20 Dey 1395

Events

• 1693 (333 years ago) 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.
• 1787 (239 years ago) The nationally known image of the Black Nazarene in the Philippines is 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.
• 1822 (204 years ago) 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.
• 1917 (109 years ago) World War I: The Battle of Rafa is fought near the Egyptian border with Palestine.
• 1964 (62 years ago) Martyrs' Day: Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag in the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal Zone, leading to fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians.
• 1991 (35 years ago) Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
• 2004 (22 years ago) An inflatable boat carrying illegal Albanian emigrants stalls near the Karaburun Peninsula en route to Brindisi, Italy; exposure to the elements kills 28. This is the second deadliest marine disaster in Albanian history.
• 2015 (11 years ago) The perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris two days earlier are both killed after a hostage situation; a second hostage situation, related to the Charlie Hebdo shooting, occurs at a Jewish market in Vincennes.

Births

• 1554 (472 years ago) Pope Gregory XV,
• 1890 (136 years ago) Karel Čapek, Czech author and playwright (died 1938)
• 1908 (118 years ago) Simone de Beauvoir, French philosopher and author (died 1986)
• 1913 (113 years ago) Richard Nixon, American commander, lawyer, and politician, 37th President of the United States (died 1994)
• 1941 (85 years ago) Joan Baez, American singer-songwriter, guitarist and activist
• 1959 (67 years ago) Rigoberta Menchú, Guatemalan activist and politician, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1982 (44 years ago) Catherine, Princess of Wales
• 1989 (37 years ago) Nina Dobrev, Bulgarian-Canadian actress

Deaths

• 1799 (227 years ago) Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Italian mathematician and philosopher (born 1718)
• 1848 (178 years ago) Caroline Herschel, German-English astronomer (born 1750)
• 1873 (153 years ago) Napoleon III, French politician, 1st President of France (born 1808)
• 1878 (148 years ago) Victor Emmanuel II of Italy,
• 1923 (103 years ago) Katherine Mansfield, New Zealand novelist, short story writer, and essayist (born 1888)
• 1961 (65 years ago) Emily Greene Balch, American economist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1867)
• 2017 (9 years ago) Zygmunt Bauman, Polish sociologist (born 1925)
• 2022 (4 years ago) Bob Saget, American comedian, actor, and television host (born 1956)

All 373 events, births and deaths of January 9