18th January 1778: Captain James Cook becomes the first known European to encounter the Hawaiian Islands
Cook anchored off Kauaʻi and later Niʻihau, making contact with the islanders over the following days and exchanged food, water, and other ...
18 Tammi 0s
17th January 1991: Combat phase of the Gulf War begins when Operation Desert Storm is launched
Operation Desert Storm set out to destroy Iraq’s military and civilian infrastructure through an aerial bombing campaign in which over 2,250 coalition aircraft flew in excess of 1,000 sorties a day fo...
17 Tammi 0s
16th January 27 BCE: The Roman Senate grant Octavian the titles Augustus and Princeps
The title Augustus is understood to translate as ‘the illustrious one’ and, although the title did not grant Octavian him political authority, many historians see this as the point at which his rule a...
16 Tammi 0s
15th January 1867: 40 people die when ice on the boating lake in Regent’s Park breaks while they are skating
Approximately 200 skaters plunged into the freezing water, all wearing heavy winter clothes that dragged them down. Many were also unable to ...
15 Tammi 0s
14th January 1943: Roosevelt and Churchill meet at the Casablanca Conference in Morocco
The Casablanca Conference saw the Combined Chiefs of Staff join American President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss the future strategy for fighting the Se...
14 Tammi 0s
13th January 1935: The Territory of the Saar Basin voted in a plebiscite to reunite with Germany
Voter turnout in the plebiscite was 98% of all eligible voters in the Saar, and 90.8% of them chose to re-join the German ...
13 Tammi 0s
12th January 1913: The name “Stalin” meaning “man of steel” first used in print by Joseph Dzhugashvili
Like many underground revolutionaries, Joseph Dzhugashvili made frequent use of pseudonyms to evade police surveillance, and first used the alias “K. Stalin” as the signature to a letter in the Social...
12 Tammi 0s
11th January 1923: French and Belgian troops marched into Germany and occupied the industrial Ruhr area
The occupation of the Ruhr was met with passive resistance by the German workers. Their strike was only called off on 26 September as rampant hyperinflation crippled the German ...
11 Tammi 0s
