August 7461 – Roman Emperor Majorian is beheaded near the river Iria in north-west Italy following his arrest and deposition by the magister militum Ricimer. 626 – The Avar and Slav armies leave the siege of Constantinople. 768 – Pope Stephen III is elected to office, and quickly seeks Frankish protection against the Lombard threat, since the Byzantine Empire is no longer able to help. 936 – Coronation of King Otto I of Germany. 1461 – The Ming dynasty Chinese military general Cao Qin stages a coup against the Tianshun Emperor.
1914This year saw the beginning of what became known as World War I, after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated by Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip. It also saw the first airline to provide scheduled regular commercial passenger services with heavier-than-air aircraft, with the St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line. January 1914 January 1 – The St. Petersburg–Tampa Airboat Line in the United States starts services between St.
1864January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song "Beautiful Dreamer" is published in March. January 16 – Denmark rejects an Austrian-Prussian ultimatum to repeal the Danish Constitution, which says that Schleswig-Holstein is part of Denmark. January 21 – New Zealand Wars: The Tauranga campaign begins.
1938January 1938 January 1 – State-owned railway networks are created by merger, in France (SNCF) and the Netherlands (Nederlandse Spoorwegen – NS). January 20 – King Farouk of Egypt marries Safinaz Zulficar, who becomes Queen Farida, in Cairo. January 27 – The Honeymoon Bridge at Niagara Falls, New York, collapses as a result of an ice jam. February 1938 February 4 Adolf Hitler abolishes the War Ministry and creates the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces), giving him direct control of the German military.
1843January Serial publication of Charles Dickens's novel Martin Chuzzlewit begins in London; in the July chapters, he lands his hero in the United States. Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" is published in a Boston magazine. The Quaker magazine The Friend is first published in London. January 3 – The Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (海國圖志, Hǎiguó Túzhì) compiled by Wei Yuan and others, the first significant Chinese work on the West, is published in China.
1841January 20 – Charles Elliot of the United Kingdom, and Qishan of the Qing dynasty, agree to the Convention of Chuenpi. January 26 – Britain occupies Hong Kong. Later in the year, the first census of the island records a population of about 7,500. January 27 – The active volcano Mount Erebus in Antarctica is discovered, and named by James Clark Ross. January 28 – Ross discovers the "Victoria Barrier", later known as the Ross Ice Shelf. On the same voyage, he discovers the Ross Sea, Victoria Land and Mount Terror.
1847January 4 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the U.S. government. January 13 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends fighting in the Mexican–American War in California. January 16 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory. January 17 – St. Anthony Hall fraternity is founded at Columbia University, New York City. January 30 – Yerba Buena, California, is renamed San Francisco.
1860January 2 – The discovery of a hypothetical planet Vulcan is announced at a meeting of the French Academy of Sciences in Paris, France. January 10 – The Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts collapses, killing 146 workers. January 13 – Battle of Tétouan, Morocco: Spanish troops under General Leopoldo O'Donnell, 1st Duke of Tetuan defeat the Moroccan Army. January 20 – Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour is recalled as Prime Minister of Piedmont-Sardinia.
1775The American Revolutionary War began this year, with the first military engagement being the April 19 Battles of Lexington and Concord on the day after Paul Revere's now-legendary ride. The Second Continental Congress takes various steps toward organizing an American government, appointing George Washington commander-in-chief (June 14), Benjamin Franklin postmaster general (July 26) and creating a Continental Navy (October 13) and a Marine force (November 10) as landing troops for it, but as yet the 13 colonies have not declared independence, and both the British (June 12) and American (July 15) governments make laws.
1794January 1 – The Stibo Group is founded by Niels Lund as a printing company in Aarhus (Denmark). January 13 – The U.S. Congress enacts a law providing for, effective May 1, 1795, a United States flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes, in recognition of the recent admission of Vermont and Kentucky as the 14th and 15th states. A subsequent act restores the number of stripes to 13, but provides for additional stars upon the admission of each additional state.
