1558 – Geneva becomes independent from Berne canton, Switzerland
1878 – Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
1947 – Providence Steamrollers guard Dino Martin becomes the first NBA player to ever score 40 points in a game, in a 91-68 win over Cleveland Rebels at Rhode Island Auditorium
1957 – Checheno-Ingush ASSR reformed in RSFSR
1991 – Baker and Aziz meet in Geneva; talks fail to defuse gulf crisis
1993 – Franziska van Almsick swims world record 100m free style (53.33)
2009 – Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Dominik Hrbatý beats Russia’s Marat Safin 6-7, 7-5, 7-6 for an unassailable 2-0 lead, and Slovakia’s 3rd title
2012 – “Time is Love” single released by Josh Turner (Billboard Song of the Year 2012)
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 8th January 2026
1610 – German astronomer Simon Marius independently discovers Jupiter’s four largest moons one day after Galileo Galilei
1790 – First US President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address
1833 – Boston Academy of Music, first US music school, is established
1857 – Dion Boucicauly’s “Poor of NY” premieres in NYC
1979 – Argentina and Chile sign Beagle Canal accord
1993 – Elvis Presley Commemorative Postage Stamp goes on sale
1993 – NBC offers “The Tonight Show” to David Letterman
1994 – Rintje Ritsma skates world record 1500m (1:51.60)
Historical Events for 7th January 2026
1325 – Afonso IV succeeds Denis as King of Portugal
1862 – Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson march towards Romney, West Virginia
1930 – French physicist Marguerite Perey discovers francium (Fr), the last naturally occurring element discovered
1955 – 20 year-old future world heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson scores a 5th-round TKO of Willie Troy in a non-title super middleweight bout at New York’s Madison Square Garden
1968 – Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off
1973 – British Darts Organisation founded in North London
1995 – Limited run of Patrick Stewart’s one-man show “A Christmas Carol”, based on Charles Dickens’ novel, closes at Richard Rodgers Theater, NYC, after 18 performances
2012 – Hot air balloon crashes in Carterton, New Zealand, killing 11
Historical Events for 6th January 2026
1802 – Naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland reach Quito, Ecuador
1842 – 4,500 British and Indian troops leave Kabul, massacred before reaching India
1870 – Inauguration of the Musikverein concert hall in Vienna, Austria; designed by Danish architect Theophil Hansen for the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, built on land provided by Emperor Franz Joseph I
1922 – -13] Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution payments
1950 – Britain recognizes Communist government of China
1969 – WLIW TV channel 21 in Garden City, NY (PBS) begins broadcasting
1975 – TV game show “Wheel of Fortune” debuts on NBC
1980 – AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Houston Oilers, 27-13
Historical Events for 5th January 2026
1809 – Treaty of Dardanelles concluded between Britain and France
1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross sworn in as Governor of Wyoming, 1st woman governor in USA
1929 – Coup by King Alexander in South Slavia
1930 – Bonnie Parker meets Clyde Barrow for the first time at Clarence Clay’s house
1941 – British Australian troops conquer Bardia, Libya
1990 – J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (first legal hanging in America since 1965)
2020 – Iran pulls out of the 2015 nuclear deal, will not limit its uranium enrichment
Historical Events for 4th January 2026
1717 – Netherlands, Great Britain and France sign Triple Alliance
1906 – South Africa beat England by one wicket, their 1st Test win
1934 – Premiere of the first Dutch talkie movie, Jan Teunissen’s “Willem van Oranje”
1951 – Korean War: Chinese forces recapture Seoul
1967 – English land and boat racer Donald Campbell is killed while driving jet-powered boat Bluebird K7 on Coniston Water in England trying to beat his own water speed record
1986 – Los Angeles Rams running back Eric Dickerson scores twice as he rushes for an NFL postseason record 248 yards in 20-0 victory over Dallas Cowboys in NFC divisional playoff in Anaheim, California
1987 – Sixteen die in a train crash in Chase, Maryland
2018 – ‘Bomb Cyclone’ hits US Northeast prompting flooding and snow in New York subway system
Historical Events for 3rd January 2026
1922 – First living person is depicted on a U.S. coin when Governor Thomas Kilby appears on the Alabama Centennial half dollar
1945 – Admiral Chester Nimitz begins planning assaults on Okinawa and Iwo Jima in Japan
1947 – First opening session of Congress is televised; it does not happen again until 1977
1961 – US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
1991 – 8 Iraqi embassy officials are expelled from the UK
1994 – 35-foot-tall Chief Wahoo, trademark of Indians on top of Stadium since 1962, is taken down, to be moved to Jacob’s Field
1998 – American “Hee Haw” banjo player Grandpa Jones suffers a stroke
2002 – College Football, 4th BCS National Championship, Rose Bowl, Pasadena: #1 Miami beats #2 Nebraska, 37-14, at 88th Rose Bowl
Historical Events for 2nd January 2026
366 – The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers and invade the Roman Empire
1958 – Dmitri Shostakovich’ 2nd Piano Concerto has US premiere, with Leonard Bernstein as soloist and conductor of the New York Philharmonic at Carnegie hall in NYCs in NY
1967 – 33rd Sugar Bowl: #6 Alabama beats #3 Nebraska, 34-7
1969 – Once influential daily sports newspaper, ‘Soviet Sport’ declares Czech super-star distance runner Emil Zatopek a “public enemy” after he supports democratic wing of the Communist Party at start of the Prague Spring
1972 – “Rothschilds” closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 505 performances
1989 – 75th Rose Bowl: #11 Michigan beats #5 Southern California, 22-14
1996 – 25th Fiesta Bowl: #1 Nebraska beats #2 Florida, 62-24
2022 – Sudan’s Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok resigns in a televised address amid political deadlock after a rejection of his deal with the military by pro-democracy forces
Historical Events for 1st January 2026
1932 – United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth
1945 – German air raid on allied airports at Eindhoven/Saint-Trond/Brussels
1962 – 28th Orange Bowl: #4 LSU beats #7 Colorado, 25-7
1963 – 29th Orange Bowl: #5 Alabama beats #8 Oklahoma, 17-0
1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned from broadcast media in the US
1990 – 19th Fiesta Bowl: #5 Florida State beats #6 Nebraska, 41-17
1990 – The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) implements “SYNDEX,” granting independent stations more rights over cable TV outlets for exclusive syndicated programs
2000 – Opening of the Holy Doors of Santa Maria Maggiore by Pope John Paul II in Rome to celebrate the new millennium
Historical Events for 31st December 2025
870 – Skirmish at Englefield: Ethelred of Wessex beats a section of the Viking Great Heathen Army, camped at Reading
1911 – Marie Curie receives her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her work with radioactivity
1923 – BBC begins using Big Ben’s chimes as an interval signal
1957 – Amateur Athletic Union awards American sprinter Bobby Morrow the James E. Sullivan Award
1975 – 42nd Sugar Bowl: #3 Alabama beats #7 Penn State, 13-6
1986 – Dupont Plaza Hotel fire in San Juan, Puerto Rico kills 97
1996 – 63rd Orange Bowl: #6 Nebraska beats #10 Virginia Tech, 41-21
1997 – 27th Fiesta Bowl: #10 Kansas State beats #14 Syracuse, 35-18