John C. Breckinridge

The political career of John C. Breckinridge included service in the governments of Kentucky, the United States, and the Confederate States of America. Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was inaugurated in 1857 as James Buchanan's vice president, and remains the youngest person to ever hold the office. In 1860 he ran as the presidential candidate of a dissident group of Southern Democrats and won the electoral votes of most of the Southern states, but he finished a distant second among four candidates, losing the election to the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln. Most Southern states seceded, but Kentucky stayed in the Union. Previously elected to a U.S. Senate term that began in 1861, Breckenridge fled the state, joined the Confederate States Army, and was expelled from the Senate. Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him Secretary of War in February 1865. ( Full article...)

Baker Hotel

• ... that even though the Baker Hotel (pictured) was nearly fully booked during the filming of the 1969 musical film Paint Your Wagon, it closed shortly thereafter?
• ... that the first-class cricketer and British Army racquets champion Henry Bond received honours from the British and Romanian governments for his service during the First World War?
• ... that the wolf spider Geolycosa pikei can immediately begin healing wounds on its abdomen?
• ... that Israeli scholar Esther Farbstein and a colleague discovered more than 100 personal Holocaust accounts in rabbinical works, a resource previously overlooked by Holocaust researchers?
• ... that the Ugandan military indiscriminately bombarded rebel fighters, civilians, and even their own forces during the Battle of Tororo?
• ... that actor Tim Franklin had his first on-screen kiss while portraying Home and Away character Colby Thorne?
• ... that historian Julius S. Scott did not agree with his publisher's suggested revisions to The Common Wind, so the book remained unpublished for thirty years?
• ... that Victor Bonney stained vaginas blue?

Paweł Adamowicz

• In Poland, Gdańsk Mayor Paweł Adamowicz (pictured) dies after being stabbed on stage at a charity concert.
• Fifteen people are killed when a Saha Airlines Boeing 707 crashes on landing at Fath Air Base, Iran.
• In the midst of an ongoing constitutional crisis in Venezuela, the National Assembly disputes incumbent president Nicolás Maduro's victory in the May 2018 election and declares Juan Guaidó the acting president.
• Félix Tshisekedi is declared the winner of the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

January 16

Augustus of Prima Porta

• 27 BC – Gaius Octavianus (statue pictured) was given the titles Augustus and Princeps by the Roman Senate when he became the first Roman emperor.
• 1780 – Anglo-Spanish War: The Royal Navy gained their first major naval victory over their European enemies in the war when they defeated a Spanish squadron in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
• 1905 – Despite being blind in one eye, ice hockey player Frank McGee set the record for most goals in a Stanley Cup game when he scored 14 against the Dawson City Nuggets.
• 1920 – The League of Nations, the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation with a focus on peace and security, held its first council meeting in Paris.
• 1964 – The musical Hello, Dolly! opened at the St. James Theatre on Broadway, and went on to win ten Tony Awards, a record that stood for 37 years.

Nikephoros Choumnos (d. 1327) · William Hall-Jones (b. 1851) · Pauline Phillips (d. 2013)