January

January 1

1863 The Emancipation Proclamation freed nobody on the morning it took effect. Nobody

January 2

1492 Boabdil wept as he handed over the keys to Granada. His mother supposedly told h

January 3

1777 Washington crossed the Delaware at night in a blizzard. Two soldiers froze to de

January 4

1642 Charles I didn't come alone. He brought 400 soldiers into the House of Commons o

January 5

1757 Robert-François Damiens pulled a small knife and stabbed King Louis XV in the si

January 6

1994 She was mid-practice. A man in black rushed the ice, swung a collapsible baton,

January 7

1610 Galileo spotted three faint stars near Jupiter that shifted positions nightly, p

January 8

1815 Andrew Jackson's troops repelled a massive British assault at New Orleans, secur

January 9

1905 Imperial Guard soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators marching toward the

January 10

1863 The London Underground roared to life with its inaugural run between Paddington

January 11

1964 Smoke signals from science finally pierced the haze of American denial. A panel

January 12

2010 Twelve seconds. That's how long the ground shook. But those twelve seconds would

January 13

1990 The margin was razor-thin: 4,740 votes out of nearly 1.5 million cast. Douglas W

January 14

1639 Thirteen farmers and merchants huddled in a tiny Connecticut meetinghouse, and a

January 15

1967 Vince Lombardi's crew looked unstoppable. Twelve Green Bay players would later e

January 16

1919 Bootleggers just got their business plan. The Eighteenth Amendment would turn ev

January 17

1991 Saddam Hussein had a brutal calculation: drag Israel into the conflict and fract

January 18

1778 James Cook lands on the shores of Hawaii and claims the archipelago for Britain,

January 19

1915 German Zeppelins dropped bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn, killing over t

January 20

1942 Reinhard Heydrich convened senior Nazi officials to coordinate the bureaucratic

January 21

1793 François Gamain's revelation of the hidden iron chest at the Tuileries Palace ex

January 22

1973 The Supreme Court ruled 7–2 that a woman's decision to have an abortion falls un

January 23

1556 The Shaanxi earthquake shattered northern China in 1556, leveling homes and trig

January 24

41 Praetorian officers and senators slit Emperor Caligula's throat in a desperate b

January 25

1915 Bell engineers connected Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson across a 3,400-

January 26

1788 The British First Fleet under Arthur Phillip drops anchor in Port Jackson, promp

January 27

1967 A flash fire erupts inside the sealed Apollo 1 capsule during a pre-launch test,

January 28

1986 The Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff when a faili

January 29

1886 Karl Benz secures a patent for his three-wheeled Motorwagen, transforming transp

January 30

1948 Nathuram Godse fired three bullets into Gandhi's chest, ending the life of a man

January 31

1865 The Senate and House cleared the path for the Thirteenth Amendment in 1864 and e