21 January in history
7 events that happened on 21 January, from 1525 to 1976.
1525 CE 501 years ago
First adult baptisms in Zurich launch the Anabaptist movement
Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz and George Blaurock baptised one another as believing adults in Zurich. Fiercely persecuted, their movement gave rise to the Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites.
1861 CE 165 years ago
Jefferson Davis bids farewell to the US Senate
Following Mississippi's secession, Davis and four other Southern senators gave farewell speeches and resigned. Within weeks he was chosen as President of the Confederate States.
1908 CE 118 years ago
New York passes an ordinance banning women from smoking in public
The Sullivan Ordinance barred managers of public places from allowing women to smoke. Mayor George McClellan vetoed it two weeks later, but it reflected anxieties about women's changing roles.
1924 CE 102 years ago
Vladimir Lenin dies at Gorki
The founder of the Soviet state died aged 53 after a series of strokes. His body was embalmed and displayed in Red Square, and Stalin outmanoeuvred Trotsky and others to succeed him.
1954 CE 72 years ago
USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched
First Lady Mamie Eisenhower christened Nautilus at Groton, Connecticut. Able to stay submerged for weeks, it sailed under the North Pole in 1958 and transformed undersea warfare.
✦ Anniversary of the day
