January 21

January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 344 days remaining (345 in leap years).

Events

• 1189 – Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
• 1276 – Innocent V becomes Pope.
• 1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz's mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
• 1643 – Abel Tasman discovers Tonga.
• 1720 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
• 1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1793 – After being found guilty for treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is guillotined.
• 1793 – Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
• 1853 – Russell L. Hawes patents the envelope-folding machine.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
• 1864 – The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
• 1887 – The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is formed.
• 1899 – Opel Motors opens for business.
• 1908 – New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
• 1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally.
• 1915 – Kiwanis International founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1919 – Meeting in the Mansion House Dublin, the Sinn Féin adopts Ireland's first constitution.
• 1924 – Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
• 1925 – Albania declares itself a republic.
• 1941 – World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
• 1950 – Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
• 1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States.
• 1968 – Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
• 1969 – An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
• 1976 – The first commercial service Concorde flight took off.
• 1977 – President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.
• 1994 – Lorena Bobbitt is found not-guilty by reason of temporary insanity for severing the penis of her husband John Bobbitt.
• 1997 – Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
• 1999 – War on Drugs: In one of the one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine on board.
• 2003 – The terms of Kevin Mitnick's parole allow him to use a computer again.
• 2004 – Canada: The residence of reporter, Juliet O'Neill was searched by the RCMP investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
• 2004 – NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceased communication with mission control. The problem was with Flash Memory management and fixed remotely from Earth on Feb 6th.
• 2005 – In Belize's capital city, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.

Births

• 1738 – Ethan Allen, American patriot (d. 1789)
• 1804 – Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (d. 1887)
• 1824 – Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate Army general (d. 1863)
• 1829 – King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (d. 1907)
• 1848 – Henri Duparc, French composer (d. 1933)
• 1850 – Paul Vinzenz Busch, ringmaster (d. 1927)
• 1855 – John Moses Browning, inventor (d. 1926)
• 1867 – Ludwig Thoma, narrator, dramatist and lyricist (d. 1921)
• 1867 – Maxime Weygand, French general (d. 1965)
• 1883 – Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (d. 1929)
• 1884 – Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)
• 1885 – Umberto Nobile, politician and airship designer (d. 1978)
• 1895 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, couturier (d. 1972)
• 1905 – Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (d. 1978)
• 1905 – Christian Dior, fashion designer (d. 1957)
• 1919 – Jinx Falkenburg, American model (d. 2003)
• 1921 – Howard Unruh, mass murderer
• 1921 – Barney Clark heart transplant recipient (d. 1983)
• 1922 – Paul Scofield, actor
• 1924 – Telly Savalas, actor (d. 1994)
• 1924 or 1925  – Benny Hill, comedian, actor (d. 1992)
• 1926 – Steve Reeves, actor (d. 2000)
• 1936 – Koji Hashimoto, Japanese film director (d. 2005)
• 1936 – Snooks Eaglin, American blues musician
• 1939 – Wolfman Jack, disk jockey and actor (d. 1995)
• 1940 – Jack Nicklaus, golfer
• 1941 – Plácido Domingo, Spanish-born tenor
• 1941  – Richie Havens, American musician
• 1942 – Edwin Starr, American singer (d. 2003)
• 1942 – Mac Davis, American musician
• 1946 – Johnny Oates, baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
• 1948 – Trey Wilson, American actor (d. 1989)
• 1950 – Billy Ocean, musician
• 1953 – Paul Allen, entrepreneur
• 1955 – Jeff Koons, artist
• 1956 – Geena Davis, actress
• 1956 – Robby Benson, American actor
• 1963 – Hakeem Olajuwon, basketball player
• 1963  – Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
• 1965 – Jam Master Jay, disc jockey (d. 2002)
• 1968 – Charlotte Ross, American actress
• 1971 – Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
• 1976 – Emma Bunton, singer (Spice Girls)
• 1979 – Brian O'Driscoll, rugby player
• 1981 – Dany Heatley, hockey player
• 1981 – Izabella Miko, Polish actress
• 1988 – Victoria Watson, British actress
• 2004 – Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway

Deaths

• 304  – Saint Agnes (martyred)
• 1118 – Pope Paschal II
• 1519 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer
• 1546 – Azai Sukemasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (d. 1491)
• 1609 – Joseph Justus Scaliger, protestant scholar (b. 1540)
• 1793 – King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)
• 1831 – Achim von Arnim, German poet (b. 1781)
• 1872 – Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)
• 1881 – Wilhelm Matthias Näff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1802)
• 1891 – Calixa Lavallée, composer (b. 1842)
• 1901 – Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
• 1924 – Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR (b. 1870)
• 1928 – George Goethals, American army engineer (b. 1858)
• 1932 – Giles Lytton Strachey British writer and biographer (b. 1880)
• 1933 – George Moore, novelist (b. 1852)
• 1948 – Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b. 1876)
• 1950 – George Orwell, writer (b. 1903)
• 1955 – Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
• 1959 – Cecil B. DeMille, director (b. 1881)
• 1959  – Carl Switzer, American actor
• 1961 – Blaise Cendrars, writer (b. 1887)
• 1967 – Ann Sheridan, American actress
• 1984 – Jackie Wilson, American musician
• 1985 – James Beard, chef, author
• 1987 – Charles Goodell, American politician (b. 1926)
• 1989 – Billy Tipton, jazz musician (b. 1914)
• 1993 – Charlie Gehringer, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1903)
• 1997 – Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager (b. 1909)
• 1998 – Jack Lord, actor (b. 1920)
• 1999 – Susan Strasberg, actress (b. 1938)
• 2001 – Byron De La Beckwith, white supremacist (b. 1921)
• 2001  – Chung Ju-yung, Korean industrialist (b. 1915)
• 2002 – Peggy Lee, singer (b. 1920)
• 2004 – Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer and playwright (b. 1929)
• 2005 – Parveen Babi, Indian actress (b. 1955)
• 2005  – John L. Hess, journalist (b. 1917)
• 2005  – Don Poier, NBA basketball announcer for the Memphis Grizzlies
• 2005  – Carl Schlettwein, founder of Basler Afrika Bibliographien (b. 1925)
• 2005  – Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (b. 1907)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism – Feast day of Saint Agnes
• Mauritius – Thaipoosam Cavadee

External links

• BBC: On This Day

January 20 – January 22 – December 21 – February 21 — listing of all days