January 3 is the third day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 362 days remaining until the end of the year (363 in leap years). Perihelion, the point in the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun, occurs around this date.
Holidays
- Christian Feast Day:
- Tamaseseri Festival (Hakozaki Shrine, Fukuoka)
- The tenth day of Christmas (Western Christianity)
- First day of school at schools in Malaysia and Singapore
History
In 250, Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods
In 1431, Joan of Arc is handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
In 1437, Catherine of Valois (27 October 1401 – 3 January 1437) died. She was the Queen consort of England from 1420 until 1422. She was the daughter of Charles VI of France, wife of Henry V of England, mother of Henry VI of England, and through her secret marriage with Owen Tudor, the grandmother of Henry VII of England. Catherine’s older sister Isabella was queen of England from 1396 until 1399, as the child bride of Richard II.
In 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
In 1653, By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
In 1749, Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
In 1749, The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark‘s oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
In 1777, American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
In 1815, Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
In 1823, Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
In 1848, Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Liberia.
In 1861, American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
In 1868, Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
In 1870, Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
In 1885, Beginning of the Battle of Nui Bop
In 1888, The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
In 1911, A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
In 1919, At the Paris Peace Conference, Emir Faisal I of Iraq signs an agreement with Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann on the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.
In 1925, Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy. He was an Italian politician, journalist and leader of the National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista; PNF), ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943—constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. Known as Il Duce (“The Leader”), Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism.
In 1932, Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers fired by the United Fruit Company.
In 1933, Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
In 1938, The March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Semper Fi
In 1944, World War II: Top Ace Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
In 1945, World War II: Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima and Okinawa in Japan.
In 1946, Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
In 1947, Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
In 1949, The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
In 1953, Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
In 1956, A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
In 1957, The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
In 1958, The West Indies Federation is formed.
In 1959, Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
In 1959, Separatists in the Maldives declare the establishment of the United Suvadive Republic.
In 1961, The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
In 1961, A core explosion and meltdown at the SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, kills three workers.
In 1961, In Finland‘s worst civilian aviation accident an Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kvevlax, resulting in the deaths of all 25 people aboard.
In 1962, Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
In 1975, James McCormack, Jr. (8 November 1910 – 3 January 1975) died. He was a United States Army officer who served in World War II, and was later the first Director of Military Applications of the United States Atomic Energy Commission.
In 1976, The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights comes into effect.
In 1977, Apple Computers is incorporated.
In 1979, Conrad Hilton, American businessman, founded the Hilton Hotels & Resorts (b. 1887) died
In 1990, Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
In 1993, In Moscow, Russia, George Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
In 1994, More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receive South African citizenship.
In 1996, The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
In 1997, China announces it will spend US$27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys.
In 1999, The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
In 1999, Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
In 2000, The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published.
In 2002, Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
In 2004, Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it the deadliest aviation accident in Egyptian history.
In 2009, The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis block, was established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In 2014, Phil Everly died at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, California, 16 days before his 75th birthday, of lung disease. The Everly Brothers were American country-influenced rock and roll singers, known for steel-string guitar and close harmony singing. Isaac Donald “Don” Everly (born February 1, 1937) and Phillip “Phil” Everly (January 19, 1939 – January 3, 2014) were elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001. https://www.youtube.com/embed/lTYe9eDqxe8
In 2015, Boko Haram militants raze the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, with as many as 2,000 people having been killed.
In 2016, Following the fallout caused by the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, Computer analysts report two major security vulnerabilities, named “Meltdown” and “Spectre,” affecting the microprocessors of almost all computers in the world.
In 2019, Chang’e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover.
