JANUARY 16

1901 - Filipino revolutionary leaders Apolinario Mabini, Gen. Artemio Ricarte, Gen. Maximo Hizon, Gen. Pio del Pilar and Pablo Ocampo are exiled to Guam by the imperialist American colonizers.

1547 - Ivan IV Vasilyevich, also referred to as "Ivan the Terrible," is crowned as the first Czar of Russia; his long reign saw the rise of the Asian country into a more powerful, larger multi-ethnic and multi-confessional nation.

1979 - The United States-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi flees Iran after months of Muslim fundamentalists-led, increasingly violent protests against his reign.

2001 - President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Reopublic of Congo is shot by one of his bodyguards as part of an international plot to depose him; Kabila's death will be confirmed only two days later.

JANUARY 15

1945 - Ardent Filipino nationalist and great socialist leader Pedro B. Abad Santos dies from ulcer during World War II; "Don Perico," brother of Jose Abad Santos, was one of the leaders of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (original Communist Party of the Philippines founded in 1930).

1951 - The 6,000-mile-tall Mt. Lamington in New Guinea bellows out smoke before exploding five days later to destroy some 5,000 people and numerous acres of agricultural land; the volcano has never exploded before in human memory.

1970 - Mummar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed as Libyan premier by the General People's Congress; Qaddafi was a nationalist Army captain who conspired to depose monarchical rule in the North African country some four months earlier.

1997 - Princess Diana calls for an international ban on anti-personnel mines during a visit to Angola; she incurs the ire of conservative British ministers for being "ill-informed" but gets applauded by the Labour camp which backs international moratorium on landmines.

JANUARY 14

1889 - Filipino reformist and patriot Jose Rizal writes his close friend Ferdinand Blumentritt about the latter's appointment as president of the recently formed Association Internationale des Philippinistes; in the letter, Rizal also mentions the plan of the group to hold a conference at the Paris Exposition.

1776 - Ernst Theodor Wilhelm Hoffmann, author, lawyer and conductor known for his mastery of the macabre and weird, is born in Germany; his work is the basis of Jacques Offenbach's opera, the "Tales of Hoffmann."

1986 - The Rossiya, the fourth atomic icebreaker of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, takes its maiden voyage.

1994 - Duchess of Kent converts to Catholic Christianity to become the first member of the British Royal Family to embrace the faith after a 1701 act of parliament banned those in line to the throne from converting or marrying into Roman Catholicism.

JANUARY 13

1687 - English buccaneer and navigator William Dampier and other companions leave the Philippine island of Mindanao after obtaining some supply for their provisions; he will describe the Muslim Mindanao people as "the greatest nation in the island."

1128  - Pope Honorius II endorses the  Knights Templar by granting papal sanction to the military monastic order created to protect Christian pilgrims en-route to the Holy Land.

1972 - The Prime Minister of Ghana, Dr Kofi Busia, is ousted  in a bloodless military coup while he undergoes treatment in London, United Kingdom.

2004 - United States soldier Joseph Darby reports the abuses committed on Iraqi prisoners to the Criminal Investigations Division of the Army.

JANUARY 12

1903 - Imperialist American Civil Governor Willian Howard Taft opposes the return of Filipino revolutionary leader-on-exile Apolinario Mabini unless he takes the oath of allegiance to the United States; Mabini swears fealty in order to return to the Philippines some two months before his death.

1898 - Nishi Tokujirō begins his term as Foreign Minister under the 3rd Ito administration; born from a Samurai family, he will later also serve as Japan's ambassador to the Qing Dynasty of China.

1984 - Restoration work on the Great Pyramids of Egypt adopts the interlocking block system--the construction technique used by the original ancient builders; the move puts a stop to prolonged frustration over the modern mortal system earlier used.

2003 - Maurice Gibb, member of the famous Bee Gees pop band, dies from complications suffered from surgery intended to remove an intestinal blockage.

JANUARY 11

1897 - Thirteen Filipino revolutionaries and masons known as "Bagumbayan Martyrs" are executed by Spanish colonial authorities during what historian T.M. Kalaw described as a "period of terror" in Spain's bid to contain the revolutionary momentum sweeping the Philippines.

1935 - Amelia Earhart, an American, becomes the first woman and only the second person to fly solo  (across the Pacific Ocean from Honolulu to Oakland, California).

1942 - Japan invades the Dutch colonies  Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) and Dutch Borneo (Kalimantan/Borneo).

1998 - Around a 100 Algerians are massacred by Islamic extremists in two villages in the North African nation; the attacks follow a series of Ramadan-month massacres.

JANUARY 10

1899 - Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the fledgling Philippine Republic, approves the hostile attitude of Gen. Juan Cailles towards the imperialist American forces. He tells Cailles in a reply: “I approve and applaud what you have done with the Americans… I believe that they are playing with us until the arrival of their reinforcements, but I shall send an ultimatum and remain always on the alert.”

1901 - Crude oil in enormous amount is discovered near Beaumont, Texas, marking the start of the American oil industry.

1958 - Robert James "Bobby" Fischer at the age of 14 years and 9 months wins the 1957/58 United States Championship and Zonal, with no losses, 5 draws and 8 wins.

1996 - Jordan's King Hussein makes his historic first public visit in Tel Aviv, heralding years of improved relations between Jordan and Israel.

JANUARY 9

1945 - The United States Army begins landing on Lingayen Gulf in Luzon island under Operation Mike 1 in the bid to retake the Philippines from Japan during World War II.

1493 - Italian explorer Chrisopher Columbus supposedly makes the mistake of identifying manatees as "mermaids" while sailing close to what is now known as the Dominican Republic.

1792 - The Russian-Turkish War (1787-1791) is ended with the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries.

2005 - Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas shows early lead in the presidential elections; he will will the polls and be sworn into office on January 15.

JANUARY 8

1847 - Filipino revolutionary Severino Lapidario is born; he will become a prison warden and one of the “Thirteen Martyrs of Cavite" to be executed by Spanish colonial military authorities during the 1896 Revolution in the Philippines.

1961 - After seven years of staging guerrilla warfare, the people of Algeria win the French vote for their freedom following a referendum on the issue of the colony's independence.

1979 - Vietnamese and rebel allies force the retreat of Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge soldiers as the Cambodian capital falls; Vietnam is backed by the Soviets while Cambodia is supported by China.

1998 - Astronomers from the United States announce their research findings that the universe is  expanding at an increasingly rapid pace, suggesting that the dominant energy is not visible but, rather, is found in empty space.

JANUARY 7

1650- Subano insurrectionists in the Philippines kill Spanish colonizers, including Jesuit priest Juan del Campo.

1610 - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first discovers three of Jupiter's moons--Callisto, Io and Europa--with his homemade telescope.   

1789 - The first United States presidential election is held, with white, propertied men voting to choose state electors; George Washington unsurprisingly wins to become the first American president.

1989 - Emperor Hirohito of Japan dies of cancer at the age of 87; his rule covered the two World Wars.

JANUARY 6

1812 - Melchora Aquino de Ramos, Filipino revolutionary against Spanish colonial forces,is born; she would become known as "Tandang Sora" ("Old Sora"), earning the title of "Mother of Revolution" for her role in extending aid and moral support to injured Katipuneros.

1838 - Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail publicly demonstrate the electric telegraphic system for the first time in New Jersey, United States.
1942 - Japanese forces are able to capture 11 United States Navy Corps nurses following the Fall of Manila, Philippines, during World War II.

1992 - The United States gives a 45-moratorium on silicone-gel breast implants pending safety investigations.

JANUARY 5

1899 - Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, President of the fledgling Philippine Republic, issues a counter-manifesto to (a softened version) of United States President William McKinley's imperialistic "Benevolent Assimilation" Proclamation; Aguinaldo warns of his government being “disposed to open hostilities if the American troops attempt to take forcible possession of the Visayan islands.”

1896 - The discovery of X-rays by Wilhelm Roentgen is reported in a newspaper.

1972 - The development of the space shuttle, an American space vehicle designed to be reused, begins under Richard Nixon.

1976 - Khmer Rouge communist leader Pol Pot changes the name of Cambodia to Kampuchea and legalizes his government.

JANUARY 4

1897 - The 11 martyrs of Bicol are executed by Spanish colonial authorities in Bagumbayan some four months after the outbreak of the Philippine Himagsikan during five days after polymath, patriot, and foremost propagandist Jose Mercado Rizal met the same fate by firing squad; the execution followed the arrest, imprisonment, and torture of the martyrs in Bicol, along with some other suspects, before being shipped to Manila for trial on October 19, 1896; Domingo Abella, Manuel Abella, Fr. Severino Diaz, Fr. Inocencio Herrera, Camilo Jacob, Cornelio Mercado, Florencio Lerma, Mariano Melgarejo, Fr. Tomas Prieto, Gabriel Prieto, and Macario Valentin were all adjudged guilty of rebellion and sentenced to die by firing squad, with Leon Hernandez, Mariano Ordenanza, Ramon Abella and Ramon Arana either dying in prison or dying in exile  in Fernando Po island off Africa, and Fr. Manuel Subarno and Fr. Severo Estrada having been cleared of charges; the names of the suspects were extracted by the hated Spaniards through the arrest and torture/interrogation of Masonic lodge member and future general of the revolution, Vicente Lukban, as well as trickery during the interrogation of Malinao Albay parish priest Tomas Prieto; the first batch of revolutionaries executed in Bagumbayan took place in August 31, 1896 after the secret-society-turned-revolutionary government  the first batch of revolutionaries executed in Bagumbayan were some 57 Katipuneros, taking place in August 31, 1896 after the secret-society-turned revolutionary government Kataastaasang, Kagalanggalangang Katipunan nang manga Anak nang Bayan launched the general uprising two days earlier, with the colonial Spaniards reacting with terror-level response to quell the revolution that has begun in eight Luzon provinces but soon spread like wildfire to other parts of the archipelago. 

46 BC - The greatly outnumbered forces of Julius Caesar is defeated by the side of one of his former lieutenants, Titus Labienus, during the Battle of Ruspina (in modern Tunisia).

1936 - Billboard Magazine starts publishing their hit music chart.

1951 - The communist forces of North Korea and Red China captures Seoul during the Korean War.

JANUARY 3

1890 - Filipino polymath, propagandist, and patriot Jose Mercado Rizal writes fellow reformist Mariano Ponce, informing him that he had already sent nine copies of the Morga book to Fernando Canon; the Morga work is Rizal's republication of Antonio de Morga's Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine Islands) that discusses the ancient history of the Philippine archipelago before the colonization schemes of Spain; Ponce will later praise Rizal for his work on Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas involving the writing of the excellent introduction and of annotations showing that the natives of the islands had an advanced civilization before the Spanish colonizers came; while the Morga work is valuable in its record of the early Filipino culture, including ethics, skills, and social patterns that have either been destroyed or comprised during the Spanish colonization,  Rizal republished it in 1890 apparently as an attempt to neutralize the obvious bias of Morga in the Spaniard's rather disjointed writing of the history of wars, intrigues, diplomacy and evangelization of the archipelago, even including inventions of  'facts', in the bid to defend the bloody conquest of the natives; Rizal, Ponce, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Marcelo H. del Pilar form the more prominent members of the Propaganda Movement aiming to foster heightened awareness of the "mother" country Spain as to the needs and plight of its colony, the Philippines and to make for a closer and more equal association of the indios/Filipinos and Spaniards.

1922 - Manuel Artigas y Cuerva, a Filipino-Spanish biographer, bibliographer, historian, and journalist, is reappointed as acting director of the Philippine Public Library; he published a number of works that proved to have documentary/historical value.

1868 - The Meiji Restoration topples the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan, restoring imperial rule.

1922 - The intact mummy of Egyptian boy Pharaoh Tutankhamen is discovered in the KV62 tomb in the Valley of the Kings after more than 3,000 years of being undisturbed and buried with what has been described as fantastic ancient treasures.

1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Cuba's Fidel Castro in line with a 1949 papal decree that forbids Catholics from extending support to Communists.

JANUARY 2

1899 - Apolinario Mabini is appointed Prime Minister to lead the Mabini Cabinet of the First Philippine Republic (which will be inaugurated on January 23, 1899).

1839 - The first photographic image of the moon is taken by Frenchman Louis Daguerre.

1888 - The (paper) drinking straw is patented by Marvin Stone; the early drinking straws were made of hollow, dry grass that imparted the taste of grass to the beverage.

1980 - United States President Jimmy Carter ends the Cold War detente when he asks the Senate to defer action on Strategic Arms Limitation Talks-II treaty following the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.