January 11th in History
1785: Continental Congress convenes in New York City
1787: William Herschel discovers that the planet Uranus has moons
1803: Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to buy New Orleans. they buy Louisiana.
1923: French troops occupy Ruhr to collect reparations
1973: Trial of the Watergate burglars begins in Washington, DC


January 11th birthdays
1905: Pierre Mendes-France, French politician
1906: Albert Hofmann, Swiss chemist (LSD)

January 12th in History
1816: France decrees Bonaparte family to be exiled from the country forever
1863: President Davis delivers his "State of the Confederacy" address
1990: Martial Law is lifted in Beijing, China
1991: US Congress authorises military strikes against Iraq, for its invasion of Kuwait


January 12th birthdays
1602: Pierre de Fermat, French mathematician
1729: Edmund Burke, British writer
1856: John Singer Sargent, American painter
1876: Jack London, American author
1893: Hermann Goering, German Nazi leader
1916: P.W Botha, South African politician

January 13th in History
1888: National Geographic Society founded
1898: Emile Zola publishes his open letter (J'accuse) in defense of Captain Alfred Dreyfus in Paris
1945: The Soviet 'Red' army occupies the Hungarian city of Budapest
1968: Beginning of Tet-offensive in Vietnam


January 13th birthdays
1834: Horatio Alger, American author
1926: Michael Bond, Creator of 'Padington Bear'
1955: Jay McInerney, American writer

January 14th in History
1783: American congress ratifies peace treaty (Treaty of Paris) between US and UK
1953: Yugoslavia elects its first president (Marshal Tito)
1963: George Wallace sworn in as Governor of Alabama, his address states "segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!"


January 14th birthdays
1741: Benedict Arnold, American traitor
1875: Albert Schweitzer, French medical missionary and Nobel Prize winner
1892: Hal Roach, American director
1904: Cecil Beaton, British photographer
1909: Joseph Losey, American film director
1940: Trevor Nunn, British stage director
1941: Faye Dunaway, American film actress
1967: Emily Watson, British actress

January 15th in History
1559: Coronation of British Queen Elizabeth I
1922: Irish Free State forms. Revolutionary leader Michael Collins becomes first premier
1943: Japanese driven off Guadalcanal
1973: President Nixon suspends all US offensive action in North Vietnam
1997: American space shuttle Atlantis docks with Russian Mir space station for the first time


January 15th birthdays
1622: Molière, French writer
1913: Lloyd Bridges, American actor
1929: Martin Luther King, US black civil rights campaigner

January 16th in History
1547: Ivan the Terrible crowns himselfst tsar of Russia
1604: At the Hampton Court Conference in England, John Rainolds presents to King James I the motion '...that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible.' Approved the next day, Rainolds' motion leads to the 1611 publication of the King James' Bible
1920: The United States begin the prohibiton era, banning the sale of alcohol
1964: Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megatons nuclear bomb
1969: The Soviets carry out the first manual docking of a spacecraft in orbit
1979: The ruler of Iran, the Shah, leaves his country
1991: Operation 'Desert Storm' begins against Iraq, for its invasion of Kuwait
1994: Syria declares its commitment to peace with Israel


January 16th birthdays
1853: Andre Michelin, French tiremaker
1909: Ethel Merman, American singer and actress
1932: Diane Fossey, American zoologist
1959: Sade, American singer

January 17th in History
1773: Captain Cooks ship becomes the first to cross the Antartic Ocean
1911: Failed assassination attempt on premier Aristide Briand in French Assembly
1912: English explorer Robert F. Scott is first to reach the South Pole
1945: Liberation of Warsaw from the Nazi by Soviet troops
1959: The African country of Mali is formed with the joining of Senegal and French Sudan
1987: President Reagan signs secret order permitting covert sale of arms to Iran


January 17th birthdays
1706: Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and scientist
1820: Anne Bronte, Youngest of the 'Bronte' sisters
1880: Mack Sennett, American director
1899: Al Capone, American gangster
1925: Rock Hudson, American actor

January 18th in History
1778: Captain Cook discovers what is now called the Hawiian Islands
1871: Germany has its first emperor, King Wilhelm of Prussia
1911: A plane lands on the deck of a ship for the first time, in the USA
1929: Stalin proposes to ban Trotsky from the Politburo
1943: Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto begin resistance of Nazis
1944: The seige of Lenningrad, in the USSR, by the Germans ends after over two years


January 18th birthdays
1689: Charles de Montesquieu, French philosopher
1779: Peter Roget, Founder of Roget's Thesaurus
1881: Gaston Gallimard, French publisher
1892: Oliver Hardy, American comedian
1904: Cary Grant, American Hollywood film actor

January 19th in History
1793: King Louis XVI sentenced to death by the French Convention
1915: German zeppelins bomb London for the first time in World War I
1942: Japanese forces invade Burma during World War 2
1991: Iraqui Presidential Palace attacked as the Gulf War begins
1992: A new Bulgarian President is elected in the countries first free elections
1993: Israel recognizes PLO


January 19th birthdays
1736: James Watts, Scottish 'steam' inventor
1737: Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, French author
1807: Robert E. Lee, American Civil War general
1809: Edgar Allen Poe, American author and poet
1839: Paul Cézanne, French painter
1943: Janis Joplin, American rock singer
1946: Dolly Parton, US country singer and film actress

January 20th in History
1265: The first ever English Parliament met in Westminster Hall
1961: Robert Frost recites "The Gift Outright" at JFK's inauguration
1986: The British and French agree on a twin tunnel rail link for the Channel Tunnel
1986: First USA federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr
2000: Moveable Media, internet pioneer, is founded


January 20th birthdays
1896: George Burns, American comedian
1920: Federico Fellini, Italian born film director
1930: Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, The second man to walk on the Moon
1946: David Lynch, American director