EVENTS:
- 1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
- 1908 – Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is released from prison by Jan C. Smuts after being tried and sentenced to two months in jail earlier in the month.
- 1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
- 1946 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 2 is adopted.
- 1948 – Mahatma Gandhi known for his non-violent freedom struggle, is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
- 1960 – The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.
- 1972 – Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.
- 1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called “Elk Cloner“.
- 1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.
- 2013 – Naro-1 becomes the first carrier rocket launched by South Korea.
- 2018 – Both a blue moon and a total lunar eclipse occur.
- 2019 – Abdullah of Pahang is sworn in as the 16th Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- 2020 – The United Kingdom‘s membership within the European Union ceases in accordance with Article 50, after 47 years of being a member state.
- 2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
BIRTHS:
- 1889 – Jaishankar Prasad, Indian poet and playwright (d. 1937)
- 1899 – Max Theiler, South African-American virologist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1972)
- 1910 – Chidambaram Subramaniam, Indian lawyer and politician, Indian Minister of Defence (d. 2000)
- 1925 – Douglas Engelbart, American computer scientist, invented the computer mouse (d. 2013)
- 1929 – Hugh Tayfield, South African cricketer (d. 1994)
- 1949 – Peter Agre, American physician and biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1951 – Bobby Stokes, English footballer (d. 1995)
- 1977 – Deltha O’Neal, American football player
- 1981 – Peter Crouch, English footballer
- 1985 – Trae Williams, American football player
- 1987 – Ben Cutting, Australian cricketer
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
- Day of Azerbaijani customs (Azerbaijan)
- Day of Saudade (Brazil)
- Martyrdom of Mahatma Gandhi-related observances:
- Martyrs’ Day (India)
- School Day of Non-violence and Peace (Spain)
- Start of the Season for Nonviolence January 30-April 4
