Unix Timestamp: 1233187200
Thursday, January 29. 2009, 12:00:00 AM UTC

Venezuelan gunmen hold 30 hostages in a bank in Guárico state before fleeing the scene in an ambulance with several hostages. The gunmen are subsequently captured. //www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2248765,00.html ("The Guardian") //ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJKC3vEvxHN2S92LeJJ6c9e50yEAD8UFQD000 (AP via Google News)

A car bomb in Thenia, Algeria kills at least three people. //canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hltcqZjSrVZRLB_E2xPwEulxkTJA (Canadian Press via Google News)

Iran's judiciary sentences to prison 54 Bahá'í Faith followers for anti-regime propaganda., Aljazeera

Iran's judiciary sentences 54 Bahá'í religion followers for anti-regime propaganda. //news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080129/wl_afp/iranjusticereligionbahai_080129141019 (AFP via Yahoo! News)

2003 Phnom Penh riots: In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the Thai embassy is burned and commercial properties of Thai businesses are vandalized.

At the conclusion of the "STS-107" mission, the Space Shuttle "Columbia" disintegrates during reentry over Texas, killing all 7 astronauts on board.

In Northern Ireland, Protestant Ulster Defence Association Belfast leader John Gregg is killed by a loyalist faction.

A false rumor that Thai actress Suvanant Kongying had told a reporter that the temple ruins at Angkor really belong to Thailand led to a riot in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. This caused the destruction of the Thai Embassy and dozens of Thai-owned businesses, hotels and factories.

Morgan Spurlock begins his 30-day McDonald's diet.

George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union Address to Congress.

Thomas and Friends television show begins in U.S.

The Midwest Classic Conference, a U.S. college athletic conference, is formed.

William J. Casey ends his term as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Yoweri Museveni is sworn in as President of Uganda after leading a successful 5-year guerrilla war.

Brenda Ann Spencer opens fire at a school in San Diego, California, killing 2 faculty members and wounding 8 students. Her justification for the action, I don't like Mondays, inspired the Boomtown Rats to make a song of the same name.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.

Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Twelve Provisional Irish Republican Army bombs explode in the West End of London.

The Weather Underground bombs the U.S. State Department main office in Washington, D.C..

The first of 608 performances of "Sweet Charity" opens at the Palace Theatre in New York City.

February 9 – The 1964 Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria.

The Soviet Union launches 2 scientific satellites, Elektron I and II, from a single rocket.

Ranger 6 is launched by NASA, on a mission to carry television cameras and crash-land on the Moon.

French President Charles de Gaulle vetoes the United Kingdom's entry into the EEC.

Walt Disney releases his 16th animated film, "Sleeping Beauty" in Beverly Hills. It is Disney's first animated film to be shown in 70mm and modern 6-track stereophonic sound."Fantasia" had also used a multi-speaker stereophonic sound system, but it was primitive compared to the one used in "Sleeping Beauty". Also on the program is Disney's new live-action short subject "Grand Canyon", which uses the music of Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite". "Grand Canyon" wins an Oscar for Best Documentary Short.

Lord Balfour criticizes the fact that rationing is still in force in Britain.

President Harry S. Truman orders the development of the hydrogen bomb, in response to the detonation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb in 1949.ref name=HCIYear by Year 1950 – History Channel International

The last Kuomintang troops surrender in mainland China.

Plane crash at Los Gatos Creek, California kills 4 US citizens and 28 deportees, commemorated in a song by Woody Guthrie.

Indian pacifist and leader Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse.

1948 Winter Olympics open in St. Moritz, Switzerland.

Trygve Lie of Norway is selected as the first United Nations Secretary General.

Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes 6 constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

The Kingdom of Hungary becomes a republic.

The Bank of England is nationalized.

The last session of the Permanent Court of International Justice occurs.

ENIAC (for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), an early general-purpose electronic computer, is unveiled at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Central Intelligence Group is established (the CIA in 1947).

WWII: HMS Spartan (95)is sunk by a Henschel Hs 293 from a German aircraft off Anzio, western Italy.

WWII: The Battle of Cisterna takes place.

Three gasoline-powered trains carrying factory workers crash and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi station, Yumesaki Line (Nishinari Line), Osaka, Japan, killing at least 181 people and injuring at least 92.

"All Quiet on the Western Front" ("Im Westen nichts Neues"), by Erich Maria Remarque, is published in book form.

Eugene O'Neill's "The Great God Brown" opens at the Greenwich Theatre.

The union of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador is dissolved.

February ndash "Ring Magazine" is first published.

WWI: Paris is bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.

The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with eight founding teams.

Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii.

Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile, the Benz Patent Motorwagen (built in 1885).

Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

Lord Aberdeen resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom over the management of the Crimean War.

Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe is published for the first time ("New York Evening Mirror").

British naturalist Charles Darwin marries his cousin Emma Wedgwood.

George IV of the United Kingdom ascends the throne on the death at Windsor Castle of his father George III (after 59 years on the throne), ending the period known as the British Regency. There will be a gap of 21 years before the title Prince of Wales is next used.

Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.

Battle of Brienne: Emperor Napoleon I of France is victorious against von Blücher.

After a second petition for partition from its residents, the North Carolina General Assembly abolishes Bute County, North Carolina (established 1764) by dividing it and naming the northern portion Warren County (for Revolutionary War hero Joseph Warren) and the southern portion Franklin County (for Benjamin Franklin). The General Assembly also establishes Warrenton (also named for Joseph Warren) to be the county seat of Warren County and Louisburg (named for Louis XVI of France) to be the county seat of Franklin County.

After a month's absence, Elizabeth Canning returns to her mother's home in London and claims that she was abducted. The following criminal trial causes uproar.

Anna Ivanovna (Anna of Russia) becomes tsarina, following the death of her cousin, Tsar Peter II.

O.S.) ndash Peter the Great becomes sole tsar of Russia, upon the death of Tsar Ivan V.

Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.

Aprilndash ndash English merchant Anthony de la Roché, blown off course having rounded Cape Horn eastabout, makes the first discovery of land south of the Antarctic Convergence, landing on South Georgia and (probably) Gough Island.

John Sassamon, an English-educated Native American Christian, dies at Assawsett Pond, an event which will trigger a year-long war between English American colonists of New England and Algonquian Native American tribes.

English Civil War: Armistice talks open at Uxbridge.

Richard Foxe becomes Bishop of Exeter.

March ndash Archduke Sigismund of Austria, largely on the poor advice of his counselors, declares war on Venice and seizes silver mines in and around the Valsugana Valley.

Amadeus IX becomes Duke of Savoy.

Pope Sergius III succeeds Pope Leo V as the 119th pope he begins the era of the Pornocracy.

In Japan, Prince Mino is appointed Commissioners for the erection of the great Temple of Takechi ("Ōmiya no Ōdera").