January 03: This Day That Year
January 03
- 236 - St Anterus ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 269 - St Felix I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 936 - Duke Alberik II appoints his son Pope Leo VII.
- 1196 - Birthday: Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan (d. 1231).
- 1496 - Leonardo da Vinci tests a flying machine (unsuccessfully).
- 1624 - Birthday: William Tucker - 1st African American child born in America.
- 1777 - General George Washington defeats British forces at Battle of Princeton, NJ (USA).
- 1823 - Stephen F. Austin (founder of Texas) receives a grant from the government of Mexico for land in Texas.
- 1825 - Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Indiana to build a site for New Harmony Utopian community.
- 1834 - Stephen F. Austin (founder of Texas) imprisoned in Mexico City by the Mexican government.
- 1842 - Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine leave Liverpool, England and move to America in RMS Britannia.
- 1852 - 1st Chinese reaches Hawaii.
- 1870 - Construction begins on Brooklyn Bridge in New York (completed May 24, 1883).
- 1872 - US Patent Office issues 1st patent list.
- 1883 - Birthday: Clement Attlee, British PM (1945-51), born in Putney, London.
- 1892 - Birthday: J. R. R. Tolkien (Author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings), born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
- 1925 - Benito Mussolini proclaims himself dictator of Italy, taking the title "Il Duce" (the Leader) after dissolving the Italian parliament.
- 1926 - Greek gen Theodorus Pangulos proclaims himself dictator.
- 1945 - US aircraft carriers attack Okinawa (Japan).
- 1957 - 1st electric watch was introduced in Lancaster PA (USA).
- 1958 - The West Indies Federation was formed.
- 1959 - Alaska becomes 49th US state.
- 1961 - USA breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba.
- 1969 - Birthday: Michael Schumacher (World F1 champion 1994-95, 2000-05), born in Hürth, Germany.
- 1974 - Burma accepts its constitution.
- 1976 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site.
- 1977 - Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak incorporate Apple Computer, Inc (formerly Apple Computer Company).
- 1988 - UK - Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British PM of the century.
- 1990 - General Manuel Noriega (leader of Panama) surrenders to US authorities.
- 1991 - Israel reopens consulate in USSR after 23 years.
- 1991 - 8 Iraqi embassy officials were expelled from the UK.
- 1994 - Venezuela prison revolt, 100+ killed.
- 1994 - Tupolev-154M crashes at Irkutsk, Siberia -122 killed.
- 1996 - the Motorola StarTAC (1st clamshell flip mobile phone) goes on sale (60 million were sold).
- 2003 - Birthday: Greta Thunberg, Swedish climate change activist, born in Stockholm, Sweden.
- 2004 - Flight 604 - an Egyptian airliner (Boeing 737) plunges into the Red Sea, killing 148 people on board.
- 2009 - Israeli forces invade Gaza.
- 2009 - The Bitcoin network is created. First block of the digital currency is mined using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.
- 2013 - Musayyib (Iraq) - 27 Shiite pilgrims were killed and 60 injured by a suicide bombing.
- 2015 - Boko Haram militants raze the town of Baga (Nigeria), killing 2,000 people.
- 2019 - Nancy Pelosi becomes a Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second time in Washington D.C.
- 2020 - Iraq: US drone strike kills Iranian Major General Qassim Suleimani outside Baghdad airport.