This Day in History
20 Jan 1156
According to legend freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of Lake Kylinjrvi in Finland
20 Jan 1265
First English Parliament summoned other than by royal command (in this instance by Simon de Montfort Earl of Leicester) mets in Westminster Hall
20 Jan 1320
Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes King of Poland
20 Jan 1502
The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored
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Barack Obama is inaugurated
On a freezing day in Washington D.C. Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president. The son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from...
FDR inaugurated to fourth term
On January 20 1945 Franklin Delano Roosevelt the only president to be elected to three terms in office is inaugurated to his fourth term.At the height of th...
Terry Waite disappears
On this day British negotiator Terry Waite disappears while attempting to win freedom for Western hostages held in Lebanon. Waite special envoy of the archbis...
John F. Kennedy inaugurated
On January 20 1961 on the newly renovated east front of the United States Capitol John Fitzgerald Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president of the United ...
Hong Kong ceded to the British
During the First Opium War China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention an agreement seeking an end to the fi...
Arafat elected leader of Palestine
Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian National Council with 88.1 percent of the popular vote becoming the first democratically elected leader o...
GM takes an interest in Oakland Motor Car Corp.
On January 20 1909 newly formed automaker General Motors (GM) buys into the Oakland Motor Car Corporation which later becomes GMs long-running Pontia...
Iran Hostage Crisis ends
Minutes after Ronald Reagans inauguration as the 40th president of the United States the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran Iran ar...
The Wannsee Conference
On this day Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the Final Solution of the Jewish question.In July 1941 Herman Goering w...
Goeben and Breslau battle the Allies in the Aegean
On the morning of January 20 1918 British and German forces clash in the Aegean Sea when the German battleships Goeben and Breslau attempt a surprise raid on ...
Richard Nixon takes office
Richard Nixon is inaugurated as president of the United States and says After a period of confrontation [in Vietnam] we are entering an era of negotiat...
New communist offensive anticipated
In continued efforts to disrupt an anticipated communist offensive a contingent of more than 10000 South Vietnamese troops begin a sweep 45 miles northwest of...
President Carter calls for Olympics to be moved from Moscow
On January 20 1980 in a letter to the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and a television interview U.S. President Jimmy Carter proposes that the 1980 Su...
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is sworn in as president
On this day in 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for the second time as president beginning the second of four terms in the office. His firs...
Ronald Reagan becomes president
Ronald Reagan former Western movie actor and host of televisions popular Death Valley Days is sworn in as the 40th president of the Unite...
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