On This Day: January 20

This is the 20th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: acre

Old English aecer, now acre, was originally the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plow in a day; the Old English term came from Latin ager 'fertile field' and this became acre, which once meant any field. This unit of land measurement in the British Imperial and United States Customary systems is equal to 43,560 square feet or 160 square rods. One acre is equivalent to 0.4047 hectares (4,047 square meters). One acre gradually came to denote a piece of land of any shape measuring the present 4,840 square yards.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Sebastian, St. Fabian, pope, St. Euthymius the Great, and St. Fechin.

Bulgaria: Babin Den.

Brazil: St. Sebastian Day (founding of Rio de Janeiro).

United States: Inauguration Day.

Azerbaijan: Martyrs' Day.

Guinea-Bissau: National Heroes Day.

Lesotho: Army Day.

Events

1265 - The first English parliament met in Westminster Hall, convened by the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort.

1783 - The British and U.S. commissioners signed a preliminary "Cessation of Hostilities," which led to the Treaty of Paris and Treaty of Versailles, thus ending the Revolutionary War.

1801 - John Marshall was appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain; it returned to Chinese control in July 1997.

1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. president sworn into office in January; inaugurations had previously been on March 4. It was FDR's second of four inaugurations.

1942 - Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee Conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Jews.

1945 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president to be elected to three terms in office, was inaugurated to his fourth term.

1961 - John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States of America.

1977 - President Jimmy Carter was sworn in and then surprised the nation as he walks from the U.S. Capitol to the White House.

1981 - Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

1982 - Five companies agreed to cooperate on the construction of a camcorder: Hitachi, JVC, Philips, Matsushita, and Sony.

1986 - The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.

1986 - Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel, popularly called the Chunnel.

1996 - Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian National Council, becoming the first democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people in history.

Births

1435 - Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the eighth shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate who reigned from 1449 to 1473 during the Muromachi period of Japan.

1896 - George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum), American comedian, entertainer.

1906 - Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate, once married to Jackie Kennedy.

1920 - Federico Fellini, Italian film director, screenwriter.

1930 - Buzz (Edwin) Aldrin Jr., American astronaut aboard Apollo 11, second man to walk on the moon.

1956 - Bill Maher, American comedian, actor, writer, and political analyst.

1965 - Greg Kriesel, an American bass guitarist and backing vocalist for the punk band, The Offspring.

Deaths

1891 - David Kalakaua, the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

1984 - Johnny Weissmuller, Romanian-born swimmer and film actor.

1990 - Barbara Stanwyck (born Ruby Catherine Stevens), American actress.

1993 - Audrey Hepburn, British film actress.

2003 - Al Hirschfeld, American graphic artist, at 99.

2005 - Miriam Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist and author.

2005 - Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway.