January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 344 days remaining (345 in leap years).
- 1189 - Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade
- 1276 - Innocent V becomes Pope
- 1643 - Abel Tasman discovers Tonga
- 1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts
- 1793 - After being found guilty for treason by the French Convention[?], Louis XVI of France is guillotined.
- 1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland
- 1853 - Russell L. Hawes[?] patents the envelope folding machine.
- 1861 - American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate
- 1887 - The Amateur Athletic Union[?] (AAU) is formed
- 1899 - Opel Motors opens for business
- 1908 - New York City passes a law, the Sullivan Ordinance[?], making it illegal for women to smoke in public only to be vetoed by the mayor.
- 1911 - The first Monte Carlo motor rally[?]
- 1915 - Kiwanis International[?] founded in Detroit, Michigan
- 1924 - Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
- 1925 - Albania declares itself a republic
- 1941 - World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk[?], Libya
- 1950 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury
- 1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut.
- 1968 - Simon & Garfunkel release the Original Soundtrack to The Graduate, which quickly goes to #1 on the pop charts and which will bring Simon a Grammy for Best Original Score.
- 1976 - The first commercial service Concorde flight took off.
- 1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all Vietnam War draft evaders.
- 1994 - Lorena Bobbitt is found not-guilty by reason of temporary insanity for severing the penis of her husband John.
- 1997 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
- 1999 - War on Drugs: In one of the one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds of cocaine aboard. The ship was headed to Houston, Texas.
- 2003 - Kevin Mitnick is finally allowed to use a computer again.
- 1738 - Ethan Allen, American patriot (+ 1789)
- 1824 - Thomas Stonewall Jackson, Confederate Army general
- 1850 - Paul Vinzenz Busch[?], ringmaster (+ 1927)
- 1855 - John Moses Browning, inventor (+ 1926)
- 1867 - Ludwig Thoma[?], narrator, dramatist and lyricist (+ 1921)
- 1867 - Maxime Weygand, French General
- 1884 - Roger Baldwin[?], ACLU president, social activist (+ 1981)
- 1885 - Umberto Nobile[?], politician and airship designer (+ 1978)
- 1905 - Christian Dior, couturier (+ 1957)
- 1922 - Paul Scofield, actor
- 1924 - Telly Savalas[?], actor (+ 1994)
- 1925 - Benny Hill, comedian, actor (+ 1992)
- 1926 - Steve Reeves[?], actor (+ 2000)
- 1939 - Wolfman Jack, disk jockey, actor (+ 1995)
- 1941 - Richie Havens, musician
- 1941 - Placido Domingo, opera singer
- 1953 - Paul Allen, entrepreneur
- 1956 - Geena Davis, actress
- 1950 - Billy Ocean, musician
- 1519 - Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer
- 1609 - Joseph Justus Scaliger, protestant scholar
- 1793 - King Louis XVI of France, executed
- 1891 - Calixa Lavallée[?], composer
- 1924 - Vladimir Lenin, first leader of the USSR
- 1948 - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, composer
- 1950 - George Orwell, writer
- 1959 - Cecil B. DeMille, director
- 1961 - Blaise Cendrars, writer
- 1997 - Colonel Tom Parker[?], celebrity manager
- 1998 - Jack Lord[?], actor
- 1999 - Susan Strasberg[?], actress
- 2002 - Peggy Lee, singer
See Also:
January 20 - January 22 - December 21 - February 21 -- listing of all days
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December