History of the Day for:
January 20
- 1265: The first English Parliament, the Commons and the House of Lords, was called into session by the Earl of Leicester.
- 1778: The first American military court martial trial began, in Cambridge, Mass.
- 1841: China ceded the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain.
- 1869: Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman to testify before Congress.
- 1885: The patent for the roller coaster was awarded to L.A. Thompson of Coney Island, N.Y.
- 1892: The first organized basketball game was played in Springfield, Mass., at the YMCA.
- 1896: Comedian George Burns was born as Nathan Birnbaum.
- 1920: The American Civil Liberties Union was organized; Film director Federico Fellini ("La Dolce Vita") was born.
- 1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4, because of the 20th Amendment to the Constitution. He was inaugurated for his second term as U.S. President.
- 1942: Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin, during which they agreed on a "final solution" calling for the extermination of European Jews.
- 1945: President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office for his fourth term, an unprecedented feat.
- 1946: The Central Intelligence Group, later to become the Central Intelligence Agency, was established by President Truman.
- 1961: John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th U.S. president. He said as part of his brief address, "Ask not what your country can do for you, as what you can do for your country."
- 1980: President Jimmy Carter announced the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
- 1981: Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan; Ronald Reagan became president of the United States at the age of 69 and 349 days, the oldest president to take office.
- 1986: Britain and France announced plans to build rail tunnels underneath the English Channel; The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
- 1987: Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped while on a mission to Beirut negotiating the release of Westerners being held hostage in Lebanon. He would not be released until December 1991.
- 1990: Black January – crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
- 1991: Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
- 1992: Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 82 passengers and 5 crew.
- 1994: Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel, South Carolina's all?male military school, in its 151-year history.
- 1999: The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafés.
- 2001: Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
- 2009: Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becomes the United States' first African-American president.