This Day in History
Daily historical facts, events, famous birthdays, world history. Discover what happened today in history.
Day History: January-20

Famous Birthdays
225 - [[Gordian III]] -Roman emperor (d. 244)
1292 - [[Elizabeth of Bohemia (1292–1330)|Elizabeth of Bohemia]] -(d. 1330)
1435 - [[Ashikaga Yoshimasa]] -Japanese shogun (d. 1490)
1554 - [[Sebastian of Portugal]] -(d. 1578)
1573 - [[Simon Marius]] -German astronomer and academic (d. 1624)
1586 - [[Johann Schein]] -German composer (d. 1630)
1664 - [[Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina]] -Italian lawyer and jurist (d. 1718)
1703 - [[Joseph-Hector Fiocco]] -Flemish violinist and composer (d. 1741)
1716 - [[Jean-Jacques Barthélemy]] -French archaeologist and numismatist (d. 1795)
1716 - [[Charles III of Spain]] -(d. 1788)
1732 - [[Richard Henry Lee]] -American lawyer and politician; President of the Continental Congress (d. 1794)
1741 - [[Carl Linnaeus the Younger]] -Swedish naturalist (d. 1783)
1755 - [[Sir Albemarle Bertie, 1st Baronet]] -English admiral (d. 1824)
1762 - [[Jérôme-Joseph de Momigny]] -Belgian-French composer and theorist (d. 1842)
1775 - [[André-Marie Ampère]] -French physicist and mathematician (d. 1836)
1781 - [[Joseph Hormayr, Baron zu Hortenburg]] -Austrian-German historian and politician (d. 1848)
1783 - [[Friedrich Dotzauer]] -German cellist and composer (d. 1860)
1798 - [[Anson Jones]] -American physician and politician, 5th President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1858)
1804 - [[Eugène Sue]] -French author (d. 1857)
1812 - [[Thomas Meik]] -Scottish engineer (d. 1896)
1834 - [[George D. Robinson]] -American lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
1855 - [[Ernest Chausson]] -French composer (d. 1899)
1867 - [[Yvette Guilbert]] -French singer and actress (d. 1944)
1870 - [[Guillaume Lekeu]] -Belgian composer (d. 1894)
1873 - [[Johannes V. Jensen]] -Danish author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
1876 - [[Josef Hofmann]] -Polish-American pianist and composer (d. 1967)
1878 - [[Finlay Currie]] -Scottish-English actor (d. 1968)
1878 - [[Ruth St. Denis]] -American dancer (d. 1968)
1880 - [[Max Schöne]] -German swimmer (d. 1961)
1882 - [[Johnny Torrio]] -Italian-American mobster (d. 1957)
1883 - [[Enoch L. Johnson]] -American mob boss (d. 1968)
1886 - [[Claude Jameson]] -American soccer player (d. 1943)
1889 - [[Allan Haines Loughead]] -American engineer and businessman; founded the Alco Hydro-Aeroplane Company (d. 1969)
1889 - [[Gordon Luce|G. H. Luce]] -British colonial scholar in Burma (d. 1979)
1891 - [[Mischa Elman]] -Ukrainian-American violinist (d. 1967)
1893 - [[Georg Åberg]] -Swedish triple jumper (d. 1946)
1894 - [[Harold Gray]] -American cartoonist; created ''Little Orphan Annie'' (d. 1968)
1894 - [[Walter Piston]] -American composer, theorist, and academic (d. 1976)
1895 - [[Gábor Szegő]] -Hungarian mathematician and academic (d. 1985)
1896 - [[George Burns]] -American actor, singer, and producer (d. 1996)
1898 - [[U Razak]] -Burma|Burmese educator, politician & martyr (d. 1947)
1899 - [[Clarice Cliff]] -English potter (d. 1972)
1899 - [[Kenjiro Takayanagi]] -Japanese engineer (d. 1990)
1900 - [[Colin Clive]] -French-English actor (d. 1937)
1902 - [[Leon Ames]] -American actor and singer (d. 1993)
1902 - [[Kevin Barry]] -Irish republican rebel (d. 1920)
1906 - [[Aristotle Onassis]] -Turkish-Greek businessman (d. 1975)
1907 - [[Paula Wessely]] -Austrian actress and producer (d. 2000)
1909 - [[Gōgen Yamaguchi]] -Japanese martial artist (d. 1989)
1910 - [[Joy Adamson]] -Austrian-Kenyan naturalist, painter and author (d. 1980)
1913 - [[S. M. Rasamanickam]] -Sri Lankan politician (d. 1974)
1915 - [[Ghulam Ishaq Khan]] -Pakistani businessman and politician, 7th President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
1918 - [[Juan García Esquivel]] -Mexican pianist, composer, and bandleader (d. 2002)
1918 - [[Cleon Skousen]] -American author and academic (d. 2006)
1920 - [[Federico Fellini]] -Italian director and screenwriter (d. 1993)
1920 - [[DeForest Kelley]] -American actor, singer, and screenwriter (d. 1999)
1920 - [[Thorleif Schjelderup]] -Norwegian ski jumper and author (d. 2006)
1921 - [[Telmo Zarra]] -Spanish footballer (d. 2006)
1922 - [[Ray Anthony]] -American trumpet player, composer, bandleader, and actor
1922 - [[Graham Stark]] -English actor and director (d. 2013)
1923 - [[Nora Brockstedt]] -Norwegian singer
1923 - [[Slim Whitman]] -American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
1924 - [[Yvonne Loriod]] -French pianist and composer (d. 2010)
1925 - [[Ernesto Cardenal]] -Nicaraguan priest, poet, and politician
1926 - [[Jamiluddin Aali]] -Pakistani poet, playwright, and critic
1926 - [[Patricia Neal]] -American actress (d. 2010)
1926 - [[David Tudor]] -American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
1927 - [[Qurratulain Hyder]] -Indian-Pakistani journalist, author, and academic (d. 2007)
1928 - [[Antonio de Almeida (conductor)|Antonio de Almeida]] -French conductor and musicologist (d. 1997)
1929 - [[Jimmy Cobb]] -American drummer
1929 - [[Arte Johnson]] -American actor, singer, and screenwriter
1929 - [[Fireball Roberts]] -American race car driver (d. 1964)
1930 - [[Buzz Aldrin]] -American colonel, pilot, and astronaut
1931 - [[David Lee (physicist)|David Lee]] -American physicist and academic; Nobel Prize in Physics|Nobel Prize laureate
1931 - [[Hachidai Nakamura]] -Japanese pianist and composer (d. 1992)
1932 - [[Lou Fontinato]] -Canadian ice hockey player
1934 - [[Hennie Aucamp]] -South African poet, author, and academic (d. 2014)
1934 - [[Tom Baker]] -English actor
1934 - [[Horst Mahseli]] -Polish footballer (d. 1999)
1936 - [[Frances Shand Kydd]] -English-Scottish mother of Diana, Princess of Wales (d. 2004)
1937 - [[Dorothy Provine]] -American singer, dancer, and actress (d. 2010)
1938 - [[William Berger (actor)|William Berger]] -Austrian-American actor (d. 1993)
1938 - [[Derek Dougan]] -Irish-English footballer and journalist (d. 2007)
1939 - [[Paul Coverdell]] -American politician (d. 2000)
1939 - [[Chandra Wickramasinghe]] -Sri Lankan-English mathematician, astronomer, and biologist
1940 - [[Carol Heiss]] -American figure skater and actress
1940 - [[Krishnam Raju]] -Indian actor and politician
1940 - [[Mandé Sidibé]] -Malian economist and politician, Prime Minister of Mali (d. 2009)
1941 - [[Pierre Lalonde]] -Canadian singer and television host
1943 - [[Rick Evans]] -American singer and guitarist (Zager and Evans)
1944 - [[José Luis Garci]] -Spanish director and producer
1944 - [[Farhad Mehrad]] -Iranian singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2002)
1945 - [[Christopher Martin-Jenkins]] -English journalist and sportscaster (d. 2013)
1945 - [[Eric Stewart]] -English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
1946 - [[David Lynch]] -American director, producer, and screenwriter
1946 - [[Vladimír Merta]] -Czech singer-songwriter, guitarist, and journalist
1947 - [[Cyrille Guimard]] -French cyclist and sportscaster
1948 - [[Nancy Kress]] -American author and academic
1948 - [[Natan Sharansky]] -Ukrainian-Israeli physicist and politician; Deputy leaders of Israel|Deputy Prime Minister of Israel
1949 - [[Göran Persson]] -Swedish politician; 31st Prime Minister of Sweden
1950 - [[Daniel Benzali]] -Brazilian-American actor
1950 - [[William Mgimwa]] -Tanzanian banker and politician, 13th Minister of Finance (Tanzania)|Tanzanian Minister of Finance (d. 2014)
1950 - [[Mahamane Ousmane]] -Nigerian politician, President of Niger
1951 - [[Iván Fischer]] -Hungarian conductor and composer
1952 - [[Nikos Sideris]] -Greek psychiatrist and poet
1952 - [[Paul Stanley]] -American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, and actor (Kiss (band)|Kiss and Wicked Lester)
1954 - [[Rudy La Scala]] -Venezuelan singer-songwriter and producer
1954 - [[Ken Page]] -American actor and singer
1954 - [[Alison Seabeck]] -English politician
1955 - [[McKeeva Bush]] -Caymanian politician, Premier of the Cayman Islands
1955 - [[Hiromi Ōta]] -Japanese singer
1956 - [[Maria Larsson]] -Swedish educator and politician, Ministry of Health and Social Affairs (Sweden)|Swedish Minister of Health and Social Affairs
1956 - [[Bill Maher]] -American comedian, actor, and television host
1958 - [[Lorenzo Lamas]] -American actor, director, and producer
1959 - [[Tami Hoag]] -American author
1959 - [[R. A. Salvatore]] -American author
1960 - [[Apa Sherpa]] -Nepalese-American mountaineer
1960 - [[Scott Thunes]] -American bass player
1960 - [[Will Wright (game designer)|Will Wright]] -American video game designer; co-founded Maxis
1962 - [[Laima Muktupāvela]] -Latvian writer
1963 - [[James Denton]] -American actor
1963 - [[Mark Ryden]] -American painter
1964 - [[Ozzie Guillén]] -Venezuelan-American baseball player and manager
1964 - [[Ron Harper]] -American basketball player and coach
1964 - [[Kazushige Nojima]] -Japanese screenwriter and songwriter
1964 - [[Aquilino Pimentel III]] -Filipino lawyer and politician
1964 - [[Fareed Zakaria]] -Indian-American journalist and author
1965 - [[Colin Calderwood]] -Scottish footballer and manager
1965 - [[Greg K.]] -American bass player (The Offspring)
1965 - [[John Michael Montgomery]] -American singer-songwriter and guitarist
1965 - [[Heather Small]] -English singer-songwriter and actress
1965 - [[Anton Weissenbacher]] -Romanian footballer
1966 - [[Stacey Dash]] -American actress
1966 - [[Tracii Guns]] -American guitarist and songwriter
1966 - [[Rainn Wilson]] -American actor, director, and producer
1967 - [[Jay Hunt (television executive)|Jay Hunt]] -Australian-English businessman
1967 - [[Eric Quizon]] -Filipino actor, director, producer, and writer
1968 - [[Nick Anderson]] -American basketball player and sportscaster
1968 - [[Melissa Rivers]] -American actress, television host, and producer
1968 - [[Charlie Swan (horse trainer)|Charlie Swan]] -Irish jockey and trainer
1969 - [[Noriko Kinohara]] -Japanese actress
1969 - [[Patrick K. Kroupa]] -American computer hacker and activist; co-founded MindVox
1969 - [[Nicky Wire]] -Welsh singer-songwriter and bass player (Manic Street Preachers)
1970 - [[Kerri Kenney-Silver]] -American actress and singer
1970 - [[Skeet Ulrich]] -American actor
1971 - [[Questlove]] -American drummer, DJ, and producer (The Roots and Soulquarians)
1971 - [[Gary Barlow]] -English singer-songwriter, pianist, and producer
1971 - [[Derrick Green]] -American singer-songwriter (Sepultura)
1971 - [[Wakanohana Masaru]] -Japanese sumo wrestler, the 66th Makuuchi#Yokozuna|Yokozuna
1972 - [[Nikki Haley]] -American accountant and politician, 116th Governor of South Carolina
1974 - [[David Dei]] -Italian footballer
1975 - [[Norberto Fontana]] -Argentinian race car driver
1976 - [[Gretha Smit]] -Dutch speed skater
1977 - [[Melody (Belgian singer)|Melody]] -Belgian singer
1978 - [[Salvatore Aronica]] -Italian footballer
1978 - [[Joy Giovanni]] -American wrestler and actress
1978 - [[Sonja Kesselschläger]] -German heptathlete
1978 - [[Allan Søgaard]] -Danish footballer
1978 - [[Sid Wilson]] -American DJ and pianist
1978 - [[Luciano Zauri]] -Italian footballer
1979 - [[Asaka Kubo]] -Japanese singer
1979 - [[Shang Yi]] -Chinese footballer
1979 - [[Will Young]] -English singer-songwriter and actor
1980 - [[Philippe Cousteau, Jr.]] -American-French oceanographer and journalist
1980 - [[Philippe Gagnon (swimmer)|Philippe Gagnon]] -Canadian swimmer
1980 - [[Kim Jeong-hoon]] -South Korean singer and actor
1980 - [[Petra Rampre]] -Slovenian tennis player
1980 - [[Matthew Tuck]] -Welsh singer-songwriter and guitarist
1981 - [[Daniel Cudmore]] -Canadian actor and stuntman
1981 - [[Brendan Fevola]] -Australian footballer
1981 - [[Freddy Guzmán]] -Dominican baseball player
1981 - [[Owen Hargreaves]] -English footballer
1981 - [[Crystal Lowe]] -Canadian actress
1981 - [[Jason Richardson]] -American basketball player
1982 - [[Fredrik Strømstad]] -Norwegian footballer
1983 - [[Mari Yaguchi]] -Japanese singer and actress (Morning Musume)
1984 - [[Olivia Hallinan]] -English actress
1984 - [[Rene Mandri]] -Estonian cyclist
1985 - [[Marina Inoue]] -Japanese voice actress and singer
1985 - [[Tanel Sokk]] -Estonian basketball player
1985 - [[Roxanne Barcelo]] -Filipino singer, actress and host
1986 - [[Genie Chuo]] -Taiwanese singer and actress
1986 - [[Kevin Parker (musician)|Kevin Parker]] -Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist
1987 - [[Evan Peters]] -American actor
1987 - [[Janin Lindenberg]] -German sprinter
1987 - [[Marco Simoncelli]] -Italian motorcycle racer (d. 2011)
1988 - [[Colin Bensadon]] -Gibraltarian swimmer
1988 - [[Uwa Elderson Echiéjilé]] -Nigerian footballer
1988 - [[Callum MacLeod]] -English racing driver
1988 - [[Jeffrén Suárez]] -Spanish footballer
1989 - [[Nick Foles]] -American football player
1989 - [[Washington Santana da Silva]] -Brazilian footballer
1991 - [[Ciara Hanna]] -American actress and model
1991 - [[Polona Hercog]] -Slovenian tennis player
1991 - [[Jolyon Palmer]] -English race car driver
1991 - [[Lily LaBeau]] -American porn actress
1992 - [[Jorge Zárate]] -Mexican footballer
1993 - [[Lorenzo Crisetig]] -Italian footballer
1994 - [[Denis Mukhametdinov]] -Russian footballer
1995 - [[Joey Badass]] -American rapper (Pro Era)