January 3

This date in recent years

January 3 is the 3rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 362 days (363 during leap years) remain in the year after this day.

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths
4 Holidays and observances
5 External links

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Events

1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
1777 - Battle of Princeton. American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis.
1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
1823 - Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
1825 - Rensselaer School, the first engineering college in the U.S. is opened in Troy, New York. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
1833 - Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
1834 - The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.
1852 - First Chinese arrive in Hawaii.
1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
1868 - The Japanese Meiji dynasty is restored and the Shogunate is abolished.
1871 - Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine.
1888 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
1888 - Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw.
1899 - The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times.
1920 - Curse of the Bambino: The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a sum of $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000.
1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia.
1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.
1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1932 - Martial law declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.
1938 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1938 - Woman in White is first broadcast on the NBC Red network. The program remains on the radio for the next 10 years.
1947 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1951 - Dragnet is first broadcast on NBC-TV.
1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
1957 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed.
1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
1961 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
1961 - The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho leaks radiation, killing three workers.
1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
1966 - The first Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California.
1973 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner.
1983 - Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys makes the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history.
CiTV launches on ITV1 in the UK.
1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1988 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.
1990 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
1991 - Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal.
1991 - Gulf War: The British government announces the expulsion of 75 Iraqis from the country.
1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
1993 - In an AFC Wild Card game, the Buffalo Bills comeback from a 35-3 defecit against the Houston Oilers and win the game in overtime 41-38, the largest comeback in NFL history.
1994 - An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkhutsk, Russia killing 125 including 1 on the ground.
1997 - Bryant Gumbel signs off for the last time as host of NBC's Today show.
1997 - China announces it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.
1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launches.
1999 - Israel detains, later to expel, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
2000 - The last "Peanuts" comic strip is created by Charles Schulz.
2004 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 aboard.