What happened today
1946
Famous birthdays
1896
Get history's greatest tales
Subscribe to our HistoryNet Now! newsletter for a blast from the past each week in your inbox.
more events on January 20
-
1981
Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president at the same time 52 American hostages are released from their captors in Tehran, Iran.
-
1977
President Jimmy Carter is sworn in and then surprises the nation as he walks from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.
-
1954
Over 22,000 anti-Communist prisoners are turned over to UN forces in Korea.
-
1952
British troops occupy Ismalia, Egypt.
-
1946
France’s Charles DeGaulle hands in his resignation.
-
1945
The Allies sign a truce with the Hungarians.
-
Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term.
-
1944
Allied forces in Italy begin unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino.
-
1942
Nazi officials meet in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to decide the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”
-
1941
Hitler meets with Mussolini and offers aid in Albania and Greece.
-
1935
Belgium arrests some Nazi agitators who urge for a return to the Reich.
-
1930
Dr. Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon.
-
Charles Lindbergh arrives in New York, setting a cross country flying record of 14.75 hours.
-
1910
Joy Adamson, British author and naturalist (Born Free).
-
1908
The Sullivan Ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities in the United States.