January 3
Events
Pre-1600
- 69 - The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor.
- 250 - Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire to make sacrifices to the Roman gods.
- 1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1601–1900
- 1653 - By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
- 1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
- 1749 - The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
- 1777 - American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeat British forces at the Battle of Princeton, helping boost patriot morale.
- 1815 - Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
- 1833 - Captain James Onslow, in the Clio, reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
- 1848 - Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
- 1868 - Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
- 1870 - Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, United States.
- 1871 - In the Battle of Bapaume, an engagement in the Franco-Prussian War, General Louis Faidherbe's forces bring about a Prussian retreat.
- 1885 - Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop.
1901–present
- 1911 - A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
- 1911 - A gun battle in the East End of London leaves two dead. It sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.
- 1913 - An Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading for a non-tropical system in the continental United States.
- 1913 - First Balkan War: Greece completes its capture of the eastern Aegean island of Chios, as the last Ottoman forces on the island surrender.
- 1920 - Over 640 are killed after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes the Mexican states Puebla and Veracruz.
- 1933 - Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
- 1944 - World War II: US flying ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
- 1946 - Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf suffers a concussion during a freak racing accident; he dies from the injury the following day. The annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
- 1947 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
- 1949 - The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
- 1953 - Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
- 1956 - A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
- 1957 - The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- 1961 - Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
- 1961 - The SL-1 nuclear reactor, near Idaho Falls, Idaho, is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.
- 1961 - A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
- 1961 - Aero Flight 311 crashes into the forest in Kvevlax, Finland, killing 25 people.
- 1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
- 1976 - The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, comes into force.
- 1977 - Apple Computer is incorporated.
- 1987 - Varig Flight 797 crashes near Akouré in the Ivory Coast, resulting in 50 deaths.
- 1990 - United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
- 1992 - CommutAir Flight 4821 crashes on approach to Adirondack Regional Airport, in Saranac Lake, New York, killing two people.
- 1993 - In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
- 1994 - Baikal Airlines Flight 130 crashes near Mamoney, Irkutsk, Russia, resulting in 125 deaths.
- 1999 - The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.
- 2002 - Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
- 2004 - Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history.
- 2009 - The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
- 2015 - Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.
- 2016 - In response to the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
- 2018 - For the first time in history, all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm.
- 2019 - Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover.
- 2020 - Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict.
- 2023 - Singapore's Jurong Bird Park permanently closes.
- 2024 - At least 91 people are killed in bombings in Kerman, Iran, during a ceremony commemorating the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani four years earlier.
- 2026 - The United States conducts airstrikes across northern Venezuela, including the capital Caracas and captures Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores.
Births
Pre-1600
- 106 BC - Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician
- 1509 - Gian Girolamo Albani, Italian cardinal
1601–1900
- 1611 - James Harrington, English political theorist
- 1698 - Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet and songwriter
- 1710 - Richard Gridley, American soldier and engineer
- 1722 - Fredrik Hasselqvist, Swedish biologist and explorer
- 1731 - Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman
- 1760 - Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian ruler
- 1775 - Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont
- 1778 - Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish archbishop
- 1793 - Lucretia Mott, American activist
- 1802 - Charles Pelham Villiers, English lawyer and politician
- 1803 - Douglas William Jerrold, English journalist and playwright
- 1806 - Henriette Sontag, German soprano and actress
- 1810 - Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, French geographer, ethnologist, linguist, and astronomer
- 1816 - Samuel C. Pomeroy, American businessman and politician
- 1819 - Charles Piazzi Smyth, Italian-Scottish astronomer and academic
- 1831 - Savitribai Phule, Indian poet, educator, and activist
- 1836 - Sakamoto Ryōma, Japanese samurai and rebel leader
- 1840 - Father Damien, Flemish priest and missionary
- 1847 - Ettore Marchiafava, Italian physician
- 1853 - Sophie Elkan, Swedish writer
- 1855 - Hubert Bland, English businessman
- 1861 - Ernest Renshaw, English tennis player
- 1861 - William Renshaw, English tennis player
- 1862 - Matthew Nathan, English soldier and politician, 13th Governor of Queensland
- 1865 - Henry Lytton, English actor
- 1870 - Henry Handel Richardson, Australian-English author
- 1873 - Ichizō Kobayashi, Japanese businessman and art collector, founded the Hankyu Hanshin Holdings
- 1876 - Wilhelm Pieck, German carpenter and politician, 1st President of the German Democratic Republic
- 1877 - Josephine Hull, American actress
- 1880 - Francis Browne, Irish Jesuit priest and photographer
- 1883 - Clement Attlee, English soldier, lawyer, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
- 1883 - Duncan Gillis, Canadian discus thrower and hammer thrower
- 1884 - Raoul Koczalski, Polish pianist and composer
- 1885 - Harry Elkins Widener, American businessman
- 1886 - John Gould Fletcher, American poet and author
- 1886 - Arthur Mailey, Australian cricketer
- 1887 - August Macke, German-French painter
- 1892 - J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer, poet, and philologist
- 1894 - ZaSu Pitts, American actress
- 1897 - Eithne Coyle, Irish republican revolutionary,
- 1897 - Marion Davies, American actress and comedian
- 1898 - Carolyn Haywood, American author and illustrator
- 1900 - Donald J. Russell, American businessman