Jan. 22
1901: Britain’s Queen Victoria died at age 81 after a reign of more than 63 years; she was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII.
1953: Arthur Miller’s drama “The Crucible” opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York.
1973: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that the Constitution protects a nationwide right to abortion.
1973: Former President Lyndon B. Johnson died at his Texas ranch at age 64.
Jan. 23
1368: China’s Ming dynasty began after Zhu Yuanzhang (zhoo whan-zhahng) was acclaimed the Hongwu Emperor following the collapse of the Yuan dynasty.
1789: Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C.
1870: About 200 Piegan Blackfeet tribal members, mostly women, children and older adults, were killed by U.S. Army troops under Maj. Eugene M. Baker in Montana, in what became known as the Baker Massacre.
Jan. 24
1848: James W. Marshall found a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in Northern California, sparking the California gold rush.
1945: Associated Press war correspondent Joseph Morton was among captives executed by German soldiers at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp in Austria.
1965: Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
1989: Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair.
Jan. 25
1924: The first Winter Olympic Games opened in Chamonix, France.
1945: The World War II Battle of the Bulge ended as the German army concluded its final offensive on the Western Front; about 19,000 U.S. soldiers were killed during the five-week campaign.
1961: President John F. Kennedy held the first live televised presidential news conference.
1971: Charles Manson and three followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actor Sharon Tate.
Jan. 26
1887: Groundbreaking began for the Eiffel Tower; it was completed just over two years later.
1905: The Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever found at 3,106 carats (621.2 grams), was discovered in South Africa.
2020: NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed when their helicopter plunged into a steep hillside in dense fog in Southern California; the former Los Angeles Lakers star was 41.
Jan. 27
1756: Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.
1880: Thomas Edison received a patent for his incandescent electric lamp.
1945: During World War II, Soviet troops liberated the Auschwitz and Birkenau Nazi concentration camps in Poland.
Jan. 28
1547: England’s King Henry VIII died at 55 and was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI.
1813: Jane Austen’s novel “Pride and Prejudice” was first published anonymously in London.
1922: Ninety-eight people were killed when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre in Washington, D.C., collapsed under the weight of nearly 2 feet of snow.
1956: Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on “Stage Show,” a CBS program hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.
1986: The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, Florida, killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.
