On this day in history

January 1

31 births · 18 deaths · 5 events

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Anniversary highlights

Event anniversary

2017 Istanbul nightclub attack

9 years ago

Born this day

1919

J. D. Salinger

Would be 107

Oldest record

1649th

Arcadius

birth anniversary

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Famous births31

AD 377 · 1649 yrs

Arcadius

Arcadius (Latin: Arcadius, Ancient Greek: Ἀρκάδιος Arkadios; c. 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to his death in 408.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 31

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Photo: Gryffindor · CC BY-SA 4.0

1431 · 595 yrs

Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI (born Roderic de Borja y Llançol; c. 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Papal States from 11 August 1492 until his death in 1503.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 72

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Photo: Attributed to Pedro Berruguete · Public domain

1449 · 577 yrs

Lorenzo de' Medici

Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Italian:), known as Lorenzo the Magnificent (Italian: Lorenzo il Magnifico; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492), was an Italian statesman, de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic, and the most powerful patron of Renaissance culture in Italy.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 43

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Photo: After Andrea del Verrocchio / After Orsino Benintendi · Public domain

1484 · 542 yrs

Huldrych Zwingli

Huldrych Zwingli (born Ulrich Zwingli; 1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a Swiss Christian theologian, musician, and leader of the Reformation in Switzerland.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 47

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Photo: Hans Asper · Public domain

1640 · 386 yrs

Aphra Behn

Aphra Behn (bapt. 14 December 1640 – 16 April 1689) was an English playwright, poet, prose writer and translator from the Restoration era.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureDied aged 49

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Photo: Peter Lely · Public domain

1849 · 177 yrs

Muhammad Abduh

Muhammad Abduh (1849 – 11 July 1905) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar and judge who served as Grand Mufti of Egypt. He was a central figure of the Arab Nahda movement and Islamic modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ReligionDied aged 56

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Photo: The original uploader was Zerida at English Wikipedia . · Public domain

1854 · 172 yrs

James George Frazer

Sir James George Frazer (1 January 1854 – 7 May 1941) was a Scottish social anthropologist and folklorist influential in the early stages of the modern studies of mythology and comparative religion.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 87

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Photo: Contemporary photograph · Public domain

1863 · 163 yrs

Pierre de Coubertin

Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (French:; born Pierre de Frédy; 1 January 1863 – 2 September 1937), also known as Pierre de Coubertin and Baron de Coubertin, was a French educator and historian, co-founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and its second president.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScholarshipDied aged 74

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Photo: Photograph from Bain News Service. · Public domain

1864 · 162 yrs

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver (c. 1864 – January 5, 1943) was an American agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

TechnologyDied aged 79

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Photo: not listed · Public domain

1879 · 147 yrs

E. M. Forster

Edward Morgan Forster (1 January 1879 – 7 June 1970) was an English author. He is best known for his novels, particularly A Room with a View (1908), Howards End (1910) and A Passage to India (1924).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

LiteratureWould be 147

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Photo: Dora Carrington (1893–1932) · Public domain

1894 · 132 yrs

Satyendra Nath Bose

Satyendra Nath Bose (1 January 1894 – 4 February 1974) was an Indian theoretical physicist and mathematician. He is best known for his work on quantum mechanics in the early 1920s, in developing the foundation for Bose–Einstein statistics, and the theory of the Bose–Einstein condensate.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 132

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1895 · 131 yrs

J. Edgar Hoover

John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MilitaryWould be 131

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Photo: Marion S. Trikosko · Public domain

Showing 12 of 31

Famous deaths18

1515 · 511 yrs

Louis XII of France

Louis XII (27 June 1462 – 1 January 1515), also known as Louis of Orléans, was King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples (as Louis III) from 1501 to 1504.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

RoyaltyDied aged 52

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Photo: Workshop of Jean Perréal · Public domain

1748 · 278 yrs

Johann Bernoulli

Johann Bernoulli (also known as Jean in French or John in English; 6 August 1667 – 1 January 1748) was a Swiss mathematician and was one of the many prominent mathematicians in the Bernoulli family. He is known for his contributions to infinitesimal calculus and for educating the young Leonhard Euler.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 80

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Photo: Johann Rudolf Huber · Public domain

1766 · 260 yrs

James Francis Edward Stuart, Prince of Wales

James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 1688 – 1 January 1766), also known as the Old Pretender and the Chevalier de St. George, was the senior House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1701 until his death in 1766.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Notable PeopleDied aged 77

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Photo: Alexis Simon Belle · Public domain

1782 · 244 yrs

Johann Christian Bach

Johann Christian Bach (5 September 1735 – 1 January 1782) was a German composer of the Classical era and the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach received his early musical training from his father, and later from his half-brother, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach in Berlin.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicDied aged 46

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Photo: Thomas Gainsborough · Public domain

1817 · 209 yrs

Martin Heinrich Klaproth

Martin Heinrich Klaproth (1 December 1743 – 1 January 1817) was a German chemist. He trained and worked for much of his life as an apothecary, moving in later life to the university.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 73

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1894 · 132 yrs

Heinrich Hertz

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz ( hurts; German:; 22 February 1857 – 1 January 1894) was a German physicist who first conclusively proved the existence of the electromagnetic waves proposed by James Clerk Maxwell's equations of electromagnetism.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceDied aged 36

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Photo: Robert Krewaldt, Kaiserplatz 16, Bonn · Public domain

1921 · 105 yrs

Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg

Theobald Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann Hollweg (29 November 1856 – 1 January 1921) was a German politician who was imperial chancellor of the German Empire from 1909 to 1917. He oversaw the German entry into World War I and played a key role during its first three years.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsDied aged 64

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Photo: Internet Archive Book Images · No restrictions

1947 · 79 yrs

Raoul Wallenberg

Raoul Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945) was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat, and humanitarian. He saved thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian fascists during the later stages of World War II.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ArtWould be 114

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Photo: Unknown author · Public domain

1953 · 73 yrs

Hank Williams

Hiram "Hank" Williams (September 17, 1923 – January 1, 1953) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician. An early pioneer of country music, he is regarded as one of the most significant and influential musicians of the 20th century.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 103

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Photo: WSM radio · Public domain

1966 · 60 yrs

Vincent Auriol

Vincent Jules Auriol (French:; 27 August 1884 – 1 January 1966) was President of France from 1947 to 1954. A member of the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO), he was the first president elected under the Fourth Republic.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

PoliticsWould be 142

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Photo: Abbie Rowe · Public domain

1972 · 54 yrs

Maurice Chevalier

Maurice Auguste Chevalier (French:; 12 September 1888 – 1 January 1972) was a French singer, actor, and entertainer.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

MusicWould be 138

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Photo: William Morris Agency (management). · Public domain

1992 · 34 yrs

Grace Hopper

Grace Brewster Hopper (née Murray; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. She was a pioneer of computer programming.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

ScienceWould be 119

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Photo: James S. Davis · Public domain

Showing 12 of 18

Events5

1942 · 84 yrs

Declaration by United Nations

The Declaration by United Nations was the main treaty that formalized the Allies of World War II and was signed by 47 national governments between 1942 and 1945.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Politics

2000 · 26 yrs

Year 2000 problem

The Year 2000 problem (Y2K) was the potential for computer errors on the Gregorian calendar related to the formatting and storage of calendar data for dates in and after the year 2000. Many programs represented four-digit years with only the final two digits, e.g.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

History

2017 · 9 yrs

2017 Istanbul nightclub attack

The Istanbul nightclub shooting (also known as Reina massacre in Turkey) was a mass shooting that occurred on 1 January 2017 around 01:15 local time, in which a terrorist shot and killed 39 people and wounded 79 others at the Reina nightclub in the Ortaköy neighborhood of Istanbul, Turkey, where hundreds had been…

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Tragedy

2024 · 2 yrs

2024 Noto earthquake

On 1 January 2024, at 16:10:09 JST (07:10:09 UTC), a MJMA7.6 (Mw7.5) earthquake struck 6 km (3.7 mi) north-northeast of Suzu, located on the Noto Peninsula of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. The reverse-faulting shock achieved a maximum JMA seismic intensity of Shindo 7 and Modified Mercalli intensity of X–XI (Extreme).

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

2026 · 0 yrs

2026 Crans-Montana bar fire

On 1 January 2026 at 01:26 (CET), during New Year celebrations, a fire broke out at Le Constellation bar in the ski-resort town of Crans-Montana, Valais, Switzerland. Forty-one people died in the fire, and 115 others were injured, with 83 initially being treated for severe burns.

Source: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

Disaster

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