63 AD Claudia Augusta the only daughter of the Roman emperor Nero by Poppaea Sabina was born on January 21, 63. At the birth of Claudia, Nero honored mother and child with the title of Augusta. However, the child died three months later, meaning Nero was still with no heir. Her father was devastated and many believe this was the event that unhinged the emperor.
304 Saint Agnes was a beautiful young Roman girl of noble birth. After rejecting many suitors, she was denounced as a Christian and sent to a house of prostitution as her punishment. When a young man ventured to touch her, he lost his sight, but then regained it in answer to her prayers. At the age of 12, Agnes was beheaded in Rome on January 21, 304 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She was martyred because she would not worship the goddess Minerva.
1525 The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was founded on January 21, 1525 when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. The early Anabaptists were often drowned by their persecutors as the authorities reckoned if they wanted to be fully immersed- let them!
1590 James VI of Scotland (and later I of England) married Anne of Denmark by proxy in 1589. The couple participated in an official wedding ceremony on January 21, 1590 at Krondborg during James's visit to Denmark. At first, James and his new queen were close, but they gradually drifted apart. The couple produced eight children, three of whom survived infancy and one was stillborn. They decided to live apart after the death of their daughter Sophia.
1670 In 1660 Claude Duval moved to England from France at the Restoration as a footman in the service of the Duke of Richmond. Taking soon to the road, he pursued a successful career as a robber, gaining a popular reputation, especially for his daring and gallantry towards the women he robbed. Duval was captured drunk, and hanged at Tyburn, London on January 21, 1670. Samuel Butler satirically commemorated his death in a Pindaric ode.
1789 The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown was published in Boston, Massachusetts on January 21, 1789 and sold at the price of nine shillings. The book is widely considered to be the first American novel.
1793 Louis XVI of France was guillotined on January 21, 1793 during the French Revolution. As he mounted the scaffold, the former French king appeared dignified and resigned. He delivered a short speech in which he prayed, "I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people, but I grieve for France, and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord," but his speech was drowned out by a roll of drums.
1869 Russian mystic Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin was born a peasant in a small Siberian village along the Tura River called Pokrovskoye on January 21, 1869. Grigory's father was a good for nothing peasant with no regular occupation. He was nicknamed “Rasputin” (a derivation of the adjective “rasputny” meaning “loose living”) in keeping with his reputation and the name stuck.
1882 Joseph Swan, an English chemist developed a filament lamp in 1880. Swan's first commercial customers were his friends, Sir William and Lady Armstrong of Cragside near Newcastle Upon Tyne in the north of England. The James Coxon & Co drapery of Newcastle became the first shop to be lit by electric light on January 21, 1882. The following year, Swan's company merged with Thomas Edison's to establish the Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company, otherwise known as "Ediswan".
304 Saint Agnes was a beautiful young Roman girl of noble birth. After rejecting many suitors, she was denounced as a Christian and sent to a house of prostitution as her punishment. When a young man ventured to touch her, he lost his sight, but then regained it in answer to her prayers. At the age of 12, Agnes was beheaded in Rome on January 21, 304 during the reign of the Roman Emperor Diocletian. She was martyred because she would not worship the goddess Minerva.
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| Felix Manz was executed by drowning within two years of his rebaptism |
1590 James VI of Scotland (and later I of England) married Anne of Denmark by proxy in 1589. The couple participated in an official wedding ceremony on January 21, 1590 at Krondborg during James's visit to Denmark. At first, James and his new queen were close, but they gradually drifted apart. The couple produced eight children, three of whom survived infancy and one was stillborn. They decided to live apart after the death of their daughter Sophia.
1670 In 1660 Claude Duval moved to England from France at the Restoration as a footman in the service of the Duke of Richmond. Taking soon to the road, he pursued a successful career as a robber, gaining a popular reputation, especially for his daring and gallantry towards the women he robbed. Duval was captured drunk, and hanged at Tyburn, London on January 21, 1670. Samuel Butler satirically commemorated his death in a Pindaric ode.
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| Claude Duval painting by William Powell Frith |
1789 The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown was published in Boston, Massachusetts on January 21, 1789 and sold at the price of nine shillings. The book is widely considered to be the first American novel.
1793 Louis XVI of France was guillotined on January 21, 1793 during the French Revolution. As he mounted the scaffold, the former French king appeared dignified and resigned. He delivered a short speech in which he prayed, "I trust that my death will be for the happiness of my people, but I grieve for France, and I fear that she may suffer the anger of the Lord," but his speech was drowned out by a roll of drums.
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| Execution of Louis XVI – copperplate engraving 1793 |
1869 Russian mystic Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin was born a peasant in a small Siberian village along the Tura River called Pokrovskoye on January 21, 1869. Grigory's father was a good for nothing peasant with no regular occupation. He was nicknamed “Rasputin” (a derivation of the adjective “rasputny” meaning “loose living”) in keeping with his reputation and the name stuck.
1882 Joseph Swan, an English chemist developed a filament lamp in 1880. Swan's first commercial customers were his friends, Sir William and Lady Armstrong of Cragside near Newcastle Upon Tyne in the north of England. The James Coxon & Co drapery of Newcastle became the first shop to be lit by electric light on January 21, 1882. The following year, Swan's company merged with Thomas Edison's to establish the Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company, otherwise known as "Ediswan".
1905 Christian Dior was born in Granville, on the coast of Normandy, France on January 21, 1905 to Maurice Dior, a wealthy fertilizer manufacturer, and the former Isabelle Cardamone. In 1946 Dior founded the self-titled iconic fashion house. His first fashion collection, the long-skirted "new look" brought Dior worldwide fame and helped Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world as out went fashion rations and in came masses of material, designed to suit a curvy hour-glass figure.
1908 New York City passed the Sullivan Ordinance on January 21, 1908, making it illegal for women to smoke in public places. This ordinance, named after its sponsor Alderman Timothy "Timmy" Sullivan, reflected the deeply ingrained prejudices of the time against women who smoked. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. two weeks later.
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| Making fun of the ordinance in The Evening World in 1908 |
1911 The first Monte Carlo Rally was held in 1911, it was organized by Prince Albert I of Monaco, the rally was held on January 21, 1911, and was won by the French driver Henri Rougier. It was a long-distance road rally which started from different European cities and ended in Monaco. The rally was designed to showcase the new automobiles and promote the principality of Monaco as a tourist destination.
1924 In 1918, Vladimir Lenin was shot and wounded by Dora Kaplan, a young girl from the intellectual class. Five-and-a-half years later Lenin died at 18.50 hrs, Moscow time, on January 21, 1924, aged 53, at his estate at Gorki estate of a brain hemorrhage. Most historians agree that the most likely cause of his death was a stroke induced by the bullet still lodged in his neck from the assassination attempt.
1931 Sir Isaac Alfred Isaacs (1855 – 1948) was an Australian judge and politician who was sworn in on January 21, 1931 as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia. He was also the first Governor-General to live permanently at Government House, Canberra.
1950 In the last years of his life George Orwell lived a self-sufficient life style at Barnhill, a remote smallholding on the Scottish island of Jura in the Outer Hebrides, where he could fight his tuberculous. Shortly after his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four was completed Orwell became bedridden and he never recovered. He was removed to University College Hospital in London. George Orwell died early in the morning on January 21, 1950 at the age of 46 after an artery burst in his lungs.
1968 The movie The Graduate was one of the first major films to use rock music in its soundtrack, using songs written by Paul Simon (notably, "Mrs Robinson," which became a hit). The soundtrack album was released on January 21, 1968.
1976 The world’s first supersonic airliner, the Anglo-French Concorde was made by the French company Aérospatiale and the British company British Aircraft Corporation. Scheduled flights began on January 21, 1976 on the London–Bahrain and Paris–Rio (via Dakar) routes.
1989 The most generations in a family alive at once was 7. The oldest generation being Augusta Bunge (USA) aged 109 years 97 days. Her great-great-great grand-daughter was aged 15 on the birth of her great-great-great-great grandson on January 21, 1989.
1993 The largest doughnut ever made was an American-style jelly doughnut weighing 1.7 tons (3739 lbs.), which was 16 feet (4.9 m) in diameter and 16 inches (40.6 cm) high in the center. It was made in Utica, New York, USA on January 21, 1993.
2012 The highest score ever recorded in a Scrabble tournament is 850, achieved by Toh Weibin of Singapore at the Northern Ireland Scrabble Championship in a game against local player Rik Kennedy on January 21, 2012. The winning margin of 591 points in the game against Kennedy is also believed to be a record.
2012 A Thompson submachine gun (commonly known as a "Tommy Gun") believed to have been owned by Bonnie and Clyde sold at auction on January 21, 2012, in Kansas City for $130,000 (£84,000).
2012 A Thompson submachine gun (commonly known as a "Tommy Gun") believed to have been owned by Bonnie and Clyde sold at auction on January 21, 2012, in Kansas City for $130,000 (£84,000).
2016 An estimated 2.91 billion trips were made during the 40-day Chinese Lunar New Year holiday season between January 21 and March 3, 2016 as migrant workers in the cities grabbed the chance to return home to see their families. The official extended travel period for the Spring Festival has been described as the world’s largest human migration.
2018 Electron is a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed by New Zealand aerospace company Rocket Lab to cover the commercial small satellite launch segment (CubeSats). Its Rutherford engines are the first electric pump-fed engine to power an orbital rocket. Electron became the first rocket to reach orbit using an electric pump-fed engine on January 21, 2018.
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