January 19......

January 19 is the 19th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 346 (347 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

● 379 - Theodosius installed as co-emperor of East Roman Empire

● 973 - Pope Benedictus VI elected

● 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy.

● 1493 - France cedes Roussillon & Cerdágne to Spain by treaty of Barcelona

● 1511 - Mirandola surrenders to the French.

● 1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.

● 1563 - The Heidelberg Catechism was first published in Germany. Written by Peter Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, it comprised a balanced statement of Calvinist tradition, and was soon after accepted by nearly all of the Reformed churches in Europe.

● 1568 - Death of Miles Coverdale, 80, publisher of the first printed English Bible. He completed the translation of the Old Testament which William Tyndale had left unfinished at his death in 1536.

● 1668 - King Louis XIV & Emperor Leopold I sign treaty dividing Spain

● 1714 - Richard Steele publishes "The Crisis", defending Hanoverian success

● 1736 - James Watt, inventor of the steam engine, was born in Scotland.

● 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie's troops occupy Stirling

● 1764 - John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

● 1770 - Battle of Golden Hill (Lower Manhattan)

● 1774 - Pioneer Methodist bishop Francis Asbury wrote in his journal: 'Lord, ever draw my heart after thee! May I see no beauty in any other object, nor desire anything but thee!'

● 1788 - Second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.

● 1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.

● 1795 - Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

● 1804 - Anglican missionary to Persia Henry Martyn wrote in his journal: 'To be made fit for the work of a missionary I resigned the comforts of a married life, ...and that was a severe struggle. Now again will I put forth the hand of faith, though the struggle will be far more severe.'

● 1806 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.

● 1807 - Robert E. Lee , Confederate general during the American Civil War , was born.

● 1808 - Birth of utopian, individualist anarchist Lysander Spooner. Massachusetts abolitionist and anti-monopolist. Spooner set up a private postal service so successful that the federal government decided to outlaw it.

● 1808 - Louis Napoleon signs 1st Dutch aviation law

● 1809 - Author Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston.

● 1810 - Overnight temp at Portsmouth NH drops 50ºF (10ºC)

● 1812 - Luddites torch Oatlands Mill in Yorkshire, England.

● 1812 - After ten days of intensive siege work, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, ordered British soldiers of the Light and third divisions storm Ciudad Rodrigo, the conquest of the town wouldn't be complete until January 20.

● 1817 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crossed the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

● 1825 - Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City patented a canning process to preserve salmon, oysters and lobsters.

● 1833 - Charles Darwin reaches Straits Ponsonby, Fireland

● 1839 - British East India Company captures Aden.

● 1840 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.

● 1857 - After killing the sheriff and a prefect, Indians force their way into the house of New Mexico's first American Territorial Governor, Charles Bent, and scalp him and three others, Taos, New Mexico.

● 1861 - Georgia becomes 5th state to secede

● 1861 - MS troops take Fort Massachusetts an Ship Island

● 1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs - The Confederate States of America suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.

● 1863 - General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland

● 1865 - NV Suriname Bank established

● 1865 - Union occupies Fort Anderson NC

● 1865 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon dies. Early French anarchist philosopher/economist. "Property is theft!"

● 1869 - Susan B. Anthony elected president of the American Equal Rights Association.

● 1871 - Franco-Prussian War: Battle of St. Quentin is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.

● 1871 - 1st Negro lodge of US Masons approved, New Jersey

● 1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

● 1885 - Battle at Abu Klea Sudan 800-1000 killed

● 1889 - The Salvation Army split, as one faction within the denomination renounced allegiance to founder William Booth. Booth's son Ballington and his wife Maud led the American splinter group, which in 1896 incorporated itself as a separate denomination known as the Volunteers of America.

● 1893 - Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin.

● 1893 - Omcadina revolutionaries on trial.

● 1898 - George Claude Etievant, French typographer and anarchist, stabs a sentry at the Berzeliu street police station, and wounds another after being locked up. He had previously, in 1892, received a five year sentence for providing dynamite for Ravachol, and again another five year prison sentence for a series of articles he published in "Le libertaire." Condemned to die for the act, his sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life. He died a few years later in the penal colony in Guyana.

● 1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

● 1903 - First transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and England.

● 1903 - Birth of Kay Boyle, St. Paul, Minnesota. Novelist and short story writer, later a blacklist victim in the '50s, prominent Vietnam War opponent in the '60s, Amnesty International activist in the '80s.

● 1903 - New bicycle race "Tour de France" announced

● 1907 - The first film reviews appeared in "Variety" magazine.

● 1910 - Andrea Costa (1851-1910), dies, Imola. Italian anarchist, participant in the national conference under the direction of Bakunin.

● 1910 - Germany & Bolivia ends commerce/friendship treaty

● 1910 - National Institute of Arts & Letters incorporated by Congress

● 1912 - Birth of Armand Robin (1912-1961), Plouguernovel (Brittany). French translator, writer/poet, anarchist. Died mysteriously in a police infirmary in 1961.

● 1913 - Raymond Poincaré installed as President of France

● 1915 - Twenty rioting striking workers shot by factory guards at Roosevelt, New Jersey.

● 1915 - During World War I, Britain suffers its first casualties from an air attack when two German Zeppelins drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn on the eastern coast of England, killing two Britons and injuring three.

● 1915 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

● 1917 - German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States.

● 1917 - Silvertown Essex's ammunition factory explodes; 300 die

● 1918 - Soviets disallows a Constitution Assembly

● 1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

● 1919 - "Tidal wave" of molasses 15 meters high x 25 meters wide kills dozens, Boston

● 1920 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

● 1920 - Led by the Filipino Federation of Labor, 3,000 Filipino workers on the plantations of Oahu, Hawai'i, go on strike. Their ranks swell to 8,300 when Japanese workers organized by the Japanese Federation of Labor join the strike. The plantation owners try to break the strike by hiring Hawaiian, Portuguese, and Korean workers, and by creating distrust between the Filipino and Japanese unions. Planters also evict strikers, forcing them to find shelters in empty Honolulu lots. Crowded into encampments during the height of an influenza epidemic, thousands fall ill, and 150 will die. Under these conditions, the unions will call off the strike in July.

● 1920 - Alexandre Millerand forms French government

● 1920 - US Senate votes against membership in League of Nations

● 1921 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador sign Pact of Union

● 1922 - Geological survey says US oil supply would be depleted in 20 years

● 1925 - -48ºF (-44ºC), Van Buren ME (state record)

● 1927 - British government decides to send troops to China

● 1929 - Acadia National Park, Maine established

● 1932 - Armed miners' uprising in Spain's Barcelona region in response to anarchist uprisings in Catalonia. "Libertarian communism" declared, including the abolition of money and property, followed by general strikes and armed uprisings throughout Spain over the next five days.

● 1935 - Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs.

● 1935 - KLM begins flight path between Curaçao & Aruba

● 1936 - General strike in Damascus, Syria, against French regime.

● 1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

● 1938 - GM began mass production of diesel engines

● 1941 - British troops occupy Kassalaf Sudan

● 1941 - Paul Reclus dies, Montpellier, France. Anarchist militant, engineer, and professor. Went into hiding, then joined his family in Switzerland with the crushing of the Paris Commune in 1871. Returned to Paris in 1877 and became an engineer in 1880. An anarchist propagandist for expropriation, he was accused in the "Lawsuit of the 30" and took refuge in London, living in a small anarchist community. In 1895, he moved to Scotland, working as a cartographer, then as a professor. Allowed to re-enter to France in 1914, he was a signatory to the "Manifesto of the 16" (favoring participation in the allied cause during WWI).

● 1941 - World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.

● 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.

● 1942 - Titus Brandsma (Carmelite priest) arrested by German occupiers for speaking out against Nazism as a "lie" and "pagan"

● 1943 - Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily

● 1943 - Birth of Janis Joplin. "Freedom's just another word for nothin’ left to lose."

● 1944 - The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation's railroads after the settlement of a wage dispute.

● 1945 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate ghetto of Łódź. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.

● 1946 - General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

● 1947 - SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392

● 1947 - Luigi Bertoni (1872-1947) dies in Geneva. Swiss anarchist, typographer.

● 1949 - Cuba recognizes Israel.

● 1949 - The salary of the President of the United States was increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office.

● 1953 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

● 1950 - Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Canada CF-100 military plane

● 1955 - 1st Presidential news conference filmed for TV (Eisenhower)

● 1957 - Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue.

● 1957 - USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test

● 1960 - Fifty-nine arrested at Chattanooga, Tennessee civil rights sit-in.

● 1960 - Eisenhower & Premier Kishi sign US-Japanese Security pact

● 1965 - Cheating scandal revealed at the Air Force Academy, forcing 105 cadets to resign.

● 1966 - Georgia State House of Representatives refuses to seat black state rep. Julian Bond because of his opposition to the war in Vietnam; he is not admitted until January 1967.

● 1966 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.

● 1968 - Lower Elwha band, after decades of struggle, are allotted reservation land on Olympic Peninsula.

● 1969 - Student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.

● 1970 - UCLA fires Angela Davis for being a communist

● 1970 - Dutch bishop says he is in favor of married priests

● 1970 - President Richard Nixon nominated G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court. The nomination was later defeated because of controversy over Carswell's past racial views.

● 1971 - Indian fishing rights organizer Hank Adams is shot in Tacoma.

● 1971 - At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words "helter skelter" were written on a mirror.

● 1973 - Yuba City, California labor contractor Juan V. Corona found guilty of murdering 25 itinerant farm workers he employed during 1970 - 1971.

● 1973 - Super tug to defend fishing fleet
A super tug is sent to protect British trawlers from Icelandic patrol boats as the dispute over cod fishing rights intensifies.

● 1974 - The UCLA men's basketball team sees its 88-game winning streak end at the hands of Notre Dame.

● 1974 - Belgium government of Leburton falls

● 1975 - 4 mail truck assault on El Al B-747 in Paris, escape to Iraq

● 1975 - Triple J begins broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.

● 1976 - Spanish government drafts 70,000 railroad workers to crush strike.

● 1977 - As one of his last acts in office, Pres. Gerald Ford pardons "Tokyo Rose," convicted during WWII for making Japanese propaganda broadcasts to U.S. troops. Iva Toguri D'Aquino, an American citizen of Japanese descent, had been convicted of treason. In an attempt to demoralize its American listeners by making them homesick, Radio Tokyo broadcast dance music and nostalgic reminiscences about everyday American life. The radio programs were extremely popular with U.S. servicemen located in remote areas of the Pacific, although there is little evidence that the broadcasts had any negative effect. Among several English-speaking female announcers at Tokyo Radio, D'Aquino was the favorite of U.S. troops, who fondly referred to her as "Tokyo Rose." During her subsequent trial, she maintained that she was visiting a sick aunt in Japan at the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and thus had not been able to return to the U.S. Looking for a way to support herself in wartime Japan, she went to work for the state radio network as a secretary, and was later coerced into her position as an announcer.

● 1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred.

● 1978 - British government cancels arms sales to El Salvador.

● 1978 - The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America will continue until 2003.

● 1978 - Judge William H Webster appointed head of FBI

● 1979 - Former Attorney General John Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months in federal prison for Watergate-related crimes.

● 1981 - Muhammad Ali talks a despondent 21 year old out of committing suicide

● 1981 - The U.S. and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months and for arrangements to unfreeze Iranian assets and to resolve all claims against Iran.

● 1982 - Protesters blockade U.S. munitions transport to West Germany. Grooningens/Devinggen [sp?], Netherlands.

● 1982 - Newbury Council votes to evict women's peace camp, Greenham Common, England.

● 1982 - Heater explodes at Star Elementary School-Oklahoma, kills 6 kids & teacher

● 1983 - Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Gestapo chief in Lyons, France, during the German occupation, is arrested in Bolivia on charges of crimes committed against humanity four decades earlier. As chief of Nazi Germany's secret police in occupied France, Barbie had sent thousands of French Jews and French Resistance members to their deaths in concentration camps, while torturing, abusing, or executing many others. Barbie worked as a U.S. agent in Germany for two years, and in 1949 was smuggled to Bolivia, where he assumed the name of "Klaus Altmann" and continued his work as a U.S. agent. In addition to his work for the Americans, he increasingly performed services for Bolivia's various military regimes, especially that of Hugo "El Petiso" Banzer, who came to power in 1971 and became one of the country's most oppressive leaders. Barbie performed a similar type of work for Banzer as he had for the Nazis, torturing and interrogating political opponents, and dispatching many of these political prisoners to special internment camps where many were executed or died from mistreatment.

● 1983 - The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Computer, Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

● 1984 - California Supreme Court refuses to allow quadriplegic Elizabeth Bouvia to starve herself to death in a public hospital, she appeals and is later granted the right to die

● 1985 - 4 die in a car & train crash in Buda IL

● 1986 - Israeli premier Simon Peres visits Netherlands

● 1986 - Spain recognizes Israel

● 1987 - Guy Hunt becomes Alabama's 1st Republican governor since 1874

● 1987 - The SFStory is the first original shared universe to be created on the Internet.

● 1988 - Disabled author wins Whitbread; Writer Christopher Nolan, who cannot move or speak because of an accident at birth, wins the Whitbread Book of the Year prize.

● 1989 - In one of his last acts in office, Pres. Ronald Reagan pardons notorious New York Yankees baseball owner George Steinbrenner for illegal donations to the campaigns of Pres. Richard Nixon.

● 1991 - Rebel cricketers face storm of protest; Police in Johannesburg armed with batons and dogs break up a demonstration against the rebel cricketers who are defying a ban on playing in segregated South Africa.

● 1991 - Over 100,000 march in San Francisco to protest Gulf War. An equally large anti-war march, sponsored by a competing coalition, fills the streets of San Francisco (along with New York) the following weekend.

● 1991 - The Party of the Alliance of Youth, Workers and Farmers of Angola is founded in Luanda, Angola.

● 1992 - Decree time is restored in Russia after its previous abolition in March 1991.

● 1993 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.

● 1993 - Israel recognizes PLO as no longer criminal

● 1993 - Robert M Gates, ends term as 15th director of CIA

● 1993 - STS-54 (Endeavour) lands

● 1994 - "Shoes for Guns" firearm buyback effort begins in Chicago. Program is denounced by the National Rifle Association.

● 1994 - Record cold temperatures across the eastern half of the United States brings temperatures below -20°F in many locations, such as Ohio and Kentucky.

● 1994 - -20ºF (-29ºC) (5 32 AM) coldest day ever recorded in Cleveland OH

● 1994 - -36ºF (-38ºC) in New Whiteland IN (state record)

● 1995 - Jean-Claude Juncker (28) sworn in as premier of Luxembourg

● 1995 - Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya.

● 1996 - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. The investigation was concerning the discovery of billing records related to the Whitewater real estate investment venture.

● 1997 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

● 1998 - Rockabilly pioneer Carl Perkins died at age 65.

● 2000 - Fire at Seton Hall University kills three students and injures 54.

● 2001 - 'Internet twins' taken into care; The American twin girls at the centre of an internet adoption scandal are seized from a hotel in north Wales and taken into care.

● 2001 - In a deal sparing himself possible indictment, President Bill Clinton acknowledged for the first time making false statements under oath about Monica Lewinsky; he also surrendered his law license for five years.

● 2001 - Texas officials demoted a warden and suspended three other prison workers in the wake of the escape of the "Texas 7."

● 2002 - Michael Jordan, formerly of the Chicago Bulls, plays his first game in Chicago since rejoining the NBA with the Washington Wizards.

● 2004 - John Kerry won Iowa's Democratic presidential caucuses; Howard Dean, who finished third, delivered a fist-pumping, bellowing concession speech that was viewed as politically damaging.

● 2006 - Osama bin Laden, in an audiotape that was his first in more than a year, said al-Qaida was preparing for attacks in the United States; at the same time, he offered a "long-term truce" without specifying the conditions.

● 2006 - The New Horizons probe was launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.

● 2006 - Opening of the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference 2006 in Montreal, Quebec.

● 2006 - Jet Airways announces its purchase of Air Sahara, creating the largest domestic airline in India.

● 2008 - The state of Nevada will hold its presidential caucus, sandwiching itself between what, to date, had been the two earliest votes on the candidacy for US presidents, the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

● 2038 - The UNIX timestamp (a format used for decades to store dates on computers) becomes technically obsolete.

BIRTHS

● 399 - Pulcheria, Byzantine empress (d. 453)

● 1544 - King Francis II of France (d. 1560)

● 1724 - Tai Chen, Chinese philosopher (d. 1777)

● 1736 - James Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1819)

● 1739 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (d. 1808)

● 1749 - Isaiah Thomas, American anti-British journalist (d. 1831)

● 1790 - Auguste Comte, French philosopher (d. 1857)

● 1807 - Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (d. 1870)

● 1808 - Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (d. 1887)

● 1809 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (d. 1849)

● 1813 - Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor (d. 1898)

● 1832 - Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist (d. 1875)

● 1833 - Alfred Clebsch, German mathematician (d. 1872)

● 1837 - William Keen, American-1st Am. Brain surgeon (d. 1932)

● 1839 - Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)

● 1842 - George Trumbull Ladd, American philosopher/psychologist (d. 1921)

● 1848 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (d. 1904)

● 1851 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)

● 1863 - Werner Sombart, German sociologist (d. 1941)

● 1879 - Boris Savinkov, Russian writer and terrorist (d. 1925)

● 1887 - Alexander Woollcott, American intellectual (d. 1943)

● 1892 - Ólafur Thors, Icelandic politician and five-time prime minister (d. 1964)

● 1905 - Oveta Culp Hobby, American publisher and first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1953-55) (d. 1995)

● 1908 - Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (d. 1971)

● 1909 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)

● 1912 - Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)

● 1913 - Rudolph "Minnesota Fats" Wanderone, American billiards player (d. 1996)

● 1917 - John Raitt, American singer and actor (d. 2005)

● 1918 - John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)

● 1920 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian, 5th United Nations Secretary General

● 1921 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)

● 1921 - William 'Billy Batts' Devino, American gangster (d. 1970)

● 1922 - Guy Madison, American actor (d. 1996)

● 1923 - Jean Stapleton, American actress (''All in the Family'')

● 1923 - Markus Wolf, German spy (d. 2006)

● 1924 - Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (d. 1985)

● 1924 - Jean-Francois Revel, French author

● 1926 - Fritz Weaver, American actor

● 1930 - Tippi Hedren, American actress (''The Birds'')

● 1931 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist

● 1932 - Richard Lester, British director

● 1936 - Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (d. 1981)

● 1939 - Phil Everly, American musician (The Everly Brothers)

● 1940 - Paolo Borsellino, Italian anti-Mafia magistrate (d. 1992)

● 1941 - Colin Gunton, British theologian (d. 2003)

● 1941 - Tony Anholt, British actor

● 1942 - Michael Crawford, British singer and actor

● 1943 - Janis Joplin, American singer (d. 1970)

● 1943 - Petchara Chaowarat, Thai film actress

● 1943 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands

● 1944 - Shelley Fabares, American actress

● 1944 - Peter Lynch, American investor

● 1944 - Dan Reeves, American football coach

● 1944 - Laurie London, English singer

● 1946 - Julian Barnes, English author

● 1946 - Dolly Parton, American singer and actress

● 1947 - Paula Deen, American chef, writer, and restaurateur

● 1947 - Ann Compton, Broadcast journalist

● 1947 - Rod Evans, founding member of Deep Purple

● 1948 - Frank McKenna, Premier of New Brunswick and Canadian Ambassador

● 1949 - Robert Palmer, English singer and guitarist (d. 2003)

● 1949 - Dennis Taylor, Northern Irish snooker player

● 1951 - Martha Davis, Rock singer (The Motels)

● 1951 - Charles Terry, high-tech turnaround specialist

● 1952 - Dewey Bunnell, Singer (America)

● 1952 - David Patrick Kelly, American actor

● 1953 - Desi Arnaz, Jr., American actor

● 1953 - Richard Legendre, Canadian tennis player and politician

● 1954 - Katey Sagal, American actress, singer, and writer

● 1954 - Cindy Sherman, American artist

● 1954 - Katharina Thalbach, German actress and film director

● 1955 - Simon Rattle, English conductor

● 1955 - Paul Rodriguez, Mexican-born actor and comedian

● 1957 - Kenneth McClintock, Senate President of Puerto Rico

● 1957 - Katey Sagal, Actress ("Married ... With Children")

● 1957 - Mickey Virtue, Reggae musician (UB40)

● 1961 - Paul McCrane, Actor

● 1961 - William Ragsdale, Actor

● 1963 - Caron Wheeler, British singer (Soul II Soul)

● 1963 - Michael Adams (basketball), American basketball player

● 1964 - Ricardo Arjona, Guatemalan singer.

● 1966 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player

● 1966 - Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player

● 1966 - Lena Philipsson, Swedish singer

● 1966 - Sylvain Côté, National Hockey League defenceman

● 1968 - Whitfield Crane, Rock singer (Ugly Kid Joe)

● 1969 - Trey Lorenz, R&B singer

● 1969 - Junior Seau, American football player

● 1969 - Steve Staunton, Irish footballer

● 1971 - Shawn Wayans, American actor, writer, and producer

● 1971 - John Wozniak, American singer and songwriter (Marcy Playground)

● 1972 - Joana Benedek, Mexican actress

● 1972 - Drea de Matteo, American actress

● 1972 - Ron Killings, American professional wrestler

● 1973 - Drea De Matteo, Actress ("The Sopranos"; "Joey")

● 1973 - Karen Lancaume, French actress (d. 2005)

● 1974 - Jaime Moreno, Bolivian footballer

● 1974 - Ian Laperriere, National Hockey League player

● 1976 - Marsha Thomason, Actress

● 1976 - Tarso Marques, Brazilian racing driver

● 1977 - Lauren, Cameroon footballer

● 1979 - Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast

● 1980 - Jenson Button, English Formula One driver

● 1981 - Asier Del Horno, Spanish footballer

● 1981 - Lucho Gonzalez, Argentine footballer

● 1982 - Jodie Sweetin, American child actress (''Full House'')

● 1982 - Mike Komisarek, National Hockey League defenceman

● 1983 - Utada Hikaru, American-born Japanese singer and songwriter

● 1984 - Thomas Vanek, Austrian ice hockey player

● 1985 - Rika Ishikawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)

● 1985 - Esteban Guerrieri, Argentine racing driver

● 1991 - Erin Sanders, American child actress

● 1992 - Logan Lerman, American child actor

DEATHS

● 639 - Dagobert I, King of the Franks

● 1526 - Isabella of Burgundy, wife of Christian II of Denmark (b. 1501)

● 1576 - Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger (b. 1494)

● 1661 - Thomas Venner, Fifth Monarchist (executed)

● 1729 - William Congreve, English playwright (b. 1670)

● 1757 - Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1674)

● 1766 - Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, Italian-born French architect and painter (b. 1695)

● 1785 - Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)

● 1833 - Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold, French composer (b. 1791)

● 1847 - Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer (assassinated)

● 1851 - Esteban Echeverría, Argentine writer (b. 1805)

● 1865 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher and anarchist (b. 1809)

● 1869 - Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (b. 1788)

● 1874 - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (b. 1798)

● 1878 - Henri Victor Regnault French physicist and chemist (b. 1810)

● 1905 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (b. 1817)

● 1929 - Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (b. 1873)

● 1939 - Cliff Heathcote, baseball player (b. 1898)

● 1948 - Tony Garnier, French architect (b. 1869)

● 1954 - Theodor Kaluza, German scientist (b. 1885)

● 1964 - Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (b. 1886)

● 1968 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b. 1879)

● 1969 - Jan Palach, Czech student and political activist (suicide) (b. 1948)

● 1971 - Harry Shields, American musician (b. 1899)

● 1972 - Michael Rabin, American violinist (b. 1936)

● 1973 - Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (b. 1903)

● 1975 - Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (b. 1889)

● 1980 - William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1898)

● 1982 - Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)

● 1984 - Max Bentley, National Hockey League player (b. 1920)

● 1990 - Rajneesh, Indian religious leader (b. 1931)

● 1990 - Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)

● 1991 - John Russell, American actor (b. 1921)

● 1991 - Marcel Chaput, Quebec politician (b. 1918)

● 1996 - Don Simpson, American film producer (b. 1943)

● 1997 - James Dickey, American writer (b. 1923)

● 1997 - Adriana Caselotti, American actress (b 1916)

● 1998 - Carl Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1932)

● 2000 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)

● 2000 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress (b. 1913)

● 2001 - Dario Vittori, Argentinean actor (b. 1921)

● 2003 - Françoise Giroud, French writer and journalist (b. 1916)

● 2004 - Harry E. Claiborne, American judge (suicide) (b. 1917)

● 2004 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1955)

● 2005 - Bill Andersen, New Zealand communist and trade union leader (b. 1924)

● 2005 - K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (b. 1974)

● 2006 - Wilson Pickett, soul singer (b. 1941)

● 2006 - Aoun Al-Sharif Qasim, Sudanese writer and Islamic scholar (b. 1933)

● 2006 - Anthony Franciosa, American actor (b. 1928)

● 2007 - Scott "Bam Bam" Bigelow, American professional wrestler (b. 1961)

● 2007 - Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor (b. 1954)

● 2007 - Denny Doherty, Canadian singer (The Mamas and the Papas) (b. 1940)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Mark of Ephesus
● St. Pontianus
● St. Fillan
● St. Henry of Sweden
● St. Arcontius
● St. Arsenius
● St. Bassian
● St. Branwallader
● St. Wulfstan
● St. Canute IV
● St. Catellus
● St. Contentius
● St. Firminus
● St. Germanicus
● St. Henry of Uppsala
● St. Remigius
● St. Messalina
● St. Marius
● St. Martha
● Sts. Audifax & Abachum
● St. Paul, Gerontius and Companions
● Bl. Nathalan

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for January 7 (Civil Date: January 19)
● Synaxis of the Holy Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist, John
● New-Martyr Athanasius of Attalia.

● Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy:
● Julian Calendar Theophany (Epiphany).

● Anglican:
● Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester, end Bristol slave sale

● Lutheran:
● St. Henry, bishop of Uppsala Finland/martyr

● Bahá'í Faith — Feast of Sultán (Sovereignty) — First day of the 17th month of the Bahá'í Calendar.

● Southern US : Robert E Lee Day

● Texas : Confederate Heroes' Day

● These Holiday is 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

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