THUNDER BAY – HISTORY – On this day in history, January 20th, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan were inaugurated as President of the United States.
It was also on this day in 1981, that the Iran Hostage crisis in the United States ended as the staff from the United States Embassy in Iran were released.
Significant Events on January 20
(Source: Wikipedia)
- 250 – Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred.
- 649 – King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.
- 1265 – The first English parliament to include not only nobles but also representatives of the major towns meets in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the “Houses of Parliament”.
- 1320 – Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
- 1356 – Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.
- 1523 – Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
- 1567 – Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estácio de Sá definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro.
- 1576 – The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.
- 1649 – Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other “high crimes”.
- 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).
- 1785 – Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong river by the Tây Sơn in the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút.
- 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.
- 1839 – In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.
- 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
- 1877 – Last day of the Constantinople Conference which resulted in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.
- 1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
- 1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
- 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.
- 1929 – In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, is released.
- 1936 – Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
- 1941 – A German officer is murdered in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.
- 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”.
- 1945 – World War II: The Miklós provisional government of Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
- 1945 – World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.
- 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.
- 1954 – The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
- 1959 – The first flight of the Vickers Vanguard.
- 1960 – Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
- 1969 – East Pakistani police kill student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman. The resulting outrage is in part responsible for the Bangladesh Liberation War.
- 1972 – Pakistan launched its Nuclear weapons program few weeks after its defeat in Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
- 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.
- 1986 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
- 1987 – Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.
- 1990 – Following 7 days of pogroms on local Armenian population of Baku, Azerbaijan the the Red Army enters the city to restore order.
- 1991 – Sudan’s government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.
- 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.
- 1999 – The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use, aimed especially at Internet cafés.
- 2001 – President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
- 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.
- 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.
- 2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.
Video by associatedpress
