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1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his conquest of Normandy.

1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.

1764 - John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

1788 - Arthur Philip founds a penal settlement in Sydney.

1795 - Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

1806 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.

1812 - After ten days of intensive siege work, Arthur Wellesley Duke of Wellington, ordered British soldiers of the Light and third divisions storm Ciudad Rodrigo, the conquest of the town wouldn't be complete until January 20.

1817 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crossed the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

1829 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust Part 1 premieres.

1839 - British East India Company captures Aden.

1840 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.

1853 - Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome.

1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs - The Confederate States of America suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.

1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1893 - Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin.

1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

1903 - First transatlantic radio broadcast between United States and England.

1915 - George Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1915 - World War I: German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

1920 - The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1935 - Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs.

1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1941 - World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.

1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.

1945 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate ghetto of Łódź. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.

1946 - General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

1949 - Cuba recognises Israel.

1953 - 68% of all United States television sets were tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1966 - Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.

1969 - Student Jan Palach died after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.

1971 - Revival of No, No, Nanette premieres at 46th Street Theatre, New York City.

1974 - The UCLA men's basketball team sees its 88-game winning streak end at the hands of Notre Dame.

1975 - Triple J begins broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.

1977 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred.

1978 - The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America will continue until 2003.

1981 - Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1983 - Klaus Barbie, Nazi war criminal, is arrested in Bolivia.

1983 - The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Computer, Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

1992 - Decree time is restored in Russia after its previous abolition in March 1991.

1993 - IBM announces a $4.97 billion loss for 1992, the largest single-year corporate loss in United States history.

1994 - Record cold temperatures across the eastern half of the United States brings temperatures below -20°F in many locations, such as Ohio and Kentucky.

1997 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

2000 - Fire at Seton Hall University kills three students and injures 54.

2002 - Michael Jordan, formerly of the Washington Wizards, plays his first game in Chicago since rejoining the NBA.

2006 - The New Horizons probe was launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.

2006 - Opening of the Canadian Undergraduate Software Engineering Conference 2006 in Montreal, Quebec.

2006 - Jet Airways announces its purchase of Air Sahara, creating the largest domestic airline in India.

2038 - The UNIX timestamp (a format used for decades to store dates on computers) becomes technically obsolete.

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399 - Pulcheria, Byzantine empress (d. 453)

1544 - King Francis II of France (d. 1560)

1736 - James Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1819)

1739 - Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (d. 1808)

1807 - Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (d. 1870)

1808 - Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (d. 1887)

1809 - Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (d. 1849)

1813 - Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor (d. 1898)

1832 - Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist (d. 1875)

1833 - Alfred Clebsch, German mathematician (d. 1872)

1839 - Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)

1848 - John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (d. 1904)

1851 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)

1863 - Werner Sombart, German sociologist (d. 1941)

1879 - Boris Savinkov, Russian writer and terrorist (d. 1925)

1887 - Alexander Woollcott, American intellectual (d. 1943)

1892 - Ólafur Thors, Icelandic politician and five-time prime minister (d. 1964)

1908 - Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (d. 1971)

1909 - Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)

1912 - Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)

1913 - Minnesota Fats, American billiards player (d. 1996)

1917 - John Raitt, American singer and actor (d. 2005)

1918 - John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)

1920 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian, 5th United Nations Secretary General

1921 - Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)

1922 - Guy Madison, American actor (d. 1996)

1923 - Jean Stapleton, American actress

1923 - Markus Wolf, German spy

1924 - Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (d. 1985)

1924 - Jean-Francois Revel, French author

1926 - Fritz Weaver, American actor

1931 - Tippi Hedren, American actress

1931 - Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist

1932 - Richard Lester, British director

1936 - Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (d. 1981)

1939 - Phil Everly, American musician

1940 - Paolo Borsellino, Italian anti-Mafia magistrate

1941 - Colin Gunton, British theologian (d. 2003)

1941 - Tony Anholt, British actor

1942 - Michael Crawford, British singer and actor

1943 - Janis Joplin, American singer (d. 1970)

1943 - Petchara Chaowarat, Thai film actress

1943 - Princess Margriet of the Netherlands

1944 - Shelley Fabares, American actress

1944 - Peter Lynch, American investor

1944 - Dan Reeves, American football coach

1946 - Julian Barnes, English author

1946 - Dolly Parton, American singer and actress

1947 - Paula Deen, American chef, writer, and restaurateur

1947 - Rod Evans, founding member of Deep Purple

1948 - Frank McKenna, Premier of New Brunswick and Canadian Ambassador

1949 - Robert Palmer, English singer and guitarist (d. 2003)

1949 - Dennis Taylor, Northern Irish snooker player

1952 - David Patrick Kelly, American actor

1953 - Desi Arnaz, Jr., American actor

1954 - Katharina Thalbach, German actress and film director

1954 - Katey Sagal, American actress, singer, and writer

1955 - Simon Rattle, English conductor

1955 - Paul Rodriguez, Mexican-born actor and comedian

1957 - Kenneth McClintock, Senate President of Puerto Rico

1963 - Caron Wheeler, British singer (Soul II Soul)

1963 - Michael Adams (basketball), American basketball player

1964 - Ricardo Arjona, Guatemalan singer.

1966 - Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player

1966 - Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player

1966 - Lena Philipsson, Swedish singer

1969 - Junior Seau, American football player

1969 - Steve Staunton, Irish footballer

1970 - William 'Billy Batts' Devino

1971 - Shawn Wayans, American actor, writer, and producer

1971 - John Wozniak, American singer and songwriter (Marcy Playground)

1972 - Joana Benedek, Mexican actress

1972 - Ron Killings, American professional wrestler

1973 - Drea de Matteo, American actress

1973 - Karen Lancaume, French actress (d. 2005)

1974 - Jaime Moreno, Bolivian footballer

1975 - Ricky Wilson, Kaiser Chiefs Singer

1976 - Tarso Marques, Brazilian racing driver

1977 - Lauren, Cameroon footballer

1979 - Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast

1980 - Jenson Button, English Formula One driver

1981 - Asier Del Horno, Spanish footballer

1981 - Lucho Gonzalez, Argentine footballer

1982 - Jodie Sweetin, American child actress

1983 - Hikaru Utada, American-born Japanese singer and songwriter

1984 - Thomas Vanek, Austrian ice hockey player

1985 - Rika Ishikawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)

1991 - Erin Sanders, American child actress

1992 - Logan Lerman, American child actor

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639 - Dagobert I, King of the Franks

1526 - Isabella of Burgundy, wife of Christian II of Denmark (b. 1501)

1576 - Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger (b. 1494)

1661 - Thomas Venner, Fifth Monarchist (executed)

1729 - William Congreve, English playwright (b. 1670)

1757 - Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1674)

1766 - Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, Italian-born French architect and painter (b. 1695)

1785 - Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)

1833 - Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold, French composer (b. 1791)

1847 - Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer (assassinated)

1851 - Esteban Echeverría, Argentine writer (b. 1805)

1865 - Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher and anarchist (b. 1809)

1869 - Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (b. 1788)

1874 - August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (b. 1798)

1878 - Henri Victor Regnault French physicist and chemist (b. 1810)

1905 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (b. 1817)

1929 - Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (b. 1873)

1939 - Cliff Heathcote, baseball player (b. 1898)

1948 - Tony Garnier, French architect (b. 1869)

1954 - Theodor Kaluza, German scientist (b. 1885)

1964 - Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (b. 1886)

1968 - Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b. 1879)

1969 - Jan Palach, Czech student and political activist (suicide) (b. 1948)

1971 - Harry Shields, American musician (b. 1899)

1972 - Michael Rabin, American violinist (b. 1936)

1973 - Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (b. 1903)

1975 - Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (b. 1889)

1980 - William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1898)

1982 - Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)

1983 - Ham the Chimp, Monkey astronaut

1990 - Rajneesh, Indian religious leader (b. 1931)

1990 - Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)

1991 - John Russell, American actor (b. 1921)

1996 - Don Simpson, American film producer (b. 1943)

1997 - James Dickey, American writer (b. 1923)

1998 - Carl Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1932)

2000 - Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)

2000 - Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress (b. 1913)

2001 - Dario Vittori, Argentinean actor (b. 1921)

2003 - Françoise Giroud, French writer and journalist (b. 1916)

2004 - Harry E. Claiborne, American judge (suicide) (b. 1917)

2004 - David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1955)

2005 - Bill Andersen, New Zealand communist and trade union leader (b. 1924)

2005 - K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (b. 1974)

2006 - Wilson Pickett, Soul singer (b. 1941)

2006 - Aoun Al-Sharif Qasim, Sudanese writer and Islamic scholar (b. 1933)

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Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy — Julian Calendar Theophany (Epiphany).

St. Mark of Ephesus feast day .

Bahá'í Faith — Feast of Sultán (Sovereignty) — First day of the 17th month of the Bahá'í Calendar.

Confederate Heroes Day in Texas.