovered white dwarf star Sirius B, companion of Sirius.
1961 Ham the Chimp traveled into outer space aboard Mercury-
2010 Avatar became the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.
2012 Dorothea Tanning died in Manhattan, New York at age 101.