On this day in history, January 15
|Updated: 1/14 11:38 pm
||Published: 1/14 11:37 pm
- 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide.
- 1541 – King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the "Holy Catholic faith".
- 1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.
- 1582 – Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
- 1759 – The British Museum opens.
- 1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.
- 1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
- 1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.
- 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president of the legislative assembly.
- 1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.
- 1865 – American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.
- 1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nastfor Harper's Weekly).
- 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.
- 1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.
- 1908 – The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African American college women.
- 1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 325 ft (99 m).
- 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.
- 1919 – Boston Molasses Disaster: A large molasses tank in Boston, Massachusetts, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others.
- 1933 – A twelve-year-old girl experiences the first Marian apparition of Our Lady of Banneux in Banneux, Belgium.
- 1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.
- 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republican both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.
- 1943 – World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.
- 1943 – The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
- 1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short (The "Black Dahlia") is found in Los Angeles' Leimert Park.
- 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.
- 1951 – Ilse Koch, "The Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.
- 1962 – The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.
- 1966 – The Nigerian First Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown in a military coup d'état.
- 1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles, California. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.
- 1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
- 1970 – Nigerian Civil War: After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
- 1970 – Moammar Gadhafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
- 1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
- 1974 – Dennis Rader aka the BTK Killer kills his first victims by binding, torturing and murdering Joseph, Joseph II, Josephine and Julie Otero in their house.
- 1975 – The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and giving Angola independence from Portugal.
- 1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.
- 1981 – John Paul II receives a delegation from Solidarity (Polish trade union) at the Vatican led by Lech Walesa.
- 1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
- 1991 – Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, signs letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own Victoria Cross in its honours system.
- 1992 – The international community recognizes the independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
- 1993 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as "The Beast", is arrested in Sicily, Italy after three decades as a fugitive.
- 2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
- 2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
- 2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.
- 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York. All passengers and crew members survive.
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