1521 Martin Luther is excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church for failing to recant parts of his Ninety-Five Theses, which started the Protestant Reformation
1777 General George Washington's Revolutionary Army defeats British forces at the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey
1852 First Chinese immigrants arrive in Hawaii
1870 Construction begins on New York's Brooklyn Bridge; completed May 24, 1883
1872 First patent list issued by the US Patent Office
1892 British author (The Hobbit; The Lord of the Rings), born in Bloemfontein, South Africa
1920 Boston Red Sox baseball club owner Harry Frazee announces agreement to sell slugger Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 in cash and a $350,000 loan; start of the 84 year "Curse of the Bambino"
1938 March of Dimes established to fight polio
1939 Bobby Hull Canadian Hockey HOF left winger born in Pointe Anne, Ontario
1952 "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premieres on NBC TV (just the facts mam)
1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro
1967 Jack Ruby American nightclub owner who murdered assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies of pulmonary embolism at 55
1973 A 12-man syndicate led by Michael Burke and George Steinbrenner III buys MLB's New York Yankees from CBS for US$10 million
1977 Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs incorporate Apple Computer, Inc.
1983 Dallas running back Tony Dorsett sets NFL record with 99-yard rush in the Cowboys' 31-27 defeat at Minnesota Vikings
1993 "The Comeback", QB Frank Reich leads Buffalo Bills back from a 32-point deficit, to defeat the Houston Oilers 41-38 in overtime in a wild card playoff game, the greatest comeback ever in NFL history
1994 35-foot-tall Chief Wahoo, trademark of Indians on top of Stadium since 1962, is taken down, to be moved to Jacob's Field
1994 Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers becomes first quarterback to win 3 straight NFL passing titles despite a 37-34 OT loss to the Philadelphia Eagles; first to lodge 3 consecutive passer ratings of 100+
1996 First clamshell flip mobile phone, the Motorola StarTAC, goes on sale; eventually, 60 million are sold
2009 The Bitcoin network is created as the first block of the digital currency is mined by a person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto
2022 Apple becomes the first US company to be worth $3 trillion in value, after tripling its price in under four years
2024 Lowest January temperature of -43.6 C (minus 46.5 F), recorded in Sweden for 25 years in Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka, Swedish Lapland, amid a very cold spell across Scandinavia (paging global warming)