January 16......

January 16 is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 349 (350 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

● 27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.

● 308 - St Marcellus I ends his reign as Catholic Pope

● 550 - Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.

● 929 - Emir Abd-ar-rahman III of Cordoba declares himself caliph, thereby establishing the Caliphate of Cordoba.

● 1219 - Floods in Northern Netherlands after storm, 1,000s killed

● 1325 - Laure de Noves, beloved of Petrarch, marries Hugues de Sade

● 1362 - A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.

● 1412 - The Medici family are made official bankers of the Papacy.

● 1456 - Painter Filippo Lippi elopes with Lucrezia Buti, a young nun from the convent of Saint Margherita.

● 1492 - The first grammar of a modern language, in Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella.

● 1493 - Columbus returns to Spain on his 1st trip

● 1531 - English Reformation parliament's 2nd sitting

● 1545 - Death of Georg Spalatin, 61, German reformer and friend of Martin Luther. Spalatin's court life allowed him to give secular government a better understanding of Luther's ideas.

● 1547 - Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.

● 1556 - Emperor Karel appoints his son Philip II, king of Spain

● 1572 - The Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He was executed on June 2.

● 1581 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.

● 1604 - At the Hampton Court Conference in England, John Rainolds presented to King James I the motion '...that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible.' Approved the next day, Rainolds' motion led to the 1611 publication of the Authorized (King James) version of the Bible.

● 1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid.

● 1707 - The Scottish Parliament, ratified the Act of Union, paving way for the creation of Great Britain.

● 1740 - English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'If I see a man who loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, I am not very solicitous to what...communion he belongs. The Kingdom of God, I think, does not consist in any such thing.'

● 1756 - England & Prussia sign Treaty of Westminster

● 1759 - British Museum opens in London

● 1761 - British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.

● 1765 - Charles Messier catalogs M41 (galactic cluster in Canis Major)

● 1776 - Continental Congress approves General George Washington's order to enlist free Negroes.

● 1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York.

● 1780 - American Revolution: Battle at Cape St Vincent admiral Rodney beats Spanish fleet.

● 1786 - The Virginia Legislature adopted the Ordinance of Religious Freedom, which guaranteed that no man would be forced to attend or support any church. This mandate later became the model for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

● 1795 - French army under Pichegru occupies Utrecht Netherlands.

● 1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.

● 1819 - Godert baron van der de Capellen becomes Governor of Dutch-Indies

● 1832 - Charles Darwin lands at San Tiago, Cape Verde

● 1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

● 1863 - Cruise of CSS Florida

● 1864 - Heavy fighting takes place near Dandridge TN

● 1865 - General William Sherman issues Field Order #15 (land for blacks)

● 1865 - San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle started

● 1865 - Confederate Brigadier General John Pegram marries Hetty Cary

● 1865 - Drunken sailor attacks munitions at Fort Fisher NC, 40 die

● 1866 - Mr. Everett Barney patented the metal screw, clamp skate.

● 1868 - Refrigerator car patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit

● 1870 - Virginia becomes 8th state re-admitted to US after Civil War

● 1871 - Jefferson Long of Georgia sworn in as 2nd black congressman

● 1877 - Color organ (for light shows) patented, by Bainbridge Bishop

● 1878 - Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from the Ottoman rule.

● 1879 - January record 13" of snow falls in New York City NY (broken Jan 7, 1996)

● 1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed.

● 1887 - Cliff House damaged when schooner "Parallel"'s powder cargo explodes

● 1889 - 128ºF (53ºC), Cloncurry, Queensland (Australian record)

● 1896 - Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.

● 1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.

● 1908 - Pinnacles National Monument, California established

● 1908 - Ethel Merman , the musical-comedy star whose belting voice and brassy style entertained Broadway and movie audiences for 50 years , was born. {She had pinnacles of her own.}

● 1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

● 1913 - British House of Commons accepts Home-Rule for Ireland

● 1915 - Congress authorizes $1 & $50 Panamá-Pacific International Expo gold coin

● 1919 - Temperance movement: Prohibition ratified by 3/4 of the states; Nebraska is 36th, the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification (1920).

● 1919 - Argentina - End of the "Sanglante" ("Bloody Week") in Buenos Aires. The general strike begun a week ago was crushed in blood, with as many as 700 dead and 2000 wounded. Argentinean anarchism was decimated by the following repression, and the trade unions reformists were left fully in control.

● 1919 - Police smash peaceful IWW demonstration in Seattle; 43 are arrested and later sentenced to prison.

● 1920 - 18th Amendment, prohibition, goes into effect; repealed in 1933.

● 1920 - First meeting of League of Nations Council, Paris, France.

● 1920 - Georgia declares independence

● 1925 - General M Froense replaces Trotsky as People's Commissioner of Defense

● 1925 - Leon Trotsky dismissed as CEO of Russian Revolution Military Council

● 1933 - Birth of Susan Sontag, American "new intellectual" essayist and novelist; opposed Vietnam War, her post-Sept. 11 essay in the New Yorker, mildly questioning U.S. government characterizations of the attack, raised a firestorm of criticism and gave the first clear indication of how little tolerance there would be for mainstream dissent against Bush's policy choices in response to the attack.

● 1936 - Screen Actors Guild incorporates with King Vidor as president

● 1936 - Spanish socialists/communists/anarchists form Unidad Popular

● 1938 - Benny Goodman refuses to play Carnegie Hall when black members of his band were barred from performing

● 1941 - War Department forms 1st Army Air Corps squadron for black cadets

● 1941 - US vice admiral Bellinger warns of an assault on Pearl Harbor

● 1942 - Actress Carole Lombard, 33, died in a plane crash near Las Vegas while returning from a tour to promote war bonds.

● 1942 - William Knudsen becomes 1st civilian appointed a General in US army

● 1943 - -60ºF (-51ºC), Island Park Dam ID (state record)

● 1943 - 1st US air raid on Ambon

● 1943 - German 2nd SS-Pantzer division evacuates Charkow

● 1943 - Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad

● 1944 - General Eisenhower took command of Allied Invasion Force in London

● 1945 - Scottish 52nd land division/1st Commando brigade-assault at Heinsberg

● 1945 - US 1st & 3rd army meet at Houffalise

● 1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

● 1947 - Vincent Aurial elected President of France

● 1948 - 35 Haganah members are ambushed & killed in Gush Etzyon

● 1950 - Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands recognize Israel

● 1951 - World's largest gas pipeline opens (Brownsville TX, to 134th St, New York City NY)

● 1951 - Viet Minh offensive against Hanoi

● 1952 - Senator James Eastland (D-MS) introduces resolution to declare a "state of emergency" in the U.S. Allows Congress to invoke a McCarran Internal Security Act provision under which American Communists could be rounded up and incarcerated, also ushers in restrictions, which still stand, on allowing homosexuals into the country.

● 1952 - New Dutch bible translation finished

● 1953 - Egyptian Premier General Naguib disbands all political parties

● 1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.

● 1957 - 3 B-52s leave California for 1st non-stop round the world flights

● 1961 - Russian espionage ring detected in Great Britain

● 1962 - Suit accuses New York City NY Board of Education uses "racial quotas"

● 1963 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.

● 1965 - An Air Force tanker plane crashes into a residential area of Wichita, Kansas, killing the seven member crew and 23 on the ground.

● 1965 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakstan/Semipalatinsk USSR

● 1966 - Harold R Perry becomes 2nd black Roman Catholic bishop in US

● 1966 - Joan Baez jailed in Vietnam anti-war demonstration, Oakland, California.

● 1967 - 1st black government installed in Bahamas

● 1967 - Alan S. Boyd was sworn in as the first secretary of transportation.

● 1967 - Lucius Amerson, becomes 1st southern (Alabama) black sheriff in 20th century

● 1968 - Youth International Party (Yippies) is founded.

● 1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Wenceslas Square, Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.

● 1969 - Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 perform 1st transfer of crew in space

● 1969 - Metroliner train starts running.

● 1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects.

● 1970 - Soledad Brothers (including black revolutionary George Jackson) are accused of killing a guard in Soledad (California) state prison.

● 1970 - Gaddafi takes over as Libya's premier; Colonel Muammar Gaddafi assumes the role of prime minister four months after leading a successful coup against the monarchy.

● 1973 - USSR's Lunakhod 2 begins radio-controlled exploration of the Moon

● 1974 - L A Landslide kills 9, Canyonville OR

● 1978 - Soyuz 27 returns to Earth

● 1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.

● 1980 - Paul McCartney jailed in Tokyo for 10 days on marijuana possession

● 1981 - Gunmen shoot civil rights campaigner; The Northern Ireland civil rights campaigner and former Westminster MP, Bernadette McAliskey and her husband, is shot by gunmen at her home in County Tyrone.

● 1981 - Boxer Leon Spinks is mugged, his assailants even take his gold teeth

● 1982 - Britain and the Vatican resumed full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years.

● 1985 - Primatologist Dian Fossey killed by poachers, Karisoke Center, Rwanda.

● 1986 - U.S. Energy Department announces 12 potential nuclear waste sites in eastern U.S., including a Penobscot (Native American) site in Maine only re-granted to the tribe six years before, along with four other tribal sites.

● 1986 - First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.

● 1986 - Police arrested 3 IRA-terrorists in Amsterdam

● 1988 - Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was fired as a CBS sports commentator one day after telling a TV station in Washington, DC, that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.

● 1989 - Three days of rioting erupted in Miami when a police officer fatally shot a black motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of a passenger.

● 1989 - USSR announces plan for 2-year manned mission to Mars

● 1989 - Police arrest writer Vaclav Havel in Prague

● 1990 - 2 Bank of Credit & Commerce members plea guilty to money laundering

● 1991 - Operation Desert Storm begins - US & 27 allies attack Iraq for occupying Kuwait (air war begins January 17 at 2:38AM (local time) or January 16 at 6:38PM EST due to an 8 hour time difference, with an Apache helicopter attack). Several dozen U.S. troops (many victims of friendly fire) and up to 400,000 Iraqi citizens die in the following weeks. At least 1,000,000 Iraqis have died due to the effects of the following decade plus of U.S.-led global economic embargo.

● 1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City that ends a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000 lives.

● 1995 - UPN begins broadcasting.

● 1997 - Bill Cosby's only son, Ennis, 27, was shot to death while changing a flat tire on a dark road in Los Angeles, CA.

● 1998 - Researchers announce that an altered gene helped to defend against HIV.

● 1998 - The first woman to enroll at Virginia Military Institute withdrew from the school. {The harassment she had received was not supposed to have been a factor, yeah right!}

● 1998 - NASA officially announced that John Glenn would fly aboard the space shuttle Discovery in October.

● 1998 - It was announced that Texas would receive $15.3 billion in a tobacco industry settlement. The payouts were planned to take place over 25 years.

● 1998 - Three federal judges secretly granted Kenneth Starr authority to probe whether U.S. President Clinton or Vernon Jordan urged Monica Lewinsky to lie about her relationship with Clinton.

● 1999 - At least 37 bodies were found mutilated of executed in southern Kosovo. They were all in civilian clothing. This occurred one day after a fierce attack by Serb forces.

● 2000 - Ten Greenpeace protesters board damaged British nuclear submarine, Gibraltar.

● 2000 - A truck loaded with evaporated milk was rammed into California's state capitol building in Sacramento, CA. The driver was killed in the incident.

● 2000 - Ricardo Lagos was elected Chile's first socialist president since Salvador Allende.

● 2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.

● 2001 - Oil tanker endangers eco-paradise; A fuel supply tanker to the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific runs aground off the island of San Cristobal.

● 2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.

● 2002 - In Grundy, VA, student killed three and wounding three others at the Appalachian School of Law.

● 2002 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that John Walker Lindh would be brought to the United States to face trial. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorist organizations, and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban of Afghanistan.

● 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which will be its final one. The shuttle broke up during its return descent on Feb. 1, killing everyone on board.

● 2004 - Pop star Michael Jackson pleaded innocent to child molestation charges during a court appearance in Santa Maria, Calif. (Charges were later re-filed and Jackson was acquitted.)

● 2005 - Adriana Iliescu gives birth at age 66 and becomes the oldest woman in the world to do so.

● 2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

● 2006 - Liu Xinjuan is committed by the Chinese government to a psychiatric hospital, allegedly for political activism.

● 2007 - Tri-Centenary of the United Kingdom.

BIRTHS

● 1245 - Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England (d. 1296)

● 1409 - René I of Naples (d. 1480)

● 1477 - Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (d. 1547)

● 1501 - Anthony Denny, confidant of King Henry VIII of England (d. 1559)

● 1616 - François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, French soldier (d. 1669)

● 1626 - Lucas Achtschellinck, Flemish painter (d. 1699)

● 1634 - Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norwegian poet (d. 1716)

● 1675 - Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French writer (d. 1755)

● 1728 - Niccola Piccinni, Italian composer (d. 1800)

● 1749 - Vittorio Alfieri, Italian poet

● 1752 - George Cabot, American Federalist leader (d. 1823)

● 1815 - Henry W. Halleck, American Civil War general (d. 1872)

● 1820 - Johannes Rebmann, German missionary/explorer (d. 1876)

● 1821 - John C. Breckenridge, Confederate general (d. 1875)

● 1834 - Robert R. Hitt, American politician (d. 1906)

● 1838 - Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)

● 1853 - Sir Ian Hamilton, English general (d. 1947)

● 1853 - Andre Michelin, French industrialist (d. 1931)

● 1874 - Robert W. Service, Canadian poet (d. 1958)

● 1881 - Sir Arthur Fleming, English engineer (d. 1960)

● 1885 - Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)

● 1886 - John Hamilton, American actor (d. 1958)

● 1887 - George Kelly, American playwright/actor (d. 1974)

● 1888 - Osip Brik, Russian writer (d. 1945)

● 1897 - Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (d. 1977)

● 1898 - Margaret Booth, American film editor (d. 2002)

● 1901 - Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)

● 1901 - Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)

● 1902 - Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (d. 1945)

● 1906 - Diana Wynyard, British actress (d. 1964.

● 1907 - Paul Nitze, American government official (d. 2004)

● 1908 - Ethel Merman, American actress/singer (d. 1984)

● 1910 - Dizzy Dean, American baseball player (d. 1974)

● 1911 - Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (d. 1996)

● 1911 - Eduardo Frei Montalva, president of Chile (d.1982)

● 1918 - Nel Benschop, Dutch poetess (d. 2005)

● 1918 - Stirling Silliphant, American writer (d. 1996)

● 1921 - Francesco Scavullo, American fashion photographer (d. 2004)

● 1922 - Ernesto Bonino, Italian singer

● 1923 - Anthony Hecht, American poet (d. 2004)

● 1924 - Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)

● 1928 - William Kennedy, American author

● 1930 - Norman Podhoretz, Writer-editor

● 1930 - Clarence Ray Allen, American murderer (d. 2006)

● 1931 - Johannes Rau, President of Germany (d. 2006)

● 1932 - Dian Fossey, American zoologist (d. 1985)

● 1933 - Susan Sontag, American writer (d. 2004)

● 1934 - Marilyn Horne, American mezzo-soprano

● 1935 - A.J. Foyt, American race car driver

● 1942 - René Angélil, Canadian singer (Baronets), husband and manager of Céline Dion

● 1942 - Barbara Lynn, American singer and guitarist

● 1943 - Brian Ferneyhough, British composer

● 1943 - Ronnie Milsap, American singer/songwriter

● 1944 - Jim Stafford, American singer, songwriter and guitarist

● 1946 - Kabir Bedi, Indian actor

● 1946 - Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano

● 1947 - Laura Schlessinger, American radio talk show host

● 1948 - John Carpenter, American film director

● 1948 - Dalvanius Prime, New Zealand entertainer (d. 2002)

● 1948 - Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player

● 1948 - Ruth Reichl, American editor-in-chief of Gourmet

● 1950 - Debbie Allen, American dancer/choreographer (''Fame'')

● 1951 - Glenn Ordway, American radio talk show host

● 1952 - King Fuad II of Egypt

● 1953 - Robert Jay Mathews, American neo-Nazi (d. 1984)

● 1956 - Martin Jol, Dutch football manager

● 1958 - Anatoli Boukreev, Russian climber (d. 1997)

● 1959 - Sade, Nigerian-born singer

● 1962 - Paul Webb, British musician (Talk Talk)

● 1963 - James May, English television presenter

● 1966 - Maxine Jones, American singer (En Vogue)

● 1968 - David Chokachi, Actor

● 1969 - Roy Jones Jr., American boxer

● 1970 - Ron Villone, American baseball Player

● 1970 - Garth Ennis, Irish comic book author

● 1972 - Richard T. Jones, Actor (''Judging Amy'')

● 1973 - Josie Davis, American actress

● 1974 - Kate Moss, English model

● 1974 - Marlon Anderson, American baseball player

● 1975 - Greg Strause, American director in special effects

● 1976 - Viktor Maslov, Russian racing driver

● 1976 - Martina Moravcová, Slovak female swimmer

● 1977 - Jeff Foster, American basketball player

● 1979 - Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)

● 1979 - Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1979 - Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player

● 1980 - Albert Pujols, Dominican-born baseball player

● 1980 - Michelle Wild, Hungarian model

● 1980 - Dan Brickley, American television personality

● 1981 - Nick Valensi, American guitarist (The Strokes)

● 1982 - Samuel Preston, British singer (The Ordinary Boys)

● 1983 - Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer

● 1988 - Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer

● 1989 - Yvonne Zima, Actress (''ER'')

● 1991 - Julie Dubela, American singer

DEATHS

● 1400 - John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, English politician (executed)

● 1545 - George Spalatin, German reformer (b. 1484)

● 1547 - Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (b. 1477)

● 1554 - Christiern Pedersen, Danish humanist

● 1585 - Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, English admiral (b. 1512)

● 1659 - Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (b. 1580)

● 1710 - Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (b. 1675)

● 1711 - Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Ceylon (b. 1651)

● 1747 - Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)

● 1748 - Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1684)

● 1750 - Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshall (b. 1667)

● 1752 - Francis Blomefield, English topographer (b. 1705)

● 1794 - Edward Gibbon, English historian (b. 1737)

● 1809 - John Moore, British general (b. 1761)

● 1815 - Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Horatio Nelson (b. 1765)

● 1817 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman (b. 1759)

● 1834 - Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician (b. 1769)

● 1856 - Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795)

● 1865 - Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (b. 1828)

● 1879 - Octave Crémazie, French Canadian poet (b. 1827)

● 1891 - Léo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)

● 1898 - Charles Pelham Villiers (b. 1802), longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons

● 1917 - George Dewey, U.S. admiral (b. 1837)

● 1919 - Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, President of Brazil (b. 1848)

● 1924 - Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald, philanthropist (b. 1859)

● 1936 - Albert Fish, American serial killer (b. 1870)

● 1942 - Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)

● 1957 - Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)

● 1962 - Ivan Meštrović, Croatian sculptor (b. 1883)

● 1967 - Robert J. Van de Graaff, American nuclear physicist (b. 1901)

● 1969 - Vernon Duke, American composer and songwriter (b. 1903)

● 1969 - Jan Palach, Czech Freedom Fighter (b. 1948)

● 1971 - Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist (b. 1890)

● 1972 - Ross Bagdasarian, American actor and creator of The Chipmunks (b. 1919)

● 1979 - Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)

● 1979 - August Heissmeyer, German SS officer (b. 1897)

● 1981 - Bernard Lee, English actor (b. 1908)

● 1982 - Red Smith, American sports columnist (b. 1905)

● 1986 - Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (b. 1892)

● 1988 - Andrija Artuković, Croatian war criminal (b. 1899)

● 1988 - Ballard Berkeley, English actor (b. 1904)

● 1993 - Jón Páll Sigmarsson, Icelandic strength athlete (b. 1960)

● 1995 - Eric Mottram, English poet, teacher, critic, and editor (b. 1924)

● 1997 - Ennis Cosby, son of entertainer Bill Cosby (murdered) (b. 1969)

● 2000 - John Rankin, musical entertainer (b. 1959)

● 2001 - Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939)

● 2002 - Michael Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)

● 2002 - Eddie Meduza, Swedish composer (b. 1948)

● 2002 - Bobo Olson, American boxer (b. 1928)

● 2002 - Ron Taylor, American actor (b. 1952)

● 2004 - Kalevi Sorsa, Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1930)

● 2005 - Marjorie Williams, American journalist (b. 1958)

● 2007 - Ron Carey, American actor (b. 1935)

● 2007 - Benny Parsons, American NASCAR driver (b. 1941)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Marcellus I, 30th pope [308-09], martyr
● St. Valerius
● St. Titian
● St. Triverius
● St. Dunchaid O'Braoin
● St. Fulgentius
● St. Fursey
● St. Fusca and Marura
● St. Henry of Cocket
● St. Honoratus
● St. James of Tarentaise
● St. Liberata
● St. Melas

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for January 4 (Civil Date: January 16)
● Fast-free period.
● Forefeast of the Theophany.
● Synaxis of the Seventy Apostles: James the brother of the Lord, Mark the Evangelist, Luke the Evangelist, Cleopas the brother of Joseph the Betrothed, Symeon the son of Cleopas, Barnabas, Justus, Thaddaeus, Ananias, Stephen the Archdeacon; Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, and Parmenas of the seven deacons; Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Onesimus, Epaphras, Archippus, Silas, Silvanus, Crescens, Crispus, Epenetus, Andronicus, Stachys, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus, Apelles, Aristobulus, Herodion, Agabus, Rufus, Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermes, Patrobus, Hermas, Linus, Gaius, Philogogus, Lucius, Jason, Sosipater, Olympas, Tertius, Erastus, Quartus, Euodias, Onesiphorus, Clement, Sosthenes, Apollos, Tychicus, Epaphroditus, Carpus, Quadratus, Mark called John, Zenas, Aristarchus, Pudens, Trophimus, Mark, Artemas, Aquila, Fortunatus and Achaicus
● St. Theoctistus, abbot at Cucomo in Sicily.
● Martyr Zosimas the Hermit, and Martyr Athanasius the Commentarisius, anchorites of Cilicia, Martyrs.
● Abbot Euthymius and twelve monks of Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos.
● Repose of St. Eustathius (Eustace), first Archbishop of Serbia.
● St. Aquila, deacon of the Kiev Caves.
● New-Martyr Onuphrius Manassias of Chilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos.
● St. Gregory of Langres (Gaul).
● Repose of Symeon, metropolitan of Smolensk.

● Thailand - Teacher's Day

● United States - National Religious Freedom Day, to commemorate the adoption of Thomas Jefferson's landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786

● Note: These Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
● US : Martin Luther King Jr Day (1929) - ( Monday )
● Virginia : Lee-Jackson Day - ( Monday )
● Florida : Arbor Day - ( Friday )


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