January 21 - Definition and Overview

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, Zurich, 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 goverment's new taxes erupts into riots.

Births

• 1738 - Ethan Allen, American patriot (d. 1789)
• 1824 - Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate Army general (d. 1863)
• 1829 - Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway (d. 1907)
• 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, ACLU president, 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 fashion 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, actor (d. 1995)
• 1940 - Jack Nicklaus,professional golfer
• 1941 - Plácido Domingo, opera singer
• 1941 - Richie Havens, 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, basketball player
• 1965 - Jam Master Jay, DJ (d. 2002)
• 1968 - Charlotte Ross, American actress
• 1976 - Emma Bunton, AKA "Baby Spice," singer
• 1979 - Brian O'Driscoll, rugby player
• 1981 - Dany Heatley, NHL hockey player
• 1981 - Izabella Miko, Polish actress
• 1988 - Victoria Watson, British actress
• 2004 - Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway

Deaths

• 304 - Martyrdom of Saint Agnes, under emperor Diocletianus
• 1118 - Pope Paschal II
• 1519 - Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer (b. ca. 1475)
• 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)
• 1881 - Wilhelm Matthias Näff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1802)
• 1891 - Calixa Lavallée, composer (b. 1842)
• 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, 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
• 1985 - James Beard, chef, author
• 1984 - Jackie Wilson, American musician
• 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
• 2001 - Chung Ju-yung, Korean industrialist
• 2002 - Peggy Lee, singer (b. 1920)
• 2004 - Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer and playwright (b. 1929)

Holidays and observances

• Catholicism - Feast day of Saint Agnes

January 20 - January 22 - December 21 - February 21 -- listing of all days