Today's 21 January Major Events in History

Photo for the article Today's 21 January Major Events

Henry IV Petitions Gregory VII

1077 German King Henry IV petitions Pope Gregory VII for forgiveness

1276 French Cardinal Pierre de Tarantaise elected head of the Catholic Church, takes the name of Pope Innocent V
1287 The Treaty of San Agayz is signed, and Minorca is conquered by King Alfonso III of Aragon
1324 Zen Buddhist religious debate between Tendai and Shingon
1522 Head Inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens is elected pope
1525 Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union
1542 English Parliament passes bill of attainder against Queen Katherine Howard

1549 Act of Uniformity passed by the English Parliament requiring clergy use The Book of Common Prayer

1664 Count Miklós of Zrínyi sets out to battle the Turkish invasion army
1677 First medical publication in America, a pamphlet on smallpox, is published in Boston
1720 Sweden and Prussia sign a peace treaty ending hostilities between them during the Great Northern War
1732 Russia and Persia sign the Treaty of Riascha
1749 Verona Philharmonic Theatre is destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1754
1789 The first American novel, William Hill Brown's "The Power of Sympathy" is published by Isaiah Thomas

1793 Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for "high treason" by the newly created French Parliament (Convention nationale), during the French Revolution

1813 First reference to pineapple cultivation in Hawaii in diary entry by Francisco de Paula Marin
1813 Spaniard Don Francisco de Paula y Marin plants coffee in Hawaii, first record of coffee growing in Hawaii
1818 Keats writes his poem "On a Lock of Milton's Hair"
1821 Paramaribo, Suriname, catches fire; four die
1831 African Americans are forcibly deported from Portsmouth, Ohio

Jefferson Davis Resigns

1861 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and 4 other southern senators resign (U.S Civil War)

1863 City of Dublin leases part of Cattle Market for 100,000 years
1864 The Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Wars begins
1874 Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa" premieres in Vienna

Et Dukkehjem

1879 Henrik Ibsen's play "Et Dukkehjem" (A Doll's House) premieres in Copenhagen

1880 1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains in Memphis, Tennessee
1887 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) forms
1887 Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city
1890 1st issue of "Propria Cures", Amsterdam student-weekly newspaper
1893 Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana)
1894 Oscar Fredriksen skates world record 500m in 47.8 sec
1899 Opel manufactures its first automobile
1900 The second contingent of Canadian troops sails from Halifax to fight in South Africa against the Boers

Houdini Escapes

1903 Harry Houdini escapes from Halvemaansteeg police station in Amsterdam

1903 International Theater (Majestic, Park) opens at 5 Columbus Circle, NYC

Jenufa

1904 Leos Janacek's opera "Jenůfa" premieres at the National Theatre in Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary

1907 Stanley Cup Hockey, Montreal Arena, Westmount, Quebec: Kenora Thistles (ON) beat Montreal Wanderers, 8-6 for 12-8 aggregate challenge series victory
1908 August Strindberg's "Spoksonaten" premieres in Stockholm
1908 Sullivan Ordinance is passed in NYC, making it illegal for a woman to smoke in public places; it is vetoed two weeks later by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
1910 British-Russian military intervention in Persia

1915 Kiwanis International founded in Detroit
1919 Irish militant nationalist party Sinn Féin creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence

Agatha Christie's First Novel

1921 British crime writer Agatha Christie publishes her first novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles," introducing the character Hercule Poirot

Italian Communist Party

1921 Italian Communist Party founded at Livorno by Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci

1922 1st slalom ski race run at Murren, Switzerland

1925 Albanian parliament announces itself a republic; Ahmed Zogoe president
1926 Belgian parliament accepts Locarno treaties
1927 First national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)
1929 Robert Sherriff's "Journey's End" premieres in London
1930 Boston Bruins become first team in NHL history to score 100 goals in a season, in a 5-1 win over Chicago at Boston Garden; Cooney Weiland scores Bruins' 100th goal in their 26th game of the year
1932 USSR and Finland stop non-attack treaty
1934 Parisian baker and "student of medieval life" Henri Littière appears in court charged with forcing his adulterous wife Juliette to wear a chastity belt. Having committed the same offense in 1932, he is sentenced to three months in prison and fined 50 francs for cruelty to his wife.
1935 12.0" (30.5 cm) of rain falls, Quinault RS, Washington (state record)
1935 The Wilderness Society is founded by conservationists
1935 WFI-AM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania merges with WLIT as WFIL (now WEAZ)
1938 Dutch government starts obligatory unemployment insurance

American Way

1939 George Kaufman and Moss Hart's play "American Way" premieres on Broadway in NYC

1940 Foreign correspondents in the Netherlands subjected to censorship
1941 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria
1941 1st commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater, Freeport, Texas
1941 Australian and British troops attack Tobruk, Libya
1941 British communist newspaper "Daily Worker" banned
1942 Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal

One O'Clock Jump

1942 Count Basie records the music single and Jazz standard "One O'Clock Jump"

Chetniks Occupy Foca

1942 Serbian Chetniks forces occupy Foca - will massacre thousands of the Muslim population

1943 Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet
1943 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
1943 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk
1944 447 German bombers attack London
1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
1945 WWII: British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma

1948 Three of the greats of cricket make their debut in a drawn 1st Test match at Bridgetown, Barbados; Sir Clyde Walcott and Sir Everton Weekes for the West Indies, and Jim Laker for England
1950 New York jury finds former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury

The Cocktail Party

1950 T. S. Eliot's play "The Cocktail Party" premieres in NYC

Nehru's Congress Party Wins

1952 Jawaharlal Nehru's Congress Party wins India's first general election

1952 William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of "The New Yorker"

1954 1st gas turbine automobile exhibited (NYC)
1954 First nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, is launched on the Thames River in Connecticut

1954 First time in All-Star history, an overtime period is needed to decide a winner; Boston Celtics' guard Bob Cousy's 10-point OT scoring burst gave the East a 98-93 win; Cousy wins All-Star MVP honours

1957 KSAT TV channel 12 in San Antonio, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
1958 KMOT TV channel 10 in Minot, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
1958 Phillies agree to televise 78 games into NYC (doesn't happen)

1958 St Louis Hawks forward Bob Pettit becomes first member of the losing team to win the NBA All-Star MVP award; scores 28 points and grabs 26 rebounds, even though East beats West, 130-118

1960 Little Joe 4 suborbital Mercury test reaches 16 km
1960 Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook, South Africa; 417 die of methane poisoning
1961 Francis Poulenc's "Gloria" premieres in Boston Massachusetts by Boston Symphony and Chorus Pro Musica under conductor Charles Münch
1961 KIFI TV channel 8 in Idaho Falls, Idaho (NBC) begins broadcasting
1961 Portuguese rebels seize cruise ship Santa Maria
1962 Snow falls in San Francisco

1964 Carl Rowan named director of US Information Agency
1965 Iranian premier Hassan Ali Mansur assassinated by 17-year-old Mohammad Bokharaei, a member of the Fadayan-e Islam
1968 Battle of Khe Sanh begins at the Khe Sanh Air Base, one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War
1968 US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb on board crashes in Greenland
1969 A partial meltdown at the Lucens nuclear reactor in Switzerland seriously contaminating the cavern containing the reactor; the plant is sealed and decommissioned
1971 "Alias Smith & Jones" premieres on ABC TV
1972 Assam's North East Frontier Agency becomes Arunachal Pradesh territory
1972 Belgian government of Eyskens-Cools forms
1972 Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura become separate states of the Indian union
1972 Mizoram, formerly part of Assam, creates an Indian union territory
1973 Leslie Nielson appears in "Ringbanger" episode of television series "M*A*S*H"
1974 Price of gold hits a record $161.31, and silver hits a record $3.97 an ounce in London
1976 Supersonic Concorde has its first commercial flights

1978 Bee Gees' album "Saturday Night Fever" goes #1 for 24 weeks

Durán vs. De Jesus

1978 Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán becomes undisputed world lightweight champion with a 12th-round TKO of Esteban De Jesus at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas; defends his WBA title for 12th time, also takes De Jesus’ WBC title

1979 Neptune becomes outermost planet (Pluto moves closer)
1979 Super Bowl XIII, Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, FL: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 35-31; MVP: Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, QB
1980 Les Henson, Virginia Tech, makes 89' 3" basketball field goal
1980 Price of gold peaks briefly at over $870 before closing at then record $850 an ounce
1981 Bernhard Goetz is assaulted for 1st time on a New York City subway train
1981 Norman Stronge and his son James (both former Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament) are assassinated by the Irish Republican Army at their home Tynan Abbey, which is then burnt down

Shaolin Temple

1982 "Shaolin Temple" martial arts film released, first Hong Kong feature filmed in China, directed by Chang Hsin Yen and starring Jet Li in his debut role

1982 NY Islanders begin then NHL record 15 game winning streak with a 6-1 win over Pittsburgh Penguins at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
1983 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Anthony E Hecht
1983 First supertitles for a live opera performance: "Elektra" at Canadian Opera Company, English titles by Sonya Friedman

El Salvador US Military Aid

1983 President Reagan certifies El Salvador human-rights abuses have decreased making country eligible for US military aid

1985 -19°F (-28°C), Caesar's Head, South Carolina (state record)
1985 -34°F (-37°C), Mt Mitchell, North Carolina (state record)
1985 Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java
1985 Dennis Potvin ties Bobby Orr's career record of 270 NHL goals
1985 Jessye Norman sings "Simple Gifts" at the second inauguration of US President Ronald Reagan in Washington, D. C.
1986 100 participate in Nude Olympics race in 38°F (3°C), Indiana
1986 Bomb attack in East-Beirut, 27 killed

B.B. King Donates Records

1987 B.B. King donates his 7,000 record collection to the University of Mississippi

1988 US accepts immigration of 30,000 US-Vietnamese children

1990 Bob Goodenow succeeds Alan Eagleson as NHL players association executive director

1990 John McEnroe becomes the first player to be expelled from the Australian Open

1991 CBS News correspondent Bob Simon and four TV crew members are captured and held for 40 days by Iraqis during the Persian Gulf War
1991 Sacramento's Dick Motta coaches in his 1,648th regular season game, a 97-94 Kings' victory over Houston; at the time an NBA record for the most regular-season coaching appearances

Cowher Steeler's Coach

1992 Bill Cowher becomes the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, becoming only the second head coach of the team since 1970 (Chuck Noll)

1992 UN serves Libya a resolution to hand over intelligence agents accused of two airliner bombings

Fela Kuti Arrested

1993 Nigerian singer Fela Kuti arrested on suspicion of murder

1994 Dallas Mavericks suffer 19th straight loss at Reunion Arena, 91-87 to the Seattle SuperSonics; extends an unwanted NBA record for the most consecutive home defeats
1994 Dow Jones Industrial Average passes 3900 (record 3,914.20)
1994 Lorena Bobbitt found temporarily insane when she cut off her husband's penis
1997 An inquiry in North Wales names more than 80 child abusers

First Papal Visit to Cuba

1998 Pope John Paul II makes the first papal visit to Cuba, strengthening the Catholic Church and leading to the restoration of Christmas as a public holiday

1999 In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the US Coast Guard intercepts a ship carrying 4,300 kg of cocaine
2001 Pittsburgh Penguins beat Chicago Blackhawks, 4-0 in first-ever NHL game featuring 2 European trained coaches; Czech Ivan Hlinka behind the bench for Pittsburgh, and Fin Alpo Suhonen, Chicago
2002 The Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
2004 Canada: The residence of reporter Juliet O'Neill is searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar
2004 Minnesota Wild set an NHL record for 2 fastest goals, when Jim Dowd and Richard Park score just 3 seconds apart in the final 15 seconds of a 4-2 win over visiting Chicago Blackhawks
2004 NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
2005 In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots
2007 Awashima Marine Park in Japan catches a video tape of the rare frilled shark.
2008 Fears of a possible US recession cause a Black Monday for global stock markets, European stocks suffer their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%
2008 The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies

Bryant Surpasses Chamberlain Record

2010 LA Lakers forward Kobe Bryant becomes the youngest NBA player to reach 25,000 career points at 31 years, 151 days; beats Wilt Chamberlain by 35 days

"Volcker Rule" Proposed

2010 President Barack Obama proposes the "Volcker Rule," a rule proposed by Paul Volcker intended to restrict risky trading by United States banks

2013 1 person is killed and 15 are injured by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Indonesia
2013 18 people are killed and 24 are injured after a bus falls down a ravine in Yungas, Bolivia
2013 30 people are killed in a car bombing in Salamiyeh, Syria
2013 41 people are injured after two trains collide in Vienna, Austria
2013 Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Netherlands’ Minister of Finance, becomes the President of the Euro Group
2015 Italian fashion label Gucci names Alessandro Michele as its new creative director
2017 Adam Hadwin fires only the 7th sub-60 round (59) in PGA Tour history in the 3rd round of the CareerBuilder Challenge at LaQuinta CC

Women's March Protest

2017 More than 2 million people protest worldwide in the 'Women's March' against Donald Trump, with 500,000 marching in Washington, D.C.

Gambian Dictator Jammeh Concedes

2018 Gambian Dictator Yahya Jammeh finally concedes office and leaves Gambia 2 months after losing the presidential election

2019 A light aircraft carrying EPL team Cardiff City's record signing Emiliano Sala of French club FC Nantes disappears near the Channel islands en route to Wales

Thompson 3-Point Range Record

2019 Golden State guard Klay Thompson sets an NBA record by making his first 10 attempts from 3-point range as the Warriors beat the LA Lakers, 130-111; Thompson scores 44 points

Tennis Hall of Fame Inductees

2019 Li Na of China becomes first Asian player to be elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame; joins Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov and Mary Pierce of France as Class of 2019 inductees

2020 Revival of Charles Fuller's stage drama "A Soldier's Play, starring David Alan Grier and Blair Underwood at the American Airlines Theatre, NYC; run suspended dut to Covid-19 closures, wins 3 Tony Awards
2020 World's oldest asteroid impact at 2.2 billion years old found in Yarrabubba, Western Australia, may have ended an ice age, reported in "Nature Communications"

First Female Director of National Intelligence

2021 Avril Haines is sworn in as the first female US Director of National Intelligence by VP Kamala Harris

2022 Yemen detention centre in Saada held by rebel Houthis bombed killing more than 70 people [1]
2023 72 year-old gunman shoots and kills eleven people, injuring nine, at dance studio in Monterey Park, California. Attempts second killing nearby before being surrounded and killing himself.
2024 A 'deep freeze' - nearly two weeks of frigid winter storms across the US claim the lives of at least 70 people, with Oregon, Tennessee and Kentucky declaring states of emergency [1]
2024 Dan Campbell's Detroit Lions secure a divisional playoff win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2024 Ecuador discovers it largest-ever stash of cocaine - 22 tones worth US $1 billion, buried on a pig farm [1]

Ron DeSantis Drops Out

2024 Florida Governor Ron DeSantis pulls out of the 2024 US Presidential race in a post on X [1]

2024 Tara VanDerveer (70) becomes winningest college basketball coach with 1.203rd victory as Stanford University defeats visiting Oregon State Beavers, 65-56 [1]
2025 79 people are killed in a hotel fire in the ski resort town of Balu in north-west Turkey, with 51 injured [1]
2025 Historic snowstorm hits US deep south, with Louisiana and parts of Texas issuing their first-ever blizzard warnings: record snow accumulations in Louisiana and Florida [1]