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Events

• 250 – Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred.
• 1265 – In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Beaufort in the Palace of Westminster, now also known colloquially 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 the Tsardom of 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 that 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 an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.
• 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 motion picture 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: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials decided on the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question", accelerating The Holocaust.
• 1945 – World War II: Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
• 1954 – The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
• 1959 – The first flight of the Vickers Vanguard.
• 1960 – Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
• 1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the youngest man, and first-ever Roman Catholic, to become elected President of the United States.
• 1968 – The Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 to win the Game of the Century.
• 1981 – Iran releases 52 American hostages twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President, the oldest man to be inaugurated at 69.
• 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 a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
• 2009 – Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becomes the United States' first African-American president.
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