History of the Day for:
January 3
- 1521: Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
- 1777: George Washington defeated the British under Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
- 1833: Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
- 1847: The California town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.
- 1868: The Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and spelled the end of the military rulers known as "shoguns."
- 1888: The first wax drinking straw was patented by Marvin C. Stone in Washington, D.C.
- 1892: J.R.R. Tolkien, British author of "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," was born.
- 1920: Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold pitcher-outfielder Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 plus a $350,000 loan. The loan was used to turn the play "No, No, Nannette" into a hit.
- 1924: British egyptologist Howard Carter found the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor.
- 1938: The March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized.
- 1947: William Dawson became the first black to head a congressional committee; Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York got to see some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
- 1952: "Dragnet" premiered on NBC.
- 1957: The first electric watch was introduced in Lancaster, Pa., by the Hamilton Watch Company.
- 1958: Sir Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole.
- 1959: Alaska became the 49th state to be admitted to the United States.
- 1961: The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist.
- 1967: Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys refused to be sworn in after receiving a U.S. Army draft notice, saying he is a conscientious objector.
- 1967: Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald before he could be tried for the assassination of President Kennedy, died in a hospital.
- 1973: A 12-member group headed by George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees from the Columbia Broadcasting System for a reported $10-12 million.
- 1977: Apple Computers was incorporated.
- 1980: Joy Adamson, Austrian-born British naturalist and writer famous for the book "Born Free" about her work with lions, was found murdered in Kenya.
- 1987: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first female artist: Aretha Franklin.
- 1989: Russian newspaper Izvestia printed its first commercial advertisement.
- 1990: In Panama, deposed leader Manuel Antonio Noriega surrendered to U.S. authorities after spending 10 days under siege in the Vatican embassy.
- 1997: Bryant Gumbel co-hosted his final "Today" show on NBC.
- 1997 – The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion USD to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.
- 1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
- 1999 – Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
- 2004 – Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people on board.
- 2007 – National Express has its worst ever coach crash just outside Heathrow Airport.
- 2009 – Israeli ground forces invade Gaza.