January 3 is the third day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 362 days remaining until the end of the year (363 in leap years).
Up to 1900
- 1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
- 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther.
- 1749 – The first issue of the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende is published.
- 1777 – American general George Washington defeats a British-Hessian Army under Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis in the Battle of Princeton.
- 1795 – Catherine II of Russia and Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor complete a treaty agreeing to the Third Partition of Poland.
- 1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
- 1823 – Stephen A. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the Mexican government.
- 1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first President of Liberia.
- 1851 – French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault experiments with the Foucault pendulum to prove that the Earth rotates.
- 1861 – Delaware votes to remain in the United States, and not to secede.
- 1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan.
- 1870 – Building work on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City begins.
- 1888 – The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, measuring 91 centimeters (36 in) in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the world's largest telescope at the time.
1901–2000
- 1908 – The Kaziranga National Park is created in Assam, northeastern India.
- 1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys Almaty in present-day Kazakhstan.
- 1918 – Finland officially gains independence from the Russian Empire.
- 1919 – Paris Peace Conference: Emir Faisal of Iraq and Chaim Weizmann agree to develop a Jewish homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in the Middle East.
- 1925 – Benito Mussolini declares that he is taking dictatorial powers in Italy.
- 1932 – Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop a revolt by banana workers who had been fired by the United Fruit Company.
- 1934 – A mine explosion at Ossegg, Bohemia, kills 142 people.
- 1938 – Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the March of Dimes.
- 1945 – Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all US naval forces in preparation for planned attacks against Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
- 1956 – Fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
- 1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1958 – The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 – Alaska becomes the 49th state of the United States. William Egan becomes the first State Governor of Alaska.
- 1959 – Separatists in the Maldives declare the creation of the United Suvadive Republic.
- 1961 – Aero Flight 311 crashes near Kavelax, Finland, killing all 25 people on board.
- 1961 – The United States ends diplomatic relations with Cuba.
- 1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
- 1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights comes into effect.
- 1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
- 1980 – Francisco de Sa Carneiro becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.
- 1987 – Aretha Franklin is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- 1990 – Panama's leader Manuel Noriega surrenders to United States forces.
- 1992 – The United States and Russia officially establish diplomatic relations.
- 1993 – In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
- 1994 – More than 7 million people from the former apartheid homelands receive South African citizenship.
- 1994 – A Tupolev Tu-154 of Baikal Air crashes near Irkutsk, Siberia, killing all 148 people on board.
- 1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched to Mars.
- 2000 – The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published.
From 2001
- 2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604, a Boeing 737, crashes into the Red Sea off Egypt, killing 148 people.
- 2007 – Kenya closes the border with Somalia and deports Somali refugees.
- 2009 – The first part of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the Genesis Block, is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
- 2011 – Jerry Brown replaces Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California.
- 2015 – Boko Haram militants enter Baga in Northern Nigeria and kill up to 2,000 people in the coming days.
- 2018 – Computer analysts report two major security vulnerabilities named "Meltdown" and "Spectre", affecting the microprocessors of all the computers in the world.
Up to 1900
- 106 BC – Cicero, Roman lawyer and political philosopher (d. 43 BC)
- 1196 – Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1231)
- 1698 – Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet (d. 1782)
- 1722 – Fredrik Hasselqvist, Swedish traveller and naturalist (d. 1752)
- 1733 – Richard Arkwright, English inventor (d. 1792)
- 1777 – Elisa Bonaparte, sister of Napoleon (d. 1820)
- 1789 – Carl Gustav Carus, German polymath (d. 1869)
- 1793 – Lucretia Mott, American women's rights activist (d. 1880)
- 1794 – Joseph Lebeau, 2nd Prime Minister of Belgium (d. 1865)
- 1802 – Félix Dupanloup, French bishop (d. 1878)
- 1806 – Henriette Sontag, German soprano (d. 1854)
- 1810 – Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, French geographer, ethnologist, linguist and astronomer (d. 1897)
- 1812 – Elisha M. Pease, Governor of Texas (d. 1883)
- 1817 – Thomas E. Bramlette, Governor of Kentucky (d. 1875)
- 1819 – Charles Piazzi Smyth, Italian-Scottish astronomer (d. 1900)
- 1819 – Thomas H. Watts, Governor of Alabama (d. 1892)
- 1829 – Konrad Duden, German teacher, philologist and lexicographer (d. 1911)
- 1831 – Savitribai Phule, Indian social activist and educator (d. 1897)
- 1840 – Father Damien, Belgian missionary and doctor in Hawaii (d. 1889)
- 1861 – Ernest Renshaw, British tennis player (d. 1899)
- 1861 – William Renshaw, British tennis player (d. 1904)
- 1862 – Matthew Nathan, British Governor of Queensland (d. 1939)
- 1865 – Henry Lytton, British actor and opera singer (d. 1936)
- 1874 – Henry Newton, American golfer (d. 1946)
- 1875 – Alexandros Diomidis, 145th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1950)
- 1876 – Wilhelm Pieck, German politician (d. 1960)
- 1879 – Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States (d. 1957)
- 1883 – Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
- 1884 – Raoul von Koczalski, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1948)
- 1886 – Grigory Neujmin, Georgian-Russian astronomer (d. 1946)
- 1887 – Helen Parkhurst, American educator, writer and lecturer (d. 1973)
- 1888 – George B. Seitz, American movie director and writer (d. 1944)
- 1892 – J. R. R. Tolkien, English writer (d. 1973)
- 1894 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)
- 1895 – Borys Lyatoshynsky, Ukrainian composer (d. 1973)
- 1897 – Marion Davies, American actress (d. 1961)
- 1897 – Pola Negri, Polish-American actress (d. 1987)
- 1898 – Carolyn Haywood, American children's writer (d. 1990)
1901–1950
- 1901 – Ngo Dinh Diem, Vietnamese politician (d. 1963)
- 1905 – Anna May Wong, Chinese-American actress (d. 1961)
- 1906 – William Wilson Morgan, American astronomer (d. 1994)
- 1907 – Ray Milland, Welsh actor and director (d. 1986)
- 1909 – Victor Borge, Danish comedian and pianist (d. 2000)
- 1910 – John Sturges, American director and producer (d. 1992)
- 1912 – Federico Borrell Garcia, Spanish Republican soldier (d. 1936)
- 1915 – Mady Rahl, German actress (d. 2009)
- 1916 – Bernard Greenhouse, American cellist (d. 2011)
- 1916 – Betty Furness, American actress (d. 1994)
- 1916 – Maxene Andrews, American singer (The Andrews Sisters) (d. 1995)
- 1919 – Dorothy Morrison, American actress
- 1919 – Herbie Nichols, American pianist and composer (d. 1963)
- 1920 – Siegfried Buback, Attorney General of Germany (d. 1977)
- 1920 – Renato Carosone, Italian pianist (d. 2001)
- 1921 – Chetan Anand, Indian movie director and screenwriter (d. 1997)
- 1921 – Jean-Louis Koszul, French mathematician (d. 2018)
- 1922 – Bill Travers, British actor and director (d. 1994)
- 1923 – Abd El Aziz Muhammad Hegazi, Prime Minister of Egypt (d. 2014)
- 1926 – George Martin, English music producer (d. 2016)
- 1926 – W. Michael Blumenthal, 64th United States Secretary of the Treasury and former Director of the Jewish museum in Berlin
- 1927 – Nazmiye Demirel, First Lady of Turkey (d. 2013)
- 1927 – Janaki Ballabh Patnaik, Indian politician (d. 2015)
- 1929 – Sergio Leone, Italian movie director (d. 1989)
- 1930 – Robert Loggia, American actor (d. 2015)
- 1932 – Coo Coo Marlin, American racing driver (d. 2005)
- 1932 – Eeles Landström, Finnish athlete
- 1932 – Dabney Coleman, American actor
- 1934 – Carla Anderson Hills, American politician
- 1937 – Glen A. Larson, American director, producer and screenwriter (d. 2014)
- 1938 – Ove Andersson, Swedish rally driver (d. 2008)
- 1939 – Arik Einstein, Israeli singer (d. 2013)
- 1939 – Bobby Hull, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1942 – Laszlo Solyom, former President of Hungary
- 1942 – John Thaw, British actor (d. 2002)
- 1943 – Jarl Alfredius, Swedish journalist (d. 2009)
- 1944 – Van Dyke Parks, American singer-songwriter, producer and actor
- 1944 – David Atherton, English conductor
- 1945 – Stephen Stills, American musician
- 1945 – David Starkey, English historian
- 1946 – John Paul Jones, English musician (Led Zeppelin)
- 1947 – Fran Cotton, English rugby player
- 1948 – Manfred Kokot, German athlete
- 1949 – Sylvia Likens, American torture victim (d. 1965)
- 1950 – Victoria Principal, American actress
1951–1975
- 1952 – Gianfranco Fini, Italian politician
- 1952 – Esperanza Aguirre, Spanish politician
- 1953 – Mohammed Waheed Hassan, former President of the Maldives
- 1953 – Peter Taylor, English footballer
- 1955 – Palmolive, Spanish-English drummer
- 1956 – Mel Gibson, Australian-American actor and director
- 1956 – Guy Ryder, British labour activist
- 1958 – Shim Hyung-rae, South Korean movie maker
- 1960 – Daniela Schadt, German journalist
- 1962 – Gavin Hastings, Scottish rugby player
- 1963 – Stewart Hosie, Scottish politician
- 1963 – Till Lindemann, German singer (Rammstein)
- 1967 – Magnus Gustafsson, Swedish tennis player
- 1968 – Kent Carlsson, Swedish tennis player
- 1969 – Michael Schumacher, German racing driver
- 1969 – Gerda Weissensteiner, Italian bobsledder and luger
- 1971 – Sarah Alexander, British actress
- 1971 – Cory Cross, American ice hockey player
- 1972 – Janek Kiisman, Estonian footballer
- 1975 – Danica McKellar, British actress
- 1975 – Thomas Bangalter, French DJ and producer (Daft Punk)
From 1976
- 1976 – Angelos Basinas, Greek footballer
- 1977 – Lee Bowyer, English footballer
- 1977 – Michelle Stephenson, English singer (Spice Girls)
- 1978 – Liya Kebede, Ethiopian model
- 1978 – Mike York, American ice hockey player
- 1979 – Dina Tersago, Belgian model and television host
- 1981 – Eli Manning, American football player
- 1982 – Park Ji-yoon, South Korean singer, actress and model
- 1982 – Lasse Nilsson, Swedish footballer
- 1984 – Billy Mehmet, Irish footballer
- 1984 – Maximilian Mechler, German ski jumper
- 1985 – Linas Kleiza, Lithuanian basketball player
- 1986 – Dana Hussain, Iraqi athlete
- 1986 – Jessica O'Rourke, American soccer player
- 1986 – Lloyd, American singer
- 1988 – Ikechi Anya, Scottish footballer
- 1988 – Matt Frattin, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1989 – Ayaka Umeda, Japanese singer (AKB48)
- 1989 – Kohei Uchimura, Japanese gymnast
- 1989 – Alex D. Linz, American actor
- 1991 – Darius Morris, American basketball player
- 1992 – Doug McDermott, American basketball player
- 1993 – Kevin Ware, American basketball player
- 1995 – Kim Seol-hyun, South Korean actress and singer
- 1997 – Rahul Shah, Indian cricketer
- 2003 – Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate change activist
Up to 1900
- 235 – St. Anterus, Pope
- 323 – Jin Yuandi, Chinese Emperor (b. 276)
- 492 – Pope Felix III
- 502 – Genevieve of Paris, Patron Saint of Paris
- 1322 – King Philip V of France (b. 1293)
- 1437 – Catherine of Valois, wife of King Henry V of England (b. 1401)
- 1543 – Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, first European to visit California (b. 1499)
- 1571 – Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg (b. 1505)
- 1641 – Jeremiah Horrocks, English astronomer (b. ca. 1619)
- 1670 – George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle (b. 1608)
- 1701 – Prince Louis I of Monaco (b. 1642)
- 1705 – Luca Giordano, Italian painter (b. 1634)
- 1785 – Baldassare Galuppi, Italian composer (b. 1706)
- 1795 – Josiah Wedgwood, English pottery maker (b. 1730)
- 1863 – John Branch, Governor of North Carolina (b. 1782)
- 1875 – Pierre Larousse, French editor and encyclopedist (b. 1817)
- 1881 – Anna McNeill Whistler, mother of James Whistler (b. 1804)
- 1895 – James Merritt Ives, American lithographer and businessman (b. 1804)
1901–2000
- 1903 – Alois Hitler, father of Adolf Hitler (b. 1837)
- 1904 – Larin Paraske, Finnish runic singer (b. 1834)
- 1915 – James Elroy Flecker, English poet, writer and playwright (b. 1884)
- 1916 – Grenville M. Dodge, American general (b. 1831)
- 1923 – Jaroslav Hasek, Czech novelist (b. 1883)
- 1927 – Carl Runge, German mathematician (b. 1856)
- 1933 – Wilhelm Cuno, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1876)
- 1933 – Jack Pickford, Canadian actor (b. 1896)
- 1943 – Walter James, 5th Premier of Western Australia (b. 1863)
- 1945 – Edgar Cayce, American psychic (b. 1877)
- 1946 – William Joyce, Irish Nazi propagandist (executed) (b. 1906)
- 1950 – Emil Jannings, Swiss actor (b. 1884)
- 1956 – Alexander Gretchaninov, Russian composer (b. 1864)
- 1959 – Edwin Muir, Scottish poet, writer and translator (b. 1887)
- 1967 – Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvey Oswald (b. 1911)
- 1974 – Gino Cervi, Italian actor (b. 1901)
- 1979 – Conrad Hilton, American hotelier (b. 1887)
- 1980 – Joy Adamson, Czech conservationist and writer (b. 1910)
- 1980 – Lucien Buysse, Belgian cyclist (b. 1892)
- 1981 – Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, the last grandchild of Queen Victoria (b. 1883)
- 1982 – Fritz Laband, German footballer (b. 1925)
- 1988 – Rose Auslander, German poet (b. 1901)
- 1988 – Gaston Eyskens, Prime Minister of Belgium (b. 1905)
- 1989 – Sergei Lvovich Sobolev, Russian mathematician (b. 1909)
- 1992 – Dame Judith Anderson, Australian actress (b. 1897)
From 2001
- 2001 – José Greco, flamenco dancer (b. 1918)
- 2002 – Freddy Heineken, Dutch CEO of Heineken (b. 1923)
- 2003 – Sid Gillman, American football coach (b. 1911)
- 2004 – Des Corcoran, 37th Premier of South Australia (b. 1928)
- 2004 – Leon Wagner, American MLB All-Star (b. 1934)
- 2005 – Jyotindra Nath Dixit, Indian national security advisor and former foreign secretary (b. 1936)
- 2005 – Will Eisner, American comic book artist and pioneering graphic novelist (b. 1917)
- 2005 – Koo Chen-fu, Chinese negotiator with the PRC (b. 1917)
- 2006 – Bill Skate, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea (b. 1954)
- 2008 – Yo Sam-Choi, South Korean boxer (b. 1972)
- 2008 – Werner Dollinger, German politician and economist (b. 1918)
- 2009 – Pat Hingle, American actor (b. 1924)
- 2010 – Mary Daly, American theologian and scholar (b. 1928)
- 2012 – Josef Skvorecky, Czech writer (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Sergiu Nicolaescu, Romanian movie director, actor and politician (b. 1930)
- 2013 – Burry Stander, South African cyclist (b. 1987)
- 2014 – Leon de Wolff, Dutch journalist (b. 1948)
- 2014 – George Goodman, American economics professor (b. 1930)
- 2014 – Phil Everly, American singer and musician (Everly Brothers) (b. 1939)
- 2014 – Alicia Rhett, American actress (b. 1915)
- 2014 – Saul Zaentz, American movie producer (b. 1921)
- 2015 – Edward Brooke, American politician, United States Senator from Massachusetts (b. 1919)
- 2015 – Derek Minter, British motorcycle racer (b. 1932)
- 2015 – Bernice Madigan, American supercentenarian (b. 1899)
- 2015 – Olga Knyazeva, Russian fencer (b. 1954)
- 2016 – Peter Naur, Danish computer scientist (b. 1928)
- 2016 – Bill Plager, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1945)
- 2016 – C. B. Forgotston, American political blogger (b. 1945)
- 2016 – Igor Sergun, Russian military officer (b. 1957)
- 2016 – Paul Bley, Canadian jazz pianist (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Stephen W. Bosworth, American diplomat (b. 1939)
- 2016 – Amby Fogarty, Irish footballer (b. 1933)
- 2016 – Demmus Hentze, Faroese politician (b. 1923)
- 2016 – Peter Powell, English kite maker (b. 1932)
- 2016 – Georg Nees, German academic and artist (b. 1926)
- 2016 – Tommy Sale, English rugby league player (b. 1918)
- 2017 – Charles J. Colgan, American politician (b. 1925)
- 2017 – Rolf Noskwith, German-British businessman (b. 1919)
- 2017 – Igor Volk, Ukrainian-Russian cosmonaut (b. 1937)
- 2017 – Rodney Bennett, British television director (b. 1935)
- 2017 – Martin Brandtner, American Marine Corps general (b. 1938)
- 2017 – Mike Buchanan, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1932)
- 2018 – Fred Bass, American bookseller (b. 1928)
- 2019 – Herb Kelleher, American businessman (b. 1931)
- 2020 – Qasem Soleimani, Iranian general (b. 1957)
- 2022 – Beatrice Mintz, American embryologist (b. 1921)
- 2022 – Viktor Saneyev, Georgian triple jumper and Olympic champion (b. 1945)
- Statehood Day (Alaska)
- Perihelion, on or around this date, when Earth is at its closest point to the Sun during its orbit.
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