On January 5th...

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1527 Felix Manx, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, Switzerland, was executed by drowning.

1757 King Louis XV of France survived an assassination attempt.

1762 Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia died.

1776 The Assembly of New Hampshire adopted its first state constitution.

1779 American naval hero Stephen Decatur was born.
1779 Zebulon Montgomery Pike, American Army officer and explorer, was born.

1781 A British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Virginia.

1782 Robert Morrison, Protestant missionary to China and translator of the Bible into Chinese, was born.

1794 Edmund Ruffin, agriculturalist and secessionist, was born.

1800 The first Swedenborgian temple in the United States held its first service, in Baltimore, Maryland.

1804 The Ohio Legislature passed the first laws restricting the movements of free blacks.

1809 Britain and France concluded the Treaty of Dardanelles.

1811 Cyrus Hamlin, missionary and educator in Turkey, was born.

1828 The first edition of the Amsterdam General Trade Journal was published.

1841 James Clark Ross became the first to enter pack ice near what is now called the Ross Ice Shelf.

1846 The United States House of Representatives voted to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.

1855 King Gillette, inventor of the safety razor, was born.

1859 Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected Prince of Moldavia.

1861 Alabama troops seized Forts Morgan and Gaines on Mobile Bay.

1875 Federal troops were sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi.

1876 Konrad Adenauer, first Chancellor of West Germany, was born.

1886 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, was published.

1887 The first school of librarianship in the United States opened at Columbia University.

1903 The San Francisco-Hawaii telegraph cable opened for public use.

1905 The National Association of Audubon Society was incorporated.

1909 Colombia recognized Panama's independence.

1911 Portugal expelled the Jesuits.

1912 The first National Hockey Association game was played.

1914 The Ford Motor Company increased wages from $2.40/9-hour day to $5.00/8-hour day.
1914 Actor George Reeves was born.

1917 Actress Jane Wyman was born.

1918 Astrologer Jeane Dixon was born.

1919 The National Socialist (Nazi) Party was formed, as the German Farmers' Party.

1922 Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton died.

1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman Governor of a state (Wyoming).

1927 Fox Studios exhibited Movietone.

1928 Zulfikar Ali Bhuto, President of Pakistan, was born.
1928 Walter Mondale, U. S. Senator and Vice-President, was born.

1931 Lucille Thomas became the first woman to own a baseball team by buying the Topeka franchise in the Western League.
1931 Dancer Alvin Ailey was born.
1931 Actor Robert Duvall was born.

1932 Raisa Gorbachev, First Lady of the Soviet Union, was born.

1933 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began.
1933 Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States, died.

1937 The only unicameral state legislature in the United States (Nebraska) opened its first session.

1938 King Juan Carlos of Spain was born.

1940 FM radio was demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.

1941 Aviator Amy Johnson was killed in a plane crash.

1942 Talk show host Charlie Rose was born.

1943 George Washington Carver, agricultural scientist noted for his work with peanuts, died.

1944 The Daily Mail became the first transoceanic newspaper.

1945 Pepe LePew debuted in the Warner Bros cartoon "Odor-able Kitty."

1946 Actress Diane Katon was born.

1947 Actor Ted Lange was born.

1949 President Harry Truman labeled his administration the "Fair Deal."

1953 Actress Pamela Sue Martin was born.

1959 Marie Torre began a 10-day sentence in the Jersey City, New Jersey, jail for refusing to disclose the source of information she used in a column.
1959 "Bozo the Clown" premiered on television.

1963 Baseball player Rogers Hornsby died.

1968 Alexander Dubcek was elected First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.

1969 Henry Cabot Lodge was named to succeed W. Averell Harriman as chief U.S. negotiator at the Vietnam Peace Talks in Paris, France.
1969 The Soviet Union launched Venus 5 toward Venus.
1969 An Ariana Afghan Airways 727 crashed into a home in Gatwick, England, killing 2 of its 3 occupants and 48 of the 63 persons on the plane.
1969 Singer Marilyn Manson was born.

1970 "All My Children" premiered on ABC-TV.

1972 U. S. President Richard Nixon signed a bill authorizing NASA to begin research on a manned space shuttle.

1974 An earthquake in Lima, Peru, killed six persons.

1975 The British freighter Lake Illawara rammed a pylon bridge between Derwent and Hobarth, Tasmania, and sank, killing 14 persons.
1975 Actor Bradley Cooper was born.

1976 Cambodia renamed itself Democratic Kampuchea.
1976 "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" premiered on PBS.

1981 British police arrested truck driver Peter Sutcliffe, who was subsequently convicted of being the "Yorkshire Ripper."

1982 An Arkansas judge ruled against the mandatory teaching of creation in public schools.

1987 The "Surrogate Baby M" case began in Hackensack, New Jersey.

1989 Two French television newsmen were arrested for trying to plant fake bombs on 3 airplanes at JFK Airport, New York City, New York, in a security test.

1993 Westley Allan Dodd became the first person to be executed by hanging in the United States since 1965, in Washington.
1993The oil tanker MV Braer ran aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands and spilled 84,700 tons of crude oil.

1994 U. S. Congressman Tip O'Neill died.

1995 A Lockheed C-140 Jetstar crashed at Isfahan, Iran, killing 18 persons.

1998 An ice storm knocked out electricity in Quebec and Ontario, Canada.
1998 Singer Sonny Bono died.

2004 Baseball player Tug McGraw died.

2018 Astronaut John Watts Young died.

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This page was last updated on January 06, 2019.