Bach leads premiere of Epiphany cantata Liebster Immanuel (1725), and New Mexico becomes the 47th state of the United States (1912). Born on this day: Rowan Atkinson, Khalil Gibran and Eddie Redmayne. Died: Theodore Roosevelt, Gregor Mendel and Georg Cantor.
29 events, 75 births and 72 deaths on this date.
Bach conducted the first performance of this chorale cantata for Epiphany, the feast marking the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. At the time he was Thomaskantor in Leipzig, a post that demanded a steady supply of church cantatas.
Elias Gottlob Haussmann · Public domainNew Mexico joined the Union on this day, becoming the 47th state and the last of the contiguous states to be admitted. It had been a territory for over six decades, and its statehood ended a long wait for full political rights.
A chemical blaze in a Manila apartment block brought authorities to papers setting out Project Bojinka, a scheme for mass terrorist violence. The discovery brought the plot to light, a case that reached well beyond the building.
Mother Teresa, a young nun from the Sisters of Loreto, reaches Calcutta by ship. She would spend most of her life in the city, working with its poorest and sickest people.
Justin Trudeau announced he would step down as Canada's prime minister and Liberal leader, ending almost a decade at the country's helm. He had first won power in 2015, when the Liberals secured a majority government under his leadership.
European Union · Attribution
Maria Montessori opened a school in Rome for children from working-class families, and it marked the start of the approach that bears her name. Her method is now used in many public and private schools around the world.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
For the full day, download Chunks today. Every date, the stories behind them, and a new day each morning. Free to start.
Rowan Atkinson is an English actor and comedian best known for playing the bumbling Mr Bean and the scheming Blackadder. He first made his name on the sketch show Not the Nine O'Clock News before becoming one of Britain's most recognisable comic performers.
Eva Rinaldi · CC BY-SA 2.0
Lebanese-American writer and painter best known for The Prophet, a 1923 book of poetic essays that has sold widely and been rendered into a great many languages. Born in Bsharri, he moved to Boston as a boy and later studied art in Paris.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
English actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing physicist Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. He has also earned stage honours on both sides of the Atlantic and starred in the Fantastic Beasts films as Newt Scamander.
Montclair Film · CC BY 2.0
Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th US president, and at 42 the youngest ever to hold the office, after McKinley's assassination brought him to it. Remembered for his Square Deal reforms, which took on corporate trusts and railroads, he was also a naturalist and historian.
Adam Cuerden · Public domain
Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian friar, worked out the basic rules of heredity by crossbreeding pea plants at his abbey in Brno. His 1866 paper went largely unnoticed, and he was only recognised as the founder of genetics after his death.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Georg Cantor was the German mathematician who founded set theory and showed that some infinities are larger than others. Much of his work met fierce resistance from colleagues, and he spent his final years in a Halle sanatorium.
Unknown author Unknown author · Public domain
Download on iOS
Download on Android