Today, January 6

1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan council meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.

1492 – Ferdinand and Isabella enter Granada at the end of the Granada War and conclusion of the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula.

1838 – Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes – a forerunner of the ‘Morse Code’ –  to indicate letters of the alphabet.

1847 – Samuel Colt obtains his first contract for the sale of revolver pistols to the U.S government.

1893 –The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation receives a charter from Congress to construct the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral.

1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy.

1912 – New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th state.

1930 – Clessie Cummins arrives at the National Automobile Show in New York City, driving a car powered by one of his diesel engines

1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer an around the world ticket.

1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511, a Douglas DC-6, is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami, killing all 34 passengers and crew aboard.

1994 – American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured by an assailant hired by her rival Tonya Harding’s ex-husband during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships

2005 – A collision between 2 Norfolk Southern trains, near the Avondale Mills textile plant in Graniteville, South Carolina, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas, killing 9 people and injuring over 250 more who were exposed to the poisonous gas.

2017 – 5 people are killed and 6 others injured in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida.

2021 – A group numbering in the multiple thousands protesting the count of the Electoral College vote, demonstrates on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol with some entering into the building resulting in the evacuation of Congressional members.