January 20
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 first Anglo-Chinese conflict. – 1841.
U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president to be elected to four terms in office, is inaugurated to his fourth term. – 1945.
January 21
Approximately 750,000 steelworkers walk out in 30 states, largest strike in U.S. history to that time. – 1946.
U.S. president Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War. – 1977.
On the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, hundreds of thousands of individuals crowd into the U.S. capital for the Women’s March on Washington, a massive protest in the Nation’s capital aimed largely at the Donald Trump administration and the perceived threat it represented to reproductive, civil and human rights. More than three million individuals in cities across the country held simultaneous protests. – 2017.
January 22
The U.S. Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion by handing down its decision in the case of Roe v. Wade. Despite opponents’ characterization of the decision, it was not the first time that abortion became a legal procedure in the United States. In fact, for most of the country’s first 100 years, abortion as we know it today was not a criminal offense. It was not considered immoral. – 1973.
January 23
An earthquake in Shaanxi, China, kills an estimated 830,000 persons. Counting casualties is often imprecise after large-scale disasters, especially prior to the 20th Century, but this disaster is still considered the deadliest of all time. – 1556.
Elizabeth Blackwell graduates with the highest grades in her class when she is granted a medical degree from Geneva College in New York state, to become the first female officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history. – 1849.
Declaring he did not care whether or not it was the rebellious band of Indians he had been searching for, Colonel Eugene Baker orders his men to attack a sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet along the Marias River in northern Montana. By the time the brutal attack was over, Baker and his men had, by the best estimate, murdered 37 men, 90 women, and 50 children. – 1870.
At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson becomes the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes. – 1922.
Machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs, now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees. – 1957.
The U.S. intelligence-gathering ship Pueblo is seized by North Korean naval vessels and charged with spying and violating North Korean territorial waters. Negotiations to free the 83-man crew of the U.S. ship dragged on for nearly a year, to damage the credibility of and confidence in the foreign policy of president Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. – 1968.
January 24
Canned beer makes its first sale on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivers 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale to stores in Richmond, Va.. – 1935.
January 25
Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women’s Rights convention. – 1851.
At the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered. It is the largest diamond ever found, to weigh in at 1.33 pounds and the estimated price in today’s market would be approximately $400 million. – 1905.
The first Winter Olympics begins at Chamonix in the French Alps. – 1924.
Approximately 16,000 textile workers strike in Passaic, N.J.. – 1926.
January 26
In what could be considered the first workers’ compensation agreement in America, pirate Henry Morgan pledges his underlings 600 pieces of eight or six slaves to compensate for a lost arm or leg. Part of the pirate’s code, reports Roger Newell: Shares of the booty were equal regardless of race or gender, and shipboard decisions were made collectively. – 1695.
Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales and effectively founds Australia. – 1788.
Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland to free the survivors of the network of concentration camps, and finally reveal to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there. Soviet soldiers encountered 648 corpses and more than 7,000 starving camp survivors. – 1945.
The Indian constitution takes effect, which makes the Republic of India the most populous democracy in the world. – 1950.