EVENTS:
- 1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
- 1921 – The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.
- 1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 39 relating to India and Pakistan is adopted.
- 1972 – Pakistan launched its Nuclear weapons program few weeks after its defeat in Bangladesh Liberation War and Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.
- 1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
- 2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.
- 2016 – An attack had been carried out on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan killing 21 people and injuring 50 people.
- 2017 – Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America.
- 2018 – The United States federal government shuts down after the Senate fails to pass a temporary funding bill.
- 2018 – A group of 4 or 5 gunmen attack The Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle. The attack kills at least 18 people and injures more than 22 and with reports that the death toll may rise to 43.
- 2021 – Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the United States of America. At 78, he becomes the oldest person ever inaugurated. Kamala Harris becomes the first female Vice President of the United States.
BIRTHS:
- 1873 – Johannes V. Jensen, Danish author, poet, and playwright, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1950)
- 1915 – Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Pakistani businessman and politician, 7th President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
- 1927 – Qurratulain Hyder, Indian-Pakistani journalist, author, and academic (d. 2007)
- 1929 – Frank Kush, American football player and coach
- 1931 – David Lee, American physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1940 – Krishnam Raju, Indian actor and politician
- 1964 – Fareed Zakaria, Indian-American journalist and author
- 1981 – Owen Hargreaves, English footballer
- 1988 – Nathan Jones, Australian footballer
