1258 – Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age
1601 – 1st British East India Company voyage departs from London, lead by John Lancaster
1689 – British Parliament adopts the Bill of Rights which establishes the rights of parliament and places limits on the crown
1942 – Hitler’s Operation Sealion, the invasion of England, is cancelled
1945 – Allied planes begin bombing Dresden, Germany; a firestorm results and over 22,000 die
1945 – USSR captures Budapest, after a 49-day battle with Nazi Germany in which 159,000 die
1966 – USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1980 – Apollo Computer Inc incorporated
1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds Yuri Andropov as leader of the Soviet Union
1988 – European Community plans removal of internal boundaries on Jan 1, 1992
1990 – US, Britain & France give Germany OK to reunify
2001 – An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter Scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 400.
2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted by Taiwan High Prosecutors Office on charges of embezzlement when mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for 2008 presidential election.
2013 – 10 civilians, including 3 children, are killed by a NATO airstrike in the Kunar Province, Afghanistan
2017 – US President Donald Trump accepts the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn over his dealings with Russia
2018 – South African President Jacob Zuma is ordered to step down by the A.N.C.
2018 – Israeli Police report recommends Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be prosecuted on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges
2019 – Iran marks 40th anniversary of the Islamic revolution with huge street marches and protests against the US
2020 – January 2020 was the hottest January in recorded history according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
2020 – Scientists overturn current thought about how planets form – not by violent collision but gentle clumping, through study of Arrokoth in Kepler belt, published in “Science”
Film & TV:
1972 – “Cabaret”, directed by Bob Fosse, based on the musical of the same name and starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, is released
Music:
1996 – Rapper Tupac Shakur releases his 4th studio album ‘All Eyez on Me’
