January 23

1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is killed by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, in Linlithgow, Scotland, the first head of state known to be assassinated by the use of a firearm.

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the first female doctor in the U.S.

1870 – In Montana, on orders of General Phillip Sheridan, a squadron of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry Regiment are sent on a retaliatory raid on the Piegan Blackfeet tribe camped along the Marias river for their attack on the Clarke Ranch.

1900 – During  the Second Boer War, British forces occupy a trench line on the hill Spion Kop, they mistakenly believe to be on the high ground. The Boer forces, on the actual high ground, take the British under artillery and rifle fire and inflict heavy casualties before a British relief column arrives and the Boers withdraw.

1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before Congress and recommends that the U.S. negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1950 – The Israeli Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the “Frisbee”.

1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste crewed by Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh breaks a depth record by descending to 35,797 feet, to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean.

1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1968 – Off the coast of North Korea, the USS Pueblo is attacked by naval forces of North Korea resulting in the the death of 1 crew member, Petty Officer Duane D. Hodges before being seized and the remaining crew captured.

1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

1998 – Netscape announces Mozilla, with the intention to release the programming code as open source.

2002 – U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered.

2018 – A 7.9 Mw  earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the 6th largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States

2020 – The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.