On Jan. 21, 1793, during the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.
In 1824 Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was born in Clarksburg, Va., now part of West Virginia.
In 1861 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi resigned from the U.S. Senate after his state seceded from the Union.
In 1924 Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, a leader of the Russian Revolution, died at the age of 54.
In 1949 Chiang Kai-shek resigned the Chinese presidency.
In 1950 Alger Hiss, a State Department official, was found guilty of perjury in New York after having been accused of espionage for the Soviet Union by Whittaker Chambers, a defector from the American Communist Party. Also in 1950 George Orwell, author of "1984," died in London.
In 1954 the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn.
In 1976 the supersonic Concorde airliner was put into service by Britain and France.
In 1977 President Jimmy Carter pardoned most Vietnam War draft evaders.
In 1991 the Iraqi government announced it had scattered allied prisoners of war at targeted areas inside Iraq.
In 1997 Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) was fined as the House voted for the first time in its history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.