January 21st in History
1522: Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
1793: Louis XVI, the King of France, is guillotined during the French revolution
1954: The USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered submarine, is launched
1976: The supersonic airliner 'Concorde' begins regular commercial service


January 21st birthdays
1824: Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, American general
1905: Christian Dior, French fashion designer
1924: Telly Savalas, American actor
1941: Placido Domingo, Spanish tenor
1957: Geena Davis, American actress

January 22nd in History
1771: The Falkland Islands are given to Britain by the Spanish
1879: British troops are massacred by the Zulus at Isandhlwana, South Africa
1941: Tobruk, North Africa, is captured by Australian troops
1946: US President creates the CIA
1957: Israeli forces withdraw from the Sinai thingyula
1973: With Roe vs Wade, US Supreme Court legalizes abortion
1980: Russian dissident Andrei Sacharov is sent to Gorki gulag


January 22nd birthdays
1561: Francis Bacon, English politician and philospher
1788: Lord Byron, English poet
1875: D.W Griffith, American film director/producer
1940: John Hurt, English actor

January 23rd in History
1571: The Royal Exchange, in London, is founded
1719: Principality of Liechtenstein created within Holy Roman Empire
1943: British forces capture the city of Tripoli, Libya, from the Germans
1961: Venezuela adopts constitution
1963: Kim Philby, the british/russian double agent, defects to Russia
1991: World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
1991: High-denomination banknotes withdrawn in USSR


January 23rd birthdays
1783: Marie Henri Beyle de Stendahl, French writer
1832: Edouard Manet, French artist
1903: Randolph Scott, American film actor
1928: Jeanne Moreau, French actress
1957: Princess Caroline of Monaco

January 24th in History
1839: Charles Darwin elected member of Royal Society
1848: Gold is first discovered in California,starting the gold rush
1902: Denmark sells Virgin Islands to USA
1924: Russian city of St Petersburg renamed Leningrad
1924: Italian dictator Mussolini disallows non-fascists work union
1935: Canned Beer is sold for the first time, in Virginia (United States)
1978: A Russian satellite accidently crashes in Canada's Northwest Territory
1984: Apple unveils its Macintosh personal computer, the first with a graphical interface
1985: The space shuttle 'Discovery' is launched on its first military mission


January 24th birthdays
1732: Pierre de Beaumarchais, French writer
1862: Edith Wharton, American writer
1917: Ernest Borgnine, American actor
1941: Neil Diamond, American singer/songwriter
1949: John Belushi, American actor
1961: Nastassja Kinski, German actress

January 25th in History
1579: Treaty of Utrecht signed, marks beginning of Dutch Republic
1917: The United States buy the Virgin islands for 25 million dollars
1918: Russia declared a Soviets republic
1924: First modern Winter Olympic games held, in French alps
1955: US and Panama sign canal treaty
1972: World's first kidney and pancreatic tissue transplant carried out in London
1974: Dr Christian Barnard performs a heart transplant, leaving the original heart in place
1992: A selection of America's popular films begins showing on Soviet television
1993: Puerto Rico adds English as its second official language


January 25th birthdays
1759: Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet
1882: Virginia Woolf, English novelist
1928: Eduard Shevardnadze, Soviet politician

January 26th in History
1788: The first English convicts arrive in Australia
1841: Hong Kong becomes a British soverign territory
1905: The world's largest diamond iss found near Pretoria, South Africa
1939: Fascist Franco conquers Barcelona
1945: Soviet forces reach Auschwitz concentration camp
1948: Executive Order981, which puts an end to segregation in US Armed Forces, is signed
1950: India becomes a democratic republic within the Commonwealth
1998: President Clinton goes on TV and says "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."


January 26th birthdays
1714: Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor
1880: Douglas MacArthur, American wartime general
1908: Stephane Grappelli, French jazz violinist
1925: Paul Newman, American Actor and Oscar winner
1928: Roger Vadim, French director
1928: Eartha Kitt, American singer/actress

January 27th in History
1888: National Geographic Society founded in Washington, DC, US.
1924: Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square
1926: US Senate agrees to join World Court
1926: John Baird gives the first public demonstration of the television set.
1967: Three American astronauts killed in an Apollo spacecraft ground test
1967: Treaty banning military use of nuclear weapons in space, signed
1973: US and Vietnam sign cease-fire, ending longest US war


January 27th birthdays
1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer
1832: Lewis Carrol, Author of 'Alice In Wonderland'
1834: Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist

January 28th in History
1918: Leon Trotsky becomes leader of red army
1932: Japanese forces occupy Shanghai, and then goes on to invade the rest of China
1935: Iceland is the first country to legalise abortion
1986: Challenger Space Shuttle explodes 53 seconds after liftoff


January 28th birthdays
1841: Sir Henry Morton Stanley, Sent to find the missing Dr Livingstone
1892: Ernst Lubitsch, German actor
1912: Jackson Pollock, American painter
1936: Alan Alda, American actor
1948: Mikhail Baryshnikov, Soviet ballet dancer

January 29th in History
1834: President Jackson orders first use of US troops to suppress a labor dispute
1933: German President von Hindenburg makes big mistake, appoints Hitler chancellor
1969: Britain refused entry into the European Economic Community
1978: Sweden is the first country to introduce a law banning the use of aerosol sprays harmful to the ozone layer


January 29th birthdays
1737: Thomas Paine, American writer
1866: Romain Rolland, French writer
1867: Vicente Blasco Ibanez, Spanish writer
1879: W.C Fields, Stage and film comedian
1908: Adam Clayton Powell, American politician
1913: Victor Mature, American actor
1923: Paddy Chayevsky, American writer

January 30th in History
1781: US articles of Confederation ratified by 13th state, Maryland
1815: Burned Library of Congress reestablished with Jefferson's personal library containing 1500 volumes
1979: Rhodesian whites vote to transfer to majority rule


January 30th birthdays
1882: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Former (32nd) American President
1927: Olof Palme, Swedish prime minister
1931: Gene Hackman, American stage and 'Oscar' winning screen actor
1937: Vanessa Redgrave, Stage and screen actress
1937: Boris Spassky, Soviet chess champion