1. **1340** - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
2. **1500** - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
3. **1531** - Lisbon, Portugal, is hit by an earthquake; thousands die.
4. **1564** - The Council of Trent issues its conclusions in the *Tridentinum*, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
5. **1589** - Job is elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
6. **1699** - The Treaty of Karlowitz is signed between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League, ending the Great Turkish War.
7. **1700** - The magnitude 9 Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America.
8. **1736** - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
9. **1788** - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
10. **1802** - The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol, later becoming the Library of Congress.
11. **1837** - Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
12. **1841** - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong.
13. **1856** - First Battle of Seattle: Marines from the USS *Decatur* drive off Native American attackers.
14. **1861** - Louisiana secedes from the Union during the American Civil War.
15. **1863** - American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command after the disastrous Mud March.
16. **1870** - Virginia rejoins the Union after the American Civil War.
17. **1885** - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum, killing Governor-General Charles George Gordon.
18. **1905** - The world's largest diamond, the Cullinan, is found in South Africa.
19. **1911** - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
20. **1920** - Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company.
21. **1924** - Saint Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad.
22. **1930** - The Indian National Congress declares January 26 as Independence Day, which is later celebrated as Republic Day.
23. **1934** - Germany and Poland sign a 10-year non-aggression pact.
24. **1939** - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco conquer Barcelona.
25. **1942** - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe, landing in Northern Ireland.
26. **1945** - World War II: The Red Army liberates Auschwitz concentration camp.
27. **1950** - India adopts its constitution, becoming a republic.
28. **1952** - Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
29. **1962** - Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon but misses its target by 22,000 miles.
30. **1965** - Hindi becomes the official language of India.
31. **1972** - JAT Flight 367 is destroyed by a bomb, killing 27 of the 28 people on board.
32. **1980** - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
33. **1986** - The Ugandan government of Tito Okello is overthrown by the National Resistance Army.
34. **1991** - Mohamed Siad Barre is removed from power in Somalia, ending centralized government.
35. **1992** - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.
36. **1998** - Lewinsky scandal: U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky.
37. **2001** - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
38. **2004** - President Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.
39. **2005** - Condoleezza Rice is confirmed as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African-American woman to hold the post.
40. **2009** - Cyclone Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France, causing 26 deaths and extensive damage.
41. **2010** - The trial of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's aides begins in Baghdad.
42. **2011** - Arab Spring: Protests erupt in Yemen, demanding the resignation of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
43. **2015** - A plane crash in Indonesia kills 162 people, including all passengers and crew.
44. **2016** - The World Health Organization reports that the Zika virus is likely to spread across the Americas.
45. **2017** - U.S. President Donald Trump signs an executive order to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
46. **2018** - The Australian Open tennis tournament is disrupted by a heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 40°C (104°F).
47. **2019** - A mining dam collapses in Brumadinho, Brazil, killing 270 people.
48. **2020** - Basketball player Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash in California.
49. **2021** - COVID-19 pandemic: The global death toll from COVID-19 surpasses 2 million.
50. **2022** - Protests erupt in Kazakhstan over rising fuel prices, leading to a state of emergency.