166: Death of St. Polycarp
404: Death of St. Paula
724: Death of Caliph Yazid II (of grief over the death of his favorite singing girl)
1100: Death of St. Eystein of Norway 1
1266: Charles of Anjou becomes King of Sicily
1316: Revolt in Wales by Llywelyn Bren
1347: University of Prague authorized by the Pope
1500: Vincent Pizon, captain of the "Nina", discovers the Amazon River & Brazil
1531: An earthquake strikes Lisbon, Portugal
1611: Maximilien de Bethune resigns as French Finance Minister
1630: Death of Henry Briggs, Eng. mathematician, inventor of long division
1715: French philosopher Claude Helvetius born
1763: King of Sweden & Norway Charles XIV French (1818-44) born
1784: In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as the symbol of America, and expressed his own preference: the turkey
1788: The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney
1790: The comic opera, "Cosi fan tutte", premiered in Vienna. It was a success, which probably made Mozart's 34th birthday, the next day, a quite festive occasion
1802: Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the US Capitol
1802: The Cisalpine Republic was renamed the Italian Republic with Napoleon Bonaparte as president
1804: Novelist Eugene "Marie Joseph" Sue France born
1826: Julia Dent Grant, First Lady and wife of Ulysses Grant. born
1827: Peru ended its union with Colombia and declared independence
1831: Writer Mary Mapes (Hans Brinker & the Silver Skates) born
1837: Michigan became the 26th state with signing bill by President Jackson
1841: The British flag was raised on Hong Kong island, six days after China had agreed to cede it to Britain
1852: Explorer Pierre Brazza (colonial administrator - French Africa) born
1861: Louisiana seceded from the Union
1863: President Lincoln names General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac
1870: Virginia rejoined the Union
1875: George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan, patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth
1880: U.S. General of WWII Gen. Douglas MacArthur born
1891: Nikolaus August Otto, the German engineer and developer of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, died
1893: Bessie Coleman, 1st black airplane pilot born
1905: The world's largest diamond, the Cullinan, was discovered near Pretoria, weighing 3,106 carats
1906: The first General Assembly of the Church of God convened
1907: Congress outlaws direct corporate campaign contributions
1911: The Richard Strauss opera "Der Rosenkavalier" premiered in Dresden, Germany
1912: Cora Baird puppeteer with husband Bill Baird Marionettes born
1913: Actor William Prince (Destination Tokyo,The Taking of Beverly Hills, Spies Like Us) born
1913: Academy Award-winning composer Jimmy Van Heusen (Edward Chester Babcock)(Swinging on a Star,High Hopes, Call Me Irresponsible) born
1913: Jim Thorpe wrote to the chairman of the Amateur Athletic Union and revealed that he had played professional baseball in 1909 and 1910. He returned the two gold medals (decathlon and pentathlon) that he had won in the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. Sixty years later, and twenty years after his death, the AAU restored Jim Thorpe's amateur standing and the Olympic honors
1915: Actor William Hopper (Rebel Without a Cause) born
1918: To promote food conservation during wartime, the U.S. government called for one meatless day, two wheatless days and two porkless days each week
1919: Actor Derek Bond (Nicholas Nickleby, Svengali, The Hand) born
1922: Pianist Page (Walter) Cavanaugh (Page Cavanaugh Trio Much I Love You) born
1922: Ralph Vaughan Williams's Third Symphony, the "Pastoral," was premiered in London under the baton of Adrian Boult
1923: Actress Ann (Carmichael) Jeffreys (Dick Tracy) born
1924: Petrograd is renamed Leningrad
1925: Actor Paul Newman (The Color of Money, Cool Hand Luke, Hud, The Sting, The Hudsucker Proxy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict) born
1925: Actress (Agnes Brodell) Joan Leslie (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Rhapsody in Blue, Born to be Bad, High Sierra) born
1928: Singer Eartha Kitt (remember I stated earlier that her actual birthdate is 1/17/27) born
1928: Movie director Roger Vadim (Barbarella, And God Created Woman born
1929: Pulitzer prize-winning Cartoonist Jules Feiffer born
1931: Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison to hold talks with the government during his civil disobedience campaign
1932: Sportscaster-actor Bob Uecker born
1934: Roy Harris's "1933" Symphony was premiered by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
1934: The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City as a 'Negro vaudeville theatre'
1936: Franco and his forces captured Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War
1940: Museum of Modern Art in New York receives works by Botticelli,Raphael and Michelangelo on loan from Italy
1942: Actor Scott Glenn born
1942: The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War Two went ashore in Northern Ireland
1943: Singer Jean Knight born
1943: Soviet troops defeat all but 12,000 Germans trapped at Stalingrad and free three of the main railways
1944: Activist Angela Davis born
1946: Movie critic Gene Siskel born
1949: Actor David Strathairn born
1950: India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president
1951: Washington freezes prices and wages in order to curb inflation
1951: The Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Mississippi became the first Jewish congregation to allow women to perform the functions of a rabbi
1953: Singer Lucinda Williams born
1956: The Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
1956: Buddy Holly had his first of three 1956 recording sessions for Decca Records and producer, Owen Bradley, in Nashville
1957: Rock singer-musician Eddie Van Halen born
1958: Singer Anita Baker (Sweet Love, Rhythm of Love) born
1958: Supposed actress-comedian Ellen DeGeneres born
1960: Pete Rozelle was elected commissioner of the National Football League. He stayed there for more than 25 years
1961: Hockey star Wayne Gretzky born
1961: President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell (Mrs. John Powell) as the first woman to hold the post of 'personal physician to the President'
1962: The United States launched the Ranger III spacecraft to land scientific instruments on the moon -- but the probe missed its target by some 22,000 miles
1963: Musician Andrew Ridgeley (Wham!) born
1963: Rhythm-and-blues singer (Beresford Romeo) Jazzie B. (Soul II Soul) born
1964: Eighty-four people are arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta
1965: Hindi became the official language of India leading to riots in the south of the country. The following month the government announced that English would continue as an associate official language
1965: Premier Hassan Ali Mansour of Iran dies of an assassin's bullet
1966: Jane Nartare Beaumont (9), Arnna Kathleen Beaumont (7), and Grant Ellis Beaumont (4) disappeared without a trace from a beach near Adelaide, Australia
1969: California is declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides
1970: Gospel singer Kirk Franklin born
1972: Ya Kid K born
1973: Edward G. Robinson, the U.S. film actor, died
1979: Former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller died in New York at age 70
1980: Six Americans who were hidden for three months in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran were smuggled out of Iran by Canadian diplomats
1985: Pope John Paul II arrived in Caracas, Venezuela, to begin a tour of South America
1986: Yoweri Museveni triumphed after a five-year guerrilla war in Uganda against former military ruler Tito Okello
1988: Australians celebrated the 200th anniversary of their country as a grand parade of tall ships sailed in Sydney Harbor, re-enacting the voyage of the first European settlers and a re-enactment of the arrival first shipload of prisoners from England
1988: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Phantom of the Opera" opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater
1989: L. Douglas Wilder, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, launched his successful campaign to become the first elected black governor of a US state
1990: Hurricane-force winds pounded the British Isles and much of Northern Europe, killing 92 people and knocking out power to nearly 1 million people
1990: Attorneys for deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega challenged the jurisdiction of the U.S. court system to try their client on drug-trafficking charges, and said Noriega should be declared a prisoner of war
1991: Iraq fired Scuds at Israel and Saudi Arabia, but most were intercepted by Patriot missiles
1991: The Chinese student leader Wang Dan was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the 1989 pro-democracy movement
1991: An estimated 200- to 300,000 people across the country demonstrated in support of, or in opposition to, Operation Desert Storm
1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev granted the KGB and Soviet Interior Ministry sweeping search-and-seizure powers to combat economic crime
1993: UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called on the Security Council to take "whatever measures are necessary" to compel Israel to readmit 400 deported Palestinians
1993: A federal court jury in Midland, Texas, awarded $200,000 to a San Antonio man who claimed actress Zsa Zsa Gabor reneged on a contract to spend a weekend mingling with ordinary people who'd paid money for the privilege
1993: Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic
1994: Romania became the first former Cold War foe of NATO to sign a partnership document with the military alliance
1994: A scare occurred during a visit to Sydney, Australia, by Britain's Prince Charles as a young man lunged at the prince, firing two blank shots from a starter's pistol
1994: Russian President Boris Yeltsin accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov, who warned of economic collapse and social unrest
1995: The House passed a constitutional amendment that'd require Congress, beginning in 2002, to approve a federal budget that was balanced
1996: The U.S. Senate ratified SALT II. President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin had signed the arms reduction agreement three years before
1996: Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury connected to the Whitewater probe
1996: Hours before a midnight deadline, a confrontation-weary Congress voted to avert a third federal shutdown and finance dozens of agencies for seven more weeks
1996: Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz was fatally shot at the suburban Philadelphia estate of John E. du Pont; du Pont surrendered 48 hours later
1997: The Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-to-21 to win their first Super Bowl in 29 years
1998: President Clinton forcefully and with anger denied having an affair with a White House intern, telling reporters, "I want to say one thing to the American people ... I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Clinton also said he "never told anybody to lie."
1998: Stung by a drop in profits, AT&T said it would cut at least 15,000 jobs, freeze executive salaries and shake up management to reduce costs
1998: Hundreds of people were evacuated as floodwaters swamped an Australian outback town. Police and emergency service personnel moved about 600 people to higher ground around the Northern Territory town of Katherine, saying the floods could prove to be the worst in 40 years
1998: A pack of wild monkeys swooped down and attacked people in a Japanese seaside town, injuring 26 people. The monkeys appeared in gardens and streets, biting people in the back and legs. The injuries were slight and all of the victims received injections for rabies
1999: Jordan's King Hussein turned over the temporary operation of his country to his eldest son and flew back to the United States for urgent medical care
1999: President Clinton welcomed a frail Pope John Paul the Second as the pontiff began his seventh pilgrimage to the United States in St. Louis
2000: Tennis great Don Budge, who in 1938 became the first Grand Slam winner, died in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at age 84
2000: The botched saga of Elian continues as the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez hugged and kissed the six-year-old boy during a tense, 90-minute meeting in Miami Beach, Florida, that had been arranged by the U-S government
2005: Sun donates Solaris operating system, 1,600 patents to community
2005: Rice new Secretary of State
2005: MST creates Marxist school in Brazil
2005: The British referendum question is published today
2005: Sharon to open discussion with Abbas
2005: Bush requests $80bn to pay for on-going military operations
2005: Expedition 10 completes first spacewalk
2005: White House cuts Hubble from budget
2005: People killed as three trains crash in Los Angeles
2005: Iraq: Marines killed in helicopter crash
2005: Distributed computing climate change model gives bleak results
2005: ESA's Smart-1 takes its first close-up images of the Moon
2005: Condoleezza Rice confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State by Senate vote
2005: China commutes Tibetan monk's death sentence
2005: Zhao Ziyang's funeral scheduled for Saturday
2006: Rural Victorian fires worsen
2006: US ambassador links India's civil nuclear initiative to Iran vote
2006: Hamas wins Palestinian election
2006: Thai government reportedly planning Internet censorship
2006: Microsoft to licence Windows source code
2006: New Canadian leader vows to push Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic Passage
2006: Michael Jackson shops in women's clothes
2007: Labatt USA to move headquarters to Buffalo, New York
2007: Mummified baby found In Florida self-storage unit
2007: US soldier in the Philippines apprehended for violating gun ban
2007: Nicole Kidman injured during movie stunt
2007: New host announced for Netball World Championships
2007: Four women killed in Papua New Guinea witchhunt
2007: Yahoo's new Internet ad sales system is a progress
2007: Black Box from missing Indonesian plane may have been found
2007: Microsoft sales go higher than expected in last quarter
2007: Locals and officer claim to have seen a UFO in Charlotte, North Carolina
2007: Carbon monoxide protects against paralysis in MS mice
2007: Aussies ignore flag ban at Big Day Out festival
2007: Series of earthquakes hit Taiwan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Indonesia
2007: Snow falls in New Mexico
2008: British Airways Flight 38 investigation focuses on fuel system
2008: Australia to withdraw troops from Iraq this year
2008: Iraqi PM al-Maliki announces "decisive" offensive against al-Qaeda
2008: 16-year-old arrested over alleged plot to hijack US airliner
2008: George Bush announces trip to Africa
2008: Underdogs beaten by Liverpool in FA Cup
2008: Guyana shooting is country's worst in 30 years
2009: Bolivia's Evo Morales wins referendum on a new leftist constitution
2009: Republican leaders in US want more tax relief in economic stimulus
2009: Sumo: Asashoryu wins New Year Grand Tournament
2009: Death sentences in 2008 Chinese tainted milk scandal
2009: BBC and Sky networks reject Gaza appeal
2009: Confusion over British cannabis status
2010: Unreported tainted milk incident publicised in China
2010: Apple, Inc. has record quarter profits
2010: EU to send police officers to Haiti
2010: Man throws shoe at President of Sudan during public conference
2010: 2,000 stranded in Machu Picchu, Peru after torrential rains
2010: Italian chocolatemaker Ferrero rules out buying UK's Cadbury
2010: UK mother cleared of attempted murder of ME-suffering daughter
2010: One killed, one injured as vehicle crashes into tree in Worcestershire, England
2010: Two injured in two car crash on Isle of Man
2010: European Union offers to train Somali troops as fighting breaks out
2010: Canadian diplomat and whistleblower Richard Colvin files complaint against Harper government
2010: Interview: PRS, the UK's music royalty collection society
2010: Pakistan security forces airstrikes kill several Taliban militants
2010: Scientists improve cancer research techniques
2010: UK economy grows in last quarter of 2009; recession ends
2010: John Constable painting location mystery solved after 195 years
2010: Mayor of Camden, London, arrested in benefit fraud inquiry
2010: Marine scientist says Australia's blobfish faces extinction
2010: Two killed, two seriously injured after boulder collapses onto house in Stein an der Traun, Germany
2010: Anglican bishop abducted in Nigeria
2010: World-record wind speed confirmed
2010: Wales railway upgrade proposals would cost £5bn, says expert
2010: Officials say crashed Ethiopian plane didn't follow suggested tower directions
2010: Dubai World refused permission to use QE2 as floating hotel in Cape Town
2010: French MPs call for ban on veils for Muslim women
2010: British military secrets leaked on social networking sites
2010: Cricket: 'Politicians and Pals' defeat Buderim XI in Australia Day Twenty20 match
2010: Welsh air route in difficulties, call for funding cut
2010: 'Avatar' becomes highest-grossing film of all time
404: Death of St. Paula
724: Death of Caliph Yazid II (of grief over the death of his favorite singing girl)
1100: Death of St. Eystein of Norway 1
1266: Charles of Anjou becomes King of Sicily
1316: Revolt in Wales by Llywelyn Bren
1347: University of Prague authorized by the Pope
1500: Vincent Pizon, captain of the "Nina", discovers the Amazon River & Brazil
1531: An earthquake strikes Lisbon, Portugal
1611: Maximilien de Bethune resigns as French Finance Minister
1630: Death of Henry Briggs, Eng. mathematician, inventor of long division
1715: French philosopher Claude Helvetius born
1763: King of Sweden & Norway Charles XIV French (1818-44) born
1784: In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the choice of the eagle as the symbol of America, and expressed his own preference: the turkey
1788: The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney
1790: The comic opera, "Cosi fan tutte", premiered in Vienna. It was a success, which probably made Mozart's 34th birthday, the next day, a quite festive occasion
1802: Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the US Capitol
1802: The Cisalpine Republic was renamed the Italian Republic with Napoleon Bonaparte as president
1804: Novelist Eugene "Marie Joseph" Sue France born
1826: Julia Dent Grant, First Lady and wife of Ulysses Grant. born
1827: Peru ended its union with Colombia and declared independence
1831: Writer Mary Mapes (Hans Brinker & the Silver Skates) born
1837: Michigan became the 26th state with signing bill by President Jackson
1841: The British flag was raised on Hong Kong island, six days after China had agreed to cede it to Britain
1852: Explorer Pierre Brazza (colonial administrator - French Africa) born
1861: Louisiana seceded from the Union
1863: President Lincoln names General Joseph Hooker to replace Burnside as commander of the Army of the Potomac
1870: Virginia rejoined the Union
1875: George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan, patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth
1880: U.S. General of WWII Gen. Douglas MacArthur born
1891: Nikolaus August Otto, the German engineer and developer of the four-stroke internal combustion engine, died
1893: Bessie Coleman, 1st black airplane pilot born
1905: The world's largest diamond, the Cullinan, was discovered near Pretoria, weighing 3,106 carats
1906: The first General Assembly of the Church of God convened
1907: Congress outlaws direct corporate campaign contributions
1911: The Richard Strauss opera "Der Rosenkavalier" premiered in Dresden, Germany
1912: Cora Baird puppeteer with husband Bill Baird Marionettes born
1913: Actor William Prince (Destination Tokyo,The Taking of Beverly Hills, Spies Like Us) born
1913: Academy Award-winning composer Jimmy Van Heusen (Edward Chester Babcock)(Swinging on a Star,High Hopes, Call Me Irresponsible) born
1913: Jim Thorpe wrote to the chairman of the Amateur Athletic Union and revealed that he had played professional baseball in 1909 and 1910. He returned the two gold medals (decathlon and pentathlon) that he had won in the 1912 Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. Sixty years later, and twenty years after his death, the AAU restored Jim Thorpe's amateur standing and the Olympic honors
1915: Actor William Hopper (Rebel Without a Cause) born
1918: To promote food conservation during wartime, the U.S. government called for one meatless day, two wheatless days and two porkless days each week
1919: Actor Derek Bond (Nicholas Nickleby, Svengali, The Hand) born
1922: Pianist Page (Walter) Cavanaugh (Page Cavanaugh Trio Much I Love You) born
1922: Ralph Vaughan Williams's Third Symphony, the "Pastoral," was premiered in London under the baton of Adrian Boult
1923: Actress Ann (Carmichael) Jeffreys (Dick Tracy) born
1924: Petrograd is renamed Leningrad
1925: Actor Paul Newman (The Color of Money, Cool Hand Luke, Hud, The Sting, The Hudsucker Proxy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Verdict) born
1925: Actress (Agnes Brodell) Joan Leslie (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Rhapsody in Blue, Born to be Bad, High Sierra) born
1928: Singer Eartha Kitt (remember I stated earlier that her actual birthdate is 1/17/27) born
1928: Movie director Roger Vadim (Barbarella, And God Created Woman born
1929: Pulitzer prize-winning Cartoonist Jules Feiffer born
1931: Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison to hold talks with the government during his civil disobedience campaign
1932: Sportscaster-actor Bob Uecker born
1934: Roy Harris's "1933" Symphony was premiered by Serge Koussevitsky and the Boston Symphony Orchestra
1934: The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City as a 'Negro vaudeville theatre'
1936: Franco and his forces captured Barcelona in the Spanish Civil War
1940: Museum of Modern Art in New York receives works by Botticelli,Raphael and Michelangelo on loan from Italy
1942: Actor Scott Glenn born
1942: The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War Two went ashore in Northern Ireland
1943: Singer Jean Knight born
1943: Soviet troops defeat all but 12,000 Germans trapped at Stalingrad and free three of the main railways
1944: Activist Angela Davis born
1946: Movie critic Gene Siskel born
1949: Actor David Strathairn born
1950: India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president
1951: Washington freezes prices and wages in order to curb inflation
1951: The Temple Beth Israel of Meridian, Mississippi became the first Jewish congregation to allow women to perform the functions of a rabbi
1953: Singer Lucinda Williams born
1956: The Winter Olympics open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
1956: Buddy Holly had his first of three 1956 recording sessions for Decca Records and producer, Owen Bradley, in Nashville
1957: Rock singer-musician Eddie Van Halen born
1958: Singer Anita Baker (Sweet Love, Rhythm of Love) born
1958: Supposed actress-comedian Ellen DeGeneres born
1960: Pete Rozelle was elected commissioner of the National Football League. He stayed there for more than 25 years
1961: Hockey star Wayne Gretzky born
1961: President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell (Mrs. John Powell) as the first woman to hold the post of 'personal physician to the President'
1962: The United States launched the Ranger III spacecraft to land scientific instruments on the moon -- but the probe missed its target by some 22,000 miles
1963: Musician Andrew Ridgeley (Wham!) born
1963: Rhythm-and-blues singer (Beresford Romeo) Jazzie B. (Soul II Soul) born
1964: Eighty-four people are arrested in a segregation protest in Atlanta
1965: Hindi became the official language of India leading to riots in the south of the country. The following month the government announced that English would continue as an associate official language
1965: Premier Hassan Ali Mansour of Iran dies of an assassin's bullet
1966: Jane Nartare Beaumont (9), Arnna Kathleen Beaumont (7), and Grant Ellis Beaumont (4) disappeared without a trace from a beach near Adelaide, Australia
1969: California is declared a disaster area after two days of flooding and mud slides
1970: Gospel singer Kirk Franklin born
1972: Ya Kid K born
1973: Edward G. Robinson, the U.S. film actor, died
1979: Former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller died in New York at age 70
1980: Six Americans who were hidden for three months in the Canadian Embassy in Tehran were smuggled out of Iran by Canadian diplomats
1985: Pope John Paul II arrived in Caracas, Venezuela, to begin a tour of South America
1986: Yoweri Museveni triumphed after a five-year guerrilla war in Uganda against former military ruler Tito Okello
1988: Australians celebrated the 200th anniversary of their country as a grand parade of tall ships sailed in Sydney Harbor, re-enacting the voyage of the first European settlers and a re-enactment of the arrival first shipload of prisoners from England
1988: The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Phantom of the Opera" opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater
1989: L. Douglas Wilder, the lieutenant governor of Virginia, launched his successful campaign to become the first elected black governor of a US state
1990: Hurricane-force winds pounded the British Isles and much of Northern Europe, killing 92 people and knocking out power to nearly 1 million people
1990: Attorneys for deposed Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega challenged the jurisdiction of the U.S. court system to try their client on drug-trafficking charges, and said Noriega should be declared a prisoner of war
1991: Iraq fired Scuds at Israel and Saudi Arabia, but most were intercepted by Patriot missiles
1991: The Chinese student leader Wang Dan was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the 1989 pro-democracy movement
1991: An estimated 200- to 300,000 people across the country demonstrated in support of, or in opposition to, Operation Desert Storm
1991: Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev granted the KGB and Soviet Interior Ministry sweeping search-and-seizure powers to combat economic crime
1993: UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali called on the Security Council to take "whatever measures are necessary" to compel Israel to readmit 400 deported Palestinians
1993: A federal court jury in Midland, Texas, awarded $200,000 to a San Antonio man who claimed actress Zsa Zsa Gabor reneged on a contract to spend a weekend mingling with ordinary people who'd paid money for the privilege
1993: Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic
1994: Romania became the first former Cold War foe of NATO to sign a partnership document with the military alliance
1994: A scare occurred during a visit to Sydney, Australia, by Britain's Prince Charles as a young man lunged at the prince, firing two blank shots from a starter's pistol
1994: Russian President Boris Yeltsin accepted the resignation of Finance Minister Boris Fyodorov, who warned of economic collapse and social unrest
1995: The House passed a constitutional amendment that'd require Congress, beginning in 2002, to approve a federal budget that was balanced
1996: The U.S. Senate ratified SALT II. President Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin had signed the arms reduction agreement three years before
1996: Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury connected to the Whitewater probe
1996: Hours before a midnight deadline, a confrontation-weary Congress voted to avert a third federal shutdown and finance dozens of agencies for seven more weeks
1996: Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz was fatally shot at the suburban Philadelphia estate of John E. du Pont; du Pont surrendered 48 hours later
1997: The Green Bay Packers beat the New England Patriots 35-to-21 to win their first Super Bowl in 29 years
1998: President Clinton forcefully and with anger denied having an affair with a White House intern, telling reporters, "I want to say one thing to the American people ... I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky," Clinton also said he "never told anybody to lie."
1998: Stung by a drop in profits, AT&T said it would cut at least 15,000 jobs, freeze executive salaries and shake up management to reduce costs
1998: Hundreds of people were evacuated as floodwaters swamped an Australian outback town. Police and emergency service personnel moved about 600 people to higher ground around the Northern Territory town of Katherine, saying the floods could prove to be the worst in 40 years
1998: A pack of wild monkeys swooped down and attacked people in a Japanese seaside town, injuring 26 people. The monkeys appeared in gardens and streets, biting people in the back and legs. The injuries were slight and all of the victims received injections for rabies
1999: Jordan's King Hussein turned over the temporary operation of his country to his eldest son and flew back to the United States for urgent medical care
1999: President Clinton welcomed a frail Pope John Paul the Second as the pontiff began his seventh pilgrimage to the United States in St. Louis
2000: Tennis great Don Budge, who in 1938 became the first Grand Slam winner, died in Scranton, Pennsylvania, at age 84
2000: The botched saga of Elian continues as the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez hugged and kissed the six-year-old boy during a tense, 90-minute meeting in Miami Beach, Florida, that had been arranged by the U-S government
2005: Sun donates Solaris operating system, 1,600 patents to community
2005: Rice new Secretary of State
2005: MST creates Marxist school in Brazil
2005: The British referendum question is published today
2005: Sharon to open discussion with Abbas
2005: Bush requests $80bn to pay for on-going military operations
2005: Expedition 10 completes first spacewalk
2005: White House cuts Hubble from budget
2005: People killed as three trains crash in Los Angeles
2005: Iraq: Marines killed in helicopter crash
2005: Distributed computing climate change model gives bleak results
2005: ESA's Smart-1 takes its first close-up images of the Moon
2005: Condoleezza Rice confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State by Senate vote
2005: China commutes Tibetan monk's death sentence
2005: Zhao Ziyang's funeral scheduled for Saturday
2006: Rural Victorian fires worsen
2006: US ambassador links India's civil nuclear initiative to Iran vote
2006: Hamas wins Palestinian election
2006: Thai government reportedly planning Internet censorship
2006: Microsoft to licence Windows source code
2006: New Canadian leader vows to push Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic Passage
2006: Michael Jackson shops in women's clothes
2007: Labatt USA to move headquarters to Buffalo, New York
2007: Mummified baby found In Florida self-storage unit
2007: US soldier in the Philippines apprehended for violating gun ban
2007: Nicole Kidman injured during movie stunt
2007: New host announced for Netball World Championships
2007: Four women killed in Papua New Guinea witchhunt
2007: Yahoo's new Internet ad sales system is a progress
2007: Black Box from missing Indonesian plane may have been found
2007: Microsoft sales go higher than expected in last quarter
2007: Locals and officer claim to have seen a UFO in Charlotte, North Carolina
2007: Carbon monoxide protects against paralysis in MS mice
2007: Aussies ignore flag ban at Big Day Out festival
2007: Series of earthquakes hit Taiwan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Indonesia
2007: Snow falls in New Mexico
2008: British Airways Flight 38 investigation focuses on fuel system
2008: Australia to withdraw troops from Iraq this year
2008: Iraqi PM al-Maliki announces "decisive" offensive against al-Qaeda
2008: 16-year-old arrested over alleged plot to hijack US airliner
2008: George Bush announces trip to Africa
2008: Underdogs beaten by Liverpool in FA Cup
2008: Guyana shooting is country's worst in 30 years
2009: Bolivia's Evo Morales wins referendum on a new leftist constitution
2009: Republican leaders in US want more tax relief in economic stimulus
2009: Sumo: Asashoryu wins New Year Grand Tournament
2009: Death sentences in 2008 Chinese tainted milk scandal
2009: BBC and Sky networks reject Gaza appeal
2009: Confusion over British cannabis status
2010: Unreported tainted milk incident publicised in China
2010: Apple, Inc. has record quarter profits
2010: EU to send police officers to Haiti
2010: Man throws shoe at President of Sudan during public conference
2010: 2,000 stranded in Machu Picchu, Peru after torrential rains
2010: Italian chocolatemaker Ferrero rules out buying UK's Cadbury
2010: UK mother cleared of attempted murder of ME-suffering daughter
2010: One killed, one injured as vehicle crashes into tree in Worcestershire, England
2010: Two injured in two car crash on Isle of Man
2010: European Union offers to train Somali troops as fighting breaks out
2010: Canadian diplomat and whistleblower Richard Colvin files complaint against Harper government
2010: Interview: PRS, the UK's music royalty collection society
2010: Pakistan security forces airstrikes kill several Taliban militants
2010: Scientists improve cancer research techniques
2010: UK economy grows in last quarter of 2009; recession ends
2010: John Constable painting location mystery solved after 195 years
2010: Mayor of Camden, London, arrested in benefit fraud inquiry
2010: Marine scientist says Australia's blobfish faces extinction
2010: Two killed, two seriously injured after boulder collapses onto house in Stein an der Traun, Germany
2010: Anglican bishop abducted in Nigeria
2010: World-record wind speed confirmed
2010: Wales railway upgrade proposals would cost £5bn, says expert
2010: Officials say crashed Ethiopian plane didn't follow suggested tower directions
2010: Dubai World refused permission to use QE2 as floating hotel in Cape Town
2010: French MPs call for ban on veils for Muslim women
2010: British military secrets leaked on social networking sites
2010: Cricket: 'Politicians and Pals' defeat Buderim XI in Australia Day Twenty20 match
2010: Welsh air route in difficulties, call for funding cut
2010: 'Avatar' becomes highest-grossing film of all time
