This Day in History
Today: January 5, 2026
1477
Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France.[1]
1675
Battle of Colmar: The French army beats Brandenburg.[2]
1757
Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who becomes the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering (the traditional form of capital punishment used for regicides).[3]
1781
American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by former American general Benedict Arnold.[4]
1822
The government of Central America votes for total annexation to the First Mexican Empire.[5]
1875
The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated in Paris.[6]
1895
Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.[7]
1900
Irish nationalist leader John Edward Redmond calls for revolt against British rule.[8]
1911
Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third-oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.[9]
1912
The sixth All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Prague Party Conference) opens. In the course of the conference, Vladimir Lenin and his supporters break from the rest of the party to form the Bolshevik movement.[10]
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