Events Pre-1600 69 – The Roman legions in Germania Superior refuse to swear loyalty to Galba. They rebel and proclaim Vitellius as emperor. 366 – The Alemanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire. 533 – Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy. 1444 – Christian forces defeat the Turks in the battle of Kunovica. 1492 – Reconquista: The Emirate of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.Kamen, Henry. "Spain 1469 – 1714 A Society of Conflict." Third edition. pp. 37–38
1601–1900 1680 – Trunajaya rebellion: Amangkurat II of Mataram and his bodyguards execute the rebel leader Trunajaya. 1776 – Empress Maria Theresa of Austria amends the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana to include the abolition of torture throughout the Habsburg-ruled countries of Austria and Bohemia. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of General George Washington repulse a British attack led by General Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey. 1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution. 1791 – Northwest Indian War: The Big Bottom massacre is committed by Lenape and Wyandot warriors in the Ohio Country, North America. 1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded by a group of six engineers; Thomas Telford would later become its first president. 1863 – American Civil War: The three-day Battle of Stones River ends in a Union victory when the Confederate Army of Tennessee under General Braxton Bragg are repulsed for the final time by the Army of the Cumberland under General William S. Rosecrans. 1865 – Uruguayan War: The Siege of Paysandú ends as the Brazilians and Coloradans capture Paysandú, Uruguay. 1900 – American statesman and diplomat John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China. 1900 – Chicago Canal opens.
1901–present 1920 – The second Palmer Raid, ordered by the US Department of Justice, results in 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists being arrested and held without trial. 1921 – World premiere of the science fiction play R.U.R. by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in a theater in Hradec Králové.Jarka M. Burien, "Čapek, Karel" in Gabrielle H. Cody, Evert Sprinchorn (eds.) The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, Volume One. Columbia University Press, 2007. , (pp. 224–225). 1932 – The Young Brothers engaged in a gun battle resulting in the deaths of six law enforcement officers; the worst single killing of US police officers in the 20th century. 1941 – World War II: The Cardiff Blitz severely damages the cathedral in Cardiff, Wales. 1942 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) obtains the conviction of 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history; Also known as the Duquesne Spy Ring. 1942 – World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces, enabling them to control the Philippines. 1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico. 1954 – India establishes its highest civilian awards, the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan. 1955 – Following the assassination of the Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera, his deputy, José Ramón Guizado, takes power, but is quickly deposed after his involvement in Cantera's death is discovered. 1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union. 1963 – Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory, at the Battle of Ap Bac. 1967 – Ronald Reagan, past movie actor and future President of the United States, is sworn in as Governor of California. 1971 – The second Ibrox disaster kills 66 fans at a Rangers-Celtic association football match. 1975 – At the opening of a new railway line, a bomb blast at Samastipur, Bihar, India, fatally wounds Lalit Narayan Mishra, Minister of Railways. 1976 – The Gale of January 1976 begins, resulting in coastal flooding around the southern North Sea coasts, affecting countries from Ireland to Yugoslavia and causing at least 82 deaths and US$1.3 billion in damage. 1978 – On the orders of the President of Pakistan, Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, paramilitary forces opened fire on peaceful protesting workers in Multan, Pakistan; it is known as 1978 massacre at Multan Colony Textile Mills. 1981 – One of the largest investigations by a British police force ends when serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper", is arrested in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. 1988 – Condor Flugdienst Flight 3782 crashes near Seferihisar, Turkey, killing 16 people. 1991 – Sharon Pratt Dixon becomes the first African American woman mayor of a major city and first woman Mayor of the District of Columbia. 1993 – Sri Lankan Civil War: The Sri Lanka Navy kill 35–100 civilians on the Jaffna Lagoon. 2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth. 2022 – Massive nationwide protests and unrest break out in Kazakhstan over the sudden increase of liquefied petroleum gas prices, leading to 238 people dead and thousands injured by January 11. 2024 – Two aircraft collide on a runway at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, killing 5 and injuring 18.
Births Pre-1600 869 – Yōzei, Japanese emperor (died 949)Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). Annales des empereurs du Japon, pp. 121–124 1462 – Piero di Cosimo, Italian painter (died 1522) 1509 – Henry of Stolberg, German nobleman (died 1572)
1601–1900 1642 – Mehmed IV, Ottoman sultan (died 1693) 1647 – Nathaniel Bacon, English-American rebel leader (died 1676) 1699 – Osman III, Ottoman sultan (died 1757) 1713 – Marie Dumesnil, French actress (died 1803) 1727 – James Wolfe, English general (died 1759) 1732 – František Brixi, Czech organist and composer (died 1771) 1777 – Christian Daniel Rauch, German sculptor and educator (died 1857) 1803 – Guglielmo Libri Carucci dalla Sommaja, Italian mathematician and academic (died 1869) 1822 – Rudolf Clausius, Polish-German physicist and mathematician (died 1888) 1827 – Pyotr Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, Russian geographer and statistician (died 1914) 1833 – Frederick A. Johnson, American banker and politician (died 1893) 1836 – Mendele Mocher Sforim, Russian author (died 1917) 1836 – Queen Emma of Hawaii (died 1885) 1837 – Mily Balakirev, Russian pianist and composer (died 1910) 1857 – M. Carey Thomas, American educator and activist (died 1935) 1860 – Dugald Campbell Patterson, Canadian engineer (died 1931) 1860 – William Corless Mills, American historian and curator (died 1928) 1866 – Gilbert Murray, Australian-English playwright and scholar (died 1957) 1870 – Ernst Barlach, German sculptor and playwright (died 1938) 1870 – Tex Rickard, American boxing promoter and businessman (died 1929) 1873 – Antonie Pannekoek, Dutch astronomer and theorist (died 1960) 1873 – Thérèse of Lisieux, French nun and saint (died 1897) 1878 – Jaakko Mäki, Finnish politician (died 1938) 1878 – Mannathu Padmanabha Pillai, Indian activist, founded the Nair Service Society (died 1970) 1884 – Ben-Zion Dinur, Russian-Israeli historian and politician, 4th Israeli Minister of Education (died 1973) 1885 – Gordon Flowerdew, Canadian lieutenant, Victoria Cross recipient (died 1918) 1886 – Apsley Cherry-Garrard, English explorer and author (died 1959) 1889 – Bertram Stevens, Australian accountant and politician, 25th Premier of New South Wales (died 1973) 1891 – Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect and urban planner, designed the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station (died 1990) 1892 – Seiichiro Kashio, Japanese tennis player (died 1962) 1895 – Folke Bernadotte, Swedish diplomat (died 1948) 1896 – Dziga Vertov, Polish-Russian director and screenwriter (died 1954) 1896 – Lawrence Wackett, Australian commander and engineer (died 1982) 1897 – Theodore Plucknett, English legal historian (died 1965) 1900 – Una Ledingham, British physician, known for research on diabetes in pregnancy (died 1965)
1901–present 1901 – Bob Marshall, American activist, co-founded The Wilderness Society (died 1939) 1902 – Dan Keating, Irish Republican Army volunteer (died 2007) 1903 – Kane Tanaka, Japanese Supercentenarian, Oldest Japanese person ever, Second oldest verified person in world history (died 2022) 1904 – Walter Heitler, German physicist and chemist (died 1981) 1905 – Michael Tippett, English composer and conductor (died 1998) 1905 – Luigi Zampa, Italian director and screenwriter (died 1991) 1909 – Riccardo Cassin, Italian mountaineer and author (died 2009) 1909 – Barry Goldwater, American politician, businessman, and author (died 1998)Internet Accuracy Project, Senator Barry Goldwater . Retrieved September 23, 2010. 1913 – Juanita Jackson Mitchell, American lawyer and activist (died 1992) 1913 – Anna Lee, English-American actress (died 2004) 1914 – Jack Beaton, Australian rugby league player (died 1996) 1917 – Vera Zorina, German-Norwegian actress and dancer (died 2003) 1918 – Willi Graf, German physician and activist (died 1943) 1919 – Ernest Bender, American Indologist (died 1996) 1919 – Beatrice Hicks, American engineer (died 1979) 1920 (probable) – Isaac Asimov, American writer and professor of biochemistry (died 1992) 1920 – Bob Feerick, American basketball player and coach (died 1976) 1921 – Glen Harmon, Canadian ice hockey player (died 2007) 1926 – Gino Marchetti, American football player (died 2019) 1928 – Dan Rostenkowski, American politician (died 2010) 1929 – Charles Beaumont, screenwriter and American author of speculative fiction (died 1967) 1929 – Tellervo Koivisto, Finnish politician, former First Lady of Finland 1931 – Toshiki Kaifu, Japanese lawyer and politician, Prime Minister of Japan (died 2022) 1933 – Richard Riley, American politician, 6th United States Secretary of Education 1934 – John Hollowbread, English footballer, goalkeeper (died 2007) 1936 – Roger Miller, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor (died 1992) 1938 – David Bailey, English photographer and painter 1938 – Lynn Conway, American computer scientist and electrical engineer (died 2024) 1938 – Robert Smithson, American sculptor and photographer (died 1973) 1940 – Jim Bakker, American televangelist 1940 – Saud bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Saudi Arabian economist and politician, Saudi Arabian Minister of Foreign Affairs (died 2015) 1942 – Thomas Hammarberg, Swedish lawyer and diplomat 1942 – Dennis Hastert, American educator and politician, 59th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (died 2026) 1943 – Janet Akyüz Mattei, Turkish-American astronomer (died 2004) 1944 – Charlie Davis, Trinidadian cricketer 1944 – Péter Eötvös, Hungarian composer and conductor (died 2024) 1944 – Norodom Ranariddh, Cambodian field marshal and politician, 1st Prime Minister of Cambodia (died 2021) 1944 – Mohamed Ali Yusuf, Somali politician (died 2024) 1947 – Jack Hanna, American zoologist and author 1947 – Calvin Hill, American football player 1947 – David Shapiro, American poet, historian, and critic (died 2024) 1948 – Judith Miller, American journalist 1948 – Deborah Watling, English actress (died 2017) 1949 – Christopher Durang, American playwright and screenwriter (died 2024) 1949 – Iris Marion Young, American political scientist and academic (died 2006) 1952 – Indulis Emsis, Latvian biologist and politician, 9th Prime Minister of Latvia 1952 – Wendy Phillips, American actress 1954 – Henry Bonilla, American broadcaster and politician 1954 – Évelyne Trouillot, Haitian playwright and author 1961 – Gabrielle Carteris, American actress 1961 – Paula Hamilton, English model 1961 – Todd Haynes, American film director, screenwriter, and producer 1961 – Craig James, American football player and sportscaster 1961 – Robert Wexler, American lawyer and politician 1963 – David Cone, American baseball player and sportscaster