New Year's Day in many countries.
Lorenzo de' Medici, patron of the arts and ruler of Florence, Italy, born 1449.
Paul Revere, American Revolutionary War patriot, born 1735.
James Wolfe, conqueror of Quebec, born 1727.
State of Georgia ratified the U.S. Constitution, 1788.

Cicero, Roman statesman, born 106 B.C.
Lucretia Mott, American women's rights leader, born 1793.
Father Damien, Belgian missionary, born 1840.
Jakob Grimm, German fairy-tale collector, born 1785.
Louis Braille, French inventor of the alphabet used by the blind, born 1809.
Utah became the 45th U.S. state, 1896.
Stephen Decatur, American naval hero, born 1779.
George Washington Carver, black American scientist, died 1943.

Dia de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings' Day), Latin America.
Epiphany (Twelfth Night) celebrated by Christians.
Charles Sumner, American statesman and antislavery leader, born 1811.
Millard Fillmore, 13th U.S. president, born 1800.
Transatlantic commercial telephone service began, New York to London, 1927.

Andrew Jackson defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans in 1815, during the War of 1812.
President Wilson stated his \"Fourteen Points\" before the American Congress, 1918.

Connecticut ratified the U.S. Constitution, 1788.
Carrie Chapman Catt, American women's suffrage leader, born 1859.
Richard M. Nixon, 37th U.S. president, born 1913.
Thomas Paine published his Common Sense, 1776.
John W. Root, American architect, born 1850.
First great oil strike in Texas, 1901.
Alexander Hamilton, U.S. statesman, born 1755 or 1757.
Sir John Macdonald, first prime minister of Canada after the Confederation, born 1815.

Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, born 1588.
Jack London, American novelist, born 1876.
Pieter Willem Botha, South African president, born 1916.
Salmon P. Chase, antislavery leader and chief justice of the United States, born 1808.


Benedict Arnold, American Revolutionary War general and traitor, born 1741.
Albert Schweitzer, German physician, musician, philosopher, and missionary, born 1875.
Meeting between Sir Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt began in Casablanca, Morocco, 1943.
Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader, born 1929.
Aswan Dam in the Nile River, Egypt, dedicated 1971.

Amendment 18 to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages, ratified in 1919.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi left Iran following mass demonstrations against his rule, 1979.

Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor, born 1706.
David Lloyd George, British statesman and prime minister, born 1863.

Daniel Webster, American statesman, born 1782.
A. A. Milne, British author for children, born 1882.
Versailles Peace Conference opened in 1919, following World War I.
James Watt, Scottish inventor, born 1736.
Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army in the American Civil War, born 1807.
Edgar Allan Poe, American author, born 1809.
Inauguration of the President of the United States, every fourth year since 1937.


King Louis XVI of France executed, 1793.
Stonewall Jackson, Confederate Army general in the American Civil War, born 1824.
V. I. Lenin, Soviet dictator, died 1924.
Francis Bacon, English philosopher and essayist, born 1561.
Lord Byron, English poet, born 1788.
August Strindberg, Swedish dramatist, born 1849.
John Hancock, first signer of the American Declaration of Independence, born 1737.
Edouard Manet, French painter, born 1832.

Gold discovered in California, 1848.
Edith Wharton, American author, born 1862.

Robert Burns, Scottish poet, born 1759.
Transcontinental telephone service established in the United States, 1915.

Republic Day, India.
Sydney founded, 1788; celebrated as Australia Day.
Michigan became the 26th U.S. state, 1837.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, born 1756.
Lewis Carroll, English author, born 1832.
Thomas Edison granted the first patent for his incandescent light, 1880.
Alexander Mackenzie, Canadian prime minister, born 1822.
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, who explored Africa, born 1841.
U.S. space shuttle Challenger broke apart, killing all seven crew members aboard, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe, 1986.
William McKinley, 25th U.S. president, born 1843.
Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short-story writer, born 1860 (January 17 on the Russian calendar then in use).
Kansas became the 34th U.S. state, 1861.
United States Congress authorized the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's library as the nucleus of the Library of Congress, 1815.
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. president, born 1882.
Adolf Hitler named chancellor of Germany, 1933.
Gouverneur Morris, American Revolutionary War patriot, born 1752.
Franz Schubert, Austrian composer, born 1797.
Nauru became independent in 1968.
