On Jan. 20, 1841, the island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. (It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.)
In 1887 the U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
In 1894 Harold Gray, the artist who created the “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, was born in Kankakee.
In 1942 Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Jews.
In 1945 President Franklin Roosevelt was sworn into office for an unprecedented fourth term.
In 1981 Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
In 1986 Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
In 1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages.
In 1993 actress Audrey Hepburn died in Tolochenaz, Switzerland; she was 63.
In 1995 the U.S. State Department announced a partial lifting of economic sanctions against communist North Korea.
In 1996 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians turned out to vote in a festive first election, solidly endorsing Yasser Arafat and his peace policies.
In 2004 the Salvation Army announced a donation likely to exceed $1.5 billion from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc.
In 2006 Michael Fortier, the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was released from federal prison after serving more than 10 years for failing to warn authorities about the plot.
