History for January 20

History for January 20 - On-This-Day.com:
Theobald Wolfe Tone 1763, George Burns 1896, Aristotle Onassis 1906


DeForest Kelley 1920, Federico Fellini 1920, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin 1930


1801 - John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.


1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.


1885 - The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson.


1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.


1937 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution officially set the date for the swearing in of the President and Vice President.


1942 - Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews.


1981 - Iran released 52 Americans that had been held hostage for 444 days. The hostages were flown to Algeria and then to a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The release occurred minutes after the U.S. presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.


1986 - The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.