Today in History in 1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to start a third term in office. He starts his fourth term on this date in 1945 and dies shortly after; also inaugurated on this day is Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953, John F. Kennedy in 1961, Richard Nixon in 1969, Jimmy Carter in 1977, President Ronald Reagan is inaugurated for the second time in 1985, George H. W. Bush in 1989, Bill Clinton in 1993, George W. Bush in 2001, Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013, Donald Trump in 2017, and Joe Biden in 2021.

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 20 is the 20th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 345 days remaining until the end of the year (346 in leap years).

EVENTS

250 – Emperor Decius begins widespread persecution of Christians in Rome

1265 – The English Parliament conducts its first meeting.

1320 – Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes King of Poland.

1356 – Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.

1523 – Christian III is forced to abdicate the thrones of Denmark and Norway.

1576 – The city of León in Mexico is founded.

1649 – King Charles I of England, Scotland and Ireland goes on trial for treason and 'high crimes'.

1778 – James Cook lands on the Hawaiian island of Kaua'i.

1783 – Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain.

1788 – The third and main part of the First Fleet of convicts from Great Britain arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides to move the convict colony slightly further along the coast to Port Jackson, present–day Sydney, Australia.

1801 – John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.

1839 – Battle of Yungay: Chile defeats Peru and Bolivia.

1840 – Jules Dumont D'Urville's expedition to Antarctica discovers Adelie Land.

1841 – Hong Kong comes under British control.

1855 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson patents the roller coaster.

1877 – Last day of the Constantinople Conference, which results in an agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1885 – L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.

1887 – Off the Brazilian coast, British immigrant ship Kapunda collides with the barque Ada Melmore, causing it to sink within 5 minutes, killing 297 of the 313 people on board, including all women and children.

1887 – The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Harbor, Hawaii as a naval base.

1892 – The first basketball game under rules invented by James Naismith takes place in Springfield, Massachusetts.

1905 – The Egyptian Bridge in Saint Petersburg, Russia, collapses.

1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.

1921 – Turkey's first constitution is adopted.

1929 – In Old Arizona, the first full–length talking movie filmed outdoors, is released.

1934 – The photography and electronics company Fujimovie is founded in Tokyo.

1936 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His son, Edward VIII, succeeds him.

1937 – At his second inauguration, Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first US President to be inaugurated on January 20.

1941 – Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to start a third term in office. He starts his fourth term on this date in 1945 and dies shortly after.

1941 – World War II: A German police officer is murdered in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.

1942 – Senior Nazi officials meet at the Wannsee Conference, to plan the Holocaust.

1945 – World War II: Hungary agrees to an Armistice with the Allies.

1945 – World War II: Germany begins with the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia.

1949 – Harry S. Truman proposes Point Four program to help the world's less developed areas.

1953 – Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes President of the United States; he is the first President from the Republican Party since Herbert Hoover left office in 1933.

1960 – Hendrik Verwoerd announces a vote on whether South Africa should become a Republic.

1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as President of the United States.

1969 – Richard Nixon becomes President of the United States.

1972 – Pakistan launches its nuclear weapons program.

1977 – Jimmy Carter becomes President of the United States.

1980 – Jimmy Carter announces that the US will not participate at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

1981 – The Iran hostage crisis ends within minutes of Ronald Reagan becoming US president.

1985 – President Ronald Reagan is inaugurated for the second time. He becomes the first president in over a decade to serve two terms.

1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is marked as a federal holiday for the first time.

1987 – Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.

1989 – George H. W. Bush becomes President of the United States succeeding President Ronald Reagan.

1990 – Soviet forces kill civilians in Baku, Azerbaijan.

1991 – Sudan's government imposes Islamic law around the country, worsening the civil war between the mainly Muslim North and mainly Christian South, which would become South Sudan in 2011.

1992 – Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 people.

1993 – Bill Clinton becomes President of the United States, as the first Democratic President since Jimmy Carter left office in 1981.

1995 – Jean-Claude Juncker becomes Prime Minister of Luxembourg. He is Europe's longest–serving Prime Minister at the time he leaves office on December 4, 2013.

1996 – Yasser Arafat is elected Palestinian President.

1999 – The China News Service announces new government limits on internet use.

2001 – In a coup in the Philippines, Joseph Estrada is replaced as President by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

2001 – George W. Bush becomes President of the United States.

2006 – People report seeing a bottlenose whale in the Thames in London. It dies late the next day after failed attempts to lead it back to the sea.

2007 – A three–man team, only on skis and kites completes a 1759–kilometer (1093–mile) journey to the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility, becoming the first people to do this without mechanical help.

2009 – Barack Obama becomes the first African American President of the United States.

2013 – Barack Obama starts his second term as President of the United States, becoming the third US president in a row to serve two terms in office.

2014 – The European Rosetta comet chaser spacecraft is reawakened after a 31–month hibernation on its way to attempt landing on a comet.

2016 – A terrorist attack is carried out on the Bacha Khan University in Charsadda, Pakistan, killing 21 people.

2016 – Scientists announce that they are "90% certain" of the existence of a 9th planet in the solar system beyond the Kuiper belt.

2017 – Donald Trump becomes President of the United States.

2021 – Joe Biden becomes President of the United States.