3 January

Events

Pre-1600

* 69 – The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor.
* 250 – Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods.
* 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull ''Decet Romanum Pontificem''.

1601–1900

* 1653 – By the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portuguese tutelage.
* 1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
* 1749 – The first issue of ''Berlingske'', Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, is published.
*1777 – American General George Washington defeats British General Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
*1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia.
*1833 – Captain James Onslow, in the ''Clio'', reasserts British sovereignty over the Falkland Islands.
* 1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of Liberia.
*1861 – American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
*1868 – Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
* 1870 – Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, United States.
* 1871 – In the Battle of Bapaume, an engagement in the Franco-Prussian War, General Louis Faidherbe's forces bring about a Prussian retreat.
* 1885 – Sino-French War: Beginning of the Battle of Núi Bop.

1901–present

*1911 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake destroys the city of Almaty in Russian Turkestan.
* 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London leaves two dead. It sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary Winston Churchill.
*1913 – An Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading for a non-tropical system in the continental United States.
*1920 – Over 640 are killed after a magnitude 6.4 earthquake strikes the Mexican states Puebla and Veracruz.
* 1933 – Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first woman to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
*1944 – World War II: US flying ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Vought F4U Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
*1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him.
*1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
*1949 – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the central bank of the Philippines, is established.
*1953 – Frances P. Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
*1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
*1957 – The 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 – Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
* 1961 – The SL-1 nuclear reactor is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.
* 1961 – A protest by agricultural workers in Baixa de Cassanje, Portuguese Angola, turns into a revolt, opening the Angolan War of Independence, the first of the Portuguese Colonial Wars.
* 1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
*1976 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly, comes into force.
*1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated.
*1990 – United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
*1992 – CommutAir Flight 4821 crashes on approach to Adirondack Regional Airport, in Saranac Lake, New York, killing two people.
*1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
*1994 – Baikal Airlines Flight 130 crashes near Mamoney, Irkutsk, Russia, resulting in 125 deaths.
*1999 – The ''Mars Polar Lander'' is launched by NASA.
*2002 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter '' Karine A'' in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
*2004 – Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashes into the Red Sea, resulting in 148 deaths, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Egyptian history.
*2009 – The first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, called the ''Genesis block'', is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.
*2015 – Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.
*2016 – In response to the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia.
*2018 – For the first time in history, all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm.
*2019 – Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover.
*2020 – Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict.

Births

Pre-1600

* 106 BC – Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician (d. 43 BC)
* 1509 – Gian Girolamo Albani, Italian cardinal (d. 1591)

1601–1900

*1611 – James Harrington, English political theorist (d. 1677)
* 1698 – Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet and songwriter (d. 1782)
* 1710 – Richard Gridley, American soldier and engineer (d. 1796)
* 1722 – Fredrik Hasselqvist, Swedish biologist and explorer (d. 1752)
*1731 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (d. 1792)
* 1760 – Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Indian ruler (d. 1799)
*1775 – Francis Caulfeild, 2nd Earl of Charlemont (d. 1863)
* 1778 – Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish archbishop (d. 1861)
* 1793 – Lucretia Mott, American activist (d. 1880)
* 1802 – Charles Pelham Villiers, English lawyer and politician (d. 1898)
* 1803 – Douglas William Jerrold, English journalist and playwright (d. 1857)
*1806 – Henriette Sontag, German soprano and actress (d. 1854)
* 1810 – Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie, French geographer, ethnologist, linguist, and astronomer (d. 1897)
*1816 – Samuel C. Pomeroy, American businessman and politician (d. 1891)
*1819 – Charles Piazzi Smyth, Italian-Scottish astronomer and academic (d. 1900)
* 1831 – Savitribai Phule, Indian poet, educator, and activist (d. 1897)
*1836 – Sakamoto Ryōma, Japanese samurai and rebel leader (d. 1867)
*1840 – Father Damien, Flemish priest and missionary (d. 1889)
* 1847 – Ettore Marchiafava, Italian physician (d. 1935)
* 1853 – Sophie Elkan, Swedish writer (d. 1921)
* 1855 – Hubert Bland, English businessman (d. 1914)
*1861 – Ernest Renshaw, English tennis player (d. 1899)
* 1861 – William Renshaw, English tennis player (d. 1904)
*1862 – Matthew Nathan, English soldier and politician, 13th Governor of Queensland (d. 1939)
* 1865 – Henry Lytton, English actor (d. 1936)
* 1870 – Henry Handel Richardson, Australian-English author (d. 1946)
* 1873 – Ichizō Kobayashi, Japanese businessman and art collector, founded the Hankyu Hanshin Holdings (d. 1957)
*1875 – Alexandros Diomidis, Greek banker and politician, 145th Prime Minister of Greece (d. 1950)
*1876 – Wilhelm Pieck, German carpenter and politician, 1st President of the German Democratic Republic (d. 1960)
* 1877 – Josephine Hull, American actress (d. 1957)
*1880 – Francis Browne, Irish Jesuit priest and photographer (d. 1960)
*1883 – Clement Attlee, English soldier, lawyer, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1967)
* 1883 – Duncan Gillis, Canadian discus thrower and hammer thrower (d. 1963)
*1884 – Raoul Koczalski, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1948)
* 1885 – Harry Elkins Widener, American businessman (d. 1912)
* 1886 – John Gould Fletcher, American poet and author (d. 1950)
* 1886 – Arthur Mailey, Australian cricketer (d. 1967)
*1887 – August Macke, German-French painter (d. 1914)
*1892 – J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer, poet, and philologist (d. 1973)
* 1894 – ZaSu Pitts, American actress (d. 1963)
* 1897 – Marion Davies, American actress and comedian (d. 1961)
*1898 – Carolyn Haywood – Donald J. Russell, American businessman (d. 1985)

1901–present

*1901 – Ngô Đình Diệm, Vietnamese lawyer and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam (d. 1963)
*1905 – Dante Giacosa, Italian engineer (d. 1996)
* 1905 – Anna May Wong, American actress (d. 1961)
* 1907 – Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor and director (d. 1986)
*1909 – Victor Borge, Danish-American pianist and conductor (d. 2000)
* 1910 – Frenchy Bordagaray, American baseball player and manager (d. 2000)
* 1910 – John Sturges, American director and producer (d. 1992)
*1912 – Federico Borrell García, Spanish soldier (d. 1936)
* 1912 – Renaude Lapointe, Canadian journalist and politician (d. 2002)
* 1912 – Armand Lohikoski, American-Finnish actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 2005)
*1915 – Jack Levine, American painter and soldier (d. 2010)
* 1916 – Betty Furness, American actress and television journalist (d. 1994)
* 1916 – Fred Haas, American golfer (d. 2004)
* 1917 – Albert Mol, Dutch author and actor (d. 2002)
* 1917 – Roger Williams Straus, Jr., American journalist and publisher, co-founded Farrar, Straus and Giroux (d. 2004)
*1919 – Herbie Nichols, American pianist and composer (d. 1963)
*1920 – Siegfried Buback, German lawyer and politician, Attorney General of Germany (d. 1977)
*1921 – Isabella Bashmakova, Russian historian of mathematics (d. 2005)
*1922 – Bill Travers, English actor, director, and screenwriter (d. 1994)
* 1923 – Hank Stram, American football coach and sportscaster (d. 2005)
* 1924 – Otto Beisheim, German businessman and philanthropist, founded Metro AG (d. 2013)
* 1924 – André Franquin, Belgian author and illustrator (d. 1997)
* 1924 – Nell Rankin, American soprano and educator (d. 2005)
* 1924 – Enzo Cozzolini, Italian football player (d. 1962)
*1925 – Jill Balcon, English actress (d. 2009)
* 1926 – W. Michael Blumenthal, American economist and politician, 64th United States Secretary of the Treasury
* 1926 – George Martin, English composer, conductor, and producer (d. 2016)
* 1928 – Abdul Rahman Ya'kub, Malaysian lawyer and politician, 3rd Chief Minister of Sarawak (d. 2015)
*1929 – Sergio Leone, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (d. 1989)
* 1929 – Ernst Mahle, German-Brazilian composer and conductor
* 1929 – Gordon Moore, American businessman, co-founder of Intel Corporation
*1930 – Robert Loggia, American actor and director (d. 2015)
*1932 – Eeles Landström, Finnish pole vaulter and politician
* 1933 – Geoffrey Bindman, English lawyer
* 1933 – Anne Stevenson, American-English poet and author (d. 2020)
*1934 – Marpessa Dawn, American-French actress, singer, and dancer (d. 2008)
* 1934 – Carla Anderson Hills, American lawyer and politician, 5th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
*1935 – Raymond Garneau, Canadian businessman and politician
* 1937 – Glen A. Larson, American director, producer, and screenwriter, created ''Battlestar Galactica'' (d. 2014)
*1938 – Robin Butler, Baron Butler of Brockwell, English academic and politician
* 1938 – K. Ganeshalingam, Sri Lankan accountant and politician, Mayor of Colombo (d. 2006)
*1939 – Arik Einstein, Israeli singer-songwriter and actor (d. 2013)
* 1939 – Bobby Hull, Canadian ice hockey player
* 1940 – Leo de Berardinis