1852: Starting out as a wagon manufacturer before they would eventually start making automobiles, Studebaker Brothers Wagon Company is established on this day.
1862: Fort Donelson in Tennessee was captured by Union General Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War.
1874: The Silver Dollar become legal United States tender.
1918: Lithuania becomes an independent state.
1933: Prohibition ends in the United States thanks to the Blaine Act.
1937: In the U.S., a patent is given to Wallace H. Carothers for nylon.
1945: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines during Would War II.
1959: Fulgencio Batista is overthrown on the 1st of January, thereby allowing Fidel Castro to become the Premier of Cuba on this day.
1960: Operation Sandblast is begun by the United States Navy using a USS Triton submarine.
1968: The first 911 emergency telephone systems go into service in Haleyville, Alabama on this day.
1978: The first computer BBS (bulletin board system) system is created—CBBS in Chicago, Illinois.
1987: The trial of a suspected Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" who worked at a Treblinka extermination camp begins in Jerusalem on this day.
1998: Over 200 people are killed when China Airlines Flight 676 crashes near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in the city of Taiwan.
2005: Due to a labor dispute between the NHL and the NHLPA, the entire regular season and playoffs were canceled.
2006: The very last MASH Unit (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is decommissioned by the U.S Army.
2013: 80 people are killed and another 190 are injured when a bomb goes off at a market in Hazara Town, Pakistan.
German-American actress and dancer, Vera Ellen is born in 1921.
English actress June Brown is born in 1927.
American actor, director and producer, LeVar Burton is born in 1957.
American author Natalie Angier is born in 1958.
American rapper and actor, Ice T is born in 1958.