Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 20
This is a list of selected January 20 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
| ← January 19 | January 21 → |
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Images
Use only ONE image at a time
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Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo -
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo -
Władysław I of Poland -
Simon de Montfort -
Palace of Westminster -
Palace of Westminster -
Charles de Gaulle -
Reinhard Heydrich -
Honório Carneiro Leão -
German refugees -
2009 inauguration of Barack Obama
Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Army Day in Mali | refimprove |
| 1320 – After reuniting Poland, Władysław I Łokietek was crowned king in Kraków. | refimprove |
| 1523 – Christian II was forced to abdicate as both king of Denmark and king of Norway. | refimprove section |
| 1576 – León in Guanajuato, Mexico, was founded by order of Viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza of New Spain. | refimprove section |
| 1785 – Tây Sơn forces of Vietnam annihilated an invading Siamese army who were attempting to restore Nguyễn Ánh to the throne. | refimprove section |
| 1839 – Chilean troops decisively defeated the forces of the Peru-Bolivian Confederation at the Battle of Yungay in the Ancash Region of Peru, effectively ending the War of the Confederation. | refimprove/unreferenced sections |
| 1840 – William II became King of the Netherlands after his father William I abdicated the throne. | refimprove |
| 1877 – The Constantinople Conference concluded with the Great Powers declaring the need for political reforms, which the Ottoman Empire refused to undertake, later resulting in the Russo-Turkish War. | Date uncited |
| 1885 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson, sometimes called the "Father of Gravity", patented the roller coaster. | refimprove sections |
| 1921 – The first Turkish Constitution was ratified by the Grand National Assembly, enshrining the principle of national sovereignty. | refimprove |
| 1946 – Favouring stronger executive power than the draft constitution for the French Fourth Republic provided, Charles de Gaulle resigned as president of the Provisional Government. | refimprove sections |
| 1980 – The United States announced it would boycott the Summer Olympics in Moscow unless the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan within one month. | unreferenced section |
| 1981 – Iran hostage crisis: Iran released the final 52 American hostages after 444 days in captivity. | appears on November 4 |
| 2001 – As a result of the EDSA Revolution of 2001, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo succeeded into the presidency after her predecessor, Joseph Estrada, resigned from office. | refimprove section |
| Myles Coverdale |d|1569| | Too much uncited |
Eligible
- 1265 – Simon de Montfort summoned local representatives to the Palace of Westminster to attend a parliament, considered the forerunner of the House of Commons of England.
- 1356 – Edward Balliol, whose father John was briefly King of Scotland, gave up his claim to the throne in exchange for an English pension.
- 1942 – The Holocaust: Reinhard Heydrich and other senior Nazi officials met at the Wannsee Conference near Berlin to discuss the implementation of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question".
- 1945 – World War II: Germany began the evacuation of at least 1.8 million people from East Prussia in anticipation of the advancing Soviet Red Army, an operation that took nearly two months to complete.
- 1990 – The Soviet Red Army violently cracked down on Azeri pro-independence demonstrations in Baku, Azerbaijan SSR.
- 1992 – Air Inter Flight 148 crashed into the Vosges while circling to land at Strasbourg Airport, France, resulting in 87 deaths.
- 2009 – In Washington, D.C., Barack Obama was inaugurated (pictured) as the first African American president of the United States.
- 2018 – A group of Taliban gunmen attacked the Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle that left at least 21 people dead.
- Born/died this day: | Wulfstan |d|1095| Sebastian Münster |b|1488| Sebastian de Aparicio |b|1502| Jean-Jacques Barthélemy |b|1716| Carl Linnaeus the Younger |b|1741| Nathaniel Parker Willis |b|1806|d|1867 |John Soane |d|1837| Agnes Mary Clerke |d|1907| Sarah Conlon |b|1926| Kirsty Gallacher |b|1976| Naomi Parker Fraley |d|2018
Notes
- Decian persecution appears on January 3, so Pope Fabian should not appear in the same year
January 20: Day of Nationwide Sorrow in Azerbaijan (1990); Inauguration Day in the United States (2025); Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States (2025)
- 1156 – According to legend, Lalli slew Bishop Henry of Finland with an axe on the ice of Lake Köyliönjärvi in Köyliö.
- 1843 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, became the de facto first prime minister of the Empire of Brazil.
- 1968 – The Houston Cougars upset the UCLA Bruins in what became known as the "Game of the Century", ending the Bruins' 47-game winning streak, and establishing college basketball as a sports commodity on American television.
- 1969 – Bengali student activist Amanullah Asaduzzaman was shot and killed by East Pakistani police, an event that led to the Bangladesh Liberation War.
- 2009 – During a national financial crisis, thousands of people protested (pictured) at the Icelandic parliament in Reykjavík.
- Li Jitao (d. 924)
- David Wilmot (b. 1814)
- Chandra Khonnokyoong (b. 1909)
- Yolanda González (b. 1961)