1490 – Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
1570 – Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City’s only physician, Joost Sweiter, “because he is a Jew”
1642 – King Charles I with 400 soldiers attacks the English parliament
1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government
1861 – President Buchanan appoints a fast on account of threatened succession
1893 – US President Harrison grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
1896 – Utah became the 45th U.S. state.
1902 – The French Panama Canal Company offers to sell its right to build a canal to the US for 40 million, tipping the balance away from those favoring a canal through Nicaragua
1903 – Topsy the elephant is electrocuted by her owners at Luna Park, Coney Island and filmed by Edison Manufacturing movie company [1]
1904 – In ‘Gonzales v Williams’, the US Supreme Court rules that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and may not be refused admission into continental United States; not until 1917 will citizenship rights be granted
1923 – Lenin’s “Political Testament” calls for removal of Stalin
1948 – Britain granted independence to Burma.
1951 – During the Korean conflict, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.
1958 – NZ team led by Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole, the 1st to reach the Pole overland using motor vehicles and the 1st since Amundsen in 1911 and Scott in 1912
1965 – In his State of the Union address, U.S. President Johnson proclaimed the building of the “Great Society.”
1971 – Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
1974 – U.S. President Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1981 – British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the “Yorkshire Ripper”
1983 – US Football League holds its 1st player draft
1991 – The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to condemn Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
1998 – A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
1999 – Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.
2007 – Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. She was the first woman to hold the position.
2010 – The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from its list of communicable diseases of public health significance.
2018 – ‘Bomb Cyclone’ hits US Northeast prompting flooding and snow in New York subway system
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
