On This Day: January 20

Updated January 20, 2014, 1:28 pm

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On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

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On Jan. 20 , 1920, Federico Fellini, the Italian film director, was born. Following his death on Oct. 31, 1993, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

1801 John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.
1841 Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain.
1896 Comedian George Burns was born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City.
1936 Britain's King George V died.
1942 Nazi officials arrived at a "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews, during a conference at Lake Wannsee in Berlin.
1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower took the oath of office as president of the United States; Richard M. Nixon was sworn in as vice president.
1961 John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States.
1981 Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the 40th president of the United States.
1981 Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days.
1986 The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages.
1993 Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president of the United States.
2001 George W. Bush took the oath of office as the 43rd president of the United States.
2001 Hundreds of thousands of protesting Filipinos forced President Joseph Estrada to step down; Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as the new president.

Historic Birthdays

44 Johannes Schein 1/20/1586 - 11/19/1630
German composer
46 Henry Cromwell 1/20/1628 - 3/23/1674
English, brief ruler of Ireland
62 Richard Henry Lee 1/20/1732 - 6/19/1794
American statesman/orator
72 Anne J. Clough 1/20/1820 - 2/27/1892
English educator/feminist
77 Johannes Jenson 1/20/1873 - 11/25/1950
Danish novelist/essayist
91 Ruth St. Denis 1/20/1877 - 7/21/1968
American dancer & choreographer
82 Walter Piston 1/20/1894 - 11/12/1976
American composer/teacher
74 Harold Gray 1/20/1894 - 5/9/1968
American "Orphan Annie" cartoonist
69 Joy Adamson 1/20/1910 - 1/3/1980
Australian conservationist/writer