History Events on January 16

Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.

#Iraq

Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.

#Virginia

The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

#Space_Shuttle_Columbia

Forces of the Maratha Empire defeat a 5,000-strong army of the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.

#Maratha_Empire

Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

#Ernest_Shackleton

John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

#John_C._Frémont

A storm tide in the North Sea ravages the East coast of England and destroys the German city of Rungholt on the island of Strand.

#Storm_surge

The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.

#House_of_Medici

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

#Ellen_Johnson_Sirleaf

The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.

#Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.

#Peninsular_War

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.

#Thomas_Howard,_4th_Duke_of_Norfolk

Gothic War: The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.

#Gothic_War_(535-554)

Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.

#Czechs

The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.

#United_States_Senate

Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.

#TWA_Flight_3

The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

#Parliament_of_Scotland

The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.

#Pendleton_Civil_Service_Reform_Act

Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.

#Augustus

Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

#Adolf_Hitler

Philip II becomes King of Spain.

#Philip_II_of_Spain

The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.

#Don_Quixote

US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.

#Bill_Clinton

Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III established the Caliphate of Córdoba.

#Emir

The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.

#League_of_Nations

Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.

#Soyuz_4

Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster. Prompted a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.

#Hartley_Colliery_disaster

The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.

#Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi

The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in ?uboch?a.

#Marxist_Left_in_Slovakia_and_the_Transcarpathian_Ukraine

El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.

#El_Salvador

American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.

#American_Revolutionary_War

The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.

#United_Nations_Security_Council

Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.

#Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

#Council_of_Nablus

Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.

Hello, Dolly! opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.

Russo-Turkish War (1877-78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.

Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia, replacing the 264-year-old Grand Duchy of Moscow with the Tsardom of Russia.

The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.

General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán.