/year

January 22 in history

203 sourced entries recorded on January 22, from 205 CE to 2025 CE. Every line is quoted from the revision it came from.

Events

  • 565Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople is deposed as Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople by Justinian I after he refuses the Byzantine Emperor's order to adopt the tenets of the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of Monophysites. From April 12 he is replaced by John Scholasticus.source
  • 613Constantine is crowned co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius and shortly after betrothed to his cousin, Gregoria, daughter of Nicetas. Only 8 months old, Constantine has no real power and his dynastic title is purely ceremonial.source
  • 871Battle of Basing: The West Saxon army, under the command of Æthelred I, is defeated at Basing. The Danes, led by Halfdan, are victorious; Æthelred is forced to flee and regroup, leaving behind precious winter supplies.source
  • 906The warlord Zhu Quanzhong secretly puts Empress Dowager He, the wife of the late Emperor Zhaozong and mother of the reigning Emperor Ai, to death (by strangulation) and has her defamed and posthumously demoted to commoner rank.source
  • 1018Emperor Go-Ichijō of Japan celebrates his coming-of-age ceremony; he is aged 9 at this time.source
  • 1099The Crusaders, under Raymond IV, reach Masyaf, where a treaty is agreed to. They decide to continue the march, rather than to capture or destroy the town. The next day the Crusaders enter the deserted town of Rafaniyah, that provides them with much-needed supplies. Raymond moves into the Buqaia Valley, and takes the strategic Kurdish fortress of Hosn al-Akrad (the future Krak des Chevaliers castle).source
  • 1130Jin–Song Wars: Jin forces take Hangzhou.source
  • 1273Sultan Muhammad I (or Ibn al-Ahmar) suffers fatal injuries after falling from his horse near the city of Granada during a minor military expedition. He is succeeded by his son Muhammad II, who becomes ruler of the Emirate of Granada. Muhammad enters negotiations with King Alfonso X ("the Wise") to make peace with Castile, but he refuses to grant a truce to the Banu governors (arraeces) of Málaga and Guadix in Andalusia.source
  • 1300In the Himalayan Mountains kingdom of Nepal, armies from Mithila capture Bhadagon and occupy the area until the ruling house of Tripura withdraws.source
  • 1349An earthquake affects L'Aquila in southern Italy with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), causing severe damage, and leaving 2,000 dead.source
  • 1397The 23rd Parliament of King Richard II of England assembles after having been summoned on November 30, and re-elects Sir John Bussy as the Speaker of the House of Commons, then meets for three weeks.source
  • 1406Abū al-Faḍl Al-Musta'in becomes the new Abbasid caliph of Cairo, spiritual leader of the Muslim faith in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt, succeeding his father, Al-Mutawakkil I.source
  • 1461In Japan, where the Kansho famine has led to thousands of people starving to death, the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa orders relief efforts to be coordinated by Ganami, a Buddhist monk who leads the Kōfuku-ji temple.source
  • 1462On Saint Vincent's Day, Portuguese explorer Diogo Afonso and his men become the first Europeans to discover the island of São Vicente (now part of Cape Verde) off the coast of North Africa.source
  • 1471At age 15, Prince João of Aviz, the eldest son of King Afonso V, marries his 12-year-old first cousin, Leonor de Avis. Both are grandchildren of King Duarte I of Portugal.source
  • 1472The Great Comet of 1472 passes within 0.07 astronomical units of Earth (6.507 million miles or 10.472 million km), the closest approach in recorded history for a great cometsource
  • 1473Muhammad Jiwa Shah becomes the new Sultan of Kedah, an absolute monarchy at the south of the Malay Peninsula and now part of Malaysia, upon the death of his father, Ataullah Muhammad Shah.source
  • 1506The Swiss Guard arrives at the Vatican, to serve as permanent ceremonial and palace guards under Pope Julius II.source
  • 1517Battle of Ridaniya: The Ottoman army of sultan Selim I defeats the Mamluk army in Egypt, commanded by king Tuman Bay II.source
  • 1521Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, opens the Diet of Worms in Worms, Germany.source
  • 1522Duarte de Menezes becomes governor of Portuguese India (until 1524)source
  • 1532São Vicente is established as the first permanent Portuguese settlement in Brazil.source
  • 1555The Kingdom of Ava in Upper Burma falls.source
  • 1558The Livonian War begins.source
  • 1574Mohammed II becomes the new Sultan of Morocco upon the death of his father, Abdallah al-Ghalib.source
  • 1588Pope Sixtus V issues the papal bull Immensa aeterni Dei, a major reorganization of the Roman Curia creating 15 congregations of cardinals, including the Congregation of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, the Church list of forbidden books; the Congregation of the Inquisition; and the Congregation of the Vatican Press.source
  • 1599Acoma Massacre: Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico viceroy Juan de Oñate leads 70 armed Spanish soldiers against the indigenous Keres people at Aak'u (the Acoma Pueblo), near what is now Albuquerque, New Mexico. In three days, 500 Acoma men and 300 women and children are killed by the Spanish.source
  • 1614Led by Hasekura Tsunenaga, Japan's trade expedition to New Spain (modern-day Mexico) arrives on the Mexican coast with 22 samurai, 120 Japanese merchants, sailors and servants, and 40 Spaniards and Portuguese who serve as interpreters. Having reached the Americas after a voyage that began on October 28, the expedition travels to Acapulco and arrives on January 25.source
  • 1620In France, Charles d'Albert, duc de Luynes, and his wife, the Duchess Marie de Rohan, sign a marriage contract on behalf of their one-year-old daughter to be engaged to the year-old son of Charles, Duke of Guise.source
  • 1621The Tianqi era begins in Ming Dynasty China, six months after Zhu Changluo becomes the Taichang Emperor.source
  • 1624Korean General Yi Gwal leads an uprising of 12,000 soldiers against King Injo in what is called then the Joseon Kingdom, and occupies Hanseong.source
  • 1634William Davenant's comedy The Wits first performed by the King's Men at the Blackfriars Theatresource
  • 1638The Shimabara and Amakusa rebels, having joined up after fleeing the shogun's troops, begin the defense of Hara Castle in modern-day Minamishimabara in the Nagasaki prefecture. The siege lasts more than 11 weeks before the peasants are massacred.source
  • 1644The Royalist Oxford Parliament is first assembled by King Charles I of England.source
  • 1644King Charles I opens the Royalist 'Oxford Parliament'.source
  • 1655Oliver Cromwell dissolves the First Protectorate Parliament.source
  • 1662Former Chinese Emperor Yongli, who had surrendered to General Wu Sangui in December, is put on a boat along with his sons and grandsons at Sagaing in Burma (at the time, Burma), leaving under the promise that they will be given safe passage elsewhere in Burma. Instead, the former Emperor is taken back to China and executed on June 1.source
  • 1673Impersonator Mary Carleton is hanged at Newgate Prison in London, for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation.source
  • 1673impostor Mary Carleton is hanged in Newgate Prison in London for multiple thefts and returning from penal transportation.source
  • 1689January 22 (January 12, 1688 O.S.) – Glorious Revolution in England: The Convention Parliament is convened to determine if King James II of England, the last Roman Catholic British monarch, vacated the throne when he fled to France, at the end of 1688. The settlement of this is agreed on 8 February.source
  • 1689the Convention Parliament is convened to determine if James II, the last Roman Catholic king, had vacated the throne when he fled to France at the end of 1688.source
  • 1693A total lunar eclipse is visible across North and South America.source
  • 1715Voting begins for the British House of Commons and continues for the next 46 days in different constituencies on different days.source
  • 1724Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, Spanish Captain general of the Río de la Plata, forces the Portuguese to abandon their fortified settlement at what will become the city of Montevideo in Uruguay.source
  • 1758Russian troops under the command of William Fermor invade East Prussia and capture Königsberg with 34,000 soldiers; although the city is later abandoned by Russia after the Seven Years' War ends, the city again comes under Russian control in 1945 during World War II and is now named Kaliningrad.source
  • 1760Seven Years' War – Battle of Wandiwash, India: British general Sir Eyre Coote is victorious over the French under the Marquis de Bussy-Castelnau.source
  • 1771Spain cedes the Falkland Islands to Britain.source
  • 1777The first headstone is created in Oak Grove Cemetery in Bath, Massachusetts (now Maine).source
  • 1779American Revolutionary War – Claudius Smith is hanged at Goshen, Orange County, New York for supposed acts of terrorism upon the people of the surrounding communities.source
  • 1788The Congress of the Confederation, effectively a caretaker government until the United States Constitution can be ratified by at least nine of the 13 states, elects Cyrus Griffin as its last president.source
  • 1798A coup d'état is staged in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic). Unitarian Democrat Pieter Vreede ends the power of the parliament (with a conservative-moderate majority).source
  • 1808Transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil: John (Dom João), Prince Regent, and the Braganza royal family of Portugal arrive in their colony of Brazil in exile from the French occupation of their home kingdom.source
  • 1808The Bragança Portuguese Royal Family arrives in Brazil, having fled the French army.source
  • 1811The Casas Revolt begins in San Antonio, Spanish Texas.source
  • 1813January 18–23 – War of 1812: The Battle of Frenchtown is fought in modern-day Monroe, Michigan between the United States and a British and Native American alliance.source
  • 1816Large numbers of Māori from North Cape, Whangaroa and Thames visit the mission at Rangihoua.source
  • 1820Battle of Tacuarembósource
  • 1822Samuel Leigh and his wife arrive in the Bay of Islands to start the first Wesleyan mission. They stay at Te Puna with the Hall family of the Church Missionary Society for the next 16 months.source
  • 1823By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutionary liberals) as absolute monarch of the country.source
  • 1823By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutionary liberals) as absolute monarch of the country.source
  • 1824First Anglo-Ashanti War: Battle of Nsamankow – forces of the Ashanti Empire crush British forces in the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), killing the British governor Sir Charles MacCarthy.source
  • 1828Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, succeeds Lord Goderich as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • 1840British colonists reach New Zealand, officially founding the settlement of Wellington.source
  • 1840British colonists reach New Zealand. Official founding date of Wellington.source
  • 1853University of Melbourne formally established by Act of Parliamentsource
  • 1863The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to liberate the Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from Russian occupation.source
  • 1864the Stifone powder-magazine explosion near Narni, Italy, destroys much of the village of Stifone and kills 12 people.source
  • 1868Sixteen vessels are lost in a gale off the Burry estuary, with a total of thirty lives lost.source
  • 1873Northfleet, carrying emigrants for Tasmania, sinks at anchor off Dungeness after being rammed by a Spanish steamship with the death of 293 and 86 survivors.source
  • 1879Anglo-Zulu War – Battle of Isandlwana: A force of 1,200 British soldiers is wiped out by over 20,000 Zulu warriors.source
  • 1880Toowong State School is founded in Queensland.source
  • 1887Tōkyō Denkō begins selling electric lights.source
  • 1889Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.source
  • 1897In this date's issue of the journal Engineering, the word computer is first used to refer to a mechanical calculation device.source
  • 1905January 22 (January 9 O.S.) – The Bloody Sunday massacre of peaceful Russian demonstrators at the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg takes place, leading to an unsuccessful uprising.source
  • 1905January 22 (January 9 O.S.) – The Bloody Sunday massacre of demonstrators led by Russian Orthodox priest Georgy Gapon trigger the abortive Revolution of 1905.source
  • 1906The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, Canada, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.source
  • 1906The SS Valencia strikes a reef off Vancouver Island, killing over 100 (officially 136) in the ensuing disaster.source
  • 1910Completion of construction of New York City's Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, at 700 ft the world's tallest building at this time, is celebrated.source
  • 1912The Overseas Railroad officially opens on the Florida Keys.source
  • 1915Guadalajara train disastersource
  • 1916Japan launches its first domestically manufactured blimp. The blimp left Tokorozawa at 1:30 p.m. and, after landing and refueling at Toyohashi, landed in Osaka at 5:10 p.m. the next day.source
  • 1918January 18–25 – General strike in Austria-Hungarysource
  • 1924January 20–30 – Kuomintang in China holds its first National Congress, initiating a policy of alliance with the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communist Party.source
  • 1924Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • 1930SS Monte Cervantes struck a rock off Ushuia, Chile and sank with the loss of her captain.source
  • 1931Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.source
  • 1932The 1932 Salvadoran peasant uprising begins; it is suppressed by the government of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez.source
  • 1932Peasants led by Farabundo Martí, Mario Zapata, and Alfonso Luna rise up in western El Salvador against the government of Maximiliano Hernández Martínez, initially killing at least 50 people.source
  • 1932First time ezan in Turkish instead of traditional Arabic.source
  • 1941In Sweden, Victor Hasselblad registers the Hasselblad Camera Company.source
  • 1942Hideki Tōjō warns Australia that "if you continue resistance, we Japanese will destroy you."source
  • 1943January 14–24 – WWII: Casablanca Conference: Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States; Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; and generals Henri Giraud and Charles de Gaulle of the French Resistance meet secretly at the Anfa Hotel in Casablanca, Morocco, to plan the Allied European strategy for the next stage of the war.source
  • 1943The Holocaust: Round up of Marseille begins – Over 4,000 Jews are arrested in Nazi-occupied Marseille as part of "Action Tiger", before being transported to extermination camps in Poland.source
  • 1944Juan Perón and Eva Perón met during a fundraising for the aforementioned earthquake.source
  • 1945January 21–22 (night) – At the Grünhagen railroad station, located in East Prussia at this date, two trains, heading for Elbing, collide. At dawn the station is reached by Soviet Army infantry and tanks which destroy the station, killing between 140 and 150 people.source
  • 1946Iran crisis of 1946: Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad, at the Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad. He is the new president; Haji Baba Sheikh is the prime minister.source
  • 1946The report of High Commissioner Paul McNutt to President Harry Truman, which lumps the candidates into 'loyalists' and 'enemy collaborators,' created resentment among congressional leaders.source
  • 1946The National Intelligence Authority, and its operational arm, the Central Intelligence Group, are established in the United States; these become part of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947.source
  • 1948British foreign secretary Ernest Bevin proposes the formation of a Western Union between Britain, France and the Benelux countries to stand up against the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Brussels is signed March 17 as a consequence, a predecessor to NATO.source
  • 195111 people die when a rail bus and a train collide in Kinstaby, Sweden.source
  • 1955In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons.source
  • 1956The Argentine Grand Prix is held in Buenos Aires and is won by Luigi Musso and Juan Manuel Fangio.source
  • 1957Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula (captured from Egypt on 29 October 1956 during the Suez Crisis), keeping forces in the Gaza Strip and along the eastern shore of the peninsula.source
  • 1959Project Hotfoot (Laos) begins.source
  • 1960Charles de Gaulle, President of France, dismisses Jacques Massu as commander-in-chief of French troops in Algeria.source
  • 1960Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh descend into the Mariana Trench in the bathyscaphe Trieste, reaching a depth of 10,911 m, and become the first human beings to reach the lowest spot on Earth.source
  • 1964Kenneth Kaunda is inaugurated as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.source
  • 1968a fire in Viña del Mar destroyed 600 hectares of vegetation and more than 200 houses in the upper sector of the city.source
  • 1969Attempted assassination of Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, by deserter Viktor Ilyin. One person is killed, several are injured; Brezhnev escapes unharmed. Very little is publicly admitted about the incident by the Soviet authorities at this time.source
  • 1973Roe v. Wade: The U.S. Supreme Court overturns state bans on abortion.source
  • 1973The Sunshine Showdown: George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica.source
  • 1975In the country's worst fire on record by then, 51 persons are either burned, suffocated, or leaped to their death when a fire sweeps through a factory in a commercial building in Marikina, Rizal. At least 79 others are seriously injured.source
  • 1978Ethiopia declares the ambassador of West Germany persona non grata.source
  • 1979Uganda–Tanzania War: Battle of Mutukula: The Tanzanian military captures the Ugandan border town of Mutukula after a short battle.source
  • 1980Yitzhak Baer (born 1888), German-born Israeli historian and an expert in medieval Spanish Jewish history.source
  • 1980Andrei Sakharov, Soviet scientist and human rights activist, is arrested in Moscow.source
  • 1986January 13–24 – South Yemen Civil War.source
  • 1987Birzeit University student elections are held. The leftist-nationalist bloc wins 41.5% of the vote, the Islamist bloc 34%, and the Marxist bloc 24.5%.source
  • 1990US graduate student Robert Tappan Morris is convicted of releasing the Morris worm onto the internet.source
  • 1993Hungarian politician Istvan Csurka, of the Hungarian Democratic Forum, calls on the nation to rally against an alleged anti-Hungarian conspiracy led by Jews, liberals, Communists, and Westerners.source
  • 1996Andreas Papandreou, Prime Minister of Greece, resigns due to health problems; a new government is formed under Costas Simitis.source
  • 2001The 2001 insurgency in Macedonia begins when a police station is shelled by the National Liberation Army in Tearce, near the border with Kosovo.source
  • 2001January 21–27 – Taba Summit: Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aimed at reaching the "final status" of negotiations. Ehud Barak temporarily withdraws from negotiations during the Israeli elections, subsequently Ariel Sharon refuses to continue negotiating in the face of the newly erupted violence.source
  • 2003The last signal from NASA's Pioneer 10 spacecraft is received, some 12.2 billion kilometers (7.6 billion mi) from Earth.source
  • 2006Evo Morales is inaugurated as president of Bolivia.source
  • 2014Chile 4–0 Costa Rica.source
  • 2015After Houthi forces seize the presidential palace, Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi resigns after months of unrest.source
  • 2017an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude struck off Papua New Guinea.source
  • 2017Organized protests in Santo Domingo and other areas of the country begin, advocating for legal justice in recent corruption scandals such as the Odebrecht case. Protestors dress in Green, to symbolize what they dubbed the 'Green Wave' due to the protest's environmentalist themes.source
  • 2018January 20–22 – The US government enters a federal government shutdown as a result of a dispute over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.source
  • 2019The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), in its resolution welcomes Georgia's so-called Otkhozoria-Tatunashvili list, a "sanctions list of perpetrators and persons responsible for the cover-up of grave human rights violations" in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.source
  • 2022Samoa Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa announces a three-day lockdown in response to ten positive COVID-19 passengers from a repatriation flight.source
  • 2024Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha: The Ram Mandir is inaugurated by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh.source

Births

  • 826Montuku, emperor of Japan (died 858)source
  • 1263Ibn Taymiyyah, Syrian philosopher (died 1328)source
  • 1440Ivan III of Russia (died 1505)source
  • 1492Beatrix of Baden, Margravine of Baden, Countess Palatine consort of Simmern (died 1535)source
  • 1522Charles II, Duke of Orléans, (died 1545)source
  • 1536Philibert, Margrave of Baden-Baden (died 1569)source
  • 1552Walter Raleigh, English explorer (died 1618)source
  • 1553Mōri Terumoto, Japanese warrior (died 1625)source
  • 1561Sir Francis Bacon, English philosopher, scientist, and statesman (died 1626)source
  • 1572John Donne, English poet and soldier (died 1631),source
  • 1592Pierre Gassendi, French philosopher and scientist (died 1655)source
  • 1592Pierre Gassendi, philosopher, scientist, mathematician and astronomer (died 1655)source
  • 1654Richard Blackmore, English physician and writer (died 1729)source
  • 1654Richard Blackmore, physician and writer (died 1729)source
  • 1729Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German author and philosopher (died 1781)source
  • 1733Philip Carteret, Jersey-born British naval officer and circumnavigator (died 1796)source
  • 1788George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, English poet (died 1824)source
  • 1797Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, Empress consort of Brazil (died 1826)source
  • 1849August Strindberg, Swedish author, playwright, and painter (died 1912)source
  • 1858Frederick Lugard, 1st Baron Lugard, English soldier, explorer and colonial administrator (died 1945)source
  • 1877Hjalmar Schacht, German economist, politician and banker (died 1970)source
  • 1906Robert E. Howard, American pulp fiction writer (suicide 1936)source
  • 1920Sir Alf Ramsey, English footballer and manager (died 1999)source
  • 1941Jaan Kaplinski, writersource
  • 2013Milan Piqué, son of Shakira & Gerard Piquésource
  • 2025Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi, daughter of Princess Beatrice of York and Edoardo Mapelli Mozzisource

Deaths

  • 205Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, Roman consulsource
  • 205Gaius Fulvius Plautianus, a praetorian prefect and father-in-law of Caracalla, is assassinated.source
  • 239Cao Rui (or Yuanzhong), Chinese emperor (born 206)source
  • 628Anastasius of Persia, monksource
  • 906He, empress of the Tang dynastysource
  • 935Ma, empress of Southern Hansource
  • 1001Al-Muqallad ibn al-Musayyab, Uqaylid emir of Mosulsource
  • 1051Ælfric Puttoc, archbishop of Yorksource
  • 1170Wang Chongyang, Chinese philosopher (born 1113)source
  • 1188Ferdinand II, king of León and Galicia (born 1137)source
  • 1188King Ferdinand II dies after returning from a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. He is succeeded by his 16-year-old son Alfonso IX, who becomes ruler of León and Galicia. He convenes representatives of the nobility, clergy and towns at the Basilica of San Isidoro the Cortes of León. These Corteses are considered to be the first parliament in Europe.source
  • 1273Muhammad I, Nasrid ruler of Granada (born 1195)source
  • 1341Louis I, Duke of Bourbon (born 1279)source
  • 1432John of Schoonhoven, Flemish theologian (born 1356)source
  • 1437Niccolò de' Niccoli, Italian Renaissance humanist (born 1364)source
  • 1517Hadım Sinan Pasha, Ottoman grand vizier (born 1459)source
  • 1536John of Leiden, Anabaptist leader from the Dutch city of Leiden (born 1509)source
  • 1536John of Leiden, Bernhard Knipperdolling and Bernhard Krechting are executed in Münster for their roles in the Münster Rebellion.source
  • 1552Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, English politician (born 1509)source
  • 1557Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angussource
  • 1560Wang Zhi, Chinese piratesource
  • 1575James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault (born 1516)source
  • 1575James Hamilton, Duke of Châtellerault, at Hamilton Palace.source
  • 1592Elisabeth of Austria, Queen of France (born 1554)source
  • 1656Thomas Francis, Prince of Carignano (born 1596)source
  • 1666Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (born 1592)source
  • 1707Richard Towneley, English mathematician and astronomer from Towneley near Burnley (born 1629)source
  • 1733Lovisa von Burghausen, Swedish memoirist (born 1698)source
  • 1760Paul Mascarene, governor of Nova Scotiasource
  • 1779Jeremiah Dixon, English surveyor, astronomer (born 1733)source
  • 1798Lewis Morris, American landowner and developer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1726)source
  • 1840Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, German anthropologist (born 1752)source
  • 1901Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She is 81 years old and, having ruled for nearly 64 years, will be the second longest-reigning monarch in British history. Her eldest son, Prince Albert Edward, "Bertie", the longest-serving Prince of Wales to this time, succeeds his mother at the age of 59, reigning as King Edward VII, of the United Kingdom and in innovation the British Dominions and also becoming Emperor of India.source
  • 1901Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, Empress of India (born 1819)source
  • 1959Knox Mine disaster: Water breaches the River Slope Mine in Port Griffith, near Pittston, Pennsylvania, United States; 12 miners are killed.source
  • 1966The military government of Nigeria announces that ex-prime minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was killed during the coup a week previously.source
  • 1973Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States (born 1908)source
  • 1973A Royal Jordanian Boeing 707 flight from Jeddah crashes in Kano, Nigeria; 176 people are killed.source
  • 1996Petro Shelest, politiciansource
  • 2008Heath Ledger, 28, Australian actor (The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain, 10 Things I Hate About You), Oscar winner (2009), accidental drug overdose.source
  • 2010Iskandar of Johor, 77, Malaysian Yang di-Pertuan Agong (1984–1989), Sultan of Johor (1981–2010).source
  • 2012Joe Paterno, 85, American college football coach (Penn State Nittany Lions), lung cancer.source
  • 2016January 16 – 30 people are killed and 56 injured in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, targeting a hotel and a nearby restaurant. A siege occurs and 176 hostages are released afterwards, by government forces.source