1787 – Arthur St. Clair is elected the 9th President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation
1852 – Alexandre Dumas Jr’s play, an adaptation of his novel “La Dame aux Camélias” premieres in Paris
1924 – International Ski Federation (FIS) forms
1974 – The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.
1986 – Oscar Arias Sanchez elected president of Costa Rica
2012 – MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papua New Guinea with 246 people saved and 126 missing (100 of these estimated to be trapped inside)
2013 – Shinzō Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister vows to defend the Senkaku Islands “at all costs”
2022 – More than one million Afghans have fled the country for Iran since October due to the country’s economic crisis, according to immigration authorities threatening a new migrant crisis
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 1st February 2026
1662 – Dutch garrison on Formosa surrenders to Chinese pirates
1790 – US Supreme Court convenes for 1st time (NYC)
1809 – Dutch King Louis Napoleon accepts metric system
1965 – Australian Championships Women’s Tennis: Australian Margaret Smith wins 6th straight home singles title; beats Maria Bueno of Brazil 5-7, 6-4, 5-2; Bueno retired injured
1970 – West-Germany and USSR sign gas contract
1981 – NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: NFC beats AFC, 21-7; MVP: Eddie Murray, Detroit Lions, PK
1984 – China and Netherlands regain diplomatic relations
1998 – NFL Pro Bowl, Aloha Stadium, Honolulu, HI: AFC beats NFC, 29-24; MVP: Warren Moon, Seattle Seahawks, QB, HI
Historical Events for 31st January 2026
1938 – Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: American Don Budge wins the 1st-leg of his Grand Slam; beats John Bromwich of Australia 6-4, 6-2, 6-1
1956 – French government of Guy Mollet forms
1971 – US male Figure Skating championship won by John Misha Petkevich
1971 – Special Veterans Committee adds 6 former players and 1 executive to the Baseball Hall of Fame: Dave Bancroft, Jake Beckley, Chick Hafey, Harry Hooper, Joe Kelley, Rube Marquard and George Weiss
1985 – South African President P. W. Botha offers to free Nelson Mandela if he denounces violence
2006 – US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor retires and is replaced by Samuel Alito
2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq
2017 – Romanian government passes emergency decree to release prisoners and decriminalise corruption charges, triggering huge protests in Bucharest
Historical Events for 30th January 2026
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
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