| 1477 | Swiss troops defeat the forces under Charles the Bold of Burgundy at the Battle of Nancy. | |
| 1815 | Federalists from all over New England, angered over the War of 1812, draw up the Hartford Convention, demanding several important changes in the U.S. Constitution. | |
| 1861 | The merchant vessel Star of the West sets sail from New York to Fort Sumter, in response to rebel attack, carrying supplies and 250 troops. | |
| 1904 | American Marines arrive in Seoul, Korea, to guard the U.S. legation there. | |
| 1914 | Henry Ford astounds the world as he announces that he will pay a minimum wage of $5 a day and will share with employees $10 million in the previous year’s profits. | |
| 1917 | Bulgarian and German troops occupy the Port of Braila. | |
| 1919 | British ships shell the Bolshevik headquarters in Riga. | |
| 1920 | GOP women demand equal representation at the Republican National Convention in June. | |
| 1921 | Wagner’s “Die Walkyrie” opens in Paris. This is the first German opera performed in Paris since the beginning of World War I. | |
| 1923 | The U.S. Senate debates the benefits of Peyote for the American Indian. | |
| 1925 | Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming is sworn in as the first woman governor in the United States. | |
| 1936 | Daggha Bur, Ethiopia, is bombed by the Italians. | |
| 1942 | U.S. and Filipino troops complete their withdrawal to a new defensive line along the base of the Bataan peninsula. | |
| 1947 | Great Britain nationalizes its coal mines. | |
| 1951 | Inchon, South Korea, the sight of General Douglas MacArthur’s amphibious flanking maneuver, is abandoned by United Nations force to the advancing Chinese Army. | |
| 1952 | Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington to confer with President Harry S. Truman. | |
| 1968 | U.S. forces in Vietnam launch Operation Niagara I to locate enemy units around the Marine base at Khe Sanh. | |
| 1969 | President Richard M. Nixon appoints Henry Cabot Lodge as negotiator at the Paris Peace Talks. | |
| 1971 | President Richard M. Nixon names Robert Dole as chairman of the Republican National Party. | |
| 1982 | A Federal judge voids a state law requiring balanced classroom treatment of evolution and creationism. | |
| 1991 | The South Ossetia War (1991-92) begins as Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, capital of South Ossetia, Georgia. | |
| 2005 | Eris, largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System is discovered in images taken Oct. 21, 2003, at Palomar Observatory. | |
| Born on January 5 | ||
| 1779 | Stephen Decatur, American naval hero during actions against the Barbay pirates and the War of 1812. | |
| 1876 | Conrad Adenauer, first chancellor of post-World War II West Germany. | |
| 1928 | Walter Mondale, 42nd Vice President of the United States, Democratic presidential nominee who lost to Ronald Reagan in 1984, and Ambassador to Japan. | |
| 1932 | Umberto Eco, Italian novelist (The Name of the Rose). | |
| 1938 | Juan Carlos I, King of Spain. | |
Source: History net