1973January 1973 January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. January 20 – Richard Nixon is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States.
1926January 1926 January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. January 8 Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Vietnam. January 12 – Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, in which the two white performers portray two black characters from Harlem looking to strike it rich in the big city (it is a precursor to Gosden and Correll's more popular later program, Amos 'n' Andy).
1863January 1 – Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation during the third year of the American Civil War, making the abolition of slavery in the Confederate states an official war goal. It proclaims the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's four million slaves and immediately frees 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advance. January 2 – Master Lucius Tar Paint Company (Teerfarbenfabrik Meister Lucius), predecessor of Hoechst, as a worldwide chemical manufacturing brand, founded in a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
1917Below, the events of World War I have the "WWI" prefix. January 1917 January 9 – WWI – Battle of Rafa: The last substantial Ottoman Army garrison on the Sinai Peninsula is captured by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force's Desert Column. January 10 – Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition: Seven survivors of the Ross Sea party were rescued after being stranded for several months. January 11 – Unknown saboteurs set off the Kingsland Explosion at Kingsland (modern-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey), one of the events leading to United States involvement in WWI.
1937January 1937 January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into February, leaving 1 million people homeless and 385 people dead. January 15 – Spanish Civil War: Second Battle of the Corunna Road ends inconclusively. January 20 – Second inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt: Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for a second term as President of the United States.
1968January 1968 February 1968 January – The I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. January 5 – "Prague Spring": Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. January 10 – John Gorton is sworn in as 19th Prime Minister of Australia, taking over from John McEwen after being elected leader of the Liberal Party the previous day, following the disappearance of Harold Holt. Gorton becomes the only Senator to become Prime Minister, though he immediately transfers to the House of Representatives through the 1968 Higgins by-election in Holt's vacant seat.
1951January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). January 9 – The Government of the United Kingdom announces abandonment of the Tanganyika groundnut scheme for the cultivation of peanuts in the Tanganyika Territory, with the writing off of £36.5M debt. January 15 – In a court in West Germany, Ilse Koch, The "Witch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment.
February 29February 29 is a leap day or "leap year day", an intercalary date added periodically to leap years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the 60th day of a leap year in both calendars, and 306 days remain until the end of the leap year. It is also the last day of February on leap years with the exception of 1712 in Sweden. It is also the last day of meteorological winter in Northern Hemisphere and the last day of meteorological summer in the Southern Hemisphere on leap years.
July 29587 BC – The Neo-Babylonian Empire sacks Jerusalem and destroys the First Temple. 615 – Pakal ascends the throne of Palenque at the age of 12. 904 – Sack of Thessalonica: Saracen raiders under Leo of Tripoli sack Thessaloniki, the Byzantine Empire's second-largest city, after a short siege, and plunder it for a week. 923 – Battle of Firenzuola: Lombard forces under King Rudolph II and Adalbert I, margrave of Ivrea, defeat the dethroned Emperor Berengar I of Italy at Firenzuola (Tuscany).
1822January 1 – The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus. January 3 – The famous French explorer, Aimé Bonpland, is made prisoner in Paraguay accused of being a spy. January 7 – The first group of freed slaves from the United States arrive on the west coast of Africa, founding Monrovia on April 25. January 9 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning the Brazilian independence process.
