January 1
1700 – Russia begins using the Anno Domini era instead of the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.
1707 – John V is proclaimed King of Portugal and the Algarves in Lisbon.
1725 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of his chorale cantata Jesu, nun sei gepreiset, BWV 41, which features the trumpet fanfares from the beginning, also in the end.
1739 – Bouvet Island, the world's remotest island, is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.
1772 – The first traveler's cheques, which could be used in 90 European cities, are issued by the London Credit Exchange Company.
1773 – The hymn that becomes known as "Amazing Grace", previously titled "1 Chronicles 17:16 17, Faith's Review and Expectation", is first used to accompany a sermon led by John Newton in the town of Olney, Buckinghamshire, England.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Burning of Norfolk – Norfolk, Virginia, is burned to the ground by combined Royal Navy and Continental Army action.
1776 – General George Washington hoists the first United States flag, the Continental Union Flag, at Prospect Hill.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: One thousand five hundred soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey, in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny of 1781.
1788 – The first edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published.
1801 – The legislative union of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland is completed, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland is proclaimed.
1801 – Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.
1804 – French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black-majority republic and the second independent country in North America after the United States.
1806 – The French Republican Calendar is abolished.
1808 – The United States bans the importation of slaves.
1810 – Major-General Lachlan Macquarie officially becomes Governor of New South Wales.
1818 – Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (anonymously) publishes the pioneering work of science fiction, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, in London.
1822 – The Greek Constitution of 1822 is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1834 – Most of Germany forms the Zollverein customs union, the first such union between sovereign states.
1845 – The Philippines moves its national calendar to align with other Asian countries' calendars by skipping Tuesday, December 31, 1844. The change has been ordered by Governor–General Narciso Claveria to reform the country's calendar so that it aligns with the rest of Asia. Its territory has been one day behind the rest of Asia for 323 years since the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in the Philippines on March 16, 1521.
January 2
1776 – Empress Maria Theresa of Austria amends the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana to include the abolition of torture throughout the Habsburg-ruled countries of Austria and Bohemia.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of General George Washington repulse a British attack led by General Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.
1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1791 – Northwest Indian War: The Big Bottom massacre is committed by Lenape and Wyandot warriors in the Ohio Country, North America.
1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded by a group of six engineers; Thomas Telford would later become its first president.
January 3
1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
1749 – The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeat British forces at the Battle of Princeton, helping boost patriot morale.
1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
1833 – Captain James Onslow, in the Clio, reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
January 4
1717 – The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance.
1762 – Great Britain declares war on Spain, which meant the entry of Spain into the Seven Years' War.
1798 – Constantine Hangerli arrives in Bucharest, Wallachia, as its new Prince, invested by the Ottoman Empire.
1844 – The first issue of the Swedish-language Saima newspaper, founded by J.V. Snellman, is published in Kuopio, Finland.
January 5
1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who becomes the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering (the traditional form of capital punishment used for regicides).
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by former American general Benedict Arnold.
1822 – The government of Central America votes for total annexation to the First Mexican Empire.
January 6
1721 – The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings, revealing details of fraud among company directors and corrupt politicians.
1724 – Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65, a Bach cantata, for Epiphany, is performed for the first time.
1725 – J. S. Bach leads the first performance of Liebster Immanuel, Herzog der Frommen, BWV 123, a chorale cantata for Epiphany.
1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeated the last attempt by France to invade Jersey in the Channel Islands.
1809 – Combined British, Portuguese, and colonial Brazilian forces begin the Invasion of Cayenne during the Napoleonic Wars.
1838 – Alfred Vail and colleagues demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).
1839 – The Night of the Big Wind, the most damaging storm in 300 years, sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.
January 7
1708 – Battle of Zlatoust: Battle between Bashkir and Tatar rebels and the government troops of the Tsardom of Russia. It is one of the events of the Bashkir rebellion of 1704–1711.
1708 – Bashkir rebels besiege Yelabuga.
1738 – A peace treaty is signed between Peshwa Bajirao and Jai Singh II following the Maratha victory in the Battle of Bhopal.
1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.
1785 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon.
1835 – HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago.
January 8
1735 – The premiere of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante takes place at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.
1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.
1806 – The Dutch Cape Colony in southern Africa becomes the British Cape Colony as a result of the Battle of Blaauwberg.
1811 – Charles Deslondes leads an unsuccessful slave revolt in the North American settlements of St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana.
1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.
1828 – The Democratic Party of the United States is organized.
1835 – US President Andrew Jackson announces a celebratory dinner after having reduced the United States national debt to zero for the only time.
January 9
1693 – Sicily earthquake: The first of two earthquakes destroys parts of Sicily and Malta. After the second quake on 11 January, the death toll is estimated at between 60,000 and 100,000 people.
1760 – Ahmad Shah Durrani defeats the Marathas in the Battle of Barari Ghat.
1787 – The nationally known image of the Black Nazarene in the Philippines was transferred from what is now Rizal Park to its present shrine in the minor basilica of Quiapo Church. This is annually commemorated through its Traslación (solemn transfer) in the streets of Manila and is attended by millions of devotees.
1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1792 – Treaty of Jassy between the Russian and Ottoman Empire is signed, ending the Russo-Turkish War of 1787–92.
1793 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.
1799 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the Napoleonic Wars.
1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.
1816 – Humphry Davy tests his safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.
1822 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning the Brazilian independence process.
1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.
January 10
1776 – American Revolution: Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.
1791 – The Siege of Dunlap's Station begins near Cincinnati during the Northwest Indian War.
1812 – The first steamboat on the Ohio River or the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans, 82 days after departing from Pittsburgh.
January 11
1759 – The first American life insurance company, the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of the Presbyterian Ministers (now part of Unum Group), is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.
1820 – The Great Savannah Fire of 1820 destroys over 400 buildings in Savannah, Georgia.
January 12
1792 – Federalist Thomas Pinckney appointed first U.S. minister to Britain.
1808 – John Rennie's scheme to defend St Mary's Church, Reculver, founded in 669, from coastal erosion is abandoned in favour of demolition, despite the church being an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture.
1808 – The organizational meeting leading to the creation of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is held in Edinburgh.
1848 – The Palermo rising takes place in Sicily against the Bourbon Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.
January 13
1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.
1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.
1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.
1822 – The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1833 – United States President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President-elect Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
January 14
1761 – The Third Battle of Panipat, the largest battle of the 18th century, is fought in India between the Afghan Durrani Empire under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Maratha Empire under Sadashivrao Bhau.
1784 – American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States: Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.
1797 – The Battle of Rivoli is fought with a decisive French victory by Napoleon Bonaparte, marking the beginning of the end of the War of the First Coalition and the start of French hegemony over Italy for two decades.
1814 – Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.
January 15
1759 – The British Museum opens to the public.
1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence.
1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris addresses the U.S. Congress to recommend the establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.
1818 – A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signed a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on the reflection of polarized light.
1822 – Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president of the legislative assembly.
January 16
1707 – The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
1716 – King Philip V of Spain promulgates the Nueva Planta decree of the Principality of Catalonia, abolishing the Catalan institutions and its legal system, being replaced by those of Castile, thus putting an end to Catalonia as a separate state and becoming a province of the new French-style Kingdom of Spain.
1757 – Forces of the Maratha Empire are defeated by the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.
1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
1786 – Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson.
1809 – Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
1847 – Westward expansion of the United States: John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
January 17
1773 – Captain James Cook leads the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.
1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cowpens: Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the battle in South Carolina.
1799 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with several other patriots, is executed.
1811 – Mexican War of Independence: In the Battle of Calderón Bridge, a heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries.
January 18
1701 – Frederick I crowns himself King in Prussia in Königsberg.
1778 – James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet, carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia, arrive at Botany Bay.
1806 – Jan Willem Janssens surrenders the Dutch Cape Colony to the British.
January 19
1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
1764 – Bolle Willum Luxdorph records in his diary that a mail bomb, possibly the world's first, has severely injured the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.
1788 – The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.
1795 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, replacing the Dutch Republic.
1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.
1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.
January 20
1783 – The Kingdom of Great Britain signs preliminary articles of peace with the Kingdom of France, setting the stage for the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year.
1785 – Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River by the Tây Son in the Battle of Rach Gam-Xoài Mút.
1788 – The third and main part of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, beginning the British colonization of Australia. Arthur Phillip decides that Port Jackson is a more suitable location for a colony.
1839 – In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.
1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British during the First Opium War.
January 21
1720 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
1749 – The Teatro Filarmonico in Verona is destroyed by fire, as a result of a torch being left behind in the box of a nobleman after a performance. It was rebuilt in 1754.
1774 – Abdul Hamid I becomes Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.
1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.
1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast during the First Anglo-Ashanti War.
January 22
1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland, and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.
1808 – The Portuguese royal family arrives in Brazil after fleeing the French army's invasion of Portugal two months earlier.
January 23
1719 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1755 – Moscow University is established (12 January 1755 O.S.).
1789 – Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.) when Bishop John Carroll, Rev. Robert Molyneux, and Rev. John Ashton purchase land for the proposed academy for the education of youth.
1793 – Second Partition of Poland.
1795 – After crossing the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of surrender of naval vessels to land forces.
January 24
1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1758 – During the Seven Years' War, the leading burghers of Königsberg submitted to Elizabeth of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia (until 1763).
1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the action of Picheuta.
1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.
January 25
1704 – The Apalachee massacre: A combined British and Muscogee force from the Province of Carolina destroys the main fortified mission of Ayubale, breaking Spain's hold on Spanish Florida.
1787 – Shays' Rebellion: The rebellion's largest confrontation, outside the Springfield Armory, results in the killing of four rebels and the wounding of twenty.
1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada.
1792 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.
1819 – University of Virginia chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders.
January 26
1699 – For the first time, the Ottoman Empire permanently cedes territory to the Christian powers.
1700 – The 8.7–9.2 Mw Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.
1765 – A British naval expedition arrives at and names Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands, founding a settlement there eight days later. (Arrival was 15 January 1765 O.S.)
1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia. Commemorated as Australia Day.
1808 – The Rum Rebellion is the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in New South Wales.
1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
1841 – Gordon Bremer takes formal possession of Hong Kong Island at what is now Possession Point, establishing British Hong Kong.
January 27
1695 – Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan and Caliph of Islam in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa ruled until his abdication in 1703.
1759 – Spanish forces clash with indigenous Huilliches of southern Chile in the battle of Río Bueno.
1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first state-chartered public university in the United States.
1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.
1825 – The U.S. Congress approves the Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for the forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".
January 28
1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg, Russia, by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It was called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.
1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity in a letter to a friend.
1813 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.
1846 – The Battle of Aliwal, India, is won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
January 29
1814 – War of the Sixth Coalition: France engages Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.
1819 – Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
1845 – "The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.
January 30
1789 – Tây Son forces emerge victorious against Qing armies and liberate the capital Thang Long.
1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania, and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.
1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.
1826 – The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north-west coast of Wales, is opened.
1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot President Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.
January 31
1703 – Forty-seven ronin, under the command of Oishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master by killing Kira Yoshinaka.
1747 – The first venereal disease clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1814 – Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (present-day Argentina).