On this day: January 22

Events on January 22

• 565 Eutychius of Constantinople was arrested after he refused Byzantine emperor Justinian I's order to adopt the tenets of the Aphthartodocetae, a sect of non-Chalcedonian Christians. Wikipedia
• 1506 The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican. Wikipedia
• 1517 The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya. Wikipedia
• 1555 The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now Myanmar. Wikipedia
• 1689 The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688. Wikipedia
• 1863 The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia. Wikipedia
• 1905 Bloody Sunday occurs in Saint Petersburg, beginning the 1905 revolution. Wikipedia
• 1915 Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon. Wikipedia
• 1917 American entry into World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. Wikipedia
• 1927 Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury. Wikipedia
• 1941 World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass. Wikipedia
• 1943 World War II: The Battle of Buna–Gona on New Guinea ended with an Allied victory after two months of fighting in which the Japanese fought with a resolve and tenacity not previously encountered. Wikipedia
• 1946 In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister. Wikipedia
• 1947 KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood. Wikipedia
• 1957 Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula. Wikipedia
• 1963 The Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and West Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer. Wikipedia
• 1968 Apollo 5, the first flight of NASA's Lunar Module, lifted off from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station. Wikipedia
• 1973 A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176. Wikipedia
• 1973 The U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision in Roe v. Wade struck down laws restricting abortion during the first two trimesters of pregnancy. Wikipedia
• 1984 During Super Bowl XVIII, Apple Computer introduced the Macintosh, the first successful personal computer to use a graphical user interface, with the television commercial "1984". Wikipedia
• 1987 Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13. Wikipedia
• 1987 After being convicted of receiving bribes, Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer shot and killed himself in front of television cameras during a press conference. Wikipedia
• 1995 Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid suicide bombing: In central Israel, near Netanya, two Gazans blow themselves up at a military transit point, killing 19 Israeli soldiers. Wikipedia
• 2007 At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq. Wikipedia
• 2009 U.S. President Barack Obama signs an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; congressional opposition will prevent it being implemented. Wikipedia
• 2012 Croatia held a referendum in which it voted to become a member of the European Union. Wikipedia

Born on January 22

• 1263 Ibn Taymiyyah, Syrian scholar and theologian (died 1328) Wikipedia
• 1440 Ivan III of Russia (died 1505) Wikipedia
• 1561 Francis Bacon, English philosopher and politician, Attorney General for England and Wales (died 1626) Wikipedia
• 1592 Pierre Gassendi, French mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher (died 1655) Wikipedia
• 1729 Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, German philosopher and author (died 1781) Wikipedia
• 1788 Lord Byron, English poet and playwright (died 1824) Wikipedia
• 1849 August Strindberg, Swedish novelist, poet, and playwright (died 1912) Wikipedia
• 1875 D. W. Griffith, American director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1948) Wikipedia
• 1879 Francis Picabia, French painter and poet (died 1953) Wikipedia
• 1891 Antonio Gramsci, Italian philosopher and politician (died 1937) Wikipedia
• 1898 Sergei Eisenstein, Russian director and screenwriter (died 1948) Wikipedia
• 1906 Robert E. Howard, American author and poet (died 1936) Wikipedia
• 1908 Lev Landau, Azerbaijani-Russian physicist and academic, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1968) Wikipedia
• 1909 U Thant, Burmese educator and diplomat, 3rd United Nations Secretary-General (died 1974) Wikipedia
• 1911 Bruno Kreisky, Austrian lawyer and politician, 22nd Chancellor of Austria (died 1990) Wikipedia
• 1917 Bruce Shand, British Army officer, and father of Queen Camilla (died 2006) Wikipedia
• 1931 Sam Cooke, American singer-songwriter (died 1964) Wikipedia
• 1936 Alan J. Heeger, American physicist and chemist, Nobel Prize laureate Wikipedia
• 1940 John Hurt, English actor (died 2017) Wikipedia
• 1953 Jim Jarmusch, American director and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1965 Diane Lane, American actress Wikipedia
• 1977 Hidetoshi Nakata, Japanese footballer Wikipedia

Died on January 22

• 906 He, empress of the Tang Dynasty Wikipedia
• 1666 Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor (born 1592) Wikipedia
• 1900 David Edward Hughes, Welsh-American physicist, co-invented the microphone (born 1831) Wikipedia
• 1901 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (born 1819) Wikipedia
• 1922 Fredrik Bajer, Danish educator and politician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1922 Pope Benedict XV (born 1854) Wikipedia
• 1973 Lyndon B. Johnson, American lieutenant and politician, 36th President of the United States (born 1908) Wikipedia
• 1993 Kōbō Abe, Japanese playwright and photographer (born 1924) Wikipedia
• 2008 Miles Lerman, Polish Holocaust survivor and activist (born 1920) Wikipedia
• 2008 Heath Ledger, Australian actor and director (born 1979) Wikipedia
• 2010 Jean Simmons, English-American actress (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2018 Ursula K. Le Guin, American sci-fi and fantasy novelist (born 1929) Wikipedia
• 2021 Hank Aaron, American baseball player (born 1934) Wikipedia
• 2022 Thích Nhất Hạnh, Vietnamese Thiền Buddhist monk, peace activist, and founder of the Plum Village Tradition (born 1926) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Anastasius of Persia Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Gaudentius of Novara Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: László Batthyány-Strattmann Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Laura Vicuna Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vincent Pallotti Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vincent of Saragossa Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Vincent, Orontius, and Victor Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Blessed William Joseph Chaminade Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: January 22 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Day of Unity of Ukraine (Ukraine) Wikipedia
• Grandfather's Day (Poland) Wikipedia

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “January 22” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-09 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. We picked the 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths with the widest coverage across Wikipedia's language editions (counted from Wikidata) and sorted them by year; the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures.