EVENTS
- 1721 – Peter I was proclaimed Emperor of all the Russias.
- 1889 – North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states.
- 1917 – Balfour Declaration. Originally sent as a letter on this day to Baron Rothschild from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, it declared British support for a Jewish state in Palestine. The letter was eventually added to Sevres peace treaty.
- 1920 – The first commercial radio station starts broadcasting. It begins with the results of the U.S. presidential election.
- 1930 – Haile Selassie was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.
- 1938 – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation established. Officially known as CBC/Radio-Canada, the network is Canada’s public radio and television broadcaster.
- 1947 – Howard Hughes flies the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.
- 1962 – During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy announced on TV, “the Soviet bases in Cuba are being dismantled, their missiles and related equipment being crated, and the fixed installations at these sites are being destroyed.”
- 1964 – Coup in Saudi Arabia. Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud takes over the government of Saudi Arabia while his half-brother, King Saud is overseas for medical reasons.
- 1982 – Ronald Reagan signs a bill to create Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The day, observed every year on the third Monday of January, commemorates the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. a leader of the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
- 2000 – The first crew arrives at the International Space Station.
BIRTHDAYS
- 971 – Mahmud of Ghazni.
- 1734 – American frontiersman Daniel Boone (1734-1820) was born in Berks County, near Reading, Pennsylvania.
- 1755 – Marie Antoinette (Queen of France)
- 1795 – James Polk (11th President of the United States)
- 1865 – Warren G (Harding (29th President of the United States)
- 1913 – Burt Lancaster (Actor)
- 1934 – Ken Rosewall (Australian tennis player)
- 1965 – Shahrukh Khan (Indian actor)
- 1974 – Nelly (Rapper)
- 1981 – Roddy White (NFL Football Player)
DEATHS
- 1950 – George Bernard Shaw (Irish writer, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem (South Vietnamese politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam)
- 1966 – Peter Debye (Dutch/American physicist, chemist, Nobel Prize laureate)
- 2004 – Theo van Gogh (Dutch director)
- 2007 – The Fabulous Moolah (American wrestler)