History of 21st January

1077 - German King Heinrich IV petitions Pope Gregory VII for forgiveness
1189 - Philip II, Henry II & Richard Lion hearted initiate 3rd Crusade
1276 - Pierre de Tarantaise elected Pope Innocence V
1287 - The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
1324 - Zen Buddhist religious debate between Tendai & Shingon
1522 - Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about 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 - Parliament passes bill of attainder against Queen Katherine Howard
1604 - Tsar Ivan IV defeats False Dmitri, who claims to be the true tsar
1664 - Count Miklos of Zrinyi sets out to battle Turkish invasion army
1677 - 1st medical publication in America (pamphlet on smallpox), Boston
1732 - Russia & Persia sign Treaty of Riascha
1749 - The Verona Philharmonic Theatre was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in 1754.
1789 - 1st American novel, WH Brown's "Power of Sympathy," is published
1793 - Prussia & Russia sign partition treaty (Poland divided)
1799 - Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced
1813 - Pineapple introduced to Hawaii (or 01/111)
1818 - Keats writes his poem "On a Lock of Milton's Hair"
1821 - Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die
1824 - Ashantees defeat British at Accra, West Africa
1827 - Freedom Journal, 1st Black paper, begins publishing
1830 - Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported
1846 - 1st edition of Charles Dickens' "Daily News"
1853 - Envelope-folding machine patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester, Mass
1861 - Jefferson Davis of Mississippi & 4 other southern senators resign
1863 - City of Dublin leases part of Cattle Market for 100,000 years
1864 - The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
1874 - Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa," premieres in Vienna
1879 - Henrik Ibsen's "Et Dukkehjem," premieres in Copenhagen
1880 - 1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis
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 - The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, was formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate which is now Botswana.
1894 - Oscar Fredriksen skates world record 500m in 47.8 sec
1899 - Opel manufactured its first automobile.
1901 - Clyde Fitch's "Climbers," premieres in NYC
1903 - "Wizard of Oz," premieres in NYC
1903 - Harry Houdini escapes police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam
1903 - International Theater (Majestic, Park) opens at 5 Columbus Circle NYC
1904 - Leos Janacek's opera "Jenufa," premieres in Brno
1907 - Kenora Thistles sweep Mont Wanderers in 2 for Stanley Cup
1908 - August Strindberg's "Spoksonaten," premieres in Stockholm
1908 - NYC regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public
1910 - British-Russian military intervention in Persia
1913 - Aristide Briand forms French govt
1915 - Kiwanis International founded in Detroit
1919 - Sinn Fein proclaims parliament of Free Ireland
1921 - The Italian Communist Party was founded at Livorno.
1922 - 1st slalom ski race run, Murren, Switzerland
1925 - Albanian parliament announces itself a republic; Ahmed Zogoe pres
1926 - Belgian parliament accepts Locarno treaties
1927 - 1st national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)
1929 - Robert Sherriff's "Journey's End," premieres in London
1932 - USSR & Finland stop non-attack treaty
1935 - 12.0" (30.5 cm) of rain falls, Quinault RS, Wash (state record)
1935 - WFI-AM in Philadelphia Penn merges with WLIT as WFIL (now WEAZ)
1935 - Wilderness Society forms
1938 - Dutch govt starts obligatory unemployment insurance
1939 - George Kaufman & Moss Hart's "American Way," premieres in NYC
1939 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer
1939 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
1940 - Foreign correspondents in Netherlands under censorship
1941 - 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria
1941 - 1st commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater, Freeport, TX
1941 - Australia & Britain attack Tobruk Libya
1941 - British communist newspaper "Daily Worker" banned
1942 - Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
1942 - Count Basie records "One O'Clock Jump"
1942 - Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain
1942 - Tito's partisans occupy Foca
1943 - Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk
1943 - Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
1943 - Vice-admiral Cunningham appointed Brit adm of fleet
1944 - 447 German bombers attack London
1944 - 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
1945 - British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma
1946 - "Nellie Bly" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 16 performances
1947 - "Sweethearts" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 288 performances
1947 - Arthur Honegger's 4th Symphony premieres in Basel
1948 - W Indies v England, Test debut Walcott, Weekes & Jim Laker
1949 - 1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman)
1950 - "Lend an Ear" closes at National Theater NYC after 460 performances
1950 - NY jury finds former State Dept official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury
1950 - T S Eliot's "Cocktail Party," premieres in NYC
1951 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Tampa Women's Golf Open
1952 - Nehru's Congress party wins general election in India
1953 - John Foster Dulles appointed as Secretary of State
1954 - 1st gas turbine automobile exhibited (NYC)
1956 - "Comedy in Music (Victor Borge)" closes at Golden NYC after 849 perfs
1956 - William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of New Yorker
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)
1960 - Little Joe 4 suborbital Mercury test reaches 16 km
1960 - Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook S Afr, 417 die of methane poisoning
1961 - "Conquering Hero" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 8 performances
1961 - KIFI TV channel 8 in Idaho Falls, ID (NBC) begins broadcasting
1961 - Portuguese rebels seize cruise ship Santa Maria
1962 - JFK arrives in Uruguay
1077 - German King Heinrich IV petitions Pope Gregory VII for forgiveness
1189 - Philip II, Henry II & Richard Lion hearted initiate 3rd Crusade
1276 - Pierre de Tarantaise elected Pope Innocence V
1287 - The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
1324 - Zen Buddhist religious debate between Tendai & Shingon
1522 - Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about 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 - Parliament passes bill of attainder against Queen Katherine Howard
1604 - Tsar Ivan IV defeats False Dmitri, who claims to be the true tsar
1664 - Count Miklos of Zrinyi sets out to battle Turkish invasion army
1677 - 1st medical publication in America (pamphlet on smallpox), Boston
1732 - Russia & Persia sign Treaty of Riascha
1749 - The Verona Philharmonic Theatre was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in 1754.
1789 - 1st American novel, WH Brown's "Power of Sympathy," is published
1793 - Prussia & Russia sign partition treaty (Poland divided)
1799 - Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced
1813 - Pineapple introduced to Hawaii (or 01/111)
1818 - Keats writes his poem "On a Lock of Milton's Hair"
1821 - Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die
1824 - Ashantees defeat British at Accra, West Africa
1827 - Freedom Journal, 1st Black paper, begins publishing
1830 - Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported
1846 - 1st edition of Charles Dickens' "Daily News"
1853 - Envelope-folding machine patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester, Mass
1861 - Jefferson Davis of Mississippi & 4 other southern senators resign
1863 - City of Dublin leases part of Cattle Market for 100,000 years
1864 - The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
1874 - Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa," premieres in Vienna
1879 - Henrik Ibsen's "Et Dukkehjem," premieres in Copenhagen
1880 - 1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis
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 - The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, was formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate which is now Botswana.
1894 - Oscar Fredriksen skates world record 500m in 47.8 sec
1899 - Opel manufactured its first automobile.
1901 - Clyde Fitch's "Climbers," premieres in NYC
1903 - "Wizard of Oz," premieres in NYC
1903 - Harry Houdini escapes police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam
1903 - International Theater (Majestic, Park) opens at 5 Columbus Circle NYC
1904 - Leos Janacek's opera "Jenufa," premieres in Brno
1907 - Kenora Thistles sweep Mont Wanderers in 2 for Stanley Cup
1908 - August Strindberg's "Spoksonaten," premieres in Stockholm
1908 - NYC regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public
1910 - British-Russian military intervention in Persia
1913 - Aristide Briand forms French govt
1915 - Kiwanis International founded in Detroit
1919 - Sinn Fein proclaims parliament of Free Ireland
1921 - The Italian Communist Party was founded at Livorno.
1922 - 1st slalom ski race run, Murren, Switzerland
1925 - Albanian parliament announces itself a republic; Ahmed Zogoe pres
1926 - Belgian parliament accepts Locarno treaties
1927 - 1st national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)
1929 - Robert Sherriff's "Journey's End," premieres in London
1932 - USSR & Finland stop non-attack treaty
1935 - 12.0" (30.5 cm) of rain falls, Quinault RS, Wash (state record)
1935 - WFI-AM in Philadelphia Penn merges with WLIT as WFIL (now WEAZ)
1935 - Wilderness Society forms
1938 - Dutch govt starts obligatory unemployment insurance
1939 - George Kaufman & Moss Hart's "American Way," premieres in NYC
1939 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer
1939 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
1940 - Foreign correspondents in Netherlands under censorship
1941 - 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria
1941 - 1st commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater, Freeport, TX
1941 - Australia & Britain attack Tobruk Libya
1941 - British communist newspaper "Daily Worker" banned
1942 - Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
1942 - Count Basie records "One O'Clock Jump"
1942 - Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain
1942 - Tito's partisans occupy Foca
1943 - Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk
1943 - Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
1943 - Vice-admiral Cunningham appointed Brit adm of fleet
1944 - 447 German bombers attack London
1944 - 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
1945 - British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma
1946 - "Nellie Bly" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 16 performances
1947 - "Sweethearts" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 288 performances
1947 - Arthur Honegger's 4th Symphony premieres in Basel
1948 - W Indies v England, Test debut Walcott, Weekes & Jim Laker
1949 - 1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman)
1950 - "Lend an Ear" closes at National Theater NYC after 460 performances
1950 - NY jury finds former State Dept official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury
1950 - T S Eliot's "Cocktail Party," premieres in NYC
1951 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Tampa Women's Golf Open
1952 - Nehru's Congress party wins general election in India
1953 - John Foster Dulles appointed as Secretary of State
1954 - 1st gas turbine automobile exhibited (NYC)
1956 - "Comedy in Music (Victor Borge)" closes at Golden NYC after 849 perfs
1956 - William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of New Yorker
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)
1960 - Little Joe 4 suborbital Mercury test reaches 16 km
1960 - Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook S Afr, 417 die of methane poisoning
1961 - "Conquering Hero" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 8 performances
1961 - KIFI TV channel 8 in Idaho Falls, ID (NBC) begins broadcasting
1961 - Portuguese rebels seize cruise ship Santa Maria
1962 - JFK arrives in Uruguay