Today in History in 1431 Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government and in 1857 an earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.9 strikes Fort Tejon in California.

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 9 is the ninth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 356 days remaining until the end of the year (357 in leap years).

EVENTS

475 – Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to leave his capital city, Constantinople, and his general, Basiliscus, takes control of the Empire.

681 – Twelfth Council of Toledo: King Erwig of the Visigoths begins a council in which he introduces different measures against Jews in Spain.

1127 – Invading Jurchen soldiers from the Jin Dynasty besiege and sack Bianjing (Kaifeng), capital city of the Song Dynasty in China, abducting Emperor Qinzong of Song and others, ending the Northern Song Dynasty.

1150 – China: Prince Hailing of Jin and other court officials murder Emperor Xizong of Jin. Hailing succeeds him as Emperor.

1317 – King Philip V of France is crowned.

1349 – The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, were rounded up and burned to death.

1431 – Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

1693 – An earthquake in Sicily kills around 60,000 people.

1768 – In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.

1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.

1793 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.

1806 – A state funeral is held for Admiral Horatio Nelson at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

1816 – Humphrey Davy tests his safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery in present-day Tyne and Wear in the Northeast of England.

1822 – Pedro I of Brazil, then a Portuguese prince, decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of King Joao IV of Portugal

1839 – The French Academy of the Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.

1857 – An earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.9 strikes Fort Tejon in California.

1861 – Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

1861 – American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs in Charleston, South Carolina – sometimes considered by historians to be the "First Shots" of the war.

1863 – American Civil War: The Battle of Fort Hindman begins in Arkansas.

1878 – Umberto I of Italy becomes King.

1880 – The Great Gale of 1880 brings high winds and heavy snow to parts of Oregon and Washington.

1882 – Oscar Wilde gives his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York City.

1894 – The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company installs the first battery–operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.

1900 – The Rome–based football club S.S. Lazio is founded.

1903 – Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Marquess of Tennyson becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.

1905 – According to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905.

1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition, is forced to turn back 180 kilometers (112 miles) from the South Pole, having travelled further south than anyone before him.

1913 – Afonso Augusto da Costa becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.

1914 – Bernardino Machado becomes Prime Minister of Portugal.

1914 – The Phi Beta Sigma fraternity is founded.

1916 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli ends in Ottoman Empire victory, after the evacuation of the last Allied forces.

1917 – World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the Egyptian border with Palestine.

1918 – Battle of Bear Valley: Last battle of the American Indian Wars.

1921 – Greco-Turkish War: The First Battle of Inonu, the first battle of the war, begins near Eskisehir, Anatolia.

1923 – Juan de la Cierva makes the first autogyro flight.

1927 – A fire at Laurier Palace movie theatre in Montreal kills 78 children.

1938 – Paul of Greece marries Frederica of Hanover in Athens.

1941 – World War II: First flight of an Avro Lancaster aircraft.

1941 – World War II: The Greek Triton (Y-5) sinks the Italian submarine Neghelli in Otranto.

1942 – Off Menorca, the passenger ship Lamoriciere sinks, killing 301 people.

1945 – The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.

1951 – The United Nations headquarters opens in New York City.

1954 – The temperature of –65.9 degrees Celsius, the coldest to be measured in Greenland, is recorded by a British expedition.

1957 – Anthony Eden resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the Suez Crisis.

1959 – The Vega de Tera reservoir dam breaks in Zamora Province in Spain, killing over 140 people.

1960 – Construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt begins.

1964 – Several Panamanian youths try to raise the Panamanian flag on the U.S.–controlled Panama Canal Zone. This causes fighting between U.S. military and Panamanian civilians.

1968 – The only known snowfall occurs in Mexico City, additional snow falls on January 10 and 11.

1972 – The ship previously known as the HMS Queen Elizabeth burns in Hong Kong harbor, praobably as an act of arson, and sinks.

1991 – The Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence.

1992 – The National Assembly of the Serb People in Bosnia and Herzegovina declares the creation of Republika Srpska, a new state within Yugoslavia.

1996 – First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in neighbouring Dagestan. It turns into a massive hostage crisis.

2004 – An inflatable boat carrying illegal Albanian emigrants stalls near the Karaburun Peninsula while on the way to Brindisi, Italy. Exposure to the poor weather conditions kills 28 people.

2005 – Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mahmoud Abbas is elected.

2005 – The Sudan People's Liberation Movement and the Government of Sudan sign the Comprehensive Peace Agreement to end the Second Sudanese Civil War.

2006 – The Phantom of the Opera surpasses the record set by Cats for the title of longest running show on Broadway.

2006 – The population of Iceland officially reaches 300,000.

2007 – The first IPhone is revealed by then–Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs.

2011 – South Sudan holds a referendum on independence from Sudan. A majority vote in favour of creating a new country, as South Sudan becomes independent six months later.

2011 – Iran Air Flight 227 crashes near Orumiyel, northern Iran, killing 77 people.

2015 – Aftermath of Charlie Hebdo shooting: The two attackers on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo two days earlier are killed following a siege north of Paris, while a gunmen holds several people hostage, killing four, at a Jewish supermarket in Paris, before being killed by police.

2015 – Football: The 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia begins with the hosts defeating Kuwait 4–1 in the opening game. It is the first Asian Cup held outside Asia.

2017 – Martin McGuinness resigns as Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland after a scandal over a renewable heat initiative involving First Minister Arlene Foster had made relations in the power-sharing government difficult.

2018 – Australia's law allowing same-sex marriage enters into force.

2018 – North Korea agrees to send a team to the 2018 Winter Paralympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea after talks between politicians from the two countries.

2018 – Mudslides in southern California kill at least 20 people.

2024 – Gabriel Attal is picked as Primie Minister of France by Emmanuel Macron.