January 5
From the Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can change
[change] Events
- 1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
- 1477 - Battle of Nancy, Charles the Bold killed, Burgundy becomes part of France.
- 1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
- 1527 - Martyrdom of Felix Manz, a Swiss Anabaptist.
- 1554 - Great fire in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
- 1675 - Battle of Colmar, French army beats Brandenburg.
- 1757 - Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert – François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty used for regicides.
- 1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
- 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
- 1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
- 1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, 300 dead.
- 1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
- 1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
- 1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
- 1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
- 1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
- 1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
- 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
- 1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
- 1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
- 1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
- 1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
- 1956 - Elvis Presley records "Heartbreak Hotel."
- 1957 - Major league baseballer Jackie Robinson retires.
- 1961 - Television: Mr. Ed debuts.
- 1964 - Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
- 1968 - Alexander Dubček comes to power, "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
- 1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
- 1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
- 1973 - Netherlands recognizes East Germany.
- 1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru kills six, and damages 100s of houses.
- 1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
- 1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Campuchea.
- 1980 - Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer.
- 1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
- 1987 - US President Ronald Reagan undergoes prostate surgery causing worries about his health.
- 1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands spilling 84,700 tonnes of oil.
- 1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
- 1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
- 1997 - Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.
- 2000 - The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
- 2002 - Charles Bishop, a 15-year-old student pilot, crashes a light aircraft into a Tampa, Florida building, evoking fear of a copycat 9/11 terrorist attack.
[change] Births
- 1895 - Michel Velleman, magician
- 1931 - Robert Duvall, actor