1967 – At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.
0098 – Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.
0661 – The 4th Caliph of the Rashidun Caliphate, Ali ibn Abu Talib is struck on the head while praying at the Great Mosque of Kufa, Mesopotamia by a poison-coated sword wielded by Ibn Muljam a Kharijite, dies two days later
1186 – Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, weds Constance of Sicily.
1302 – Dante becomes a Florentine political exile
1416 – Republic of Dubrovnik, as a first state in Europe, outlaw slavery
1591 – Scottish schoolmaster Dr. John Fian burned for witchcraft at Castle Hill, Edinburgh by order King James VI. Part of the Berwick witch trials.
1593 – Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno
1606 – The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.
1649 – English High Court of Justice finds King Charles I “guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, did judge him tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of the nation, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body”
1671 – Pirate Henry Morgen lands at Panama City
1695 – Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his death in 1703.
1710 – Czar Peter the Great sets first Russian state budget
1825 – U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears.”
1870 – Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, IN.
1888 – The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.
1900 – Foreign diplomats in Peking, China, write formal notes of protest demanding that the Chinese Government stop the Boxes and other groups leading attacks on Westerners and Christians.
1914 – A petition is written and submitted by the black and coloured women of the Orange Free State, an independent Boer sovereign republic in southern Africa, against the carrying of passes by women
1916 – Communist party “Spartacus Letters” first published in Berlin
1924 – Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square
1926 – John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.
1927 – United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).
1941 – Peruvian ambassador Ricardo Rivera-Schreiber warns American Ambassador of Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor
1943 – During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked Wilhlemshaven.
1944 – The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.
1945 – World War II: Lt.Col. Mucci comades Army Rangers to liberate the prisoners of the Cabanatuan POW camp
1948 – Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50.
1951 – In the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.
1964 – Margaret Chase Smith (Senator-R-ME) tries for Republican Presidential bid
1967 – At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.
1969 – 9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus Syria
1973 – The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris. Paris Peace Accords signed by US Secretary of State William P. Rogers, (North) Vietnam Minister for Foreign Affairs Nguyen Duy Trinh, Republic of South Vietnam Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyễn Thị Bình, and Republic of Vietnam Minister for Foreign Affairs Trần Văn Lắm, ending America’s then longest war and it’s military draft.
1977 – The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on female priests.
1980 – Robert Mugabe returns to Rhodesia after 5 years in exile
1981 – U.S. President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.
1984 – Carl Lewis beat his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new indoor world record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches.
1985 – The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announced a plan to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union.
1988 – Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves nomination of Judge Anthony M Kennedy to US Supreme Court
1990 – Four top aides of executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu go on trial in Romania, charged with genocide.
1996 – Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was overthrown by a military coup. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara declared himself head of state.
1997 – It was revealed that French national museums were holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II.
1998 – U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC’s “Today” show. She charged that the allegations against her husband were the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
1999 – The U.S. Senate blocked dismissal of the impeachment case against President Clinton and voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses.
2002 – A series of explosions occurred at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 1,000 people were killed in the blast and in the attempt to escape.
2003 – Altria Group, Inc. became the name of the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Capital Corporation.
2007 – Approximately 100,000 protesters converge on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for the January 27, 2007 anti-war protest sponsored by United for Peace and Justice.
2013 – A series of bomb attacks in Kandahar, Afghanistan, kills 20 police officers
2017 – Donald Trump issues executive order banning travel to the US for 7 mostly Muslim countries and suspending admission for refugees
2018 – Bomb in an ambulance kills over 100 people in Kabul, Taliban claim responsibility
2019 – Two bombs at a Roman Catholic cathedral on Jolo Island, southern, Philippines kills 20, Islamic State claims responsibility
2022 – US President Joe Biden pledges to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
