Exact date unknown - 1617 (392 Years)
Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, one of the most important painters of the Spanish Baroque period, was borne.
1st January 1766 (243 Years)
Prince James Francis Edward Stuart, son of James VII and II and Mary of Modena, dies.
1st January 1793 (216 Years)
Francesco Lazzaro Guardi, Venetian painter of veduta, nobleman, and a member of the Venetian School, died.
1st January 1863 (146 Years)
Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin French educator and historian, and founder of the International Olympic Committee, was born.
1st January 1864 (145 Years)
Alfred Stieglitz, an American photographer and modern art promoter, was born.
1st January 1867 (142 Years)
Jeanne-Marie Lanvin, the a French haute couture fashion designer, was born.
Exact date unknown - 1887 (122 Years)
A massive portfolio, with 781 plates comprising 20,000 of the photographs, in a groundbreaking collection titled Animal Locomotion by Eadweard Muybridge, was published.
1st January 1892 (117 Years)
Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.
1st January 1927 US (82 Years)
Birth of Maurice Bejart, dancer, choreographer and opera director who ran the Béjart Ballet.
Exact Date Unknown - 1952 (57 Years)
The elegant film based on Edward Lear’s nonsense poem is released.
1st January 1959 (50 Years)
The Communist revolutionary Fidel Castro led the Cubans to victory over Fulgencia Batista.
2nd January 1557 (419 Years)
Jacopo Carucci, known as Jacopo da Pontormo or simply Pontormo, Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School, died.
2nd January 1891 (118 Years)
Giovanni Michelucci, Italian architect who designed the Firenze Santa Maria Novella railway station, is born.
3rd January 1883 (126 Years)
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, former Prime Minister of the UK and Leader of the Labour Party, was born.
3rd January 1892 (117 Years)
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is born in Bloemfontein, Orange Free State (South Africa).
3rd January 1959 (50 Years)
President Eisenhower signed proclamation admitting Alaska to the union as the 49th state.
3rd January 1967 (42 Years)
Jack Ruby, killer of Lee Harvery Oswald, the assassin of John F. Kennedy, died.
4th January 1642 (367 Years)
King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.
4th January 1847 (162 Years)
Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
5th January 1757 (252 Years)
Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, then executed by drawing and quartering: the traditional capital punishment used for regicides.