January 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 345 days remaining until the end of the year (346 in leap years).
In the ancient astronomy, it is the cusp day between Capricorn and Aquarius. In some years it is Aquarius, but others Capricorn. It depends on the year.
Holidays
- Armed Forces Day (Mali)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Inauguration Day (United States of America)
- Martyrs’ Day (Azerbaijan)
- National ‘Good Day’ Day
- No…. it is not Martin Luther King Day. That was last Friday. It’s just celebrated today.
- Get to Know Your Customer Day
- Women in Blue Jeans Days
- Women’s Healthy Weight Day
History
In 250, Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred. Pope Fabian (Latin: Fabianus; c. 200 – 20 January 250) was the head of the Catholic Church from 10 January 236 to his death in 250, succeeding Pope Anterus. He is famous for the miraculous nature of his election, in which a dove is said to have descended on his head to mark him as the Holy Spirit‘s unexpected choice to become the next pope. With the advent of Emperor Decius, the Roman government’s tolerant policy toward Christianity temporarily ended. Decius ordered leading Christians to demonstrate their loyalty to Rome by offering incense to the cult images of deities which represented the Roman state. This, of course, was unacceptable to many Christians, who, while no longer holding most of the laws of the Old Testament to apply to them, took the commandment against idolatry with deadly seriousness. Fabian was thus one of the earliest victims of Decius, dying as a martyr on 20 January 250, at the beginning of the Decian persecution, probably in prison rather than by execution. Fabian was buried in the catacomb of Callixtus. The Greek inscription on his tomb has survived. His remains were later reinterred at San Sebastiano fuori le mura by Pope Clement XI where the Albani Chapel is dedicated in his honour.
In 649, King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.
In 1265, In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster, now also known colloquially as the “Houses of Parliament”.
In 1320, Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
In 1356, Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.
In 1523, Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
In 1567, Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estácio de Sá definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro.
In 1576, The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.
In 1649, Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other “high crimes“.
In 1783, The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence).
In 1785, Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River by the Tay Son in the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút.
In 1788, The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Botany Bay is unsuitable for the location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
In 1839, In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.
In 1841, Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
In 1885, L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
In 1887, The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
In 1920, The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
In 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.
In 1929, In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, is released.
In 1934, Fujifilm, the photographic and electronics company, is founded in Tokyo, Japan.
In 1936, Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
In 1941, A German officer is murdered in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.
In 1942, World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question“.
In 1945, World War II: Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
In 1945, World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.
In 1949, Point Four Program a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President.
In 1954, The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
In 1959, The first flight of the Vickers Vanguard.
In 1960, Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
In 1965, Alan Freed, American radio host (b. 1922) died. He was also known as Moondog, was an American disc jockey. He became internationally known for promoting the mix of blues, country and rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll. His career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry in the early 1960s.
In 1969, East Pakistani police kill student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman. The resulting outrage is in part responsible for the Bangladesh Liberation War.
In 1971, Broncho Billy Anderson, American actor, director, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1880) died. He was an American actor, writer, film director, and film producer, who is best known as the first star of the Western film genre. In 1958, he received an Honorary Academy Award as a “motion picture pioneer” for his “contributions to the development of motion pictures as entertainment.”
In 1972, Pakistan launched its Nuclear weapons program few weeks after its defeat in Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
In 1981, Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated, at age 69 the oldest man ever to be inaugurated as U.S. President, Iran releases 52 American hostages.
In 1984, Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904) died from pulmonary edema at the age of 79. He was buried just outside Acapulco, Valle de La Luz at the Valley of the Light Cemetery. As his coffin was lowered into the ground, a recording of the Tarzan yell he invented was played three times, at his request. He was an Austro-Hungarian-American competition swimmer and actor best known for playing Tarzan in films of the 1930s and 1940s and for having one of the best competitive swimming records of the 20th century. Weissmuller was one of the world’s fastest swimmers in the 1920s, winning five Olympic gold medals for swimming and one bronze medal for water polo. He won fifty-two US National Championships, set more than fifty world records, both in freestyle and backstroke, and was purportedly undefeated in official competition for the entirety of his competitive career. After retiring from competitions, he became the sixth actor to portray Edgar Rice Burroughs‘s ape man, Tarzan, a role he played in twelve motion pictures. Dozens of other actors have also played Tarzan, but Weissmuller is by far the best known. His character’s distinctive Tarzan yell is still often used in films.
In 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
In 1987, Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.
In 1990, On Black Saturday, the Red Army kills Azerbaijani civilians in Baku.
In 1990, Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907) died. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong, realistic screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After a short but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television. Orphaned at the age of four and partially raised in foster homes, by 1944 Stanwyck had become the highest-paid woman in the United States. She was nominated for the Academy Award four times, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1981, the American Film Institute in 1987, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild. Stanwyck has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is ranked as the 11th greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute. Stanwyck vehemently opposed the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She felt that if someone from her disadvantaged background had risen to success, others should be able to do the same without government intervention or assistance
In 1991, Sudan‘s government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.
In 1992, Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France killing 87 of the 96 people on board. A design flaw in the computer mode selection system resulted in the crew selecting the wrong rate of descent.
In 1993, Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-English actress (b. 1929) died at home in her sleep of appendiceal cancer. She was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognized as a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was active during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third greatest female screen legend in the history of American cinema and has been placed in the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. She is also regarded by some to be the most naturally beautiful woman of all time.
Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England and the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War. In Amsterdam, she studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell before moving to London in 1948 to continue her ballet training with Marie Rambert and perform as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions. She spoke several languages including English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and German.
After appearing in several British films and starring in the 1951 Broadway play Gigi, Hepburn played the lead role in Roman Holiday (1953), for which she was the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for a single performance. The same year, she won a Tony Award for Best Lead Actress in a Play for Ondine. She went on to star in a number of successful films, such as Sabrina (1954), The Nun’s Story (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), Charade (1963), My Fair Lady (1964) and Wait Until Dark (1967), for which she received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations. Hepburn remains one of few people who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards. She won a record three BAFTA Awards for Best British Actress in a Leading Role.
She appeared in fewer films as her life went on, devoting much of her later life to UNICEF. Although contributing to the organization since 1954, she worked in some of the most profoundly disadvantaged communities of Africa, South America and Asia between 1988 and 1992. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in recognition of her work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in December 1992.
In 1996, Gerry Mulligan, American saxophonist and composer (b. 1927) died.
In 1999, The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use, aimed especially at Internet cafés.
In 2001, Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
In 2006, Witnesses report seeing a bottlenose whale swimming in the River Thames, the first time the species had been seen in the Thames since records began in 1913.
In 2007, A three-man team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.
In 2009, A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.
In 2013, President Barack Obama forcefully advanced the homosexual agenda in his second inaugural address this afternoon, saying redefining marriage must be enacted “by [God’s] people here on earth.” “We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths – that all of us are created equal – is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forebears through Seneca Falls, and Selma, and Stonewall,” he said.
In 2013, On the Good Side, a small, mostly rural East Texas school district will allow some teachers and administrators to carry concealed weapons on campus, making it at least the second school system in the state to implement such a policy. The seven-member board of the Union Grove school district voted unanimously Thursday evening to enact the policy, Superintendent Brian Gray said Friday.
In 2014, According to Madison County Commissioner Luther T. Mercer, the Madison County Commission has approved the sexual harassment settlements Tuesday morning for Deputy Sharon Sangster and Lt. Lisa Balderrama. Sangster will receive $210,000 and Lisa Baldarrama will receive $130,000. The county will only have to come out of pocket for $1,000, as the insurance will cover the rest of the settlements.
In 2015, In choosing one of three competing bidders for a roadwork project, the Williston City Council picked the one that charged four times as much as the other two, according to a new audit. State Comptroller Justin Wilson’s audit said council members chose contractor Ricky McQueen, who charged an even $42,000 for the work. The two competing contractors, meanwhile, separately bid $8,800 and $10,977, the audit said. Another nugget from that audit: McQueen’s wife was the mayor, Audrey McQueen.
In 2015, Gov. Bill Haslam ventured into West Tennessee to promote his Insure Tennessee proposal, in what was a high-stakes public battle between independent groups on both sides of his plan to extend health coverage to 200,000 low-income Tennesseans. Haslam was hoping to win the hearts and minds of fellow Republicans in the GOP-dominated Legislature, Haslam headed to Jackson and Memphis today for two forums aimed at amping up support for the plan, which uses federal Medicaid dollars to fund what he calls his “market-driven” approach. The during the off session the proposal never made it out of committee which Haslam had put attempted to put together.
In 2017, Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America, becoming the oldest person to hold the office.
In 2018, The United States federal government shuts down after the Senate fails to pass a temporary funding bill.
