January 22
Subject to Britannica's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
Featured Event
© Tada Images/stock.adobe.com
Apple releases its famous “1984” ad
On this day in 1984, Apple Computer aired an ominous new commercial during Super Bowl XVIII. The 60-second ad, which was directed by Ridley Scott and drew inspiration from George Orwell’s dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-four, was Apple’s promise that its new computer would help consumers avoid a dark age of technology. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
© Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Born this day in 1788, British Romantic poet and satirist Lord Byron captured the imagination of Europe with his personality and work, notably Don Juan and the renowned autobiographical poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage.
Famous Birthdays
More on January 22
Pictorial Parade
2021
Baseball player Hank Aaron, one of the game’s greatest hitters, died at the age of 86. [See if Hank Aaron made our list of the 10 greatest baseball players of all time.]
Robin Marchant/Getty Images
2018
Ursula K. Le Guin, who remains best known for her tales of science fiction and fantasy imbued with concern for character development and language, died at the age of 88. [Test your knowledge of American writers.]
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
2010
Struggling with ratings, Conan O’Brien left The Tonight Show after hosting his last episode of the late-night television program. [Take our quiz about pop culture.]
Mark Garten/UN Photo
2006
Evo Morales was sworn in as president of Bolivia, becoming the first person of indigenous descent to hold that office. [How much do you know about Latin American history?]
John Youngbear/AP Images
1998
One of the most notorious domestic terrorists in U.S. history, Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber, was sentenced to four terms of life in prison without parole. He had killed three people and injured 22 in 16 bomb attacks between 1979 and 1995.
NASA
1992
Serving as a payload specialist aboard the Discovery space shuttle, Roberta Bondar became the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist to travel into space. [Test your knowledge of famous astronauts and cosmonauts.]
© Dave Newman/Fotolia
1973
The U.S. Supreme Court issued one of its most momentous decisions, ruling in Roe v. Wade that a Texas statute criminalizing abortion in most instances violated a woman’s constitutional right of privacy. It was overturned in 2022.
© RGAPhoto86/Shutterstock.com
1943
During World War II, all Japanese resistance in Papua, on the island of New Guinea—which was the site of an important Allied base at Port Moresby—ceased. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about World War II.]
New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection/Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-107994 )
1931
Singer and songwriter Sam Cooke, one of the most influential Black vocalists of the post-World War II era, was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi. [Take our quiz about singers, musicians, and composers.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1905
On what was later known as Bloody Sunday, Russian workers marching on St. Petersburg were fired on by Russian troops. [How much do you know about Russian history?]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1904
Influential ballet choreographer George Balanchine was born in St. Petersburg, Russia. [Sort fact from fiction in our ballet quiz.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1901
Queen Victoria—who reigned for more than 60 years, during which time the British Empire reached the apex of its power—died at age 81. [Watch an overview of Queen Victoria’s reign.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1898
Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian film director and theorist known for such classics as Battleship Potemkin (1925), Alexander Nevsky (1938), and Ivan the Terrible (released in two parts, 1944 and 1958), was born. [Take our film buff quiz.]
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1849
Playwright, novelist, and short-story writer August Strindberg, who combined psychology and Naturalism in a new kind of European drama that evolved into Expressionist drama, was born in Stockholm. [Test your knowledge of famous authors.]
© Photos.com/Thinkstock
1561
Statesman and philosopher Francis Bacon was born in York House, London. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about famous Englishmen.]