This is a list of selected January 21 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Before doing so, please review the selected anniversaries guidelines. If your suggestion is potentially controversial or relates to a day currently or soon to appear on the Main Page, post it on the talk page instead.
Please note:
- Events listed on the Main Page are selected based on article quality and to provide a diverse range of topics, rather than solely on the importance or significance of the events.
- Only four or five events are featured each day; therefore, not all important or significant events can be included.
- An event is generally excluded if it is already the subject of the scheduled featured article or picture of the day.
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Spire of Dublin
Flag of Quebec
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Louis XVI of France
Concorde
Concorde
DMC DeLorean
Raymond Poincaré
Saint Agnes, c. 1531
Newt Gingrich
U.S. Army soldiers moving towards Khe Sanh Combat Base
Women's March participants in Porto, Portugal
Members of the First Dáil
Eruption of Mount Lamington
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Ineligible
| Blurb | Reason |
|---|---|
| ; Flag Day in Quebec | refimprove section |
| 1525 – The Anabaptist Movement was born when founders Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and George Blaurock re-baptized each other and other followers in Zürich, Switzerland, believing that the Christian religious practice of infant baptism is invalid because a child cannot commit to a religious faith. | unreferenced section |
| 1789 – The Power of Sympathy by William Hill Brown, widely considered to be the first American novel, was published. | Too much uncited |
| 1840 – The French explorer Jules Dumont d'Urville discovered Adélie Land, Antarctica. | refimprove |
| 1893 – The Bechuanaland Protectorate (modern Botswana, then a protectorate of the United Kingdom) formally annexed the Tati Concessions Land, a portion of Matabeleland that had been conceded to the British South Africa Company. | refimprove section |
| 1912 – Raymond Poincaré, who would pursue hardline anti-German policies, began his first term as Prime Minister of France. | refimprove section |
| 1915 – Ensign Robert Webster Cary and Fireman Second Class Telesforo Trinidad both earned the Medal of Honor for actions aboard the USS San Diego | Cary: unreferenced section; Trinidad: short |
| 1915 – The first Kiwanis service club was founded in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. | primary sources |
| 1941 – World War II: Sparked by the murder of a German officer the previous day, members of the Iron Guard began a rebellion and pogrom in Bucharest, Romania. | page numbers needed |
| 1948 – The Flag of Quebec, featuring a white cross and four fleurs-de-lis on a blue field, was adopted and flown for the first time over the Quebec Parliament Building in Quebec City. | refimprove section |
| 1963 – Following a period of chaos in Congo-Léopoldville and United Nations intervention, the secession of Katanga came to an end. | refimprove |
| 2008 – The Eyak language in Alaska became extinct after Marie Smith Jones, the language's last native speaker, died, an event that became a symbol in the fight against language extinction. | refimprove |
| Edith Tolkien |b|1889| | "Too many quotes" yellow banner |
| Eric Holder |b|1951| | Birthday not cited |
Eligible
- 763 – The Abbasid Caliphate crushed the Alid revolt when a rebel leader was mortally wounded in battle near Basra in present-day Iraq.
- 1757 – French and Indian War: French regulars, Canadien militia and Indigenous forces ambushed Rogers' Rangers forces in the Battle on Snowshoes.
- 1793 – French Revolution: After being found guilty of high treason by the National Convention, Louis XVI was guillotined in Paris.
- 1919 – The First Dáil convened at the Mansion House in Dublin and adopted a declaration of independence calling for the establishment of the Irish Republic.
- 1951 – Mount Lamington, a volcano in Papua New Guinea, erupted (pictured) and killed more than 2,900 people.
- 1968 – A B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear weapons crashed onto sea ice near Thule Air Base, Greenland, causing localized radioactive contamination.
- 1972 – Tripura, formerly part of the independent Twipra Kingdom, became a state of India.
- 1981 – The DeLorean Motor Company completed the first production car of the DMC DeLorean at its factory in Northern Ireland.
- 1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives voted 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.
- 2017 – Millions of people participated in the Women's March in Washington, D.C., and around the world to advocate for legislation and policies on human rights and other issues.
- 2025 - A fire at a hotel at the Kartalkaya ski resort in Turkey's Bolu Province results in 78 people killed.
- Born/died this day: | Augustin Robespierre |b|1763| Yemelyan Pugachev |d|1775| Theodor Fliedner |b|1800| John C. Frémont |b|1813| Joseph Wolf |b|1820| Eusapia Palladino |b|1854| Trương Tấn Sang |b|1949|Jeff Koons |b|1955|Cecil B. DeMille |d|1959| Frances Gertrude McGill |d|1959| Vincent Lingiari |d|1988|
January 21: Feast day of Saint Agnes (Christianity); National Hugging Day (United States)
Isaac Isaacs
- 1326 – King Edward II of England issued a royal charter confirming Adam de Brome's foundation of Oriel College, Oxford.
- 1931 – Isaac Isaacs (pictured) became the first Australian-born governor-general of Australia.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The People's Army of Vietnam attacked Khe Sanh Combat Base, a U.S. Marines outpost in Quảng Trị province, South Vietnam, starting the Battle of Khe Sanh.
- 1976 – Concorde, an Anglo-French supersonic airliner, began scheduled commercial flights to London, Paris, Bahrain, and Rio de Janeiro.
- 2011 – Demonstrations against alleged corruption in the Albanian government led to the killings of four protesters in Tirana by the Republican Guard.
- Anna Morandi Manzolini (b. 1714)
- Phan Đình Phùng (d. 1896)
- Yasunori Mitsuda (b. 1972)
- IShowSpeed (b. 2005)
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