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 Jan 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 Jan 0s
10th January 49 BCE: Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon River on his march to Rome
Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with the 13th Legion during his march on Rome that led to the Roman Civil ...
10 Jan 0s
9th January 1806: State funeral of Admiral Horatio Nelson takes place in London, following his death at the Battle of Trafalgar
Nelson’s coffin was placed on a grand funeral car designed to resemble HMS Victory for its final journey to St Paul’s Cathedral and subsequently interred in the crypt, joining a small number of nation...
9 Jan 0s
8th January 1918: United States President Woodrow Wilson outlines his principles for world peace, known as the Fourteen Points
Keen to distance the United States from nationalistic disputes that fuelled European rivalries, Wilson's 14 Points sought a lasting peace by securing terms that avoided selfish ambitions of the ...
8 Jan 0s
7th January 1979: Pol Pot of the Communist Party of Kampuchea (Cambodia) overthrown when Vietnamese forces capture the capital city Phnom Penh
After the Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh on 7 January 1979, Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge forces fled into the ...
7 Jan 0s
6th January 1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt sets out the “Four Freedoms” in his State of the Union address
Roosevelt identified freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear that, together, provided a moral framework for US engagement in the ...
6 Jan 0s
5th January 1968: The Prague Spring begins with Alexander Dubček becoming the new leader of Czechoslovakia
Dubček replaced Novotný as the leader of Czechoslovakia on 5 January 1968 and quickly began to introduce a series of political and economic reforms known as ‘socialism with a human ...
5 Jan 0s
