January 5 - Events

Events

• 1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
• 1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
• 1500 – Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
• 1527 – Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zurich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning.
• 1554 – A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 1675 – Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
• 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
• 1782 – American Revolutionary War: French troops begin a siege of a British garrison on Brimstone Hill in Saint Kitts.
• 1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
• 1854 – The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
• 1895 – Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
• 1896 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• 1900 – Irish leader John Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
• 1909 – Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
• 1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's second oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
• 1912 – The Prague Party Conference takes place.
• 1913 – First Balkan War: During the Naval Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
• 1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
• 1919 – The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.
• 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
• 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• 1940 – FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time.
• 1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• 1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• 1949 – U.S. President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
• 1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
• 1968 – Alexander Dubček comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
• 1969 – Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary damage property and assault occupants in the Bogside in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
• 1971 – The first One Day International cricket match is held between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
• 1972 – U.S. President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
• 1974 – An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
• 1974 – Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59°F (+15°C) recorded at Vanda Station
• 1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
• 1976 – The Khmer Rouge proclaim the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea.
• 1976 – Ten Protestant civilians are shot dead by a paramilitary group at Kingsmill in County Armagh, Northern Ireland (part of The Troubles).
• 1991 – Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War.
• 1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
• 1993 – Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the last judicial hanging in America).
• 1996 – Hamas bombmaker Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
• 2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.