January 20.
1778:James Cook lands in the Hawaiian archipelago(known as the Sandwich Islands at the time).
1788:Third and main part of the First Fleet arrives in Botany Bay.
1785:Samuel Ellis puts up Oyster Island, NY for sale .It will later be renamed Ellis Island and be the site of the main immigration center for America,1892 to 1954.
1841:China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the first Opium War.
1879:British troops commanded by Lord Chelmsford camp at Isandlwana.
1887:US Senate approved lease of Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
1936:EdwardVIII succeeds his father George V as king.
1937:First US Presidential Inauguration day held on January 20(it was previously March 4th).
1942:Nazis organise the Wannsee conference in Berlin formalising the "final solution".
1944:RAF bomb Berlin.
1945:FDR sworn in for an unprecedented fourth term as US President.
1953:Eisenhower delivers the first live coast to coast inauguration address in the US.
1961:Inauguration of JFK.
1969:Nixon inaugurated.
1972:Six oil exporting countries meet with Western oil companies.It is agreed to raise the price of crude.
1973:Car bomb explodes in Dublin killing one and injuring 17.No one claims responsibility.
1973:Second inauguration of Nixon.
1977:Inauguration of Jimmy Carter.
1977:George H.W.Bush ends his term as CIA director.
1979:1 million Iranians march in Tehran in a show of support for the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini.
1980:Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Moscow Olympics in response to Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
1981:Inauguration of Ronald Reagan.
1981:US hostages released in Iran.The Iranians made a point of holding them till Carter was gone as President.
1982:Ozzy Osbourne bites the head off a bat ,on stage in Iowa.
1986:Britain and France announce plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
1986:First Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the US.
1986:New footage of 1931 movie "Frankenstein" discovered.
1987:Terry Waite taken hostage in Beirut.
1989:George H.W.Bush inaugurated."Potatoe" Quayle is VP.
1991:US Patriot missiles begin shooting down Iraqi missiles during first Gulf War.
1993:Bill Clinton inaugurated.
1999:China announces new restrictions on internet use aimed in particular at internet cafes.
2008:Breaking Bad begins being broadcast.
2009:Inauguration of Barack Obama.
2017: Donald Trump inaugurated.
Births.
1763:Theobald Wolfe-Tone.
1889:Lead Belly.
1910:Joy Adamson of "Born Free" fame.
1920:Fererico Fellini, Italian movie director.
1926:Patricia Neal,US actress.
1930:Buzz Aldrin,Second man on the Moon.
1934:Tom Baker,English actor.
1946: David Lynch,US movie director.
1946:Malcolm McLaren,English actor.
1965,Sophie,Countess of Wessex.
1967:Kellyanne Conway,American Trump mouthpiece.
1971:Gary Barlow,musician,singer ,Take That.
1971:Ger McDonald,Irish mountaineer(died 2008 on K2).
1976:Kirsty Gallacher,Scottish journalist and presenter.
1981:Owen Hargreaves,former footballer.
Deaths.
1896:George Burns,US comedian.
1906:Aristotle Onassis, Greek businessman and second husband of Jackie Kennedy.
1900:John Ruskin,English writer.
1936:George V.
1984:Johnny Weissmuller, American Olympic swimmer and actor-notably as Tarzan.
1990:Barbara Stanwyck,American actress
1993:Audrey Hepburn,Belgian born actress.
1994:Matt Busby,ex of Man U.
2012:Etta James,American singer-songwriter.
2018:Paul Bocuse,noted French chef.