Here are 31 newsworthy and notable anniversaries coming up in January 2020.
We list the anniversaries 6 months in advance so you have time to research and write about them. This list is a short extract from The Date-A-Base Book 2020, which lists hundreds of newsworthy and notable anniversaries for each month. It’s just the thing you need for writing anniversary tie-ins and “on this day in history” features.
1 Jan 1995 – 25 years ago
The World Trade Organization was established.
2 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
Birth of Isaac Asimov, Russian-born American science fiction writer.
3 Jan 1945 – 75 years ago
Death of Edgar Cayce, American psychic and faith healer.
4 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
The Negro National League – the first black baseball league in the USA – was founded. The first games were played on 2nd May 1920.
5 Jan 1970 – 50 years ago
The first episode of the television soap opera All My Children was broadcast on ABC in the USA.
6 Jan 1945 – 75 years ago
The cartoon character Pepé Le Pew made his first appearance, in the Warner Bros. cartoon Odor-able Kitty.
7 Jan 1940 – 80 years ago
The BBC Forces Programme radio station began broadcasting. (It ran until February 1944.)
8 Jan 1870 – 150 years ago
Birth of Miguel Primo de Rivera, Prime Minister/dictator of Spain (1923–30).
9 Jan 1995 – 25 years ago
Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov became the first person to spend an entire year (366 days) in space in a single mission. (In total, his mission to the Mir space station lasted for 437 days.)
10 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
The League of Nations was established. It operated until 1946 when it was replaced by the United Nations.
11 Jan 1970 – 50 years ago
Death of Richmal Crompton, British writer. Best known for her Just William children’s stories.
12 Jan 1895 – 125 years ago
The National Trust was founded in the UK (as the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty).
13 Jan 1930 – 90 years ago
The first Mickey Mouse comic strip was published, in the New York Mirror.
14 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
Death of John Dodge, pioneering American automobile manufacturer. Co-founder of the Dodge Brothers Company (now part of Fiat Chrysler) with his brother, Horace.
15 Jan 1895 – 125 years ago
Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake was performed for the first time in its current form, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia. (This was a revision of an earlier version that was first performed in 1877 but was not a success. The revised version has become one of the world’s most popular ballets.)
16 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
Prohibition began in the USA as the 18th Amendment went into effect.
17 Jan 1820 – 200 years ago
Birth of Anne Brontë, British novelist and poet. Youngest of the three Brontë sisters. Known for novels Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
18 Jan 1980 – 40 years ago
Death of Cecil Beaton, British photographer and theatrical designer.
19 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded.
20 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
Birth of Federico Fellini, Italian film director and screenwriter. (Died 1993.)
21 Jan 1960 – 60 years ago
Coalbrook mining disaster, Clydesdale Colliery, near Sasolburg, Free State, South Africa. 435 miners were killed when the mine collapsed because of pillar failure. It remains the worse mining disaster in South African history.
22 Jan 1970 – 50 years ago
The Boeing 747 “Jumbo Jet” went into service (with Pan American World Airways) on its first regularly scheduled commercial flight, from New York to London.
23 Jan to May 1945 – 75 years ago
World War II – Operation Hannibal. Germany evacuated 1.8 million civilians and military personnel across the Baltic Sea from East Prussia and the neighboring area as the Soviet Red Army advanced. This was one of the largest emergency evacuations by sea in history, with more than three times the number of people evacuated than from Dunkirk.
24 Jan 1995 – 25 years ago
Opening statements began in the O. J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles, California, USA. (Simpson was acquitted in October.)
25 Jan 1960 – 60 years ago
Payola scandal. The U.S. National Association of Broadcasters threatened to fine disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records.
26 Jan 1970 – 50 years ago
The album Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel was released.
27 and 30 Jan 1820 – 200 years ago
The discovery of Antarctica. Who actually gets the credit for this is disputed. On 27th January, a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev sighted the Fimbul Ice Shelf, and this is sometimes considered the discovery of Antarctica. However, they did not sight land. This happened on 30th January when Irish sailor Edward Bransfield, a captain in the British Royal Navy, sighted the Trinity Peninsula.
28 Jan 1960 – 60 years ago
The final episode of the radio comedy series The Goon Show was broadcast on the BBC Home Service in the UK. (Three special episodes were broadcast in 1968, 1972 and 2001.)
29 Jan 1820 – 200 years ago
Death of George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland/United Kingdom (1760–1820). He suffered from mental illness, and his son George, Prince of Wales (later King George IV) ruled as Prince Regent from 1810.
30 Jan 1920 – 100 years ago
The Mazda Motor Corporation was founded in Japan.
31 Jan 1945 – 75 years ago
World War II – the Battle of Bataan, Philippines. Allied victory. The strategically important peninsula was recaptured from the Japanese who had held it since April 1942. This opened up additional supply lines to U.S. troops fighting in the Battle of Manila, which was won on 3rd March.
More anniversaries:
The above list is a short extract from The Date-A-Base Book 2020. You’ll find hundreds more anniversaries for each month in the book. The 2019, 2020 and 2021 editions are currently available, as PDF ebooks and in print. Find out more at ideas4writers.com