What happened on 20 January?

21 events from the Ever-When timeline, ranked by how much they mattered.

1. 1942 Wannsee Conference Heydrich coordinates Nazi ministries' role in the 'Final Solution' to the Jewish question; bureaucratic blueprint for genocide.
2. 1961 Presidency of John F. Kennedy Bay of Pigs; Cuban Missile Crisis; Moon-landing goal set; assassinated.
3. 1981 Presidency of Ronald Reagan Reaganomics; Cold War rhetoric; 'tear down this wall'; Iran-Contra.
4. 2009 Presidency of Barack Obama Affordable Care Act; killed bin Laden; Paris Agreement; first Black president.
5. 2001 Presidency of George W. Bush 9/11 attacks; Afghanistan and Iraq wars; 2008 financial crisis.
6. 2017 Presidency of Donald Trump (first term) Tax cuts; trade wars; COVID-19 pandemic; impeached twice; lost 2020 election.
7. 1953 Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower Interstate Highway System; ended Korean War; Suez crisis; Little Rock.
8. 2025 Trump returns to the presidency Trump wins the 2024 election to begin a second, non-consecutive term.
9. 1969 Presidency of Richard Nixon Opening to China; detente; Watergate scandal; only president to resign.
10. 1649 The trial of Charles I opens For the first time anywhere, a reigning king is put on public trial by his own subjects: Charles I, in Westminster Hall, refuses to recognise the court and never enters a plea. Ten
11. 1993 Presidency of Bill Clinton Dot-com boom; NAFTA; welfare reform; impeached over Lewinsky affair.
12. 2021 Presidency of Joe Biden Infrastructure law; CHIPS Act; withdrew from Afghanistan; supported Ukraine.
13. 2025 Presidency of Donald Trump (second term) Returned to office January 2025; second non-consecutive term.
14. 1961 Kennedy's inaugural address 'Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country': the youngest elected president speaks for a new generation in the snow.
15. 1989 Presidency of George H. W. Bush End of Cold War; Gulf War (1991); 'read my lips' tax pledge broken.
16. 1920 Born: Federico Fellini Italian director of La Dolce Vita and 8½.
17. 1977 Presidency of Jimmy Carter Camp David Accords; Iran hostage crisis; stagflation; later humanitarian.
18. 2021 Kamala Harris becomes first female US Vice President The first woman, and first woman of colour, to hold US national executive office.
19. 1265 Simon de Montfort's Parliament Montfort summons not only barons and bishops but two knights from every shire and two burgesses from each borough — the first English parliament to include elected town representat
20. 1936 Reign of Edward VIII Reign of Edward VIII (1936) as King of the United Kingdom.
21. 1993 Angelou reads On the Pulse of Morning At Bill Clinton's inauguration Angelou becomes the first poet to read at a swearing-in since Robert Frost, calling on 'the Rock, the River, the Tree' to greet a new American day.