Software
Free
Download
Audio
Graphics
Utilities
Internet
Screen Savers
Games
Development Tools
Business
Audio
Home/Hobby
Education
|
January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 345 days remaining (346 in leap years). In astrology, it is the cusp day between Aquarius and Capricorn.
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 - 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.
1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States.
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 - Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States. Minutes later, Iran releases 52 American hostages.
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)
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 - Jozef 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 Kelly, 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
1612 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor
1779 - David Garrick, actor (b. 1717)
1848 - Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
1850 - Adam Oehlenschlager, Danish poet (b. 1779)
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
2005 - Jan Nowak-Jezioranski Polish journalist, writer, politician (b. 1913)
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
----
January 19 - January 21 - December 20 - February 20 -- listing of all days
|