Hitler and his staff move into the Führerbunker in Berlin (1945), and Octavian receives the titles Augustus and Princeps from the Senate (27 BC). Born on this day: Fulgencio Batista, Susan Sontag and Dian Fossey. Died: David Lynch, Gina Lollobrigida and Murad III.
29 events, 65 births and 66 deaths on this date.
As Soviet forces closed in on Berlin, Adolf Hitler and his staff moved underground into a fortified bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery. He remained there until he took his own life in April 1945.
Unknown author Unknown author · CC BY-SA 3.0 deThe Roman Senate granted Octavian the name Augustus and the title Princeps, marking the start of his rule as Rome's first emperor. The honour gave a lasting label to a new system in which one man held supreme power behind the forms of the old Republic.
С. И. Сосновский · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nebraska's approval was the 36th needed to reach the three-quarters of states required to add the Eighteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. That made nationwide alcohol prohibition constitutional, taking effect a year later.
Decades after his death in 1919, the 26th president received the nation's highest military decoration for wartime service against Spain in 1898. The award was presented by Bill Clinton in the final days of his presidency.
Miguel de Cervantes saw his story of Alonso Quijano, a country gentleman who reads so many chivalry tales he becomes a knight-errant, reach print. Its blend of lofty fantasy and earthy wit later helped make it one of the first modern novels.
Miguel de Cervantes · Public domain
The Security Council voted unanimously to impose an arms ban on the Taliban and freeze money held by Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda and remaining Taliban figures. It was adopted during the war in Afghanistan.
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A Cuban army officer turned politician, Batista held the presidency in the early 1940s and again after seizing power in a 1952 coup. He was ousted by the Cuban Revolution in 1959, and his repressive rule tied Cuba's economy to American interests.
Harris & Ewing · Public domain
American writer and critic best known for essays such as Against Interpretation and On Photography, which shaped how people think about art, media and war. She also wrote novels, including The Volcano Lover, and travelled into conflict zones to report on them.
Lynn Gilbert · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dian Fossey was an American primatologist who spent two decades studying mountain gorillas in Rwanda. She fought poaching hard, and her uncompromising methods made her both famous and controversial.
Tribune Publishing, no photographer credited · Public domain
David Lynch, the American director behind Eraserhead, Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, died on 16 January 2025. He was known for dreamlike, unsettling films that gave rise to the word 'Lynchian'.
Alan Light · CC BY 2.0
Italian actress who was a leading European film star of the 1950s and 1960s, and later a photojournalist who interviewed Fidel Castro. Nicknamed 'la Bersagliera' after her role in Bread, Love and Dreams, she was among the last of Hollywood's Golden Age stars.
United Artists · Public domain
Murad III ruled the Ottoman Empire for twenty-one years, fighting the Habsburgs and Safavids while commissioning lavish illustrated manuscripts. He died in Istanbul, and his reign is remembered for wars, rising inflation and unrest among the Janissaries.
1583, Seyyd Lokman Ashuri · Public domain
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