[CaptainCrunch]

Jan 10

49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war.

1645 – Archbishop William Laud is beheaded for treason at the Tower of London.

1776 – American Revolution : Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.

1812 – The first steamboat on the Ohio River or the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans, 82 days after departing from Pittsburgh.

1861 – American Civil War: Florida becomes the third state to secede from the Union.

1863 – The Metropolitan Railway, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between Paddington and Farringdon, marking the beginning of the London Underground.

1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

1901 – The first great Texas oil gusher is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.

1916 – World War I: In the Erzurum Offensive, Russia defeats the Ottoman Empire.

1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.



1927 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.



1946 – The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.

1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

1962 – Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, which became known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.



1966 – Tashkent Declaration, a peace agreement between India and Pakistan signed that resolved the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965.

1984 – Holy See–United States relations: The United States and Holy See (Vatican City) re-establish full diplomatic relations after almost 117 years, overturning the United States Congress's 1867 ban on public funding for such a diplomatic envoy.

1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

1990 – Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.