On this day: January 3

Events on January 3

• 69 The Roman legions on the Rhine refuse to declare their allegiance to Galba, instead proclaiming their legate, Aulus Vitellius, as emperor. Wikipedia
• 250 Decius ordered all people in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods, resulting in widespread persecution of Christians. Wikipedia
• 1521 Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther for refusing to retract 41 alleged errors found in his 95 Theses and other writings. Wikipedia
• 1749 The first issue of Berlingske, Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, was published. Wikipedia
• 1777 American Revolutionary War: American forces commanded by George Washington defeated British troops at the Battle of Princeton. Wikipedia
• 1861 American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States. Wikipedia
• 1911 An earthquake registering 7.7 Mw destroyed Almaty in Russian Turkestan. Wikipedia
• 1911 A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the operational involvement of Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary. Wikipedia
• 1938 The American health charity March of Dimes was founded as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis to help raise money for polio research. Wikipedia
• 1941 Second World War: As part of Operation Compass, Australian and United Kingdom forces attacked Italian forces at the Battle of Bardia in Egypt. Wikipedia
• 1947 Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time. Wikipedia
• 1956 A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower. Wikipedia
• 1959 Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. Wikipedia
• 1961 All 25 people on board Aero Flight 311 died in Finland's worst civilian air accident when the aircraft crashed near Kvevlax. Wikipedia
• 1961 Cold War: After a series of economic retaliations against one another, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba. Wikipedia
• 1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro. Wikipedia
• 1973 CBS announced the sale of the New York Yankees professional baseball team to a group of investors headed by American businessman George Steinbrenner. Wikipedia
• 1977 Apple Computer is incorporated. Wikipedia
• 1990 United States invasion of Panama: Manuel Noriega, the deposed strongman of Panama, surrendered to American forces outside the apostolic nunciature in Panama City. Wikipedia
• 2002 Second Intifada: Israeli forces seized MV Karine A, which was carrying 50 tons of smuggled weapons on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. Wikipedia
• 2004 Flash Airlines Flight 604 crashed shortly after departure from Sharm El Sheikh International Airport which killed all 148 occupants on board. Wikipedia
• 2009 The cryptocurrency network of bitcoin was created when Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first block of the chain. Wikipedia
• 2016 In response to the execution of Nimr al-Nimr, Iran ends its diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia. Wikipedia
• 2019 Chang'e 4 makes the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon, deploying the Yutu-2 lunar rover. Wikipedia
• 2020 Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport, igniting global concerns of a potential armed conflict. Wikipedia
• 2026 The United States launches a military operation in Venezuela, capturing president Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Wikipedia

Born on January 3

• 106 BC Cicero, Roman philosopher, lawyer, and politician (died 43 BC) Wikipedia
• 1698 Pietro Metastasio, Italian poet and songwriter (died 1782) Wikipedia
• 1840 Father Damien, Flemish priest and missionary (died 1889) Wikipedia
• 1876 Wilhelm Pieck, German carpenter and politician, 1st President of the German Democratic Republic (died 1960) Wikipedia
• 1877 Josephine Hull, American actress (died 1957) Wikipedia
• 1883 Clement Attlee, English soldier, lawyer, and politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1967) Wikipedia
• 1887 August Macke, German-French painter (died 1914) Wikipedia
• 1892 J.R.R. Tolkien, English writer, poet, and philologist (died 1973) Wikipedia
• 1901 Ngô Đình Diệm, Vietnamese lawyer and politician, 1st President of the Republic of Vietnam (died 1963) Wikipedia
• 1907 Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor and director (died 1986) Wikipedia
• 1926 George Martin, English composer, conductor, and producer (died 2016) Wikipedia
• 1929 Sergio Leone, Italian director, producer, and screenwriter (died 1989) Wikipedia
• 1929 Gordon Moore, American businessman, co-founder of Intel Corporation (died 2023) Wikipedia
• 1946 John Paul Jones, English bass player, songwriter, and producer Wikipedia
• 1956 Mel Gibson, American-Australian actor, director, producer, and screenwriter Wikipedia
• 1969 Michael Schumacher, German racing driver Wikipedia
• 1976 Angelos Basinas, Greek footballer Wikipedia
• 1988 Jonny Evans, Northern Irish footballer Wikipedia
• 1990 Yoichiro Kakitani, Japanese footballer Wikipedia
• 1995 Jisoo, South Korean singer and actress Wikipedia
• 1996 Florence Pugh, English actress Wikipedia
• 2003 Greta Thunberg, Swedish environmental activist Wikipedia

Died on January 3

• 236 Anterus, pope of the Catholic Church Wikipedia
• 1322 Philip V, king of France (born 1292) Wikipedia
• 1437 Catherine of Valois, Queen Consort of Henry V (born 1401) Wikipedia
• 1501 Ali-Shir Nava'i, Turkic poet, linguist, and mystic (born 1441) Wikipedia
• 1903 Alois Hitler, Austrian civil servant (born 1837) Wikipedia
• 1923 Jaroslav Hašek, Czech journalist and author (born 1883) Wikipedia
• 1931 Joseph Joffre, French general (born 1852) Wikipedia
• 1933 Wilhelm Cuno, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1876) Wikipedia
• 1945 Edgar Cayce, American psychic and author (born 1877) Wikipedia
• 1956 Joseph Wirth, German educator and politician, Chancellor of Germany (born 1879) Wikipedia
• 1967 Jack Ruby, American businessman and murderer (born 1911) Wikipedia
• 2009 Pat Hingle, American actor (born 1923) Wikipedia
• 2016 Peter Naur, Danish computer scientist, astronomer, and academic (born 1928) Wikipedia
• 2020 Qasem Soleimani, Iranian major general, commander of the Iranian Quds Force (born 1957) Wikipedia

Holidays and observances

• Christian feast day: Daniel of Padua Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Genevieve Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Holy Name of Jesus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Kuriakose Elias Chavara (Syro-Malabar Catholic Church) Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: Pope Anterus Wikipedia
• Christian feast day: January 3 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics) Wikipedia
• Tamaseseri Festival (Hakozaki Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan) Wikipedia
• The tenth of the Twelve Days of Christmas (Western Christianity) Wikipedia

Sources

• Wikipedia — “January 3” — events, births, deaths and observances (text under CC BY-SA 4.0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikipedia — “Selected anniversaries/January 3” — the anniversaries editors chose for the date and the article each one is about (checked 2026-10-15)
• Wikidata — in how many language editions each entry's own article exists, used to fill the lists (CC0) (checked 2026-10-15)
• vacanza/holidays (open-source holiday rules, MIT licence) — holiday rules used to build the lists (checked 2026-10-15)

The events, births, deaths and observances above are from the English Wikipedia article “January 3” and the articles it links to (authors and history), retrieved 2026-10-15 through the Wikimedia “On this day” feed. They are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0; this selection is shared under the same licence. Every anniversary that Wikipedia's editors selected for January 3 stays on the list; the remaining places, up to 26 events, 22 births and 14 deaths, go to the entries whose own article — about the event itself, or else the person or thing it is about — appears in the most language editions (counted from Wikidata); an article about a person or thing, which covers far more than one day, counts half. An entry with no article of its own counts, also at half, by the least covered article it links, and one that links only places counts for nothing. Each list runs by year, and the wording is unchanged apart from removing references to pictures, audio and video.