EVENTS
- 1649 – At the conclusion of the English Civil War, King Charles I was brought before a high court of justice at Westminster Hall on charges of treason. The Civil War had been fought over whether the King’s power was absolute or was limited by the powers of Parliament. Oliver Cromwell had led the Parliamentary forces to victory over the Royals. In the trial that followed, Charles was found guilty and condemned as “a tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy” and was beheaded several days later in front of Whitehall Palace in London.
- 1885 – The roller coaster is invented by L.A. Thompson.
- 1934 – Fujifilm is founded. The Japanese photography and electronics company soon became a global player in its field.
- 1936 – King George V of England died at age 71. The grandson of Queen Victoria, he had reigned since 1910. He renamed his line as the House of Windsor, breaking his association with the family’s German line of descent. He was succeeded by his son King Edward VIII who abdicated in December and was succeeded by George VI.
- 1942 – During the Holocaust, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler’s second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons. This is known as the Holocaust.
- 1945 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as president of the United States. He had served since 1933.
- 1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as 35th US President.
- 1969 – The killing of a student activist sets the stage for the Bangladesh Liberation War. The war resulted in the secession of East Pakistan from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and the establishment of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation.
- 1969 – The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
- 1981 – Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated as the 40th US President.
- 1981 – Iran releases 52 American hostages.
- 1986 – Martin Luther King, Jr., day was celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
- 1996 – Yasir Arafat became the first democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people with 88.1 percent of the vote.
- 2009 – Barack Obama is sworn in as U.S. president. Obama became the country’s first black president.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1732 – Richard Henry Lee (Founding Father)
- 1896 – George Burns (Actor)
- 1920 – Frederico Fellini (Director)
- 1920 – DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy on Star Trek)
- 1989 – Nick Foles (NFL Quarterback)
- 1930 – Buzz Aldrin Jr. (Astronaut)
- 1946 – David Lynch (American director)
- 1952 – Paul Stanley (Singer for Kiss)
- 1956 – Bill Maher (American comedian, actor, television host)
- 1971 – Gary Barlow (English singer-songwriter, pianist, producer)
DEATHS
- 1837 – John Soane (English architect)
- 1900 – John Ruskin (English author)
- 1936 – George V of the United Kingdom
- 1993 – Audrey Hepburn (Belgian/English actress, singer)
- 2012 – Etta James (American singer-songwriter)