❄️ January in the Time Tunnel

Every day of January: one big moment from history, famous birthdays and special days. Click a date for the full story and a quiz.

1. January 1🎆 New Year’s Day1739: French explorer Jean-Baptiste Bouvet discovered a tiny, faraway island in the South Atlantic, later named Bouvet Island🎂 Pierre de Coubertin
2. January 21900: The Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal opened in Chicago🎂 Isaac Asimov
3. January 31870: Construction began on the famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York City🎂 J. R. R. Tolkien
4. January 4⠿ World Braille Day1959: Luna 1 became the first spacecraft to reach the neighborhood of the Moon🎂 Louis Braille
5. January 51875: The grand Palais Garnier opera house opened in Paris🎂 Hayao Miyazaki
6. January 61838: Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse demonstrated a telegraph that sent messages with dots and dashes🎂 Eddie Redmayne
7. January 71610: Galileo Galilei saw four moons of Jupiter through his telescope🎂 Zora Neale Hurston
8. January 81889: Herman Hollerith got a patent for a calculating machine that used punched cards — an early ancestor of computers🎂 Stephen Hawking
9. January 91793: Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first hot-air balloon flight in the United States, watched by George Washington🎂 Jimmy Page
10. January 101863: The world’s oldest subway, the London Underground, opened🎂 Rod Stewart
11. January 111787: Astronomer William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus🎂 Leroy Sané
12. January 121616: The city of Belém, Brazil, was founded near the mouth of the Amazon River🎂 Jack London
13. January 131888: The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, D.C.🎂 Orlando Bloom
14. January 141899: The ocean liner Oceanic, the largest ship of its time, was launched🎂 Hugh Lofting
15. January 151759: The British Museum in London opened to the public🎂 Martin Luther King Jr.
16. January 161605: The first edition of "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes was published🎂 Lin-Manuel Miranda
17. January 171773: Captain James Cook led the first expedition to sail south across the Antarctic Circle🎂 Benjamin Franklin
18. January 181778: Captain James Cook became the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands🎂 A. A. Milne
19. January 19🍿 National Popcorn Day1853: Verdi’s opera "Il Trovatore" premiered in Rome🎂 James Watt
20. January 201265: The first English Parliament that included representatives from the towns met🎂 André-Marie Ampère
21. January 21🤗 National Hug Day1789: The first American novel, "The Power of Sympathy," was printed in Boston🎂 Plácido Domingo
22. January 221947: KTLA in Hollywood became the first commercial TV station in the western United States🎂 Wilbur Scoville
23. January 23🥧 National Pie Day1755: Moscow University was founded🎂 Édouard Manet
24. January 241848: James Marshall found gold in California — starting the Gold Rush🎂 Neil Diamond
25. January 251554: The city of São Paulo, Brazil, was founded🎂 Alicia Keys
26. January 261905: The famous Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever found, was discovered in South Africa🎂 Wayne Gretzky
27. January 271785: The University of Georgia was founded — the first state-chartered public university in the US🎂 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
28. January 281813: Jane Austen’s novel "Pride and Prejudice" was published🎂 Elijah Wood
29. January 291845: Edgar Allan Poe’s poem "The Raven" was published in a newspaper🎂 Oprah Winfrey
30. January 301826: The Menai Suspension Bridge opened in Wales🎂 Franklin D. Roosevelt
31. January 311862: Alvan Graham Clark discovered Sirius B, a small "white dwarf" star🎂 Jackie Robinson