250 — Emperor Decius begins widespread persecution of Christians in Rome.
1885 — L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
1920 — The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
1937 — Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. Thanks to the 20th Amendment to the US Constitution, this is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20 (previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4).
1942 — At Berlin’s Wannsee Conference, senior Nazi German officials decided on the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question”, accelerating The Holocaust.
1945 — Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.
1961 — John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the youngest man, and first-ever Roman Catholic, to become elected President of the United States.
1981 — Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as US President, the oldest man to be inaugurated at 69. (Iran releases 52 American hostages twenty minutes later!)
1986 — For the first time, Martin Luther King, Jr. day is celebrated as a federal holiday in the USA.
1991 — Sudan’s government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.
2001 — George W. Bush is inaugurated to his first term as the second George Bush to become President of the United States.
2009 — Barack Obama is inaugurated, becoming the United States’ first African-American President.
2010 — Scott Brown begins his first day as Senator-elect (MA), elected to finish out Edward Kennedy’s term of office. Already there’s wonderment if he’s GOP presidential timber for 2012. 🙄
2010 A powerful aftershock (5.9?) adds to the trauma of a nation (Haiti) stunned by an apocalyptic quake eight days ago.