Portal:War/Selected anniversaries/January

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Selected anniversaries in January

January 1

• 1861 - Porfirio Diaz conquers Mexico City.
• 1916 - German troops abandon Yaoundé and their Kamerun colony to British forces and begin the long march to Spanish Guinea.
• 1942 - The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations.
• 1949 - UN Cease-fire orders to operate in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly.

January 2

• 366 - Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine in large numbers, invading Roman Empire.
• 1492 - Reconquista: Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrenders.
• 1757 - The United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India.
• 1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Russian fleet surrenders at Port Arthur, China.
• 1941 - The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program with a stated goal of building 200 freighters. Over 2,700 ships will eventually be constructed by the end of the war.
• 1942 - World War II: Manila is captured by Japanese forces.

January 3

• 1777 - Battle of Princeton. American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis.
• 1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
• 1833 - Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
• 1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia.
• 1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

January 4

• 871 - Battle of Reading - Ethelred of Wessex fights a Danish invasion army.
• 1642 - English Civil War: King Charles I of England attacks Parliament.
• 1717 - The Netherlands, England and France sign the Triple Alliance.
• 1762 - England declares war on Spain and Naples.
• 1944 - World War II: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• 1951 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• 1989 - A pair of Lybian MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.

January 5

• 1477 - Battle of Nancy, Charles the Bold killed, Burgundy becomes part of France.
• 1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
• 1675 - Battle of Colmar, French army beats Brandenburg.
• 1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
• 1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.

January 6

• 1887 - `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II early in the morning; prepared for the assault, the Negus orders a counter-attack which routs the enemy, resulting with the capture of Harar a few days later.
• 1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.

January 7

• 1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.
• 1935 - World War II: Benito Mussolini and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval sign the Italo-French agreements.
• 1942 - World War II: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
• 1945 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.
• 1953 - President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed a hydrogen bomb.

January 8

• 871 - Battle of Ashdown - Ethelred of Wessex defeats Danish invasion army.
• 1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
• 1815 - War of 1812: In the Battle of New Orleans Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
• 1863 - Battle of Springfield of the American Civil War is fought.
• 1916 - World War I: Allied forces withdraw from Gallipoli.
• 1966 - Operation Crimp of the Vietnam War.

January 9

• 1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in Battle of Barari Ghat.
• 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Fort Hindman
• 1912 - Marines invade Honduras.
• 1916 - World War I: In Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire was victorious in the Battle of Çanakkale.
• 1917 - Battle of Rafa.
• 1991 - The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.

January 10

• 49 BC -- Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war.
• 1072 - Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo.
• 1920 - League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
• 1923 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel.
• 1941 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.
• 1989 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.

January 11

• 1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post - General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
• 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War begins.
• 1923 - Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to pay its reparation payments.
• 1942 - Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.

January 12

• 1940 - World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.
• 1942 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
• 1945 - World War II: The Soviets begin a large offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
• 1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
• 1991 - Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

January 13

• 1099 - Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria.
• 1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
• 1958 - Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera

January 14

• 1784 - American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England.
• 1969 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 25 people.
• 1994 - President of the United States Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.

January 15

• 1777 - American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.
• 1943 - World War II: Japanese driven off Guadalcanal.
• 1966 - First Military Coup in Nigeria, government of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown.
• 1970 - After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
• 1973 - Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President of the United States Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
• 1991 - The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

January 16

• 1761 - British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
• 1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
• 1795 - French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands.
• 1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
• 1917 - German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States
• 1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City that ends a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.

January 17

• 1648 - England's Long Parliament passes the Vote of No Address, breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.
• 1746 - Charles Edward Stuart, "Bonnie Prince Charlie", defeats a Hanoverian army at Falkirk in his ultimately unsuccessful campaign to recover the throne for the Jacobite dynasty.
• 1781 - Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the Battle of Cowpens in South Carolina.
• 1873 - First Battle of the Stronghold in the US Modoc War.
• 1885 - A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm began early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

January 18

• 1520 - Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Asunde.
• 1915 - Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to China in a bid to increase its power in east Asia.
• 1919 - World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
• 1943 - World War II: Soviet officials announce they have broken the Wehrmacht's siege of Leningrad.
• 1945 - Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army

January 19

• 1419 - Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England which completed his conquest of Normandy.
• 1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund
• 1839 - British East India Company captures Aden.
• 1862 - The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the American Civil War at the Battle of Mill Springs.
• 1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
• 1941 - World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
• 1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
• 1945 - World War II: Soviet forces liberate ghetto of Lodz. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.

January 20

• 1783 - Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
• 1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
• 1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
• 1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
• 1945 - Hungary drops out of the Second World War, agreeing an armistice with the Allies.

January 21

• 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
• 1506 - The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards entered the Vatican.
• 1864 - The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
• 1941 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
• 1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.

January 22

• 1824 - Ashantis crush British forces in the Gold Coast.
• 1863 - The January Uprising broke out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement was to regain Polish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation of Russia.
• 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Zulu troops defeated British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana.
• 1917 - World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.
• 1941 - World War II: The United Kingdom captures Tobruk from Nazi forces.
• 1944 - World War II: Allies begin Operation Shingle (an assault on Anzio, Italy).

January 23

• 1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
• 1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
• 1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
• 1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

January 24

• 1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
• 1945 - Auschwitz, Concentration Camp in Poland is Liberated by Soviet Troops.
• 1972 - Shoichi Yokoi, a Japanese soldier, is discovered on Guam.

January 25

• 1942 - Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
• 1995 - The Norwegian Rocket Incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, is mistaken for a US Trident missile by the Olenegorsk early-warning radar station.

January 26

• 1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
• 1863 - American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
• 1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
• 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
• 1939 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
• 1942 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• 1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

January 27

• 1915 - United States Marines occupy Haiti.
• 1939 - The President of the United-States Franklin D. Roosevelt approves the sale of U.S. war planes to France.
• 1941 - World War II: Fighting at Derna, Libya, begins Following the capture of Tobruk 2 brigades of the 6th Australian Division under Major General Iven Mackay pursued the Italians westwards and encountered an Italian rear guard at Derna.
• 1943 - World War II: 50 bombers mount the first entirely American air raid against Germany, targeting Wilhelmshaven.
• 1951 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats.
• 1967 - More than 60 nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
• 1973 - Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.

January 28

• 1846 - Battle of Aliwal, India won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
• 1871 - Franco-Prussian War: France surrenders, ending the war.
• 1909 - United States troops leave Cuba after being there since the Spanish-American War.
• 1921 - A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris to honour the unknown dead of World War I.
• 1932 - World War II: Japan occupies Shanghai.

January 29

• 1814 - France defeated Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
• 1916 - World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins .
• 1944 - The battleship USS Missouri is launched.
• 1944 - World War II: The Battle of Cisterna takes place in central Italy.

January 30

• 1648 - The Treaty of Münster is signed, ending the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain.
• 1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.
• 1900 - United Kingdom forces fighting Boers in South Africa ask for reinforcements.
• 1911 - The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy.
• 1944 - United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.

January 31

• 1865 - American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.
• 1915 - World War I: Germany uses poison gas against Russians.
• 1917 - World War I: Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 1918 - A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.
• 1944 - World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
• 1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed, the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.