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25 December 1826 – The Eggnog Riot at the United States Military Academy concludes after beginning the previous evening.

Eggnog Riot

Redirect to:

• Eggnog riot

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26 December 1862 – American Civil War: The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou begins.

Battle of Chickasaw Bayou

1862 battle of the American Civil War

The Battle of Chickasaw Bayou, also called the Battle of Walnut Hills,^[3] fought December 26–29, 1862, was the opening engagement of the Vicksburg Campaign during the American Civil War. Confederate forces under Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton repulsed an advance by Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman that was intended to lead to the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

On December 26, three Union divisions under Sherman disembarked at Johnson's Plantation on the Yazoo River to approach the Vicksburg defenses from the northeast while a fourth landed farther upstream on December 27. On December 27, the Union army pushed their lines forward through the swamps toward the Walnut Hills, which were strongly defended. On December 28, several futile attempts were made to get around these defenses. On December 29, Sherman ordered a frontal assault, which was repulsed with heavy casualties, and then withdrew. This Confederate victory and the victory against Grant at Holly Springs frustrated Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's attempts to take Vicksburg by a direct approach.

1. ^ ^{a b c} Eicher, pp. 390–91.
2. ^ Smith 2022, pp. 380–381.
3. ^ The National Park Service battle description, , gives a second alternate name, Chickasaw Bluffs. Although this may be derived from a variation on "Bluffs over Chickasaw Bayou" (referring to Drumgould's Bluff), the geographic location known as Chickasaw Bluffs is distant from the battlefield. Other references to this article do not use this name.

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27 December 1979 – The Soviet Union invades the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

Soviet–Afghan War

1979–1989 armed conflict in South Asia

For other conflicts involving the Soviet Union and Afghanistan, see Soviet–Afghan War (disambiguation).

The Soviet–Afghan War took place in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from December 1979 to February 1989. Marking the beginning of the 46-year-long Afghan conflict, it saw the Soviet Union and the Afghan military fight against the rebelling Afghan mujahideen, aided by Pakistan. While they were backed by various countries and organizations, the majority of the mujahideen's support came from Pakistan, the United States (as part of Operation Cyclone), the United Kingdom, China, Iran, and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, in addition to a large influx of foreign fighters known as the Afghan Arabs. American and British involvement on the side of the mujahideen escalated the Cold War, ending a short period of relaxed Soviet Union–United States relations. Combat took place throughout the 1980s, mostly in the Afghan countryside, as most of the country's cities remained under Soviet control. The conflict resulted in the deaths of one to three million Afghans, while millions more fled from the country as refugees; most externally displaced Afghans sought refuge in Pakistan and in Iran. Between 6.5 and 11.5%^[33] of Afghanistan's erstwhile population of 13.5 million people (per the 1979 census) is estimated to have been killed over the course of the Soviet–Afghan War. The decade-long confrontation between the mujahideen and the Soviet and Afghan militaries inflicted grave destruction throughout Afghanistan and has also been cited by scholars as a significant factor that contributed to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991; it is for this reason that the conflict is sometimes referred to as "the Soviet Union's Vietnam" in retrospective analyses.

A violent uprising broke out in Herat in March 1979, in which a number of Soviet military advisers were executed. The ruling People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), having determined that it could not subdue the uprising by itself, requested urgent Soviet military assistance; in 1979, over 20 requests were sent. Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin, declining to send troops, advised in one call to Afghan prime minister Nur Muhammad Taraki to use local industrial workers in the province. This was apparently on the belief that these workers would be supporters of the Afghan government. This was discussed further in the Soviet Union with a wide range of views, mainly split between those who wanted to ensure that Afghanistan remained a socialist state and those who were concerned that the unrest would escalate. Eventually, a compromise was reached to send military aid, but not troops.

The conflict began when the Soviet military, under the command of Leonid Brezhnev, moved into Afghanistan to support the Afghan administration that had been installed during Operation Storm-333.^{[nb 1]} Debate over their presence in the country soon ensued in international channels, with the Muslim world and the Western Bloc classifying it as an invasion, while the Eastern Bloc asserted that it was a legal intervention. Nevertheless, numerous sanctions and embargoes were imposed on the Soviet Union by the international community shortly after the beginning of the conflict. Soviet troops occupied Afghanistan's major cities and all main arteries of communication, whereas the mujahideen waged guerrilla warfare in small groups across the 80% of the country that was not subject to uncontested Soviet control—almost exclusively comprising the rugged, mountainous terrain of the countryside. In addition to laying millions of landmines across Afghanistan, the Soviets used their aerial power to deal harshly with both Afghan resistance and civilians, levelling villages to deny safe haven to the mujahideen, destroying vital irrigation ditches and other infrastructure through tactics of scorched earth.

The Soviet government had initially planned to swiftly secure Afghanistan's towns and road networks, stabilize the PDPA, and withdraw all of their military forces in a span of six months to one year. However, they were met with fierce resistance from Afghan guerrillas and experienced great operational difficulties on the rugged mountainous terrain. By the mid-1980s, the Soviet military presence in Afghanistan had increased to approximately 115,000 troops and fighting across the country intensified; the complication of the war effort gradually inflicted a high cost on the Soviet Union as military, economic, and political resources became increasingly exhausted. By mid-1987, reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced that the Soviet military would begin a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan. The final wave of disengagement was initiated on 15 May 1988, and on 15 February 1989, the last Soviet military column occupying Afghanistan crossed into the Uzbek SSR. With continued external Soviet backing, the PDPA government pursued a solo war effort against the mujahideen, and the conflict evolved into the Afghan Civil War. However, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, all support to the Democratic Republic was pulled, leading to the toppling of the government at the hands of the mujahideen in 1992 and the start of a second Afghan Civil War shortly thereafter.

1. ^
   • "The Soviet War in Afghanistan: History and Harbinger of Future War?". ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu. Retrieved 18 March 2025. According to General Nawroz, the Afghan-Soviet War was a rare confrontation in history as it helped trigger the collapse of the greatest empire of modern times. Lessons learned from this conflict were gathered by both sides. Whatever else these lessons may show, the most fundamental of them is that no army, however sophisticated, well trained, materially rich, numerically overwhelming and ruthless, can succeed on the battlefield if it is not psychologically fit and motivated for the fight.
   • Gvosdev, Nikolas K. (10 December 2009). "The Soviet Victory That Never Was | Foreign Affairs". www.foreignaffairs.com. Retrieved 18 March 2025. Today, the victory of the anti-Soviet mujahideen seems preordained as part of the West's ultimate triumph in the Cold War.
   • Khan, Arshad (2003). Islam, Muslims, and America: Understanding the Basis of Their Conflict. Algora Publishing. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-87586-243-9. After a decade of war, the Soviet army was forced to withdraw in 1989. The mujahideen's victory against a superpower was a great morale booster for Muslims throughout the world.
   • Trenin, Dmitri V.; Malashenko, Alexey (2010). Russia's Restless Frontier: The Chechnya Factor in Post-Soviet Russia. Carnegie Endowment. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-87003-294-3. The war in Afghanistan brought about a deep crisis in Moscow's Middle Eastern policy. Having failed to suppress militarily the armed opposition supported from abroad, the Soviet Union was forced to withdraw from Afghanistan in 1989. The political and military defeat of the Soviet Union, which had failed to protect a client regime in a neighboring country for the first time since 1945, accelerated the erosion and, ultimately, the disintegration of the Soviet presence in the region from Damascus to Aden.
   • Pedraja, René De La (21 November 2018). The Russian Military Resurgence: Post-Soviet Decline and Rebuilding, 1992-2018. McFarland. p. 36. ISBN 978-1-4766-3449-4. But the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan on 15 February 1989, although a military defeat, did not mean the overthrown of the local socialist government. Against all predictions of its demise, the regime of Mohamed Najibullah survived the departure of Soviet troops. Only after the new Russian Federation withdrew its assistance in 1992 was the unfortunate Najibullah overthrown and murdered.
   • Plügge, Matthias (2023). Traces of Terrorism. BoD – Books on Demand. p. 340. ISBN 9783756842643. For the Muslims, the Afghan Mujahideen victory over the Red army was, with probably a few exceptions, a military victory for the Islam – the first one for some centuries.
   • Zehr, Nahed Artoul (2017). The War Against Al-Qaeda: Religion, Policy, and Counter-narratives. Georgetown University Press. p. 95. ISBN 978-1-62616-428-4. He turned his attention directly toward continuing the jihad that had been initiated in Afghanistan. The mujahideen's victory over the Soviets was a major boost to the development of the al-Qaeda phenomenon, as figures such as bin Laden viewed their victory as one of Muslims against non-Muslim forces. For bin Laden, the mujahideen—a vanguard army of true Muslims fighting for the construction of a legitimate Islamic State—had prevailed against a much stronger non-Muslim power presaged the Islamic revolution. Motivated by the mujahideen's success, bin Laden believed that the Muslim-wide revolution could start, and Afghanistan would be the base from which the Muslim-wide revolution could start, and Afghanistan would be the base from which this new war could be waged.
   • Shahrani, M. Nazif (20 September 2012). The Kirghiz and Wakhi of Afghanistan: Adaptation to Closed Frontiers and War. University of Washington Press. pp. xx. ISBN 978-0-295-80378-4. The United States reportedly invested some three billion dollars in the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan. Then, after the Soviet defeat and withdrawal in 1989, the United States simply abandoned Afghanistan by walking away.
   • Insurgency and Counter Insurgency: A Dangerous War of Nerves: A Dangerous War of Nerves. KW Publishers Pvt Ltd. 15 July 2013. p. 1993. ISBN 978-93-85714-73-3. Al Qaeda was formed in Afghanistan after the Soviet defeat in 1989 by the various Mujahideen groups who were emboldened by their victory over a superpower and, hence, sought to carry their war to other arenas.
   • Ramakrishna, Kumar (19 October 2014). Islamist Terrorism and Militancy in Indonesia: The Power of the Manichean Mindset. Springer. p. 166. ISBN 978-981-287-194-7. After the Soviet defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, Azzam argued that the Islamic victory was in fact "the prelude to the liberation of Palestine" and other "lost" territories.
   • Jalali, Ali Ahmad (17 March 2017). A Military History of Afghanistan: From the Great Game to the Global War on Terror. University Press of Kansas. p. 376. ISBN 978-0-7006-2407-2. The war was fought in four different strategic phrases: the Soviet offensive operation in support of the regime change; a symmetrical expansion of the war leading to a strategic stalemate following the failure of the Soviet forces to win militarily; the Soviets' combined political-military struggle aimed at a political solution in support of a responsible exit strategy; the Soviet military defeat and its withdrawal from Afghanistan.
2. ^ "The top leader is believed to be Maulvi Mohammad Umar Amir, who was born in the village of Nodeh in Kandhar, and is now settled in Singesar. He was wounded four times in the battles against the Soviets and his right eye was permanently damaged. He took part in the "Jehad" under the late Hizb-e-Islami Khalis Commander Nek Mohammad". Indian Defence Review. 10: 33. 1995.
3. ^ ^{a b} Goodson 2011, p. 190.
4. ^ ^{a b} Goodson 2011, p. 61.
5. ^ ^{a b} Goodson 2011, p. 189.
6. ^ ^{a b} Goodson 2011, p. 62.
7. ^ Goodson 2011, p. 63.
8. ^ "Клятва тридцати девяти". Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine A. Oliynik. Krasnaya Zvezda, 29 October 1988. (in Russian)
9. ^ "Афганистан: бой у высоты 3234". Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine D. Meshchaninov. (in Russian)
10. ^ Cite error: The named reference nationalinterest was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
11. ^ Murphy, Eamon (2013), The Making of Terrorism in Pakistan: Historical and Social Roots of Extremism, Routledge, pp. 127–, ISBN 978-0-415-56526-4
12. ^ Kuperman, Alan J. (1999). "The Stinger missile and U.S. intervention in Afghanistan" (PDF). Political Science Quarterly. 114 (Summer 1999): 219–263. doi:10.2307/2657738. JSTOR 2657738. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 October 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2018.
13. ^ Krivosheev, p. 365
14. ^ Nyrop, Richard F.; Seekins, Donald M. (January 1986). Afghanistan: A Country Study (PDF). Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office. pp. xviii–xxv. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 November 2001.
15. ^ Borshchevskaya, Anna (2022). "2: The Soviet Union in the Middle East and the Afghanistan Intervention". Putin's War in Syria. 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP, UK: I. B. Tauris. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-7556-3463-7. By 1987, the number of Soviet troops reached 120,000.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
16. ^ Katz, Mark N. (9 March 2011). "Middle East Policy Council | Lessons of the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan". Mepc.org. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
17. ^ Rischard, Maxime. "Al Qa'ida's American Connection". Global-Politics.co.uk. Archived from the original on 21 November 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
18. ^ "Afghanistan hits Soviet milestone – Army News". Armytimes.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2012. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
19. ^ ^{a b c d e f} Cite error: The named reference vfw.org was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. ^ Peter Beaumont (18 October 2009). "Same old mistakes in new Afghan war". Guardian.
21. ^ ^{a b} Giustozzi 2000, p. 271.
22. ^ Giustozzi 2000, p. 115.
23. ^ Nelson 2013, p. 80.
24. ^ ^{a b} Andrews, Dr Sudhir (25 November 2023). BACKLASH TO TODAY. Blue Rose Publishers. p. 118.
25. ^ Markovskiy, Victor (1997). "Жаркое небо Афганистана: Часть IX" [Hot Sky of Afghanistan: Part IX]. Авиация и время [Aviation and Time] (in Russian) p.28
26. ^ Weisman, Steven R. (2 May 1987). "AFGHANS DOWN A PAKISTANI F-16, SAYING FIGHTER JET CROSSED BORDER". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
27. ^ "Air Power in Afghanistan 1979-2001". The Fulda Gap. 28 December 2019. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020.
28. ^ Goodson, Larry; Johnson, Thomas H. (2011). "Parallels with the Past – How the Soviets Lost in Afghanistan, How the Americans are Losing". Orbis. 55 (4): 577–599. doi:10.1016/j.orbis.2011.07.009. hdl:10945/41811. ISSN 0030-4387.
29. ^ Klass 2018, p. 129.
30. ^ Goodson 2011, p. 5.
31. ^ Joes 2010, p. 211.
32. ^ Hilali, A. (2005). US–Pakistan relationship: Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Co. (p. 198)ISBN 0-7546-4220-8
33. ^ Raksin, Alex (22 May 1988). "A Nation Is Dying, Afghanistan Under the Soviets 1979–1987". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 27 December 2024. Retrieved 15 July 2021.
34. ^ Semyorka, Russkaya (12 January 2017). "7 things you probably didn't know about the Soviet war in Afghanistan". www.rbth.com. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
35. ^ "Soviet invasion of Afghanistan". History Learning Site. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
36. ^ "Afghanistan: Making Human Rights the Agenda" (PDF). Amnesty International. 1 November 2001. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 16 April 2021.

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28 December 1973 – The Endangered Species Act is passed in the United States.

Endangered Species Act of 1973

United States law

The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation", the ESA was signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973. The Supreme Court of the United States described it as "the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species enacted by any nation".^[1] The purposes of the ESA are two-fold: to prevent extinction and to recover species to the point where the law's protections are not needed. It therefore "protect[s] species and the ecosystems upon which they depend" through different mechanisms.

For example, section 4 requires the agencies overseeing the ESA to designate imperiled species as threatened or endangered. Section 9 prohibits unlawful 'take,' of such species, which means to "harass, harm, hunt..." Section 7 directs federal agencies to use their authorities to help conserve listed species.^[2] The ESA also serves as the enacting legislation to carry out the provisions outlined in The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).^[3] The Act is administered by two federal agencies, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).^[4] FWS and NMFS have been delegated by the Act with the authority to promulgate any rules and guidelines within the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to implement its provisions.

1. ^ "Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill", 437 U.S. 153 (1978) Retrieved 24 November 2015.  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States government.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference CRS-ESA-2021 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "International Affairs: CITES" Retrieved on 29 January 2020. This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
4. ^ US EPA, OP (February 22, 2013). "Summary of the Endangered Species Act". www.epa.gov.

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29 December 1851 – The first American YMCA opens in Boston, Massachusetts.

YMCA

Worldwide youth organization

This article is about the organization. For the Village People song, see Y.M.C.A. (song). For other uses, see YMCA (disambiguation).

YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches worldwide.^[1] It was founded in London on 6 June 1844 by George Williams as the Young Men's Christian Association. The organisation's stated aim is to put Christian values into practice by developing a healthy body, mind, and spirit.

From its inception, YMCA grew rapidly, ultimately becoming a worldwide movement founded on the principles of muscular Christianity. Local YMCAs deliver projects and services focused on youth development through a wide variety of youth activities, including providing athletic facilities, holding classes for a wide variety of skills, promoting Christianity, and humanitarian work.

YMCA is a non-governmental federation, with each independent local YMCA affiliated with its national organisation. The national organisations, in turn, are part of both a geographically regional area alliance and the World Alliance of YMCA. YMCA programs vary between nations and regions, but are all based on the principles espoused in the Paris Basis.

The YMCA is a parachurch organisation based on Protestant values.^[2][3] Similar organizations include the YWCA, and the Young Men's Hebrew Association (YMHA).

In popular culture, the YMCA is the subject of the 1978 song "Y.M.C.A." by the Village People.

1. ^ "Blue Book". World Alliance of YMCAs. 10 July 2018. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
2. ^ Heath, Gordon L. (31 October 2016). American Churches and the First World War. Wipf and Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781532601149.
3. ^ Ferentinos, Susan (16 December 2014). Interpreting LGBT History at Museums and Historic Sites. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9780759123748.

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30 December 1936 – The United Auto Workers union stages its first sitdown strike.

Sitdown strike

Labour strike tactic in which workers remain at their stations but refuse to work

A sit-down strike (or simply sitdown) is a labour strike and a form of civil disobedience in which an organized group of workers, usually employed at factories or other centralized locations, take unauthorized or illegal possession of the workplace by "sitting down" at their stations.^[1] By taking control of their workplaces, workers engaged in a sit-down demonstrate their power, build solidarity among themselves, prevent the deployment of strikebreakers or removal of industrial equipment, and cause cascading effects on the chain of production within and between factories. However, sit-down strikes are illegal in the vast majority of countries, complicating their use.

Sitdown strikes played a central role in the unionization of manufacturing in the United States and France. In major strikes in the rubber and automotive industries in the United States, labor organizers with the United Rubber Workers of America and United Automobile Workers adopted the sitdown strike as a means for demanding unionization of factories, achieving major successes at Goodyear Tire (1936), General Motors (1936–37), and Chrysler (1937).^[2] Sit-down strikes peaked in the United States in 1937, and rapidly declined as workers began to face criminal prosecution for occupations while the National Labor Relations Board supervised both unionization elections and collective bargaining by between recognized unions and employers. While some sit-down strikes still occur in the United States, they tend to be spontaneous and short-lived.

A wave of sit-down strikes in France in May to August 1936 demanded and won union recognition and industry-wide negotiations on wages and benefits, and coincided with state guarantees of limited hours, vacation pay, and other social reforms.

1. ^ Meyer 2009.
2. ^ Adamic 1938, p. 411–15.

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31 December 1501 – The First Battle of Cannanore commences.

First Battle of Cannanore

Part of the Portuguese battles in the Indian Ocean

The First Battle of Cannanore was a naval engagement between the Third Portuguese Armada under João da Nova and the naval forces of Calicut, which had been assembled by the Zamorin against the Portuguese in order to prevent their return to Portugal.

The battle was fought over two days, between 31 December 1501 and 2 January 1502, and was the first major Portuguese naval engagement in the Indian Ocean. Although badly outnumbered, da Nova's bold tactics, better trained and prepared men, and superior weaponry proved decisive for the Portuguese to defeat the blocking force of Calicut, break out of Cannanore, and emerge victorious from the battle.

The battle is also historically notable for being one of the earliest recorded deliberate uses of a naval line of battle, and for resolving the battle by cannon alone. These tactics would become increasingly prevalent as navies evolved and began to see ships less as carriers of armed men, and more as floating artillery. In that respect, this has been called the first 'modern' naval battle (at least for one side).^[2] After it, João da Nova returned to Portugal.

1. ^ Matthew 1997, p. 11.
2. ^ "Cananor – 31 de Dezembro de 1501 a 2 de Janeiro de 1502". Archived from the original on 20 August 2016. Retrieved 29 September 2012.

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1 January 1995 – The World Trade Organization comes into being

World Trade Organization

Intergovernmental trade organization

"WTO" redirects here. For other uses, see WTO (disambiguation).

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland,^[6] that regulates and facilitates international trade.^[7] Governments use the organization to establish, revise, and enforce the rules that govern international trade in cooperation with the United Nations System.^[7][8] The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 166 members representing over 98% of global trade and global GDP.^[9][10][11]

The WTO facilitates trade in goods, services and intellectual property among participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements, which usually aim to reduce or eliminate tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions; these agreements are signed by representatives of member governments^{[12]: fol.9–10} and ratified by their legislatures.^[13] It also administers independent dispute resolution for enforcing participants' adherence to trade agreements and resolving trade-related disputes.^[14] The organization prohibits discrimination between trading partners, but provides exceptions for environmental protection, national security, and other important goals.^[14]

It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948.

Its top decision-making body is the Ministerial Conference, which is composed of all members and usually convenes biennially; consensus is emphasized in all decisions.^[15] Day-to-day functions are handled by the General Council, made up of representatives from all members.^[16] A Secretariat of over 600 personnel, led by the Director-General and four deputies, provides administrative, professional, and technical services.^[17] The WTO's annual budget is roughly 220 million USD, which is contributed by members based on their proportion of international trade.^[18]

Studies show the WTO has increased trade and reduced trade barriers.^{[19][20][21][22]} It has also influenced trade agreement generally; the vast majority of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) explicitly reference the WTO, with substantial portions of text copied from WTO agreements.^[23] Goal 10 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals also referenced WTO agreements as instruments of reducing inequality.^[24] However, critics contend that the benefits of WTO-facilitated free trade are not shared equally.^[25][26]

1. ^ Members and Observers Archived 10 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine at WTO official website
2. ^ Languages, Documentation and Information Management Division Archived 24 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine at WTO official site
3. ^ "Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala confirmed as WTO chief". the Guardian. 15 February 2021. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2021.
4. ^ "WTO Annual Report 2024" (PDF). www.wto.org. p. 199. Retrieved 22 May 2025.
5. ^ "WTO Annual Report 2024" (PDF). www.wto.org. p. 196. Retrieved 21 May 2025.
6. ^ "Overview of the WTO Secretariat". WTO official website. Archived from the original on 1 September 2013. Retrieved 2 September 2013.
7. ^ ^{a b} Oatley, Thomas (2019). International Political Economy (6th ed.). Routledge. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-351-03464-7. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
8. ^ "The WTO and the United Nations". WTO. Archived from the original on 13 July 2007. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
9. ^ Krueger, Anne O. "International Economic Organizations, Developing Country Reforms, and Trade". The Reporter. NBER. Archived from the original on 18 May 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.
10. ^ "Understanding the WTO – The GATT years: from Havana to Marrakesh". WTO. Archived from the original on 5 March 2018. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
11. ^ Cite error: The named reference :9 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ "Understanding the WTO" (PDF). WTO. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 March 2012.. (The document's printed folio numbers do not match the PDF page numbers.)
13. ^ Malanczuk, P. (1999). "International Organisations and Space Law: World Trade Organization". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 442. p. 305. Bibcode:1999ESASP.442..305M.
14. ^ ^{a b} "U.S. Trade Policy: Going it Alone vs. Abiding by the WTO". Econofact. 15 June 2018. Archived from the original on 30 June 2018. Retrieved 30 June 2018.
15. ^ "WTO | Ministerial conferences". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 6 March 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
16. ^ "WTO | Understanding the WTO – Whose WTO is it anyway?". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 4 July 2021. Retrieved 18 February 2021.
17. ^ "WTO | Understanding the WTO – the Secretariat". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 30 November 2021. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
18. ^ "WTO | Budget for the year". www.wto.org. Archived from the original on 23 January 2022. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
19. ^ Broda, C.; Limão, N.; Weinstein, D. E. (2008). "Optimal Tariffs and Market Power: The Evidence". American Economic Review. 98 (5): 2032–2065. doi:10.1257/aer.98.5.2032. S2CID 6116538. Archived from the original on 14 February 2024. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
20. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
21. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
22. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
23. ^ Cite error: The named reference :6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
24. ^ "Goal 10 targets". UNDP. Archived from the original on 27 November 2020. Retrieved 23 September 2020.
25. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
26. ^ Wilkinson, Rorden (2014). What's wrong with the WTO and how to fix it. Cambridge, UK: Polity. ISBN 978-0-745-67245-8. Archived from the original on 16 April 2021. Retrieved 12 September 2020.

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2 January 1833 – Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.

Reassertion of British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (1833)

This article is about the re-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands in 1833. For other uses, see Falklands Crisis.

Re-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands in 1833

In December 1832, two naval vessels were sent by the United Kingdom to re-assert British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Spanish: Islas Malvinas), after the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata (part of which later became Argentina) ignored British diplomatic protests over the appointment of Luis Vernet as governor of the Falkland Islands and a dispute over fishing rights.

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3 January 1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

Eiffel Tower

Tower in Paris, France

This article is about the landmark in Paris, France. For other uses, see Eiffel Tower (disambiguation).

"300-metre tower" and "Tour Eiffel" redirect here. For other tall towers, see List of tallest towers. For other uses, see Tour Eiffel (disambiguation).

The Eiffel Tower (/ˈaɪfəl/ ^ⓘ EYE-fəl; French: Tour Eiffel [tuʁ ɛfɛl] ^ⓘ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889.

Locally nicknamed "La dame de fer" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed as the centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair, and to crown the centennial anniversary of the French Revolution. Although initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world.^[5] The tower received 5,889,000 visitors in 2022.^[6] The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument with an entrance fee in the world:^[7] 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015. It was designated a monument historique in 1964, and was named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site ("Paris, Banks of the Seine") in 1991.^[8]

The tower is 330 metres (1,083 ft) tall,^[9] about the same height as an 81-storey building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring 125 metres (410 ft) on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. It was the first structure in the world to surpass both the 200 meters and 300 meters mark in height. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by 5.2 metres (17 ft). Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest free-standing structure in France after the Millau Viaduct.

The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is 276 m (906 ft) above the ground—the highest public observation deck in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600-step climb. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift. On this top, third level, is a private apartment built for Gustave Eiffel, who decorated it with furniture made by Jean Lachaise and invited friends such as Thomas Edison.

1. ^ ^{a b} Bachman, Leonard R. (2019). Constructing the Architect: An Introduction to Design, Research, Planning, and Education. Routledge. p. 80. ISBN 9781351665421.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Eiffel Tower". CTBUH Skyscraper Center.
3. ^ "Intermediate floor of the Eiffel tower".
4. ^ "Eiffel Tower". Emporis. Archived from the original on 22 April 2016.
5. ^ SETE. "The Eiffel Tower at a glance". Official Eiffel Tower website. Archived from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
6. ^ Tourism Statistics, "Visit Paris Region" site of the Paris Ile de France Visitors Bureau, retrieved 22 March 2022.
7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
8. ^ Clayson, S. Hollis (26 February 2020), "Eiffel Tower", Architecture, Planning, and Preservation, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/obo/9780190922467-0014, ISBN 978-0-19-092246-7, retrieved 14 November 2021
9. ^ "Eiffel Tower grows six meters after new antenna attached". Reuters. 15 March 2022. Retrieved 15 March 2022.

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4 January 46 BC – Julius Caesar fights Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.

Julius Caesar

Roman general and dictator (100–44 BC)

"Gaius Julius Caesar" and "Caesar" redirect here. For the name, see Gaius Julius Caesar (name). For other uses, see Gaius Julius Caesar (disambiguation), Caesar (disambiguation), Julius Caesar (disambiguation), and Caesar (title).

Gaius Julius Caesar^[a] (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He subsequently became dictator from 49 BC until his assassination in 44 BC. Caesar played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

In 60 BC, Caesar, Crassus, and Pompey formed the First Triumvirate, an informal political alliance that dominated Roman politics for several years. Their attempts to amass political power were opposed by many in the Senate, among them Cato the Younger with the private support of Cicero. Caesar rose to become one of the most powerful politicians in the Roman Republic through a string of military victories in the Gallic Wars, completed by 51 BC, which greatly extended Roman territory. During this time, he both invaded Britain and built a bridge across the river Rhine. These achievements and the support of his veteran army threatened to eclipse the standing of Pompey. The alliance between Caesar and Pompey slowly broke down and, by 50 BC, Pompey had realigned himself with the Senate. With his command expiring and the Gallic Wars largely concluded, the Senate ordered Caesar to step down from his military command and return to Rome. In early January 49 BC, Caesar openly defied the Senate by crossing the Rubicon and marching towards Rome at the head of an army. This began Caesar's civil war, which he won, leaving him in a position of near-unchallenged power and influence in 45 BC.

After assuming control of government and pardoning many of his enemies, Caesar set upon vigorous reform and building programme. He created the Julian calendar to replace the republican lunisolar calendar, reduced the size of the grain dole, settled his veterans in new overseas colonies, greatly increased the size of the Senate, and extended citizenship to communities in Spain and what is now northern Italy. In early 44 BC, he was proclaimed "dictator for life" (dictator perpetuo). Fearful of his power, domination of the state, and the possibility that he might make himself king, a group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius assassinated Caesar on the Ides of March (15 March) 44 BC. A new series of civil wars broke out and the constitutional government of the Republic was never fully restored. Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive heir Octavian, later known as Augustus, rose to sole power after defeating his opponents thirteen years later. Octavian then set about solidifying his power, transforming the Republic into the Roman Empire.

Caesar was an accomplished author and historian; much of his life is known from his own accounts of his military campaigns. Other contemporary sources include the letters and speeches of Cicero and the historical writings of Sallust. Later biographies of Caesar by Suetonius and Plutarch are also important sources. Caesar is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history.^[3] His cognomen was subsequently adopted as a synonym for "emperor"; the title "Caesar" was used throughout the Roman Empire, and gave rise to modern descendants such as Kaiser and Tsar. He has frequently appeared in literary and artistic works.

1. ^ Badian 2009, p. 16. All ancient sources place his birth in 100 BC. Some historians have argued against this; the "consensus of opinion" places it in 100 BC. Goldsworthy 2006, p. 30.
2. ^ All offices and years thereof from Broughton 1952, p. 574.
3. ^ Tucker, Spencer (2010). Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. p. 68. ISBN 978-1-59884-430-6.

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5 January 1919 – The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.

German Workers' Party

Predecessor of the Nazi Party

For the German Workers' Party in Austria-Hungary, see German Workers' Party (Austria-Hungary).

The German Workers' Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, DAP) was a short-lived far-right political party established in the Weimar Republic after World War I. It only lasted from 5 January 1919 until 24 February 1920. The DAP was the precursor of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, NSDAP), commonly known as the Nazi Party.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

1. ^ ^{a b} Kershaw 2008, p. 82.
2. ^ "How a Speech Helped Hitler Take Power". Time. Retrieved 11 September 2020. "Feb. 24, 1920 [...] that Adolf Hitler delivered the Nazi Party Platform to a large crowd in Munich, an event that is often regarded as the foundation of Naziism."
3. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 148.
4. ^ Hatheway, Jay (Jul., 1994). "The Pre-1920 Origins of the National Socialist German Workers' Party". Journal of Contemporary History. Sage Publications, Inc. Vol. 29, No. 3. pp. 443-462. doi:10.1177/002200949402900304.
5. ^ Mitcham 1996, p. 67.
6. ^ ^{a b} Wladika, Michael (2005), Hitlers Vätergeneration: Die Ursprünge des Nationalsozialismus in der k.u.k. Monarchie (in German), Böhlau Verlag, p. 157, ISBN 9783205773375
7. ^ David Nicholls. Adolf Hitler: A Biographical Companion. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. pp. 236–37.
8. ^ Colley 2010, p. 11.

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6 January 1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.

Alfred Wegener

German climatologist and geophysicist (1880–1930)

Alfred Lothar Wegener (/ˈveɪɡənər/;^[1] German: [ˈʔalfʁeːt ˈveːɡənɐ];^[2][3] 1 November 1880 – November 1930) was a German climatologist, geologist, geophysicist, meteorologist, and polar researcher.

During his lifetime he was primarily known for his achievements in meteorology and as a pioneer of polar research, but today he is most remembered as the originator of continental drift hypothesis by suggesting in 1912 that the continents are slowly drifting around the Earth (German: Kontinentalverschiebung).

His hypothesis was not accepted by mainstream geology until the 1950s, when numerous discoveries such as palaeomagnetism provided strong support for continental drift, and thereby a substantial basis for today's model of plate tectonics.^[4][5]

Wegener was involved in several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation before the existence of the jet stream was accepted. Expedition participants made many meteorological observations and were the first to overwinter on the inland Greenland ice sheet and the first to bore ice cores on a moving Arctic glacier.

1. ^ "Wegener" Archived 29 March 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary.
2. ^ Dudenredaktion; Kleiner, Stefan; Knöbl, Ralf (2015) [First published 1962]. Das Aussprachewörterbuch [The Pronunciation Dictionary] (in German) (7th ed.). Berlin: Dudenverlag. pp. 177, 897. ISBN 978-3-411-04067-4.
3. ^ Krech, Eva-Maria; Stock, Eberhard; Hirschfeld, Ursula; Anders, Lutz Christian (2009). Deutsches Aussprachewörterbuch [German Pronunciation Dictionary] (in German). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 302, 1047. ISBN 978-3-11-018202-6.
4. ^ Spaulding, Nancy E.; Namowitz, Samuel N. (2005). Earth Science. Boston: McDougal Littell. ISBN 0-618-11550-1.
5. ^ McIntyre, Michael; Eilers, H. Peter; Mairs, John (1991). Physical geography. New York: Wiley. p. 273. ISBN 0-471-62017-3.

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7 January 2012 – A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board.

2012 Carterton hot air balloon crash

Aviation accident in New Zealand

On 7 January 2012, a scenic hot air balloon flight from Carterton, New Zealand, collided with a high-voltage power line while attempting to land, causing it to catch fire, disintegrate and crash just north of the town, killing all eleven people on board.^[1][2]

An inquiry into the accident by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) concluded that the balloon pilot had made an error of judgement when contact with the power lines became imminent, trying to outclimb the power lines rather than using the rapid descent system to drop the balloon quickly to the ground below. Toxicology analysis of the balloon pilot, Lance Hopping, after the accident tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), suggesting he may have been under the influence of cannabis at the time of the crash, which ultimately led to the error in judgement. The crash was the sixth transport accident in ten years the TAIC had investigated which involved key people testing positive for drugs or alcohol, and the commission has called for the government to enact stricter measures in regards to drug and alcohol use in the aviation, marine and rail industries.^[3][4]

The crash is the deadliest ballooning disaster ever to occur in New Zealand. It was also the deadliest air disaster to occur in mainland New Zealand since the 1963 crash of New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441, and the deadliest crash involving a New Zealand aircraft since the 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 into Mount Erebus.^{[nb 1][1][5]}

1. ^ ^{a b} "11 dead in hot air balloon tragedy". The New Zealand Herald. 7 January 2012. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
2. ^ "Eleven dead in New Zealand hot air balloon crash". BBC News. 6 January 2012. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2012.
3. ^ Backhouse, Matthew (31 October 2013). "Carterton balloon tragedy caused by errors of judgement". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
4. ^ "New Zealand hot air balloon crash pilot 'used cannabis'". BBC News. 31 October 2013. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 12 November 2013.
5. ^ Niles, Russ (6 January 2012). "New Zealand Balloon Crash Kills 11". AVweb. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2012.

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8 January 1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched.

Luna 21

Soviet lunar lander that carried the Lunokhod 2 rover to the Moon

Luna 21 (Ye-8 series) was an uncrewed space mission, and its spacecraft, of the Luna program, also called Lunik 21, in 1973. The spacecraft landed on the Moon and deployed the second Soviet lunar rover, Lunokhod 2. The primary objectives of the mission were to collect images of the lunar surface, examine ambient light levels to determine the feasibility of astronomical observations from the Moon, perform laser ranging experiments from Earth, observe solar X-rays, measure local magnetic fields, and study mechanical properties of the lunar surface material.

1. ^ ^{a b} Siddiqi, Asif (2018). Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, 1958–2016 (PDF) (second ed.). NASA History Program Office. ISBN 9781626830431.
2. ^ "NASA NSSDC Master Catalog - Luna 21/Lunokhod 2". Retrieved 1 January 2011.

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9 January 2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco.

IPhone

Line of smartphones by Apple Inc.

For other uses, see iPhone (disambiguation).

The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at Macworld 2007, and launched later that year. Since then, Apple has annually released new iPhone models and iOS versions; the most recent models being the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, alongside the higher-end iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, and the lower-end iPhone 16e (which replaces the iPhone SE). As of January 1, 2024, more than 2.3 billion iPhones have been sold, making Apple the largest vendor of mobile phones in 2023.

The original iPhone was the first mobile phone to use multi-touch technology. Throughout its history, the iPhone has gained larger, higher-resolution displays, video-recording functionality, waterproofing, and many accessibility features. Up to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, iPhones had a single button on the front panel, with the iPhone 5s and later integrating a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Since the iPhone X,^{[note 2]} iPhone models have switched to a nearly bezel-less front screen design with Face ID facial recognition in place of Touch ID for authentication, and increased use of gestures in place of the home button for navigation.

The iPhone, which operates using Apple's proprietary iOS software, is one of the two major smartphone platforms in the world, alongside Android. The first-generation iPhone was described by Steve Jobs as a "revolution" for the mobile phone industry. The iPhone has been credited with popularizing the slate smartphone form factor, and with creating a large market for smartphone apps, or "app economy", laying the foundation for the boom of the market for mobile devices. In addition to the apps that come pre-installed on iOS, there are nearly 2 million apps available for download from Apple's mobile distribution marketplace, the App Store, as of August 2024^[update].
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10 January 1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil

Standard Oil

Redirect to:

• Standard Oil Company

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11 January 1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.

Grand Canyon National Park

National park in Arizona, United States

This article is about the national park in the southwestern United States. For the canyon itself, see Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon National Park is a national park of the United States located in northwestern Arizona, the 15th site to have been named as a national park. The park's central feature is the Grand Canyon, a gorge of the Colorado River, which is often considered one of the Wonders of the World. The park, which covers 1,217,262 acres (1,901.972 sq mi; 4,926.08 km²) of unincorporated area in Coconino and Mohave counties, received more than 4.7 million recreational visitors in 2023.^[5] The Grand Canyon was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. The park celebrated its 100th anniversary on February 26, 2019.^[6]

1. ^ Grand Canyon in United States of America Archived July 24, 2019, at the Wayback Machine. protectedplanet.net. United Nations Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre and the IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
2. ^ "Grand Canyon National Park Visitor Center". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
3. ^ "Listing of acreage – December 31, 2011" (XLSX). Land Resource Division, National Park Service. Retrieved March 7, 2012. (National Park Service Acreage Reports)
4. ^ "Annual Park Ranking Report for Recreation Visits in: 2023". nps.gov. National Park Service. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
5. ^ "Top 10 most visited national parks". Travel. March 27, 2024. Retrieved March 27, 2024.
6. ^ "Grand Canyon Centennial History". Time. Retrieved April 19, 2019.

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12 January 2005 – Deep Impact launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket.

Deep Impact (spacecraft)

NASA space probe launched in 2005

Deep Impact was a NASA space probe launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on January 12, 2005.^[2] It was designed to study the interior composition of the comet Tempel 1 (9P/Tempel), by releasing an impactor into the comet. At 05:52 UTC on July 4, 2005, the Impactor successfully collided with the comet's nucleus. The impact excavated debris from the interior of the nucleus, forming an impact crater. Photographs taken by the spacecraft showed the comet to be more dusty and less icy than had been expected. The impact generated an unexpectedly large and bright dust cloud, obscuring the view of the impact crater.

Previous space missions to comets, such as Giotto, Deep Space 1, and Stardust, were fly-by missions. These missions were able to photograph and examine only the surfaces of cometary nuclei, and even then from considerable distances. The Deep Impact mission was the first to eject material from a comet's surface, and the mission garnered considerable publicity from the media, international scientists, and amateur astronomers alike.

Upon the completion of its primary mission, proposals were made to further utilize the spacecraft. Consequently, Deep Impact flew by Earth on December 31, 2007, on its way to an extended mission, designated EPOXI, with a dual purpose to study extrasolar planets and comet Hartley 2 (103P/Hartley).^[3] Communication was unexpectedly lost in August 2013 while the craft was heading for another asteroid flyby.

1. ^ ^{a b c d} "Deep Impact Launch: Press Kit" (PDF). NASA. January 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 26, 2021. Retrieved July 3, 2018.
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference SFN Over was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Tune, Lee; Steigerwald, Bill; Hautaluoma, Grey; Agle, D.C. (December 13, 2007). "Deep Impact Extended Mission Heads for Comet Hartley 2". University of Maryland, College Park. Archived from the original on June 20, 2009. Retrieved August 7, 2009.

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13 January 2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii caused widespread panic in the state.

2018 Hawaii false missile alert

False alarm sent over all communications media in the U.S. state of Hawaii

On the morning of January 13, 2018, an alert was accidentally issued via the Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert System over television, radio, and cellular networks in the U.S. state of Hawaii, instructing citizens to seek shelter due to an incoming ballistic missile. The message was sent at 8:08 a.m. local time and the state had not authorized civil defense outdoor warning sirens to sound.

38 minutes and 13 seconds later, state officials blamed a miscommunication during a drill at the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency for the first message. Then-Governor David Ige apologized for the erroneous alert. The Federal Communications Commission and the Hawaii House of Representatives launched investigations into the incident, leading to the resignation of the state's emergency management administrator.

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14 January 1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.

Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17

Soviet jet fighter aircraft family

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17 (Russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-17; NATO reporting name: Fresco)^[1] is a high-subsonic fighter aircraft produced in the Soviet Union from 1952 and was operated by air forces internationally. The MiG-17 was license-built in China as the Shenyang J-5 and Poland as the PZL-Mielec Lim-6. The MiG-17 is still being used by the North Korean air force in the present day and has seen combat in the Middle East and Asia.

The MiG-17 was an advanced modification of the MiG-15 aircraft produced by the Soviet Union during the Korean War. Production of the MiG-17 was too late for use in that conflict and was first used in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1958. While the MiG-17 was designed to shoot down slower American bombers, it showed surprising success when used by North Vietnamese pilots to combat American fighters and fighter-bombers during the Vietnam War, nearly a decade after its initial design. This was due to the MiG-17 being more agile and maneuverable than the American F-4 Phantom and F-105 Thunderchief, which were focused on speed and long range combat, as well as the fact that MiG-17 was armed with guns, which initial models of the F-4 Phantom lacked.

1. ^ Parsch, Andreas and Aleksey V. Martynov. "Designations of Soviet and Russian Military Aircraft and Missiles." Non-U.S. Military Aircraft and Missile Designations, revised 18 January 2008. Retrieved: 30 March 2009.

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15 January 1759 – The British Museum opens.

British Museum

National museum in London, England

For other uses, see British Museum (disambiguation).

The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world.^[3] It documents the story of human culture from its beginnings to the present.^[a] Established in 1753, the British Museum was the first public national museum.^[4] In 2023, the museum received 5,820,860 visitors, 42% more than the previous year. At least one group rated it the most popular attraction in the United Kingdom.^[2]

At its beginning, the museum was largely based on the collections of the Anglo-Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane.^[5] It opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building. The museum's expansion over the following 250 years was largely a result of British colonisation and resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, or independent spin-offs, the first being the Natural History Museum in 1881. Some of its best-known acquisitions, such as the Greek Elgin Marbles and the Egyptian Rosetta Stone, are subject to long-term disputes and repatriation claims.^[6][7]

In 1973, the British Library Act 1972^[8] detached the library department from the British Museum, but it continued to host the now separated British Library in the same Reading Room and building as the museum until 1997. The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Like all UK national museums, it charges no admission fee except for loan exhibitions.^[9]

1. ^ "Collection size". British Museum. Archived from the original on 12 August 2017. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
2. ^ ^{a b} "British Museum is the most-visited UK attraction again". BBC News. 18 March 2024. Archived from the original on 18 March 2024. Retrieved 18 March 2024.
3. ^ van Riel, Cees (30 October 2017). "Ranking The World's Most Admired Art Museums, And What Big Business Can Learn From Them". Forbes. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. Retrieved 18 May 2023.
4. ^ "History of the British Museum". The British Museum. Archived from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 12 July 2018.
5. ^ "The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane". The British Library. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2017.
6. ^ "The Big Question: What is the Rosetta Stone, and should Britain return". The Independent. 9 December 2009. Archived from the original on 11 March 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
7. ^ Tharoor, Kanishk (29 June 2015). "Museums and looted art: the ethical dilemma of preserving world cultures". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
8. ^ "British Library Act 1972". legislation.gov.uk. 1972. Archived from the original on 8 August 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
9. ^ "Admission and opening times". British Museum. 14 June 2010. Archived from the original on 8 July 2016. Retrieved 4 July 2010.

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16 January 1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain.

Philip II of Spain

King of Spain (1556–1598) and Portugal (1580–1598)

Philip II^{[note 1]} (21 May 1527 – 13 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (Spanish: Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain^{[note 2]} from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. Further, he was Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.

The son of Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, Philip inherited his father's Spanish Empire in 1556, and succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1580 following a dynastic crisis. The Spanish conquests of the Inca Empire and of the Philippines, named in his honor by Ruy López de Villalobos, were completed during his reign. Under Philip II, Spain reached the height of its influence and power, sometimes called the Spanish Golden Age, and ruled territories in every continent then known to Europeans. Philip led a highly debt-leveraged regime, seeing state defaults in 1557, 1560, 1569, 1575, and 1596. This policy was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. Philip finished building the royal palace El Escorial in 1584.

Deeply devout, Philip saw himself as the defender of Catholic Europe against the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant Reformation. In 1584, Philip signed the Treaty of Joinville, funding the French Catholic League over the following decade in its civil war against the French Huguenots. In 1588, he sent an armada to invade Protestant England, with the strategic aim of overthrowing Elizabeth I and re-establishing Catholicism there, but his fleet was defeated in a skirmish at Gravelines (northern France) and then destroyed by storms as it circled the British Isles to return to Spain. The following year Philip's naval power was able to recover after the failed invasion of the English Armada into Spain. Two more Spanish armadas unsuccessfully tried to invade England in 1596 and 1597. The Anglo-Spanish War carried on until 1604, six years after Philip's death.
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16 January 1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain.

Philip II of Spain

King of Spain (1556–1598) and Portugal (1580–1598)

Philip II^{[note 1]} (21 May 1527 – 13 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (Spanish: Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain^{[note 2]} from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He was also jure uxoris King of England and Ireland from his marriage to Queen Mary I in 1554 until her death in 1558. Further, he was Duke of Milan from 1540. From 1555, he was Lord of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands.

The son of Emperor Charles V and Isabella of Portugal, Philip inherited his father's Spanish Empire in 1556, and succeeded to the Portuguese throne in 1580 following a dynastic crisis. The Spanish conquests of the Inca Empire and of the Philippines, named in his honor by Ruy López de Villalobos, were completed during his reign. Under Philip II, Spain reached the height of its influence and power, sometimes called the Spanish Golden Age, and ruled territories in every continent then known to Europeans. Philip led a highly debt-leveraged regime, seeing state defaults in 1557, 1560, 1569, 1575, and 1596. This policy was partly the cause of the declaration of independence that created the Dutch Republic in 1581. Philip finished building the royal palace El Escorial in 1584.

Deeply devout, Philip saw himself as the defender of Catholic Europe against the Ottoman Empire and the Protestant Reformation. In 1584, Philip signed the Treaty of Joinville, funding the French Catholic League over the following decade in its civil war against the French Huguenots. In 1588, he sent an armada to invade Protestant England, with the strategic aim of overthrowing Elizabeth I and re-establishing Catholicism there, but his fleet was defeated in a skirmish at Gravelines (northern France) and then destroyed by storms as it circled the British Isles to return to Spain. The following year Philip's naval power was able to recover after the failed invasion of the English Armada into Spain. Two more Spanish armadas unsuccessfully tried to invade England in 1596 and 1597. The Anglo-Spanish War carried on until 1604, six years after Philip's death.
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17 January 1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

United States Virgin Islands

Territory of the United States

Not to be confused with British Virgin Islands or Spanish Virgin Islands.

Unincorporated and organized U.S. territory in the United States

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The United States Virgin Islands,^[b] officially the Virgin Islands of the United States, are a group of Caribbean islands and a territory of the United States.^[8] The islands are geographically part of the Virgin Islands archipelago and are located in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles.^[9] The islands have a tropical climate.

The U.S. Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Saint Croix, Saint John, and Saint Thomas and 50 other surrounding minor islands and cays.^[10] The total land area of the territory is 133.73 square miles (346.36 km²).^[8] The territory's capital is Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas.

Previously known as the Danish West Indies of the Kingdom of Denmark–Norway (from 1754 to 1814) and the independent Kingdom of Denmark (from 1814 to 1917), they were sold to the United States by Denmark for $25,000,000 in the 1917 Treaty of the Danish West Indies^[8] ($614 million in 2024) in which the United States also recognized Denmark's control over Greenland, and have since been an organized, unincorporated United States territory. The U.S. Virgin Islands are organized under the 1954 Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and have since held five constitutional conventions. As with other territories in the United States, the Virgin Islands elects a delegate who can participate in debates in the House of Representatives but cannot vote.^[11]

The primary economic activities on the islands are tourism and services.^[8]

1. ^ "U.S. Territories - Developments in the Law". Harvard Law Review. April 10, 2017. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
2. ^ "2020 Island Areas Censuses Data on Demographic, Social, Economic and Housing Characteristics Now Available for the U.S. Virgin Islands". Archived from the original on October 26, 2022. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
3. ^ "Religions in U S Virgin Islands - PEW-GRF". www.globalreligiousfutures.org. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
4. ^ "2020 Island Areas Censuses: U.S. Virgin Islands". United States Census Bureau. United States Department of Commerce. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved January 8, 2022.
5. ^ Gross Domestic Product Per Capita for U.S. Virgin Islands (Report). May 5, 2017. Archived from the original on May 23, 2017. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
6. ^ "Virgin Islands (U.S.) | Data". data.worldbank.org. Archived from the original on August 10, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
7. ^ "The Forgotten Isles: A Risk Assessment of the United States' Island Territories, 2008-2020" (PDF). sites.tufts.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 4, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
8. ^ ^{a b c d} Cite error: The named reference WorldFactbook was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ "United States Virgin Islands". Britannica. Archived from the original on July 31, 2022. Retrieved August 6, 2022.
10. ^ "Virgin Islands". britannica.com. Archived from the original on July 26, 2018. Retrieved January 2, 2020.
11. ^ Leibowitz, Arnold H. (1989). Defining status : a comprehensive analysis of United States territorial relations. Dordrecht: Nijhoff. ISBN 0-7923-0069-6. OCLC 18779202.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

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18 January 1866 – Wesley College, Melbourne, is established.

Wesley College, Melbourne

Independent school in Victoria, Australia

This article is about Wesley College Melbourne, Australia. For other institutions of the same name, see Wesley College (disambiguation).

Wesley College is a co-educational, open-entry private school in Melbourne, Australia. Established in 1866,^[2] the college is the only school in Victoria to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) from early childhood to Year 12.^[3]

The college consists of three main metropolitan campuses in Melbourne, St Kilda Road, Glen Waverley and Elsternwick,^[4] residential/boarding facilities (Glen Waverley),^[5] three outdoor education sites (Mallana, Chum Creek, & Lochend),^[6] a year 9 residential learning campus in Clunes^[7] and the Yiramalay/Wesley Studio School (Yiramalay) in the Kimberley Region.^[8]

Wesley was the first registered school in Australia^[9] and is a founding member of the Associated Public Schools of Victoria (APS). It is affiliated with the Independent Primary School Heads of Australia, the Association of Independent Schools of Victoria, the Association of Heads of Independent Schools of Australia and the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference.^[10]

1. ^ "Associated Schools" https://victas.uca.org.au/community-learning/uniting-church-schools/
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference open was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ "Wesley IB Continuum School - Wesley College". www.wesleycollege.net. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
4. ^ "Our campuses". January 2019.
5. ^ "Boarding". January 2019.
6. ^ "Outdoor education". January 2019.
7. ^ "Clunes". January 2019.
8. ^ "About Yiramalay". January 2019.
9. ^ "Wesley College". School Choice Victoria. Archived from the original on 31 August 2007. Retrieved 15 June 2007.
10. ^ "International Members". HMC Schools. The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. Archived from the original on 15 March 2008. Retrieved 15 September 2008.

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19 January 1661 – Thomas Venner is hanged, drawn and quartered in London.

Hanged, drawn and quartered

Medieval punishment for high treason

To be hanged, drawn and quartered was a method of torturous capital punishment used principally to execute men convicted of high treason in medieval and early modern Britain and Ireland. The convicted traitor was fastened by the feet to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn behind a horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered. His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. The punishment was only ever applied to men; for reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.

It became a statutory punishment in the Kingdom of England for high treason in 1352 under King Edward III (1327–1377), although similar rituals are recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The same punishment applied to traitors against the king in Ireland from the 15th century onward; William Overy was hanged, drawn and quartered by Lord Lieutenant Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York in 1459, and from the reign of King Henry VII it was made part of statutory law.^[1][2] Matthew Lambert was among the most notable Irishmen to suffer this punishment, in 1581 in Wexford.^[3]

The severity of the sentence was measured against the seriousness of the crime. As an attack on the monarch's authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment. Although some convicts had their sentences modified and suffered a less ignominious end, over a period of several hundred years many men found guilty of high treason were subjected to the law's ultimate sanction. They included many Catholic priests executed during the Elizabethan era, and several of the regicides involved in the 1649 execution of Charles I.

Although the Act of Parliament defining high treason remains on the United Kingdom's statute books, during a long period of 19th-century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being abolished in England in 1870. The death penalty for treason was abolished in 1998.

1. ^ "Part 1 of The Commonwealth of Ireland". celt.ucc.ie.
2. ^ "Travels of Sir William Brereton in Ireland, 1635". celt.ucc.ie.
3. ^ hÉireann, Stair na (5 July 2016). "1581 – The Wexford Martyrs were hanged, drawn and quartered". Stair na hÉireann [History of Ireland].

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20 January 1969 – Richard Nixon is inaugurated the 37th President of the United States of America.

Richard Nixon

President of the United States from 1969 to 1974

"Nixon" redirects here. For other uses, see Nixon (disambiguation) and Richard Nixon (disambiguation).

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the 36th vice president under President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, and also as a representative and senator from California. His presidency saw the reduction of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, détente with the Soviet Union and China, the Apollo 11 Moon landing, and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Nixon's second term ended early when he became the only U.S. president to resign from office as a result of the Watergate scandal.

Nixon was born into a poor family of Quakers in Yorba Linda, Southern California. He graduated from Whittier College with a Bachelor of Arts in 1934 and from Duke University with a Juris Doctor in 1937, practiced law in California, and then moved with his wife Pat to Washington, D.C., in 1942 to work for the federal government. After serving in the Naval Reserve during World War II, he was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946. His work on the Alger Hiss case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist. In 1950, he was elected to the Senate. Nixon was the running mate of Eisenhower, the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1952 and 1956 elections. Nixon served for eight years as vice president and his two terms saw an increase in the notability of the office. He narrowly lost the 1960 presidential election to John F. Kennedy. After his loss in the 1962 race for governor of California, he announced his retirement from politics. However, in 1968, he made another run for the presidency and narrowly defeated the Democratic incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey.

Seeking to bring the North Vietnamese to the negotiating table, Nixon ordered military operations and carpet bombing campaigns in Cambodia. He covertly aided Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and ended American combat involvement in Vietnam in 1973 and the military draft the same year. His visit to China in 1972 led to diplomatic relations between the two nations, and he finalized the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union. During the course of his first term, he enacted many progressive environmental policy shifts such as creating the Environmental Protection Agency and passing laws including the Endangered Species and Clean Air Acts. In addition to implementing the Twenty-sixth Amendment that lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, he ended the direct international convertibility of the U.S. dollar to gold in 1971, effectively taking the United States off the gold standard. He also imposed wage and price controls for 90 days, launched the Wars on Cancer and Drugs, passed the Controlled Substances Act, and presided over the end of the Space Race by overseeing the Apollo 11 Moon landing. He was re-elected in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern in one of the largest landslide victories in American history.

In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli materiel losses in the Yom Kippur War, a conflict which led to the oil crisis at home. From 1973, ongoing revelations from the Nixon administration's involvement in Watergate eroded his support in Congress and the country. The scandal began with a break-in at the Democratic National Committee office, ordered by administration officials, and escalated despite cover-up efforts by the Nixon administration, of which he was aware. On August 9, 1974, facing almost certain impeachment and removal from office, Nixon resigned. Afterward, he was issued a controversial pardon by his successor, Gerald Ford. During nearly 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote nine books and undertook many foreign trips, rehabilitating his image into that of an elder statesman and leading expert on foreign affairs. On April 18, 1994, he suffered a debilitating stroke, and died four days later. Evaluations of Nixon's time in office have proven complex, with the successes of his presidency contrasted against the controversial circumstances surrounding his departure from office.

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21 January 1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.

Monte Carlo Rally

Annual rallying event held in Monaco and France

The Monte Carlo Rally or Rallye Monte-Carlo (officially Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco. From its inception in 1911 by Prince Albert I, the rally was intended to demonstrate improvements and innovations in automobiles, and promote Monaco as a tourist resort on the Mediterranean shore. Before the format changed in 1997,^[1] the event was a “concentration rally” in which competitors would set off from various starting points around Europe and drive to Monaco, where the rally would continue to a set of special stages. The rally now takes place along the hills of the French Riviera and southeast France (Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and the southern parts of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes). As of January 2025, the most recent edition to have a special stage within the borders of Monaco was the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally.

1. ^ "Rallies - Monte Carlo". Jonkka’s World Rally Archive. Retrieved 16 January 2023.

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22 January 1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

Graham Staines

Australian missionary killed in India (1941–1999)

Graham Stuart Staines (18 January 1941 – 23 January 1999) was an Australian Christian missionary, who along with his two sons, Philip (aged 10) and Timothy (aged 6), was burnt to death in India by members of the Hindu nationalist group, Bajrang Dal.^[1] In 2003, Bajrang Dal activist Dara Singh was convicted of leading the murderers and was sentenced to life in prison.^[2]

Staines had been working in Odisha since 1965 as part of an evangelical missionary organisation named "Mayurbhanj Leprosy Home" caring for people who had leprosy and looking after the tribal people in the area who lived in abject poverty.^[3] However, some Hindu groups argue that during this time he had tricked, lured or forcibly coerced many Hindus into believing in the Christian faith. The Wadhwa Commission claims that although some tribals had been baptised at the camps, there was no evidence of forced conversions.^[4] Staines's widow Gladys has also denied forced conversions ever happened.^[5][6]

Gladys continued to live and work in India caring for those who were poor and were affected by leprosy until she returned home to Australia in 2004. In 2005, she was awarded the fourth highest civilian honour of India, the Padma Shree, in recognition for her work in Odisha.^[7][8] In 2016, she received the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice.^[9]

1. ^ Parashar, Swati (5 March 2014). Women and Militant Wars: The politics of injury. Routledge. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-134-11606-5. Retrieved 13 February 2021 – via Google Books. The Sangh Parivar (literally known as the Sangh family) includes groups such as the Rashtriye Swayamsewak Sangh, the Bajrang Dal, Shiv Sena and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. They articulate a militant Hindu nationalist politics, opposing the Muslim 'other'.
2. ^ Natasha CoutinhoNatasha Coutinho (20 February 2019). "Sharman Joshi brings Graham Staines' story to the screen". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 28 January 2022.
3. ^ Singha, Minati (23 January 2020). "21 years on, Odisha village still weeps for Graham Staines". Times of India.
4. ^ "In the age of fake news, flashback to first kill". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
5. ^ "Missionary widow continues leprosy work". BBC News. 27 January 1999.
6. ^ "Rediff On The NeT: Vir Sanghvi on the Orissa incident". Rediff.com. 8 February 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
7. ^ Biswas, Soutik (22 September 2003). "Widow keeps missionary's memory alive". BBC ,News.
8. ^ "South Asia | Missionary widow's emotional return". BBC News. 18 May 2005. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
9. ^ Forgiver feted. Christianity Today Jan. 2016, p.17.

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23 January 1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Music museum in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the artists, producers, engineers, and other notable figures and personnel who have influenced its development.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation was established on April 20, 1983, by Ahmet Ertegun, founder and chairman of Atlantic Records. After a long search for the right city, Cleveland was chosen in 1986 as the Hall of Fame's permanent home. Architect I. M. Pei designed the new museum, and it was dedicated on September 1, 1995.

1. ^ "2015–16 Annual Report". Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. 2016. p. 14. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 27, 2019. Retrieved February 27, 2019.

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24 January 1862 – Bucharest is proclaimed the capital of Romania.

Bucharest

Capital and largest city of Romania

Not to be confused with Budapest.

Capital city and municipality in București – Ilfov, Romania

Bucharest (UK: /ˌbuːkəˈrɛst/ ^ⓘ BOO-kə-REST, US: /ˈbuːkərɛst/ -⁠rest; Romanian: București [bukuˈreʃtʲ] ^ⓘ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.3 million residents, which makes Bucharest the 8th most-populous city in the European Union. The city area measures 240 km² (93 sq mi) and comprises 6 districts (Sectoare), while the metropolitan area covers 1,811 km² (699 sq mi). Bucharest is a major cultural, political and economic hub, the country's seat of government, and the capital of the Muntenia region.

Bucharest was first mentioned in documents in 1459. The city became the capital in 1862 and is the centre of Romanian media, culture, and art. Its architecture is a mix of historical (mostly Eclectic, but also Neoclassical and Art Nouveau), interbellum (Bauhaus, Art Deco, and Romanian Revival architecture), socialist era, and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the city's elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nicknames of Little Paris or Paris of the East.^[6] Although buildings and districts in the historic city centre were heavily damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes, and even Nicolae Ceaușescu's program of systematization, many survived and have been renovated. In recent years, the city has been experiencing an economic and cultural boom.^[7][8] It is one of the fastest-growing high-tech cities in Europe.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} In 2016, the historical city centre was listed as "endangered" by the World Monuments Watch.^[14]

In January 2023, there were 1.74 million inhabitants living within the city limits,^[2] and adding the satellite towns around the urban area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.3 million people.^[2] In 2020, the government used 2.5 million people as the basis for pandemic reports.^[15] Bucharest is the eighth largest city in the European Union by population within city limits. In 2017, Bucharest was the European city with the highest growth of tourists who stay over night, according to the Mastercard Global Index of Urban Destinations.^[16] As for the past two consecutive years, 2018 and 2019, Bucharest ranked as the European destination with the highest potential for development according to the same study.^[17]

Economically, Bucharest is the most prosperous city in Romania and the richest capital and city in the region, having surpassed Budapest since 2017.^[18][19][20] The city has a number of large convention facilities, educational institutes, cultural venues, traditional "shopping arcades" and recreational areas. The city proper is administratively known as the "Municipality of Bucharest" (Romanian: Municipiul București), and has the same administrative level as that of a national county, being further subdivided into six sectors, each governed by a local mayor.

1. ^ "Romanian Statistical Yearbook (2023) – 1.8 Administrative organisation of Romanian territory, on December 31, 2022 (pg.17)" (PDF). www.insse.ro. National Institute of Statistics (Romania) - INSSE. 19 February 2024.
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "POP105A - Populația rezidentă la 1 Ianuarie pe grupe de vârste, sexe și medii de rezidență, macroregiuni, regiuni de dezvoltare și județe". www.insse.ro/cms/en (in Romanian). National Institute of Statistics (Romania) - INSSE (TEMPO - statiscal data). 11 September 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
3. ^ "Populaţia rezidentă după grupa de vârstă, pe județe și municipii, orașe, comune, la 1 decembrie 2021" (in Romanian). INSSE. 31 May 2023.
4. ^ Multiple sources:
   • "1.1. Valoarea produsului intern brut, pe judeţe şi regiuni – în RON (pg.3) / 1.2. Produsul intern brut pe locuitor, pe judeţe şi regiuni – în € (pg.5)" [1.1 Value of gross domestic product, by counties and regions - in RON (pg.3) / 1.2 Gross domestic product per capita, by counties and regions - in € (pg.5)] (PDF). www.cnp.ro. National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis - Romanian Government. January 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
   • "Principalii indicatori macroeconomici" [Main macroeconomic indicators] (PDF). www.cnp.ro. National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis - Romanian Government. February 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
5. ^ "Sub-national HDI – Subnational HDI – Global Data Lab". Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
6. ^ Bucharest, the small Paris of the East Archived 21 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine, on the Museums from Romania web site.
7. ^ Bucica, 2000, p. 6.
8. ^ "Bucharest is Booming". qualitestgroup.com. 23 April 2019. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
9. ^ "High-Tech Cities: Have You Ever Tried Coffee in Bucharest?". Pentalog. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
10. ^ "How Romania became a popular tech destination". Financial Times. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
11. ^ "Bucharest, In The Top Of Cities With The Most Experts In High-Tech Industry". Romania Journal. 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
12. ^ "10 Romanian startups to look out for in 2019 and beyond". eu-startups.com. 29 May 2019. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
13. ^ Martin, Bryan (6 April 2016). "The Silicon Valley of Transylvania". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
14. ^ "- World Monuments Fund". Wmf.org. Archived from the original on 2 October 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
15. ^ "Bâlbele autorităţilor: Populaţia Capitalei, o enigmă. Aşadar, nici rata de infectare la mia de locuitori nu e clară –Document". adevarul.ro. 13 October 2020. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
16. ^ "Mastercard study: Bucharest is the European city with the highest growth of tourists' number". business-review.eu. 29 September 2017. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
17. ^ "Bucharest has highest potential for development in Europe". travelandtourworld.com. 15 October 2015. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
18. ^ PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Regional Attractiveness Report Romania Archived 13 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
19. ^ "Do people in Bucharest really live better than people in Budapest?". Daily News Hungary. 2 January 2022.
20. ^ "Romania's regions. Bucharest is now richer than Budapest, Banat and Transylvania are more developed than most of Hungary, EU data show". Business Review. 27 February 2019.

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24 January 1862 – Bucharest is proclaimed the capital of Romania.

Bucharest

Capital and largest city of Romania

Not to be confused with Budapest.

Capital city and municipality in București – Ilfov, Romania

Bucharest (UK: /ˌbuːkəˈrɛst/ ^ⓘ BOO-kə-REST, US: /ˈbuːkərɛst/ -⁠rest; Romanian: București [bukuˈreʃtʲ] ^ⓘ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater metropolitan area of 2.3 million residents, which makes Bucharest the 8th most-populous city in the European Union. The city area measures 240 km² (93 sq mi) and comprises 6 districts (Sectoare), while the metropolitan area covers 1,811 km² (699 sq mi). Bucharest is a major cultural, political and economic hub, the country's seat of government, and the capital of the Muntenia region.

Bucharest was first mentioned in documents in 1459. The city became the capital in 1862 and is the centre of Romanian media, culture, and art. Its architecture is a mix of historical (mostly Eclectic, but also Neoclassical and Art Nouveau), interbellum (Bauhaus, Art Deco, and Romanian Revival architecture), socialist era, and modern. In the period between the two World Wars, the city's elegant architecture and the sophistication of its elite earned Bucharest the nicknames of Little Paris or Paris of the East.^[6] Although buildings and districts in the historic city centre were heavily damaged or destroyed by war, earthquakes, and even Nicolae Ceaușescu's program of systematization, many survived and have been renovated. In recent years, the city has been experiencing an economic and cultural boom.^[7][8] It is one of the fastest-growing high-tech cities in Europe.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} In 2016, the historical city centre was listed as "endangered" by the World Monuments Watch.^[14]

In January 2023, there were 1.74 million inhabitants living within the city limits,^[2] and adding the satellite towns around the urban area, the proposed metropolitan area of Bucharest would have a population of 2.3 million people.^[2] In 2020, the government used 2.5 million people as the basis for pandemic reports.^[15] Bucharest is the eighth largest city in the European Union by population within city limits. In 2017, Bucharest was the European city with the highest growth of tourists who stay over night, according to the Mastercard Global Index of Urban Destinations.^[16] As for the past two consecutive years, 2018 and 2019, Bucharest ranked as the European destination with the highest potential for development according to the same study.^[17]

Economically, Bucharest is the most prosperous city in Romania and the richest capital and city in the region, having surpassed Budapest since 2017.^[18][19][20] The city has a number of large convention facilities, educational institutes, cultural venues, traditional "shopping arcades" and recreational areas. The city proper is administratively known as the "Municipality of Bucharest" (Romanian: Municipiul București), and has the same administrative level as that of a national county, being further subdivided into six sectors, each governed by a local mayor.

1. ^ "Romanian Statistical Yearbook (2023) – 1.8 Administrative organisation of Romanian territory, on December 31, 2022 (pg.17)" (PDF). www.insse.ro. National Institute of Statistics (Romania) - INSSE. 19 February 2024.
2. ^ ^{a b c d} "POP105A - Populația rezidentă la 1 Ianuarie pe grupe de vârste, sexe și medii de rezidență, macroregiuni, regiuni de dezvoltare și județe". www.insse.ro/cms/en (in Romanian). National Institute of Statistics (Romania) - INSSE (TEMPO - statiscal data). 11 September 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
3. ^ "Populaţia rezidentă după grupa de vârstă, pe județe și municipii, orașe, comune, la 1 decembrie 2021" (in Romanian). INSSE. 31 May 2023.
4. ^ Multiple sources:
   • "1.1. Valoarea produsului intern brut, pe judeţe şi regiuni – în RON (pg.3) / 1.2. Produsul intern brut pe locuitor, pe judeţe şi regiuni – în € (pg.5)" [1.1 Value of gross domestic product, by counties and regions - in RON (pg.3) / 1.2 Gross domestic product per capita, by counties and regions - in € (pg.5)] (PDF). www.cnp.ro. National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis - Romanian Government. January 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
   • "Principalii indicatori macroeconomici" [Main macroeconomic indicators] (PDF). www.cnp.ro. National Commission for Strategy and Prognosis - Romanian Government. February 2024. Retrieved 14 March 2024.
5. ^ "Sub-national HDI – Subnational HDI – Global Data Lab". Archived from the original on 23 September 2018. Retrieved 1 November 2018.
6. ^ Bucharest, the small Paris of the East Archived 21 February 2006 at the Wayback Machine, on the Museums from Romania web site.
7. ^ Bucica, 2000, p. 6.
8. ^ "Bucharest is Booming". qualitestgroup.com. 23 April 2019. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
9. ^ "High-Tech Cities: Have You Ever Tried Coffee in Bucharest?". Pentalog. 17 April 2019. Archived from the original on 20 May 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
10. ^ "How Romania became a popular tech destination". Financial Times. 19 September 2019. Archived from the original on 27 September 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
11. ^ "Bucharest, In The Top Of Cities With The Most Experts In High-Tech Industry". Romania Journal. 11 February 2019. Archived from the original on 29 May 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
12. ^ "10 Romanian startups to look out for in 2019 and beyond". eu-startups.com. 29 May 2019. Archived from the original on 13 November 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
13. ^ Martin, Bryan (6 April 2016). "The Silicon Valley of Transylvania". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 13 April 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
14. ^ "- World Monuments Fund". Wmf.org. Archived from the original on 2 October 2017. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
15. ^ "Bâlbele autorităţilor: Populaţia Capitalei, o enigmă. Aşadar, nici rata de infectare la mia de locuitori nu e clară –Document". adevarul.ro. 13 October 2020. Archived from the original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
16. ^ "Mastercard study: Bucharest is the European city with the highest growth of tourists' number". business-review.eu. 29 September 2017. Archived from the original on 26 July 2019. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
17. ^ "Bucharest has highest potential for development in Europe". travelandtourworld.com. 15 October 2015. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
18. ^ PriceWaterhouseCoopers Global Regional Attractiveness Report Romania Archived 13 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
19. ^ "Do people in Bucharest really live better than people in Budapest?". Daily News Hungary. 2 January 2022.
20. ^ "Romania's regions. Bucharest is now richer than Budapest, Banat and Transylvania are more developed than most of Hungary, EU data show". Business Review. 27 February 2019.

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25 January 1961 – 101 Dalmatians premiered from Walt Disney Productions.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians

1961 Disney animated film

This article is about the 1961 animated film. For other uses, see 101 Dalmatians (disambiguation).

One Hundred and One Dalmatians (also known as 101 Dalmatians) is a 1961 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions with distribution by Buena Vista Distribution. Adapted from Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, the film was directed by Hamilton Luske, Clyde Geronimi, and Wolfgang Reitherman in his feature-length directorial debut, from a script by Bill Peet.^[a] It features the voice talents of Rod Taylor, J. Pat O'Malley, Betty Lou Gerson, Martha Wentworth, Ben Wright, Cate Bauer, Dave Frankham, and Fred Worlock. The film's plot follows Pongo and Perdita, two British Dalmatians who give birth to a litter of fifteen puppies, who are later kidnapped by the obsessive socialite Cruella de Vil, wanting to make their fur into coats. Pongo and Perdita set out on a cross-country rescue mission to save the litter from the maniacal Cruella. They rescue 84 additional Dalmatians in the process, bringing the total to 101.

One Hundred and One Dalmatians was released in theaters on January 25, 1961, to positive reviews from critics and was a box-office success, grossing $14 million domestically in its original theatrical run. It became the first animated feature to earn over $10 million during its initial release, and became the eighth-highest-grossing film of the year in the North American box office and the highest-grossing animated film when reissues of films are not counted. Aside from its box-office revenue, the employment of inexpensive animation techniques, such as using xerography during the process of inking and painting traditional animation cels, kept production costs down. Counting reissues, the film grossed $303 million worldwide, and when adjusted for inflation, is the twelfth-highest-grossing film in the North American box office and the second-highest-grossing animated film globally.^[5] It is also the traditionally animated film that had the most ticket admissions at an estimate of over 199,800,000 sold tickets.^[6]

The success of the film made Disney expand it into a media franchise, with a live-action remake released in 1996, followed by a sequel in 2000. A direct-to-video animated sequel to the 1961 film, 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, was released in 2003. Two animated television series based on the franchise were also produced, with 101 Dalmatians: The Series in 1997 and 101 Dalmatian Street in 2019. A live-action reboot, Cruella, was released in 2021.

1. ^ Peet 1989, p. 165.
2. ^ Barrier 1999, p. 566.
3. ^ Thomas 1997, p. 106.
4. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (October 27, 2003). "Cartoon Coffers – Top-Grossing Disney Animated Features at the Worldwide B.O." Variety. p. 6. Retrieved January 1, 2024 – via The Free Library.
5. ^ "2. "101 Dalmatians" (1961) $857.2 million (Adjusted)".
6. ^ Records, Guinness World (2014). Guinness World Records. Vol. 60 (2015 ed.). Guinness World Records. pp. 160–161. ISBN 978-1-908843-70-8.

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26 January 1855 – Point No Point Treaty is signed in Washington Territory.

Point No Point Treaty

1855 treaty between American settlers of the Washington Territory and local tribes

The Point No Point Treaty was signed on January 26, 1855, at Point No Point, on the northern tip of the Kitsap Peninsula.^[1] Governor of Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens, convened the treaty council on January 25, with the S'Klallam, the Chimakum, and the Skokomish tribes.^[2][1] Under the terms of the treaty, the original inhabitants of northern Kitsap Peninsula and Olympic Peninsula ceded ownership of their land in exchange for small reservations along Hood Canal and a payment of $60,000 from the federal government. The treaty required the natives to trade only with the United States, to free all their slaves, and to not acquire any new slaves.

On the first day of the council, treaty provisions were translated from English to the Chinook Jargon for the 1,200 natives who assembled at the sand spit they called Hahdskus,^[1] across Admiralty Inlet from Whidbey Island. Today this is the site of a lighthouse.

Skokomish leader Hool-hol-tan expressed concern about finding sufficient food in the new locations, and did not like the lands being offered as a reservation. L'Hau-at-scha-uk, a To-antioch, was afraid he would die if he left his ancestral lands. Others objected that the land was being bought too cheaply, now that they understood what it was worth. The whites played down the importance of the land, but the first day ended without an agreement.

But by the next morning, the various chiefs and headmen returned under white flags to add their marks to the treaty. It had already been prepared by the United States representatives in its final form; they had no intention of using it as a basis for negotiations.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Cite error: The named reference historylink was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference pnquarterly was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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27 January 1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.

Nuclear weapons testing

Controlled detonation of nuclear weapons for scientific or political purposes

Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the performance of nuclear weapons and the effects of their explosion. Nuclear testing is a sensitive political issue. Governments have often performed tests to signal strength. Because of their destruction and fallout, testing has seen opposition by civilians as well as governments, with international bans having been agreed on. Thousands of tests have been performed, with most in the second half of the 20th century.

The first nuclear device was detonated as a test by the United States at the Trinity site in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, with a yield approximately equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT. The first thermonuclear weapon technology test of an engineered device, codenamed Ivy Mike, was tested at the Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands on November 1, 1952 (local date), also by the United States. The largest nuclear weapon ever tested was the Tsar Bomba of the Soviet Union at Novaya Zemlya on October 30, 1961, with the largest yield ever seen, an estimated 50–58 megatons.

With the advent of nuclear technology and its increasingly global fallout an anti-nuclear movement formed and in 1963, three (UK, US, Soviet Union) of the then four nuclear states and many non-nuclear states signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, pledging to refrain from testing nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space. The treaty permitted underground nuclear testing. France continued atmospheric testing until 1974, and China continued until 1980. Neither has signed the treaty.^[1]

Underground tests conducted by the Soviet Union continued until 1990, the United Kingdom until 1991, the United States until 1992, and both China and France until 1996. In signing the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty in 1996, these countries pledged to discontinue all nuclear testing; the treaty has not yet entered into force because of its failure to be ratified by eight countries. Non-signatories India and Pakistan last tested nuclear weapons in 1998. North Korea conducted nuclear tests in 2006, 2009, 2013, January 2016, September 2016 and 2017. The most recent confirmed nuclear test occurred^[update] in September 2017 in North Korea.

1. ^ "The Treaty has not been signed by France or by the People's Republic of China." US Department of State, Limited Test Ban Treaty.

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28 January 1932 – Japanese forces attack Shanghai.

January 28 incident

1932 China–Japan conflict in Shanghai

"Shanghai Incident" redirects here. For the 1937 conflict known as Second Shanghai incident, see Battle of Shanghai.

The January 28 incident or Shanghai incident (January 28 – March 3, 1932) was a conflict between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. It took place in the Shanghai International Settlement which was under international control. Japanese army officers, defying higher authorities, had provoked anti-Japanese demonstrations in the International Settlement following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.^[6] In apparent response to a mob attack on Buddhist monks, the Japanese in Shanghai rioted and burned down a factory, killing two Chinese. Heavy fighting broke out, and China appealed to the League of Nations. A truce was finally reached on May 5, calling for Japanese military withdrawal, and an end to Chinese boycotts of Japanese products. It is seen as the first example of a modern war waged in a large city between two heavily equipped armies and as a preview of what was to come during the Second World War.^[7]

The episode helped undermine civilian rule in Tokyo; Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi was assassinated on May 15, 1932.^[8]

1. ^ ^{a b} Robinson 2022, p. 34.
2. ^ Zhonghua, Qiang (1997). 抗日战争时期重要资料统计集. 北京出版社. p. 63.
3. ^ Grescoe, Taras (2016). Shanghai Grand. Pan Macmillan. p. 923/8920. ISBN 9781447253433.
4. ^ Robinson, Stephen (2022). Eight Hundred Heroes. Exisle Publishing. p. 38. ISBN 978-1922539205.
5. ^ "Showa 6.7 Nen Jihen Kaigun Senshi". Japan Center for Asian Historical Records. Gunreibu. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
6. ^ "Empire of Japan - Manchurian Incident, WW2, Expansion | Britannica". www.britannica.com. January 16, 2025. Retrieved January 17, 2025.
7. ^ Henriot, Christian (2012). "Beyond Glory: Civilians, Combatants, and Society During the Battle of Shanghai". War & Society. 31 (2): 106–135. doi:10.1179/0729247312Z.0000000006. ISSN 0729-2473.
8. ^ Jordan 2001, p. 239.

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29 January 1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

World War I

1914–1918 global conflict

Several terms redirect here. For other uses, see WWI (disambiguation), The First World War (disambiguation), World War One (disambiguation), and Great War (disambiguation).

World War I^[b] or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Main areas of conflict included Europe and the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific. In Europe, the stalemate caused by trench warfare led to technological innovations such as tanks and aircraft, along with the widespread use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons. One of the deadliest conflicts in history, it resulted in an estimated 30 million military casualties, plus another 8 million civilian deaths from war-related causes and genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic.

The causes of World War I included the rise of Germany and decline of the Ottoman Empire, which disturbed the long-standing balance of power in Europe, and rising economic competition between nations driven by industrialisation and imperialism. Growing tensions between the great powers and in the Balkans reached a breaking point on 28 June 1914, when Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serb, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia, and declared war on 28 July. After Russia mobilised in Serbia's defence, Germany declared war on Russia and France, who had an alliance. The United Kingdom entered after Germany invaded Belgium, and the Ottomans joined the Central Powers in November. Germany's strategy in 1914 was to quickly defeat France then transfer its forces to the east, but its advance was halted in September, and by the end of the year the Western Front consisted of a near-continuous line of trenches from the English Channel to Switzerland. The Eastern Front was more dynamic, but neither side gained a decisive advantage, despite costly offensives. Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece and others joined in from 1915 onward.

Major battles, including at Verdun, the Somme, and Passchendaele, failed to break the stalemate on the Western Front. In April 1917, the United States joined the Allies after Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare against Atlantic shipping. Later that year, the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in the October Revolution; Soviet Russia signed an armistice with the Central Powers in December, followed by a separate peace in March 1918. That month, Germany launched a spring offensive in the west, which despite initial successes left the German Army exhausted and demoralised. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive beginning in August 1918 caused a collapse of the German front line. Following the Vardar Offensive, Bulgaria signed an armistice in late September. By early November, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary had each signed armistices with the Allies, leaving Germany isolated. Facing a revolution at home, Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated on 9 November, and the war ended with the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

The Paris Peace Conference of 1919–1920 imposed settlements on the defeated powers, most notably the Treaty of Versailles, by which Germany lost significant territories, was disarmed, and was required to pay large war reparations to the Allies. The dissolution of the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires redrew national boundaries and resulted in the creation of new independent states, including Poland, Finland, the Baltic states, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. The League of Nations was established to maintain world peace, but its failure to manage instability during the interwar period contributed to the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
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30 January 1969 – The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

The Beatles' rooftop concert

Final public performance of the Beatles

51°30′37.5″N 0°08′23.0″W / 51.510417°N 0.139722°W / 51.510417; -0.139722

On 30 January 1969, the Beatles performed a concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, in central London's office and fashion district. Joined by guest keyboardist Billy Preston, the band played a 42-minute set before the Metropolitan Police arrived and ordered them to reduce the volume. It was the final public performance of their career. They performed nine takes of five new songs as crowds of onlookers, many on lunch breaks, congregated in the streets and on the rooftops of nearby buildings to listen. The concert ended with "Get Back", and John Lennon joking, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition."^[2]

The entire performance was filmed and recorded, and footage was used in the 1970 documentary film Let It Be and the 2021 documentary series The Beatles: Get Back. The first performance of "I've Got a Feeling" and single takes of "One After 909" and "Dig a Pony" were also featured on the accompanying album. On 28 January 2022, the audio of the full rooftop performance was released to streaming services under the title Get Back – The Rooftop Performance.^[3] In February 2022, Disney released the entire concert sequence as presented in The Beatles: Get Back in IMAX as The Beatles: Get Back – The Rooftop Concert.

1. ^ Bennett, Ross (30 January 2014). "20 Things You Need To Know About The Beatles' Rooftop Concert". MOJO. Archived from the original on 12 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016. The performance itself began at around 12pm on a bitterly cold Thursday lunchtime and lasted for 42 minutes. Approximately half of the gig is shown at the end of Let It Be.
2. ^ Everett 1999, p. 222.
3. ^ Willman, Chris (27 January 2022). "Beatles' 'Rooftop Performance' to Be Released as a Streaming Audio Album". Variety. Retrieved 28 January 2022.

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31 January 1968 – Nauru gains independence from Australia.

Nauru

Island country in Oceania

This article is about the island country. For the Tanzanian village, see Nauru, Tanzania.

Nauru,^[c] officially the Republic of Nauru,^[d] formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, with its nearest neighbour being Banaba (part of Kiribati) about 300 kilometres (190 mi) to the east.^[15]

With an area of only 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi), Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world, larger than only Vatican City and Monaco, making it the smallest republic and island nation, as well as the smallest member state of the Commonwealth of Nations by area. Its population of about 10,800 is the world's third-smallest (not including colonies or overseas territories). Nauru is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.

Settled by Micronesians circa 1000 BCE, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops, and was bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, the country entered into United Nations trusteeship. Nauru gained its independence in 1968. At various points since 2001, it has accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for hosting the Nauru Regional Processing Centre, a controversial offshore Australian immigration detention facility. As a result of heavy dependence on Australia, some sources have identified Nauru as a client state of Australia.^[16][17][18]

Nauru is a phosphate-rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations for over a century. However, this has seriously harmed the country's environment, causing it to suffer from what is often referred to as the "resource curse". The phosphate was exhausted in the 1990s, and the remaining reserves are not economically viable for extraction.^[19] A trust established to manage the island's accumulated mining wealth, set up for the day the reserves would be exhausted, has diminished in value. To earn income, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre.^[20]

1. ^ Franks, Patricia C.; Bernier, Anthony, eds. (2018). International Directory of National Archives. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 263.
2. ^ ^{a b} Worldwide Government Directory with Intergovernmental Organizations. CQ Press. 2013. p. 1131.
3. ^ "REPUBLIC OF NAURU Revenue Administration Act Act No. 15 of 2014" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 March 2023. Retrieved 28 January 2023. All Bills are to be drafted in English, the official language of Nauru.
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference CIA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference state was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ "Nauru's Constitution of 1968 with Amendments through 2015" (PDF). constituteproject.org. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
7. ^ "World Population Prospects 2022". United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
8. ^ "World Population Prospects 2022: Demographic indicators by region, subregion and country, annually for 1950-2100" (XSLX) ("Total Population, as of 1 July (thousands)"). United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
9. ^ "National Report on Population ad Housing" (PDF). Nauru Bureau of Statistics. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
10. ^ ^{a b c d} "Report for Selected Countries and Subjects". International Monetary Fund. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 1 October 2018.
11. ^ "Human Development Report 2023/2024" (PDF). United Nations Development Programme. 13 March 2024. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 March 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2024.
12. ^ "Nauru Standard Time Act 1978" (PDF). Department of Justice and Border Control. 21 December 1978. Archived (PDF) from the original on 15 April 2021. Retrieved 11 September 2020. Because of the peculiar way the legislation is worded the legal time is not GMT+12.
13. ^ "Nauru Pronunciation in English". Cambridge English Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Archived from the original on 17 February 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2015.
14. ^ "Nauru – Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 2 January 2015. Retrieved 2 January 2015.
15. ^ "Nauru and Ocean Island". II(8) Pacific Islands Monthly. 15 March 1932. Archived from the original on 26 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
16. ^ "Pacific correspondent Mike Field". Radio New Zealand. 18 June 2015. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
17. ^ "Nauru's former chief justice predicts legal break down". Special Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on 10 December 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
18. ^ Doherty, Ben (28 October 2015). "This is Abyan's story, and it is Australia's story". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 February 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
19. ^ Hogan, C Michael (2011). "Phosphate". Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Archived from the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2012.
20. ^ Hitt, Jack (10 December 2000). "The Billion-Dollar Shack". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2018.

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