The Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia (pictured) ran aground on a reef and capsized off Isola del Giglio, Tuscany.
Source13 January 784
A Friday in history
Weekday
Friday
Season
Winter (N. Hemisphere)
Century
8th century
Records
399
2012
2003The trans-Neptunian object 208996 Achlys was discovered by Chad Trujillo and Michael E. Brown at Palomar Observatory, California.
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2001The first of two large earthquakes in the span of a month struck El Salvador, killing at least 944 people and destroying over 100,000 homes.
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1972Ghanaian military officer Ignatius Kutu Acheampong led a coup to overthrow Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo.
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1972Bernice Gera won a sex-discrimination lawsuit against the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, allowing her to become the first female professional baseball umpire.
Source- 1969
British rock band Led Zeppelin released their first album, Led Zeppelin, in the United States.
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1968American singer Johnny Cash recorded his landmark album At Folsom Prison live at Folsom State Prison in California.
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1963Togo's first president, Sylvanus Olympio (pictured), was assassinated by military officers in a coup d'état led by Emmanuel Bodjollé, Étienne Eyadéma, and Kléber Dadjo.
Source- 1953
Nine Moscow doctors were accused of a plot to poison members of the Soviet political and military leadership.
Source - 1949
In the first recorded instance of strike action by Catholic laity against the clergy, gravediggers at Calvary Cemetery in Queens, New York City, went on strike.
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1916The first Feminist Congress of Yucatán (delegates pictured) began in Mérida, Mexico, to propose reforms for women's social, educational, and legal rights.
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1915About 30,000 people were killed when an earthquake struck the Province of L'Aquila in Italy.
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1884Welsh physician William Price (pictured) was arrested for attempting to cremate his deceased infant son; this eventually led to the passing of the Cremation Act 1902 by Parliament.
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1847The Treaty of Cahuenga was signed, informally ending the fighting of the Mexican–American War in California.
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1842First Anglo-Afghan War: William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British Army, was the sole European of the 14,000 people retreating from Kabul to Jalalabad who evaded capture or death.
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1815British troops captured Fort Peter in St. Marys, in the only battle of the War of 1812 to take place in the state of Georgia.
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1797French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle off the coast of Brittany between two British frigates and a French ship of the line ended with hundreds of deaths when the latter ran aground.
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1435Pope Eugene IV promulgated the papal bull Sicut dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the native Guanche of the Canary Islands by the Spanish.
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Photo archive
24 historic images from this day — tap to open the gallery.
What was life like?
Prices, jobs, food, music and everyday routine — the world as it felt to live in.
Sources & fact check
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