Today in History in 1920 the League of Nations held its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I; and in 1946 the first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. 51 nations are represented.

The On This Day In History archives at “Simple English Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia” contains over 200,000 events, birthdays and deaths from 6,000 years of history. Here is a roundup of a few of them:

January 10 is the tenth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 355 days remaining until the end of the year (356 in leap years).

EVENTS

49 BC – Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon which signalled civil war.

9 – Beginning of the Xin dynasty in China.

69 – Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba as Deputy Roman Emperor.

236 – Fabian became Pope.

1072 – Robert Guiscard conquered Palermo.

1475 – Stephen III of Moldavia defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

1776 – Thomas Paine published Common Sense.

1806 – Dutch in Cape Town surrendered to the British.

1810 – The marriage of Napoleon Bonaparte and Josephine de Beauharnais is annulled.

1821 – Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen discovered an island near Antarctica which he names Tsar Peter I Island.

1840 – Isaac Pitman introduced long–distance learning; his students are able to send him their work by post.

1861 – Florida seceded from the United States.

1863 – The first section of the London Underground Railway opened (Paddington to Farringdon Street).

1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

1901 – The first great Texas gusher – oil is discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas.

1910 – British passenger ship Loodiana disappeared off Port Louis, Mauritius – a mystery that has not been solved to–date.

1916 – World War I: In the Erzurum Offensive, Russia defeated the Ottoman Empire.

1920 – League of Nations held its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.

1922 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State.

1923 – Lithuania seized and annexed Memel.

1927 – The movie Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiered.

1929 – Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, made his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages.

1941 – Lend-Lease is introduced into the U.S. Congress.

1946 – First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. 51 nations are represented.

1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

1954 – BOAC Flight 781, a de Havilland DH. 106 Comet 1 aircraft, explodes and falls into the Tyrrhenian Sea off Italy, killing 35 people.

1957 – Harold Macmillan becomes the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1962 – NASA announces plans to build what would become the Saturn V rocket.

1964 – Panama temporarily breaks off diplomatic relations with the United States. These are restored on April 3.

1969 – After 147 years, the last issue of the Saturday Evening Post is published.

1971 – Masterpiece Theatre debuts on PBS.

1972 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman becomes President of Bangladesh.

1984 – The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations.

1985 – Daniel Ortega becomes President of Nicaragua.

1989 – Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola.

1990 – Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.

2000 – America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history.

2001 – Wikipedia started as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later.

2005 – A ban on smoking in public places came into force in Italy.

2005 – A mudslide occurred in La Conchita, California, killing 10 people.

2007 – Daniel Ortega became President of Nicaragua for the second time.

2011 – 2010-2011 Queensland floods: Severe flooding occurred in the Lockyer Valley around Toowoomba, Queensland.

2013 – Over 100 people are killed in bomb attacks in Pakistan.

2015 – A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involves beer that was contaminated by crocodile bile. 56 people died and 200 hospitalized.

2015 – A traffic accident near Karachi, Pakistan, between an oil tanker truck and a passenger coach killed 62 people.

2016 – Singer, musician and actor David Bowie died of cancer two days after his 69th birthday.