/year

January

first month in the Julian and Gregorian calendars

76 dated entries naming January, drawn from 73 separate years between 49 BCE and 1947 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

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1st century BC

  • 49 BCEJanuary – Caesar leads his army across the Rubicon, which separates his jurisdiction in Cisalpine Gaul from that of the Senate in Rome, and thus initiates a civil war.source

3rd century

  • 211January – Warlord Cao Cao writes Ràng Xiàn Zì Míng Běn Zhì Lìng (讓縣自明本志令)source

4th century

  • 350January – Constans I flees towards Spain, where he is subsequently assassinated at Castrum Helenae. Magnentius rules the Western portion of the Roman Empire and is far more tolerant towards Christians and Pagans alike.source

5th century

  • 417January – Pope Innocent I condemns Pelagianism, and excommunicates the ascetic Pelagius.source

6th century

  • 549January - Battle of Ciiil Conaire, Ireland: Ailill Inbanda and his brother are defeated and killed.source
  • 563January –Cutzinas, Berber chieftainsource

7th century

  • 630January – Battle of Hunayn: Muhammad defeats the Bedouin tribe of Hawazin (12,000 men) in a valley, on one of the roads leading to Ta'if (Western Arabia).source
  • 635January – Battle of Fahl: The Rashidun army, (30,000 men) under Khalid ibn al-Walid (known as the "Drawn Sword of God"), defeats the Byzantine forces led by Theodore Trithyrius, at Pella in the Jordan Valley (Jordan).source
  • 638January – The Plague of Amwas breaks out.source
  • 649January – Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, confirms his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.source

9th century

  • 838January – Babak Khorramdin, an Iranian military leader, is brutally executed by order of al-Mu'tasim.source
  • 840January – Michael III, Byzantine emperor (d. 867) (most probable date: 839 is also possible)source
  • 897January – The Cadaver Synod: Lambert II orders Stephen VI to exhume the nine-month-old cadaver of former pope Formosus, to redress him in papal robes, and have him put on trial while seated in a chair at St. Peter's. Formosus is 'convicted' of several crimes, his fingers of consecration are cut off, and the body is stripped of his vestments.source
  • 898January – Pope John IX is consecrated, and succeeds Theodore II, as the 116th pope of the Catholic Church. His rival Serguis III (a Spoletan ally of Lambert II) is excommunicated, and takes refuge at the court of Adalbert II.source

10th century

  • 901January – Arethas of Caesarea speaks on the occasion of the Epiphany. He becomes the official rhetor at the Byzantine court of Emperor Leo VI (the Wise) at Constantinople, and is nominated as Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia.source
  • 925January – Hashim ibn Muhammad becomes the new ruler of the Banu Tujib, an Arab state in Spain, upon the death of his father, Muhammad al-Anqar al-Tujibi.source

11th century

  • 1010January – Fujiwara no Kenshi (daughter of Michinaga) is married to the imperial heir Crown Prince Okisada.source
  • 1066January – Harold Godwinson marries Ealdgyth, daughter of Ælfgar (earl of Mercia), and widow of King Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.source
  • 1072January – Battle of Golpejera: King Sancho II ("the Strong") defeats the Castilian forces of his brother Alfonso VI ("the Brave") near Carrión de los Condes. Alfonso is captured, but released into exile, where he seeks refuge in the Taifa of Toledo (under the protection of his vassal, Emir Al-Mamun).source
  • 1100January – The Seljuk ruler Muhammad Tapar is expelled from Baghdad by his brother Barkiyaruq, but Muhammad manages to retake the city during his spring offensive.source

12th century

  • 1177January – Eystein Meyla, leader of the Birkebeiner in Norway, is killed. Sverre Sigurdson (Later, King Sverre I, of Norway) becomes the new leader.source
  • 1177January – Eystein Meyla, leader of the Birkebeiner in Norway. (b. 1157)source

13th century

  • 1204January – Isaac II Angelos, Byzantine emperorsource
  • 1251January – Bohemund V of Antiochsource
  • 1252January – Bohemond V of Antiochsource
  • 1259January – Matilda II of Boulogne, ruler of Boulogne, queen consort of Portugal (b. 1202)source
  • 1293January – Ignatius bar Wahib becomes Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Mardin.source

14th century

  • 1348January – Gonville Hall, the forerunner of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, England, is founded.source
  • 1367January – Han Lin'er, Chinese rebel leader, emperor of Han Song (b. 1339)source
  • 1371January – Edward the Black Prince, gives up the administration of Aquitaine and returns to England, because of his poor health and heavy debts.source
  • 1376January – In what is now Myanmar Ma Sein of Toungoo, the Viceroy of Taungoo who had been appointed by the King of Binnya U of Hanthawaddy to replace the assassinated Viceroy Pyanchi, is murdered near Pyay while trying to forment a rebellion against the Kingdom of Ava.source
  • 1377January – On the 24th day of the first lunar month of the year Dinh Ty, Tran Due Tong, Emperor of Đại Việt (Vietnam), is killed in the Battle of Đồ Bàn.source
  • 1398January – The Dao Ganmeng rebellion in the Chinese vassal state of Möng Mao,started in December by Dao Genmeng, is brought to an end in what is now Myanmar two months after Dao Ganmeng's takeover. With the intervention of the Chinese Empire, led by the Ming dynasty Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the deposed ruler Si Lunfa is restored to leadership.source

15th century

  • 1427January – Radu II of Wallachia resumes the throne of Wallachia for the fourth time, but a seven-year struggle for it ends in March when he is defeated in battle, and probably killed, by Dan II, who resumes the throne for a fifth term.source
  • 1439January – In Vietnam, a rebellion of the barbarians in Phục Lễ province, supported by the Laotian army, against King Lê Thái Tông under the Lê dynasty, is defeated.source
  • 1467January – John Colet, English churchman and educational pioneer (d. 1519)source
  • 1471January – Portuguese navigators João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar reach the gold-trading centre of Elmina on the Gold Coast of west Africa, and explore Cape St. Catherine, two degrees south of the equator, so that they begin to be guided by the Southern Cross constellation. They also visit Sassandra on the Ivory Coast.source
  • 1475January – Radu cel Frumos, Voivoid of Wallachia (b. c. 1437)source
  • 1483January – Upon the petition the Grand Inquistitor of Castile (now part of Spain) Tomás de Torquemada, the Jews are expelled from the Castilian-controlled portions of Andalusia.source

16th century

  • 1509January – Adam Kraft, German sculptor and architect (b. circa 1460)source
  • 1513January – Hans Folz, German author (b. c. 1437)source
  • 1515January - In Vietnam, an uprising led by Phùng Chương broke out in Tam Đảo and was quickly quelled by general Trịnh Duy Sản under emperor Lê Tương Dực of the Lê dynasty.source
  • 1537January – At the battle of Ollantaytambo, the Inca Emperor Manco Inca Yupanqui defeats the Spanish led by Hernando Pizarro and the Spaniards' Indian alliessource
  • 1539January – Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War – Battle of Naungyo, Burma: The Toungoos decisively defeat the Hanthawaddys.source
  • 1549January – Burmese–Siamese War (1547–49): King Tabinshwehti of Burma begins his invasion of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, which ends in retreat.source
  • 1551January– Macarius, Metropolitan of Moscow, and Tsar Ivan IV of Russia preside over the reforming Stoglavy Synod ("Hundred-Chapter") church council. A calendar of the saints and an ecclesiastical law code (Stoglav) are introduced.source
  • 1558January or February – Hendrik Goltzius, Dutch painter (d. 1617)source
  • 1559January – Christina Gyllenstierna, leading opponent of King Christian II of Denmark and Norway (b. 1494)source
  • 1562January – Edward Blount, English publisher (d. 1632)source
  • 1562January – Prince Ilie II Rareş of Moldavia (b. 1531)source
  • 1563January – Penelope Blount, Countess of Devonshire, English noblewoman (d. 1607)source
  • 1567January – A Spanish force under the command of Captain Juan Pardo establishes Fort San Juan, in the Native American settlement of Joara. The fort is the first European settlement in modern-day North Carolina.source
  • 1575January – Elizabeth Cecil, 16th Baroness de Ros (d. 1591)source

17th century

  • 1623January – Battle of Mbanda Kasi: Forces from the Kingdom of Kongo defeat the Portuguese.source
  • 1635January – Nef'i, Turkish poet and satirist (b. 1572)source
  • 1639c. January – The first printing press in British North America is started in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Stephen Daye.source
  • 1639January – Shackerley Marmion, English dramatist (b. 1603)source
  • 1653January – The Swiss Peasant War begins after magistrates meeting at Lucerne refuse to hear from a group of peasants who have been financially hurt by the devaluation of the currency issued from Bern.source
  • 1676January – Six months into King Philip's War, Metacomet (King Philip), leader of the Algonquian tribe known as the Wampanoag, travels westward to the Mohawk nation, seeking an alliance with the Mohawks against the English colonists of New England; his efforts in creating such an alliance are a failure.source
  • 1684January – Edmond Halley, Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke have a conversation in which Hooke later claimed not only to have derived the inverse-square law, but also all the laws of planetary motion attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. Hooke's claim is that in a letter to Newton on 6 January 1680, he first stated the inverse-square law.source
  • 1696January – Colley Cibber's play Love's Last Shift is first performed in London.source

18th century

  • 1711January – Cary's Rebellion: The Lords Proprietor appoint Edward Hyde to replace Thomas Cary, as the governor of the North Carolina portion of the Province of Carolina. Hyde's policies are deemed hostile to Quaker interests, leading former governor Cary and his Quaker allies to take up arms against the province.source
  • 1720January – Francis Daniel Pastorius, founder of Germantown, Pennsylvania (b. 1651)source
  • 1740January – Louise Élisabeth de Joybert, politically active Canadian governors' wife (b. 1673)source
  • 1781January – William Pitt the Younger, later Prime Minister of Great Britain, enters Parliament, aged 21.source
  • 1789January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? (Qu'est-ce que le tiers-état?), influential on the French Revolution.source
  • 1795January – Central England records its coldest ever month, in the CET records dating back to 1659.source
  • 1798January – Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 muskets, which he produces with interchangeable parts.source

19th century

  • 1827January – In Laos, King Anouvong of Vientiane leads the Laotian Rebellion against Siam and successfully attacks Nakhon Ratchasima (the Siamese later invade Vientiane and nearly destroy the whole city).source
  • 1839January – The first parallax measurement of the distance to Alpha Centauri is published by Thomas Henderson.source
  • 1884January – Arthur Conan Doyle's anonymous story "J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement" appears in the Cornhill Magazine (London). Based on the disappearance of the crew of the Mary Celeste in 1872, many of the fictional elements introduced by Doyle come to replace the real events in the popular imagination.source

20th century

  • 1915January – British physicist Sir Joseph Larmor publishes his observations on "The Influence of Local Atmospheric Cooling on Astronomical Refraction".source
  • 1918January – 1918 flu pandemic: The "Spanish flu" (influenza) is first observed in Haskell County, Kansas.source
  • 1928January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly demonstrating that DNA is the genetic material.source
  • 1941January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Euthanasia Centre in Germany, in the first phase of mass killings under the Aktion T4 program here.source
  • 1947January–February — Winter of 1946–47 in the United Kingdom: The worst snowfall in the country in the 20th century causes extensive disruption of travel. Given the low ratio of private vehicle ownership at the time, it is mainly remembered in terms of its effects on the railway network.source

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