January 20

In astrology, it is the cusp day between Capricorn and Aquarius.

Events

* 250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian was martyred. Afterwards the Donatist controversy over readmitting lapsed Christians disaffects many in North Africa.
*1156 - According to legend, freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
*1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the "Houses of Parliament".
*1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
*1356 - Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.
*1502 - The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored.
*1523 - Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
*1576 - The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almansa.
*1649 - Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes".
*1667 - The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusovo.
*1783 - The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
*1788 - The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides Botany Bay is unsuitable for location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
*1801 - John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.
*1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
*1840 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
* 1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
*1841 - Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
*1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
*1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
*1892 - At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played.
*1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
*1921 - The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.
*1929 - "In Old Arizona", the first full-length talking film filmed outdoors, is released.
*1936 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
*1937 - Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
*1942 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin agree on the "final solution to the Jewish problem".
*1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
*1945 - Hungary ends its involvement in the Second World War, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
*1954 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
*1960 - Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
*1968 - The Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 to win the Game of the Century.
*1969 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
*1981 - Iran releases 52 American hostages twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President.
*1986 - Martin Luther King, Jr., day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
*1987 - Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.
*1990 - Black January - crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
*1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
*1992 - Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 82 passengers and 5 crew.
*1999 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafés.
*2001 - Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in the EDSA II Revolution and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Births

* 225 - Gordian III, Roman Emperor (d. 244)
*1292 - Elisabeth I of Bohemia (d. 1330)
*1358 - Eleanor of Aragon, wife of John I of Castile (d. 1382)
*1435 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shogun (d. 1490)
*1554 - King Sebastian of Portugal (d. 1578)
*1586 - Johann Schein, German composer (d. 1630)
*1664 - Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (d. 1718)
*1716 - King Charles III of Spain (d. 1788)
* 1716 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer and numismatist (d. 1795)
*1775 - André-Marie Ampère, French physicist (d. 1836)
*1781 - Joseph Hormayr Freiherr zu Hortenburg, Austrian politician (d. 1848)
*1783 - Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (d. 1860)
*1798 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (d. 1858)
*1804 - Eugène Sue, French novelist (d. 1857)
*1812 - Thomas Meik, Scottish engineer (d. 1896)
*1834 - George D. Robinson, 34^th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
*1837 - David Josiah Brewer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1910)
*1855 - Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
*1867 - Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (d. 1944)
*1873 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish Nobel laureate (d. 1950)
*1876 - Józef Hofmann, Polish pianist (d. 1967)
*1878 - Finlay Currie, British actor (d. 1968)
* 1878 - Ruth St. Denis, American dancer (d. 1968)
*1880 - Walter W. Bacon, American politician (d. 1962)
*1889 - Allan Haines Loughead, American aviation executive (d. 1969)
*1891 - Mischa Elman, Ukrainian born violinist (d. 1967)
*1893 - Georg Åberg, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)
*1894 - Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976)
*1896 - George Burns, American actor, comedian (d. 1996)
* 1896 - Isabel Withers, American actress (d. 1968)
*1898 - U Razak, Burmese politician (d. 1947)
*1899 - Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese development of television (d. 1990)
*1900 - Colin Clive, British actor (d. 1937)
*1902 - Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993)
*1907 - Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
*1910 - Joy Adamson, Austrian naturalist and writer (d. 1980)
*1912 - Walter Briggs, Jr., American sports executive (d. 1970)
*1915 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
*1919 - Juan García Esquivel, Mexican bandleader (d. 2002)
*1920 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director (d. 1993)
* 1920 - DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)
* 1920 - Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian author and ski jumper (d. 2006)
*1921 - Telmo Zarraonaindía, Spanish footballer (d. 2006)
*1922 - Ray Anthony, American trumpeter, bandleader and actor
* 1922 - Graham Stark, British actor
*1923 - Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer
*1924 - Slim Whitman, American singer
*1925 - Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan theologian and politician
*1926 - Jamiluddin Aali, Pakistani poet, essayist and columnist
* 1926 - Qurratulain Hyder, Pakistani novelist (d. 2007)
* 1926 - Patricia Neal, American actress
* 1926 - David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
*1929 - Jimmy Cobb, American jazz drummer
* 1929 - Arte Johnson, American actor
* 1929 - Glenn Roberts, American race car driver (d. 1964)
*1930 - Buzz Aldrin, American astronaut
*1931 - David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate
* 1931 - Hachidai Nakamura, Japanese songwriter and pianist (d. 1992)
*1932 - Lou Fontinato, Canadian ice hockey player
*1933 - Ron Townson, American singer (The Fifth Dimension) (d. 2001)
*1934 - Tom Baker, British actor
*1935 - Joan Weston, Roller Derby Queen (d. 1997)
*1937 - Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer and actress
*1938 - William Berger, Austrian actor (d. 1993)
* 1938 - Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007)
*1939 - Paul Coverdell, American politician (d. 2000)
*1940 - Carol Heiss, American figure skater
* 1940 - Krishnam Raju, Indian actor and politician
*1941 - Pierre Lalonde, Quebec singer and television host
*1943 - Farhad Mehrad, Iranian musician
*1944 - José Luis Garci, Spanish filmmaker
*1945 - Robert Olen Butler, American writer
* 1945 - Christopher Martin-Jenkins, cricket commentator and correspondent
* 1945 - Eric Stewart, English musician and songwriter (10cc)
*1946 - David Lynch, American film director
*1947 - Cyrille Guimard, French cyclist and directeur sportif
*1948 - Natan Sharansky, Russian-born physicist and politician
*1948 - Nancy Kress, American writer
*1949 - Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
*1950 - Liza Goddard, British actress
* 1950 - Edward Hirsch. American poet
* 1950 - Chuck Lefley, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1950 - Mahamane Ousmane, President of Niger
*1951 - Ivan Fischer, Hungarian conductor
* 1951 - Ian Hill, British musician (Judas Priest)
*1952 - Paul Stanley, American musician (Kiss)
*1955 - Wyatt Knight, American actor
* 1955 - Joe Doherty, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
* 1955 - Hiromi Ōta, Japanese singer
*1956 - Maria Larsson, Swedish politician
* 1956 - Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst
*1958 - Lorenzo Lamas, American actor
*1960 - Scott Thunes, American musician (Frank Zappa)
* 1960 - Will Wright, American computer game designer
*1963 - James Denton, American actor
* 1963 - Firebreaker Chip, American professional wrestler
*1964 - Kazushige Nojima, Japanese game scenario writer
*1965 - Colin Calderwood, Scottish footballer
* 1965 - Greg Kriesel, American bassist (The Offspring)
* 1965 - Sophie, The Countess of Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
* 1965 - John Michael Montgomery, American singer
* 1965 - Anton Weissenbacher, Romanian footballer
*1966 - Stacey Dash, American actress
* 1966 - Tracii Guns, American guitarist
*1968 - Melissa Rivers, American reporter and actress
* 1968 - Rainn Wilson, American actor
*1969 - Patrick K. Kroupa, American computer hacker
* 1969 - Nicky Wire, British Musician (Manic Street Preachers)
*1970 - Mitch Benn, UK comedian, songwriter, actor
* 1970 - Kerri Kenney-Silver, American actress
* 1970 - Skeet Ulrich, American actor
*1971 - Derrick Green, American singer (Sepultura)
* 1971 - Gary Barlow, English singer (Take That)
* 1971 - Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, American drummer (The Roots)
* 1971 - Brian Giles, American baseball player
*1973 - Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant
*1975 - David Eckstein, American baseball player
* 1975 - Norberto Fontana, Argentine racing driver
*1976 - Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
*1977 - Melody, Belgian singer
*1978 - Joy Giovanni, American actress and glamour model
* 1978 - Sonja Kesselschläger, German heptathlete
* 1978 - Allan Søgaard, Danish footballer
*1979 - Rob Bourdon, American musician (Linkin Park)
* 1979 - Asaka Kubo, Japanese gravure idol of 20th Century
* 1979 - Will Young, British singer
*1980 - Philippe Cousteau Jr., Freanch oceanographer; grandson of Jacques Cousteau
* 1980 - Brigitte Olivier, Belgian judoka
* 1980 - Matthew Tuck, Welsh guitarist (Bullet for My Valentine)
*1981 - Freddy Guzmán, Dominican baseball player
* 1981 - Christine Bleakley, BBC Television Host
* 1981 - Owen Hargreaves, English international footballer
* 1981 - Crystal Lowe, Canadian actress
*1983 - Geovany Soto, Puerto Rican baseball player
* 1983 - Paula Taylor, English-Thai actress, model and presenter
* 1983 - Mari Yaguchi, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
*1984 - Olivia Hallinan, English Actress
* 1984 - Toni Gonzaga, Filipina Actress and Singer

Deaths

*287 - St. Sebastian
*1156 - Bishop Henry, patron saint of Finland
*1191 - Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia (b. 1167)
*1479 - King John II of Aragon (b. 1397)
*1568 - Myles Coverdale, English Bible translator
*1612 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
*1666 - Anna of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France and regent (b. 1601)
*1707 - Humphrey Hody, English theologian (b. 1659)
*1709 - François de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (b. 1624)
*1739 - Francesco Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (b. 1659)
*1751 - John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (b. 1665)
*1770 - Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1722)
*1779 - David Garrick, English actor (b. 1717)
*1810 - Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania (b. 1722)
*1819 - King Charles IV of Spain (b. 1748)
*1848 - Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
*1850 - Adam Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (b. 1779)
*1873 - The Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (b. 1799)
*1875 - Jean-François Millet, French painter (b. 1814)
*1891 - David Kalakaua, King of Hawaii (b. 1836)
*1900 - John Ruskin, art critic (b. 1819)
*1901 - Zénobe Gramme, Belgian engineer (b. 1826)
*1920 - Georg Lurich, Estonian wrestler (b. 1876)
*1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
*1940 - Omar Bundy, U.S. army general (b. 1861)
*1944 - James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
*1947 - Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player (b. 1911)
*1954 - Fred Root, English cricketer (b. 1890)
*1962 - Robinson Jeffers, American poet (b. 1887)
*1965 - Alan Freed, American disk jockey (b. 1922)
*1971 - Gilbert M. 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, American actor, director, writer, and producer (b. 1880)
*1973 - Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician (b. 1885)
*1979 - Gustav Winckler, Danish singer (b. 1925)
*1983 - Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
*1984 - Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
*1988 - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pashtun Nationalist & non-violent freedom fighter (b. 1890)
* 1988 - Dora Stratou, Greek choreographer and folklorist (b. 1903)
*1989 - Alamgir Kabir, Bangladeshi film director (b. 1938)
*1990 - Hayedeh, Persian singer (b. 1942)
* 1990 - Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
*1993 - Audrey Hepburn, Anglo-Dutch actress (b. 1929)
*1994 - Sir Matt Busby, Scottish football player and coach (b. 1909)
*1996 - Gerry Mulligan, American musician (b. 1927)
*1997 - Curt Flood, baseball player (b. 1938)
*1998 - Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)
*2002 - Carrie Hamilton, actress and singer (b. 1963)
*2003 - Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b. 1903)
* 2003 - Nedra Volz, American actress (b. 1908)
* 2003 - Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (b. 1947)
*2004 - Guinn Smith, American athlete (b. 1920)
*2005 - Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
* 2005 - Roland Frye, American literary critic and theologian (b. 1921)
* 2005 - Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, Polish journalist, writer, and politician (b. 1913)
* 2005 - Miriam Louisa Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist, and author (b. 1908)

Holidays and observances

* Presidential Inauguration Day in the United States, held every four years since 1937.
* Astrology: First day of sun sign Aquarius.
* Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
** Saint Fabian
** Euthymius the Great
** St. Sebastian
* January 20 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)
* Abadios

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/20 BBC: On This Day]
*
* [http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=Jan&day=20 On this day in Canada] ----