1820 – British explorer Edward Bransfield aboard Williams sights Trinity Peninsula, Antarctica, claiming it for Britain
1933 – After Paul von Hindenburg appoints Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, his former WWI colleague General Erich Ludendorff sends a letter to him stating “this accursed man will cast our Reich into the abyss and bring our nation to inconceivable misery”
1944 – World War II: United States troops land on Majuro, Marshall Islands
1954 – Belgium ends trade agreement with USSR
1956 – Home of Martin Luther King Jr. is bombed
1969 – US/Canada ISIS 1 launched to study ionosphere
1993 – Australian Open Women’s Tennis: Monica Seles beats Steffi Graf 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 for her 3rd consecutive Australian singles crown
1995 – Norway’s Statoil announces a newly formed consortium that will supply Norwegian natural gas to the European continent
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 29th January 2026
1943 – U.S. cruiser “Chicago” is heavily damaged by Japanese bombers on the first day of the Battle of Rennell Island
1968 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis: American Billie Jean King beats home favourite Margaret Court 6-1, 6-2 for her 13th Grand Slam singles title
1968 – Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) adopts constitution
1980 – 6 Iranian-held US hostages escape with help of Canadians
1993 – US postal service issues a stamp commemorating chemist Percy Lavon Julian
1996 – The 6,138th performance of “Cats” is held in London, surpassing the record of Broadway’s longest-running musical, “A Chorus Line”
2012 – 100th Australian Open Men’s Tennis: Novak Đoković beats Rafael Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5; longest Grand Slam singles final in duration in the Open Era, 5 hours 53 minutes
2017 – 62nd NHL All Star Games, Staples Centre, Los Angeles, CA: Metropolitan All Stars win four team 3-on-3 tournament; MVP: Wayne Simmonds, Philadelphia Flyers, RW
Historical Events for 28th January 2026
1846 – Battle of Allwal, British beat Sikhs in Punjab
1855 – The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway
1917 – Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco, California
1928 – Christopher Hornsrud chosen Prime Minister of Norway
1939 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis: In an all-Australian final Emily Hood Westacott beats Nell Hall Hopman 6-1, 6-2 for her only Grand Slam singles title
1942 – WW II Navy flier Don Mason sends message “Sighted sub sank same”
1968 – Thai boxer Chartchai Chionoi retains his world flyweight title with a 13th-round TKO of home favourite Efren Torres in Mexico City; first of 3 meetings between the pair
1968 – 29th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Chandler Harper
Historical Events for 27th January 2026
1302 – Dante becomes a Florentine political exile
1927 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis, Melbourne: Esna Boyd wins title after 5 consecutive runner-up finishes; beats Sylvia Lance Harper 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
1951 – US begins 126 nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site
1964 – South African cricket batsmen Eddie Barlow (201) and Graeme Pollock (175) combine for a 341-run stand in the 4th Tests against Australia at the Adelaide Oval
1973 – US male Figure Skating championship won by Gordon McKellen Jr
1982 – Philadelphia Phillies trade shortstop Larry Bowa and infielder Ryne Sandberg to Chicago Cubs for second baseman Ivan DeJesus
1986 – 13th American Music Awards: Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis and Crystal Gayle
2013 – NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, Hawaii: NFC beats AFC, 62-35; MVP: Kyle Rudolph, Minnesota Vikings, TE
Historical Events for 26th January 2026
1654 – Portuguese troops conquer last Dutch base on Recife
1907 – John Millington Synge’s “Playboy of Western World” opens in Dublin; play claimed as immoral and causes riots
1924 – American skater Charles Jewtraw claims the first ever Winter Olympic gold medal; wins 500m speed skating event in 44.0s at the Chamonix Games in France
1929 – Indian National Congress proclaims goal for India’s independence
1969 – “Red, White, and Maddox” opens at Cort Theater NYC for 41 performances
1980 – 175,000 pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing in Rio de Janeiro
1989 – “Black and Blue” opens at Minskoff Theater NYC for 829 performances
2005 – Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, the first African American woman to hold the post
Historical Events for 25th January 2026
1861 – Augusta Arsenal seized by the Confederacy in Georgia (US Civil War)
1906 – Del Valle Inclans “El Marqués de Bradomin” premieres in Madrid
1946 – Richard Strauss’ composition “Metamorphosen” premieres with the Collegium Musicum in Zürich, Switzerland
1949 – 1st Emmy Awards: Shirley Dinsdale and Pantomime Quiz (KTLA) win
1961 – Military coup in El Salvador
1964 – Dale Wasserman’s stage play “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey, starring Kirk Douglas, Ed Ames; Joan Tetzel, and Gene Wilder, closes at Cort Theatre, NYC, after 82 performances
1998 – “Patti LaBelle On Broadway” closes at St James Theater NYC
2019 – Longest-ever US government shutdown ends after 35 days when President Donald Trump agrees to three week of negotiations on border security by a House-Senate conference committee
Historical Events for 24th January 2026
1950 – Jackie Robinson signs highest contract ($35,000) in Dodger history
1960 – Algeria uprises against French President de Gaulle
1962 – Retail entrepreneur Brian Epstein signs a 5-year management contract with the Beatles
1964 – Dutch comic strip “Eric de Noorman” by Hans G. Kresse ends
1981 – Islanders scored 5 power play goals against Nordiques
1990 – Japanese MUSES-A (Hiten) launched towards moon
2011 – “21” second studio album by Adele is released (Grammy Award for Album of the Year 2012, Brit Award for British Album of the Year, 2011 Billboard Album of the Year)
2022 – 19 die in a fight and a fire at a nightclub in Sorong city, West Papua, Indonesia
Historical Events for 23rd January 2026
1912 – The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague
1945 – Dutch Prime Minister Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy, exiled in London, tenders his resignation
1950 – Rebel army of Dutch military officer Raymond Westerling occupies Bandung, Java
1959 – 9th NBA All-Star Game, Olympia Stadium, Detroit, Mi: West beats East, 124-108; MVPs: Elgin Baylor, Minneapolis Lakers, F; Bob Pettit, St. Louis Hawks, C; first co-winners of MVP award
1970 – US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1984 – Greatest unpaced 1-hr bicycle distance, F Moser (Italy), 51.15 km
2017 – Thunderstorms and tornadoes in Georgia and Mississippi leave at least 18 dead in the US
2018 – Twelve camels disqualified from the King Abdulaziz Camel beauty contest, Saudi Arabia after their owners used botox on their lips
Historical Events for 22nd January 2026
1850 – Alta California becomes a daily paper, 1st such in Calif
1863 – Union General Burnside’s “Mud March”
1877 – Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices
1914 – Paul Claudel’s play “L’échange” premieres in Paris
1953 – 1953 NFL Draft: Harry Babcock from University of Georgia first pick by San Francisco 49ers
1958 – KRSD (now KEVN) TV channel 7 in Rapid City, SD (ABC) 1st broadcast
1980 – West Indies beat England 2-0 to win cricket’s 1st World Series Cup
2014 – Water vapour is detected on the dwarf planet Ceres
Historical Events for 21st January 2026
1324 – Zen Buddhist religious debate between Tendai and Shingon
1904 – Leos Janacek’s opera “Jenůfa” premieres at the National Theatre in Brno, Moravia, Austria-Hungary
1943 – Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
1964 – Carl Rowan named director of US Information Agency
1989 – Wayne Gretzky passes Marcel Dionne to become NHL’s 2nd all time scorer
2013 – 18 people are killed and 24 are injured after a bus falls down a ravine in Yungas, Bolivia
2018 – AFC Championship, Gillette Stadium, Foxborough: New England Patriots beat Jacksonville Jaguars, 24-20
2025 – 79 people are killed in a hotel fire in the ski resort town of Balu in north-west Turkey, with 51 injured