January 10......

January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 355 (356 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war.

● 69 - Roman emperor Galba adopts Marcus Piso Licinianus as Cæsar

● 236 - Saint Fabian begins his reign as a Catholic Pope.

● 681 - St Agatho ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 738 - The final (sixth) phase of the Ball Court at Copan is dedicated by Mayan ruler 18-Rabbit.

● 1072 - Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.

● 1356 - German emperor Charles I delegates Golden Degree

● 1429 - Order of the Golden Fleece established in Austria-Hungary & Spain

● 1430 - Duke Philip the Good marries Isabella of Portugal

● 1430 - Order of the Guilder forms

● 1475 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

● 1514 - The first section of the Complutensian Polyglot (the world's first multi-language Bible) was printed at Alcala, Spain. (The complete translation was published in 6 volumes in 1517.)

● 1538 - Regarding the doctrine of purgatory, German Reformer Martin Luther reported in a "Table Talk": 'God has placed two ways before us in His Word: salvation by faith, damnation by unbelief (Mark 16:16). He does not mention purgatory at all. Nor is purgatory to be admitted, for it obscures the benefits and grace of Christ.'

● 1550 - 1st sitting of "Vurige Chamber" in Paris

● 1642 - King Charles I & family flee London for Oxford

● 1663 - King Charles II affirms charter of Royal African Company

● 1731 - Charles Farnese becomes duke of Parma/Piacenza

● 1772 - Pioneer American Methodist bishop and circuit rider Francis Asbury penned this prayer in his journal: 'Let me sooner choose to die than sin against thee, in thought, word, or deed.'

● 1776 - Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" published, anonymously.

● 1806 - Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British.

● 1808 - Herman Daendels succeeds A Wiese as Governor-General of Netherlands Indies

● 1810 - French church annuls marriage of Napoleon I & Joséphine

● 1811 - Louisiana slaves rebel in 2 parishes

● 1839 - Tea from India 1st arrives in UK

● 1840 - The penny post, whereby mail was delivered at a standard charge rather than paid for by the recipient, began in Britain.

● 1855 - The remaining 88 people in the Clackamas band sign a treaty trading the best timberland in Oregon Territory for $500 and some food.

● 1858 - English poet Frances Ridley Havergal, 21, while on a visit in Germany, penned the verses which later became her first popular hymn: "I Gave My Life for Thee."

● 1859 - Birth of Spanish educator, anarchist, Francisco Ferrer, Alello, Spain. Murdered in a ditch by Spanish police.

● 1861 - US forts & property seized by Mississippi

● 1861 - Florida becomes 3rd state to secede from US

● 1861 - Fort Jackson & Fort Philip are taken over by Los Angeles state troops

● 1862 - Battle of Big Sandy River KY (Middle Creek)

● 1862 - Battle of Romney WV

● 1863 - Prime Minister Gladstone opened the first section of the London Underground Railway system, from Paddington to Farringdon Street.

● 1863 - General McClernand's Union troops surround Fort Hindman AR

● 1863 - January-uprising begins in Poland

● 1870 - Georgia legislature reconvenes

● 1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

● 1870 - Against unanimous opposition of his cabinet, President Grant proposes to Congress that the Dominican Republic be annexed by the United States.

● 1878 - US Senate proposes female suffrage

● 1880 - Funeral of Norton I, Emperor of the United States, in the Masonic Cemetery in San Francisco; the funeral cortege was two miles long -- between 10,000 and 30,000 people were reported to have attended.

● 1883 - Fire at uninsured Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee WI kills 71; General Tom Thumb of P T Barnum fame, escapes unhurt

● 1886 - Capt. E. Crawford's scouts surround and destroy Geronimo's camp at Nacori near the Aros River in Sonora, Mexico; Geronimo escapes.

● 1889 - Ivory Coast declared a protectorate of France

● 1890 - Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Sapientiae Christianae

● 1900 - Lord Roberts & Lord Kitchener reach Capetown

● 1901 - The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.

● 1905 - First revolutionary strike of workers in St. Petersburg, Russia.

● 1910 - Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century, was born.

● 1910 - 1st international air meet in US held, in Los Angeles

● 1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson took the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, CA.

● 1911 - Honduras signs treaty turning over customs to US (not ratified)

● 1912 - Caillaux government in France resigns

● 1912 - World's 1st flying boat's maiden flight, (Glenn Curtiss in NY)

● 1914 - Labor organizer/folk singer Joe Hill allegedly kills two men during a grocery store hold-up; he will be hanged for the crime amid much controversy over being framed, Salt Lake City, Utah.

● 1916 - Russian offensive in Kaukasus

● 1917 - Congressional Union begins vigil for women's suffrage at the White House. The following summer, 97 women are jailed; some stage hunger strikes in jail.

● 1919 - Germany - Arrest of anarchist Erich Muhsam and 11 other radicals.

● 1920 - The League of Nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I with Germany.

● 1920 - The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva.

● 1920 - By a vote of 328-6, the House of Representatives refused to seat Victor Berger, duly elected Representative from Wisconsin, because he was a Socialist who vigorously opposed U.S. participation in World War I.

● 1920 - Silver reaches record $1.37 an ounce

● 1922 - Arthur Griffith, the founder of Sinn Fein and one of the architects of the historic 1921 peace treaty with Britain, is elected president of the newly established Irish Free State. With the outbreak of World War I, the British government delayed further discussion of Irish self-determination, and Irish nationalists responded by staging Dublin's Easter Uprising of 1916. In 1918, with the threat of conscription being imposed on the island, the Irish people gave Sinn Fein a majority in national elections and the party established an independent Irish parliament--Dail Eireann--which declared Ireland a sovereign republic.

● 1923 - Four years after the end of World War I, Pres. Warren G. Harding orders U.S. occupation troops stationed in Germany to return home.

● 1923 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.

● 1925 - Miriam (Ma) Ferguson sworn in as Texas Governor, nation's 2nd woman governor

● 1925 - France-Saarland forms

● 1927 - The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premieres.

● 1928 - Soviet Union orders exile of Leon Trotsky

● 1929 - Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, makes his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages.

● 1930 - Mordovian Autonomous Region in RSFSR constituted

● 1933 - Spain - Rioting, bombings, and gunfighting continue throughout the country as the revolution spreads to the southern cities. Anarchists and syndicalists seige Barcelona.

● 1935 - Actress Mary Pickford marries actor Douglas Fairbanks

● 1941 - Seyss-Inquart begins registration of Jews

● 1941 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the US Congress.

● 1942 - Japan invades North-Celebes, Dutch East Indies

● 1943 - 1st US President to visit a foreign country in wartime-FDR leaves for Casablanca, Morocco

● 1943 - Russian offensive against German 6th/4th Armies near Stalingrad

● 1944 - 1st mobile electric power plant delivered, Philadelphia

● 1944 - British troops conquer Maungdaw, Burma

● 1945 - Los Angeles Railway (with 5 streetcar lines) forced to close

● 1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.

● 1946 - US Army establishes 1st radar contact with Moon, Belmar NJ

● 1947 - Greek steamer "Himara" strikes a wartime mine in Saronic Gulf south of Athens with loss of 392 of 637 aboard

● 1947 - British stop ships Independence & In-Gathering from landing in Israel

● 1947 - U.S. Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: 'May we resolve, God helping us, to be part of the answer, and not part of the problem.'

● 1949 - Vinyl records were introduced by RCA (45 rpm) and Columbia (33.3 rpm).

● 1950 - Clovis-Abel Pignat (alias "Tschombine Pategnon") dies. Anarcho-syndicalist, militant with FOBB (federation des ouvriers du bois et du betiment, en Suisse Romande).

● 1951 - Donald Howard Rogers piloted the first passenger jet on a trip from Chicago to New York City.

● 1951 - UN headquarters opens in Manhattan NY

● 1953 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Archibald MacLeish

● 1954 - Comet jet crashes with 35 on board; Thirty-five people are missing, feared dead, after a BOAC Comet jet airliner crashes into the Mediterranean.

● 1954 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to W H Auden

● 1957 - Bombings of four Montgomery, Alabama, churches and two Negro leaders' homes.

● 1957 - Macmillan becomes Prime Minister; Harold Macmillan accepts the Queen's invitation to become prime minister following the sudden resignation of Sir Anthony Eden.

● 1960 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Delmore Schwartz

● 1961 - First black students enroll at Univ. of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, leading to riots the following day.

● 1962 - Apollo Project: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket booster. It became better known as the Saturn V moon rocket, which launched every Apollo moon mission.

● 1962 - 4,000 die in avalanche, Ranrahirca, Perú

● 1962 - Eruptions on Mount Huascaran in Peru destroy 7 villages & kill 3,500

● 1964 - Battles between Moslems & Hindus in Calcutta

● 1964 - Panamá severs diplomatic relations with US

● 1965 - Bollingen prize for poetry awarded to Horace Gregory

● 1966 - Julian Bond denied seat in Georgia legislature for opposing Vietnam War

● 1966 - India & Pakistan sign peace accord

● 1967 - Lester Garfield Maddox, a restaurant owner who made national headlines for his opposition to desegregation, is sworn in as governor of Georgia. Maddox, a high school dropout, achieved notoriety in 1964 when he employed violence to drive African Americans from his Pickrick Restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia. In defiance of federal civil rights legislation calling for desegregation of restaurants and other public places, he passed out ax handles to white customers at his eatery to prevent its integration. Later in the year, he closed the establishment rather than be forced to serve African Americans.

● 1967 - Edward Brooke, takes (Senator-R-MA) seat as 1st popular elected black

● 1967 - PBS (the National Educational TV) begins as a 70 station network

● 1967 - Dutch Princess Margret marries Pieter van Vollenhoven

● 1968 - US Surveyor 7 lands near lunar crater Tycho

● 1969 - USSR's Venera 6 launched for parachute landing on Venus

● 1969 - Sweden (1st Western country) recognizes North Vietnam

● 1971 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Richard Wilbur

● 1971 - Peoples' Peace Treaty between the peoples of U.S. and Vietnam endorsed by 130 organizations. Several million North Americans later sign.

● 1972 - Police kill four Black Muslims during gun battle in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

● 1972 - Sheik Mujib ur-Rahman arrives in Dacca, East-Pakistan

● 1973 - Gas tank on Staten Island explodes, 40 die

● 1978 - Soyuz 27 carries 2 cosmonauts to Salyut 6 space station

● 1979 - 'No chaos here' declares Callaghan; The Prime Minister, James Callaghan, flies back into strike-torn Britain denying allegations the country is in chaos.

● 1981 - El Salvador guerrilla group FMLN opens "general offensive"

● 1982 - -17ºF (27.2ºC) in Braemar Grampian (equals UK record)

● 1982 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C is recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This equaled the record set in the same place on February 11, 1995. The record would be equalled again at Altnaharra on December 30, 1995

● 1982 - The Catch - Dwight Clark of the San Francisco 49ers makes a leaping catch from Joe Montana with 58 seconds to play to defeat the Dallas Cowboys 28-27 in the NFC Championship Game at Candlestick Park.

● 1983 - New York Supreme Court issues a preliminary injunction barring New York Yankees from playing season-opening series against Tigers in Denver

● 1984 - Argentine ex-president/General Bignone arrested

● 1984 - Bulgarian Tupolev 134 crashes at Sofia airport in Bulgaria, 50 die

● 1984 - The US and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations after 117 years.

● 1985 - Safety concerns over electronic trike; An electric tricycle, capable of a top speed of 15 mph, drives into a safety row on its first day on the road.

● 1985 - Gas blast kills eight in Putney; Eight people die and dozens are injured when an explosion destroys a block of exclusive flats in south-west London.

● 1985 - Daniel Ortega Saavedra inaugurated as President of Nicaragua

● 1986 - STS 61-C mission scrubbed T -9m because of bad weather at Kennedy

● 1986 - Palau signs Compact of Free Association with US

● 1989 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.

● 1990 - NCAA approves random drug testing for college football players

● 1990 - Chinese Premier Li Peng ended martial law in Beijing after seven months. He said that crushing pro-democracy protests had saved China from "the abyss of misery."

● 1990 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.

● 1991 - Last ditch efforts to avoid Gulf War; The United Nations Secretary General is leaving shortly for Baghdad in a final diplomatic effort to avoid war against Iraq. {This effort was about as real as a sanpe hunt.}

● 1991 - US Congress begins debate on Persian Gulf crisis

● 1991 - Japan ends routine fingerprinting of all adult ethnic Koreans

● 1993 - Maiden flight of Ultrair (Houston to Los Angeles)

● 1994 - In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt went on trial. She had been charged with maliciously wounding her husband John. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.

● 1994 - Ukraine says it will give up world's 3rd largest nuclear arsenal

● 1994 - Uzbekistan & Kazakhstan agrees to abolish trade tariffs

● 1994 - U.S. Supreme Court lets stand implementation of North American Free Trade Agreement despite lack of Environmental Impact Statement. (Proving once again that the rule of money trumps the rule of law.)

● 1995 - The World Youth Day was held in the Philippines.

● 1996 - King of Jordan in historic Tel Aviv visit; King Hussein of Jordan makes his first public visit to Israel's largest city as relations between the two countries warm.

● 1996 - Three thousand demonstrate and twelve arrested in protest of Newt Gingrich fundraising visit, Westin Hotel, Seattle. The protest is the first of what becomes a succession of protests at Gingrich appearances around the country, and marks the beginning of Newt's end.

● 1996 - Israel frees hundreds of Palestinian prisoners

● 1997 - Shelby Lynne Barrackman was strangled to death by her grand-father when she licked the icing off of cupcakes. He was convicted of the crime on September 15, 1998.

● 1997 - 1st Comet of 1997 Discovered Comet 1997 A1

● 1997 - Dow Corning provides $2.95 billion to settle breast implant suits

● 1997 - Italy's new 1,000 lire coin shows divided Germany on map

● 1997 - Right-winger Arnoldo Aleman sworn in as President of Nicaragua

● 1998 - 18th United Negro College Fund raises (re-broadcasted Jan 17th)

● 1998 - Over 20,000 villagers from the Narmada Valley of central India occupy the partially built site of the new, World Bank-funded Maheshwar Dam.

● 1999 - The Sopranos airs its pilot episode on HBO.

● 1999 - A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapses into the sea.

● 2000 - It was announced that Time-Warner had agreed to buy America On-line (AOL) {Amateurs On-Line}. It was the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal on December 14, 2000.

● 2001 - American Airlines agreed to acquire most of Trans World Airlines (TWA) assets for about $500 million. The deal brought an end to the financially troubled TWA.

● 2001 - Wikipedia starts as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later.

● 2002 - In France, the "Official Journal" reported that all women could get the morning-after conraception pill for free in pharmacies.

● 2003 - North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the global nuclear arms control treaty and that it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.

● 2005 - CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes related to a "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President George W. Bush's National Guard service and fired three news executives and a producer for their "myopic zeal" in rushing it to air. {The chickenhawks of the White House had the papers planted to discredit the true stories of Bush's less than stellar service.}

● 2005 - A mudslide occurs in La Conchita, CA, killing 10 people, injuring many more and closing the Highway 101, the main coastal corridor between San Francisco and Los Angeles, for 10 days.

● 2006 - Iran resumed nuclear research two years after halting the work to avoid possible U.N. economic sanctions. The move was denounced by the United States and European governments.

● 2007 - The 12th ASEAN Summit and 2nd East Asia Summit begins in Metro Cebu, Philippines. Meetings involve heads of the ten member states and six dialogue partners with major discussions on relevance, diplomacy, security, economy and free trade and other important global issues.

BIRTHS

● 1480 - Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands (d. 1530)

● 1538 - Louis of Nassau, Dutch general (d. 1574)

● 1573 - Simon Marius, German astronomer (d. 1624)

● 1607 - Isaac Jogues, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1646)

● 1628 - George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, English statesman (d. 1687)

● 1638 - Nicolas Steno, Danish geologist (d. 1686)

● 1644 - Louis François, duc de Boufflers, French marshal (d. 1711)

● 1654 - Joshua Barnes, English scholar (d. 1712)

● 1702 - Johannes Zick, German fresco painter (d. 1762)

● 1715 - Christian August Crusius, German philosopher and theologian (d. 1775)

● 1721 - Johann Philipp Baratier, German scholar (d. 1740)

● 1729 - Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist (d. 1799)

● 1738 - Ethan Allen, American Revolution military leader (d. 1789)

● 1769 - Michel Ney, French marshal (d. 1815)

● 1797 - Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (d. 1848)

● 1812 - Georg Hermann Nicolai, German architect (d. 1881)

● 1815 - Sir John Alexander Macdonald, First Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1891)

● 1828 - Herman Koeckemann, German Catholic prelate (d. 1892)

● 1834 - John Emerich, Lord Acton, English historian (d. 1902)

● 1835 - Yukichi Fukuzawa, Japanese educator and publisher (d. 1901)

● 1836 - Charles Ingalls, father of Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1902)

● 1840 - Louis Nazaire Bégin, French Canadian archbishop and cardinal (d. 1925)

● 1843 - Frank James, American outlaw (d. 1915)

● 1849 - Francisco Ferrer Guardia, Spanish free-thinker (d. 1909)

● 1850 - John Wellborn Root, American architect (d. 1891)

● 1858 - Heinrich Zille, German illustrator and photographer (d. 1929)

● 1865 - Mary Ingalls, elder sister of Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1928)

● 1869 - Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk (d. 1916)

● 1873 - George Orton, Canadian athlete (d. 1958)

● 1873 - Jack O'Neill, Irish-born baseball player (d. 1935)

● 1877 - Frederick Gardner Cottrell, American educator and scientist (d. 1948)

● 1883 - Francis X. Bushman, American actor (d. 1966)

● 1883 - Aleksei Nikolaevich Tolstoi, Russian writer (d. 1945)

● 1887 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet (d. 1962)

● 1890 - Grigory Landsberg, Russian physicist (d. 1957)

● 1892 - Dumas Malone, American historian; wrote authoritative biography of Thomas Jefferson (d. 1986)

● 1894 - Uri Zvi Greenberg, Hebrew and Yiddish poet (d. 1981)

● 1903 - Dame Barbara Hepworth, British sculptor (d. 1975)

● 1903 - Voldemar Väli, Estonian wrestler, Olympic medalist (d. 1997)

● 1904 - Ray Bolger, American actor/dancer (d. 1987)

● 1908 - Paul Henreid, Austrian-born American actor (d. 1993)

● 1908 - Bernard Lee, British actor (d. 1981)

● 1910 - Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova, Russian prima ballerina (d. 1998)

● 1913 - Gustáv Husák, President of Czechoslovakia (d. 1991)

● 1913 - Mehmet Shehu, Albanian politician (d. 1981)

● 1916 - Sune Bergström, Swedish biochemist, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 2004)

● 1916 - Don Metz, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1917 - Jerry Wexler, American record producer

● 1918 - Arthur Chung, President of Guyana

● 1920 - Max Patkin, American baseball player (d. 1999)

● 1920 - Georges Marchal, French actor (d. 1997)

● 1921 - Rodger Ward, American race car driver (d. 2004)

● 1924 - Ludmilla Chiriaeff, Canadian ballet dancer, choregrapher and director (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens) (d. 1996)

● 1924 - Max Roach, American drummer and composer

● 1927 - Gisele MacKenzie, Canadian singer (d. 2003)

● 1927 - Johnnie Ray, American singer (d. 1990)

● 1927 - Otto Stich, Swiss politician

● 1928 - Philip Levine, American poet

● 1930 - Roy Edward Disney, American film executive

● 1931 - Peter Barnes, English writer (d. 2004)

● 1934 - Leonid Kravchuk, Ukrainian politician

● 1935 - Eddy Clearwater, Blues musician

● 1935 - Ronnie Hawkins, American musician, pioneering Rock And Roll Rockabilly Hall of Fame

● 1935 - Sherrill Milnes, American baritone

● 1936 - Stephen Ambrose, American historian (d. 2002)

● 1936 - Robert Wilson, American physicist and radio astronomer, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1937 - Thomas Penfield Jackson, American judge

● 1938 - Donald Knuth, American mathematician and computer scientist

● 1938 - Willie McCovey, American baseball player and Hall of Fame member

● 1938 - Frank Mahovlich, Canadian ice hockey player and Canadian Senator

● 1939 - William Levy, Dutch writer

● 1939 - Sal Mineo, American actor (d. 1976)

● 1939 - Bill Toomey, American athlete

● 1939 - Scott McKenzie, American singer

● 1940 - Guy Chevrette, Quebec politician

● 1942 - Walter Hill, American film director

● 1943 - Jim Croce, American singer (d. 1973)

● 1944 - Frank Sinatra, Jr., American singer

● 1944 - Rory Byrne, South African racing car designer

● 1944 - Bernard Derome, French Canadian news presenter (Le Téléjournal)

● 1945 - Rod Stewart, English singer

● 1945 - Edward Wiskoski, American professional wrestler

● 1947 - Afeni Shakur, mother of the famous American rapper Tupac "2Pac" Shakur and was an important member of the Black Panther Party

● 1948 - Donald Fagen, American keyboardist (Steely Dan)

● 1948 - Teresa Graves, American actress and singer (d. 2002)

● 1948 - Mischa Maisky, Latvian cellist

● 1948 - William Sanderson, American actor (''Deadwood,'' ''Newhart'')

● 1948 - Bernard Thévenet, French cyclist

● 1949 - George Foreman, American boxer

● 1949 - James Lapine, American stage director

● 1949 - Linda Lovelace, American pornographic actress (d. 2002)

● 1952 - Scott Thurston, American musician, songwriter

● 1953 - Pat Benatar, American singer

● 1953 - Dennis Cooper, American author

● 1953 - Bobby Rahal, American race car driver

● 1955 - Michael Schenker, German guitarist (UFO, The Scorpions)

● 1956 - Shawn Colvin, American singer

● 1956 - Antonio Muñoz Molina, Spanish writer

● 1958 - Anatoly Pisarenko, Soviet weightlifter

● 1959 - Curt Kirkwood, Rock singer-musician (Meat Puppets)

● 1959 - Simon Sunatori, Canadian inventor

● 1959 - Fran Walsh, New Zealand screenwriter

● 1960 - Benoît Pelletier, Quebec politician

● 1961 - Evan Handler, American actor

● 1961 - Janet Jones, American actress; wife of Wayne Gretzky

● 1963 - Mark Pryor, U.S. senator, D-Ark.

● 1964 - Brad Roberts, Canadian singer (Crash Test Dummies)

● 1967 - Trini Alvarado, Actress

● 1970 - Marcus Bagwell, American professional wrestler

● 1972 - Thomas Alsgaard, Norwegian cross-country skier

● 1972 - Brian Lawler, American professional wrestler

● 1973 - Ryan Drummond, American voice actor

● 1973 - Glenn Robinson, American basketball player in the NBA

● 1974 - Steve Marlet, French footballer

● 1974 - Hrithik Roshan, Indian actor

● 1975 - Jake Delhomme, American football player

● 1976 - Adam Kennedy, American baseball player

● 1978 - Gavin McCann, English footballer

● 1978 - Matt Roberts, Rock musician (3 Doors Down)

● 1979 - Chris Smith, Rapper (Kris Kross)

● 1980 - Janelle Pierzina, American television personality

● 1982 - Josh Ryan Evans, American actor (d. 2002)

DEATHS

● 681 - Pope Agatho

● 1094 - Caliph Al-Mustansir of Cairo (b. 1029)

● 1276 - Pope Gregory X (bc. 1210)

● 1645 - William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury (b. 1573)

● 1698 - Louis-Sébastien Le Nain de Tillemont, French historian (b. 1637)

● 1707 - Philibert, comte de Gramont, French writer (b. 1621)

● 1754 - Edward Cave, English editor and publisher (b. 1691)

● 1761 - Edward Boscawen, British admiral (b. 1711)

● 1775 - Yemelyan Pugachev, Russian rebel

● 1777 - Spranger Barry, Irish actor (b. 1719)

● 1778 - Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)

● 1794 - Georg Forster, German scientist and revolutionary (d. 1754)

● 1811 - Marie-Joseph Chénier, French poet (b. 1764)

● 1828 - François de Neufchâteau, French statesman and intellectual figure (b. 1750)

● 1833 - Adrien-Marie Legendre, French mathematician (b. 1752)

● 1851 - Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (b. 1775)

● 1862 - Samuel Colt, American inventor (b. 1814)

● 1866 - Pyotr Pletnyov, Russian poet (b. 1792)

● 1883 - Dr Samuel A. Mudd, American medical doctor (b. 1833)

● 1895 - Benjamin Godard, French composer (b. 1849)

● 1904 - Jean-Léon Gérôme, French painter and sculptor (b. 1824)

● 1917 - William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, American frontiersman (b. 1846)

● 1934 - Marinus van der Lubbe, Dutch communist accused of setting the Reichstag fire (b. 1909)

● 1941 - Frank Bridge, English composer (b. 1879)

● 1941 - Sir John Lavery, Northern Irish artist (b. 1856)

● 1941 - Joe Penner, Hungarian-born comedian and actor (b. 1904)

● 1951 - Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1885)

● 1951 - Yoshio Nishina, Japanese physicist (b. 1890)

● 1957 - Gabriela Mistral, Chilean writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1889)

● 1960 - Jack Laviolette, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1879)

● 1961 - Dashiell Hammett, American writer (b. 1894)

● 1970 - Pavel Belyayev, Soviet cosmonaut (b. 1925)

● 1971 - Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (b. 1883)

● 1972 - Aksel Larsen, Danish politician (b. 1897)

● 1976 - Howlin' Wolf, American musician (b. 1910)

● 1978 - Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Cardenal, Nicaraguan journalist (b. 1924)

● 1980 - Hughie Critz, American baseball player (b. 1900)

● 1980 - George Meany, American labor leader (b. 1894)

● 1980 - Bo Rein, American college football coach (b. 1945)

● 1981 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)

● 1981 - Richard Boone, American actor (b. 1917)

● 1981 - Fawn M. Brodie, American historian (b. 1915)

● 1982 - Paul Lynde, American comedian (b. 1926)

● 1985 - Anton Karas, Austrian zither player and composer (b. 1906)

● 1986 - Jaroslav Seifert, Czech writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1901)

● 1987 - Sir David Robinson, British philanthropist and entrepreneur (b. 1904)

● 1987 - Marion Hutton, American singer and actress (b. 1919)

● 1997 - Elspeth Huxley, British journalist and writer (b. 1907)

● 1997 - Sheldon Leonard, American producer, actor, and director (b. 1907)

● 1997 - Alexander R. Todd, Baron Todd, Scottish chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)

● 2000 - Sam Jaffe, American producer (b. 1901)

● 2004 - Spalding Gray, American actor and screenwriter (b. 1941)

● 2004 - Alexandra Ripley, American author (b. 1934)

● 2005 - Gene Baylos, American comedian (b. 1906)

● 2005 - Margherita Carosio, Italian soprano (b. 1908)

● 2005 - Joséphine-Charlotte, Grandduchess of Luxembourg (b. 1927)

● 2005 - Metropolitan Wasyly Fedak, primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (b. 1909)

● 2005 - James Forman, American civil rights leader (b. 1928)

● 2005 - Kalevi Hämäläinen, Finnish cross country skier (b. 1932)

● 2005 - Erwin Hillier, British cinematographer (b. 1911)

● 2005 - Gordon John "Jack" Horner, American sports journalist (b. 1912)

● 2007 - Carlo Ponti, Italian film producer (b. 1912)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Gonzalvo
● St. Agatho Pope (678-81)
● St. Gregory X Pope (1271-76)
● St. William of Bourges
● St. Thomian
● St. Saethryth
● St. Dermot
● St. John Camillus the Good
● St. Marcian
● St. Nicanor
● St. Peter Urseolus
● St. Petronius

● Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic:
● St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, Brother of St. Basil the Great

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 28 (Civil Date: January 10)
● Afterfeast of the Nativity of Christ.
● The 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia, including: Glycerius, Zeno,
● Apostle Nicanor the Deacon.
● St. Ignatius, monk of Lomsk (Vologda).
● St. Simon the Myrrh gusher, founder of Simonopetra Monastery on Mt. Athos.
● St Babylas of Tarsus in Cilicia.
● New Martyr Nikodim, Bishop of Belgorod (1918).

● Greek Calendar:
● Martyr Secundus.
● Repose of Blessed Cornelius, monk of Krypets Monastery in Pskov (1903).

● Anglican:
● William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury

● Margaret Thatcher day in the Falkland Islands

● This Holiday is only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● Switzerland : Meitlisunntig Festival-Woman in Villmergen War (1712) - ( Sunday )


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post