Jan 1, 1959 – Cuban President Batista is forced out by the Castro-led revolution.
Jan 1, 1983 – The internet is created when the ARPANET officially switches to the Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol.
Jan 1, 1993 – Czechoslovakia splits into two separate countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Jan 1, 1995 – The World Trade Organization comes into effect, succeeding GATT .
Jan 1, 2002 – Some 300 million people in twelve member countries begin using the EU's single currency, the Euro.
Jan 3, 1975 – The Jackson-Vanik amendment, which imposed trade restrictions on the Soviet Union in response to its poor human rights policies, is signed into law.
Jan 4, 1923 – Dying Soviet leader Lenin dictates a postscript to a letter that becomes known as his political testament; it suggests Stalin is too rude to be general secretary of the Communist party and should be replaced.
Jan 4, 2011 – Punjab governor Salman Taseer is assassinated in Islamabad.
Jan 4, 2011 – Alireza Pahlavi, the youngest son of the former shah of Iran, is found dead at home in US.
Jan 5, 2011 – Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr returns to Iraq from self-imposed exile in Iran.
Jan 6, 1810 – Turkey agrees to Russia's annexation of the Crimea and Kuban with the enactment of the Treaty of Constantinople.
Jan 6, 1963 – Iran's Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi launches his White Revolution, which includes redistributing land to peasants and giving women the vote.
Jan 7, 2011 – The second-largest member of Pakistan's ruling coalition reverses its decision to join the opposition, saving the government from possible collapse.
Jan 8, 1654 – Ukraine joins Russia under the Pereyaslav Treaty.
Jan 8, 1935 – Birth of Elvis Presley, iconic American rock and roll singer, guitarist and actor .
Jan 8, 1993 – Bosnian deputy PM Hakija Turajlic is shot to death by Serbian gunmen.
Jan 8, 2000 – Uzbek President Islam Karimov is re-elected to a five-year term with more than 90% of the vote.
Jan 9, 1863 – The world’s oldest underground, London’s Metropolitan Railway, opens its first line.
Jan 9, 1992 – Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaim their own state.
Jan 9, 1995 – Russian forces close in on the Chechen presidential palace in Grozny.
Jan 9, 1996 – Chechen rebels seize a hospital and at least 2,000 hostages in Kizlyar, Dagestan, demanding an end to the war in their breakaway republic.
Jan 9, 2008 – Kosovo's parliament elects former rebel leader Hashim Thaci as prime minister, in a vote foreshadowing the declaration of independence from Serbia.
Jan 10, 1994 – The U.S., Russia and Ukraine reach an agreement on the destruction of Ukraine's entire nuclear arsenal.
Jan 10, 2005 – Viktor Yushchenko is confirmed as winner of Ukraine's presidential elections.
Jan 12, 1990 – The Russian republic president Boris Yeltsin shocks the congress of the Soviet Communist Party by announcing he is resigning his party membership.
Jan 12, 1990 - Romania bans the Communist Party – the first Warsaw Pact country to do so (30th anniversary).
Jan 12, 2010 – A magnitude 7 earthquake destroys much of the Haitian capital (10th anniversary).
Jan 14, 1953 – Marshal Josip Broz Tito is elected first president of the Republic of Yugoslavia.
Jan 14, 1990 – Riots in the Armenian quarter of Baku leave at least two dozen dead (30th anniversary).
Jan 14, 2006 – The chief judge in Saddam Hussein's trial submits his resignation.
Jan 14, 2011 – In a unanimous vote, the Kazakh parliament approves a constitutional amendment replacing the next presidential election with a referendum to extend Nursultan Nazarbayev’s rule beyond his current term.
Jan 14, 2011 – Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali steps aside after a wave of street protests over police repression and poverty.
Jan 15, 1992 – The Yugoslav federation collapse proceeds as the European Community recognizes the republics of Croatia and Slovenia.
Jan 15, 1999 – The attack on Racak, a village in Kosovo, leads to the killing of 45 ethnic-Albanian civilians .
Jan 15, 2000 – Zeljko Raznatovic, the notorious Serb paramilitary leader better known as Arkan, is killed in a Belgrade hotel.
Jan 15, 2001 - Wikipedia, the online collaborative encyclopaedia, was officially launched.
Jan 15, 2005 - Mahmoud Abbas becomes President of the Palestinian National Authority .
Jan 15, 2010 – RFE/RL begins broadcasting in the local Pashto dialects to Pakistan and the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan (10th anniversary).
Jan 16, 1969 - Jan Palach set himself on fire at the top end of Wenceslas Square .
Jan 16, 1979 – In the face of growing unrest, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi flees Iran, never to return .
Jan 16, 1991 – U.S.-led allied forces launch Operation Desert Storm after Iraq fails to meet a deadline on withdrawal from Kuwait.
Jan 16, 2005 – Massive protests against social benefit cuts paralyze traffic in cities across Russia, in the most serious outburst of public discontent since Putin took office.
Jan 17, 1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
Jan 19, 1981 – The U.S. and Iran sign an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.
Jan 19, 1995 – Separatist fighters abandon Chechnya's presidential palace after Russian artillery and rocket fire destroy it.
Jan 19, 2007 – Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink is shot dead outside his newspaper's offices in Istanbul.
Jan 19, 2009 – Murder of Markelov and Baburova in Moscow .
Jan 20, 1981 – 52 American hostages are released after being held in their Tehran embassy for 444 days by Iranian Islamic radicals.
Jan 20, 1990 – Soviet troops storm the Azerbaijani capital of Baku, leaving dozens dead and wounded (Black January) - 30th anniversary.
Jan 21, 1924 – Death of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
Jan 21, 2006 – Death of Kosovo President Ibrahim Rugova.
Jan 22, 1919 – The Unification Act is signed between the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic on Sofiyska Square in Kyiv.
Jan 22, 1905 – In what is called the Bloody Sunday incident, the Russian Czar's troops massacre more than one hundred peaceful protesters in front of the St. Petersburg palace.
Jan 22, 1997 – The Russian parliament votes, without legal force, to remove Boris Yeltsin as president because of his ill health.
Jan 22, 2000 – An IAEA team begins searching Iraqi nuclear sites in the first inspection by a world body in more than a year.
Jan 22, 2002 – Russia abruptly pulls the plug on the country's only nationwide independent television station, giving Kremlin a monopoly of airwaves for the first time since the Soviet era.
Jan 23, 2005 – Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as Ukraine's new president.
Jan 24, 1965 - Death of British PM Sir Winston Churchill .
Jan 25, 1919 – The League of Nations, forerunner of the United Nations, is founded.
Jan 25, 1955 – The Soviet parliament officially ends the state of war with Germany.
Jan 25, 2001 – Serbia's parliament overwhelmingly approves a reformist government headed by Zoran Djindjic.
Jan 25, 2011 – Egypt's revolution ends the three-decade-long presidency of Hosni Mubarak.
Jan 26, 1998 - During a televised press conference, President Clinton says he did not have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky.
Jan 27, 1944 – The German and Finnish siege of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, is lifted.
Jan 27, 1945 – Liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenhau concentration camp by the Red Army.
Jan 28, 1918 - The Red Army is created.
Jan 29, 2002 – Afghanistan's old national flag is hoisted over Kabul for the first time since a 1978 communist takeover.
Jan 30, 1933 – Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
Jan 30, 1943 – Soviets destroy German army forces southwest of Stalingrad in World War II.
Jan 30, 1948 – India's Mahatma Gandhi is killed.
Jan 30, 2002 – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty launches broadcasting to Afghanistan in the Dari and Pashto languages.
Jan 31, 1990 – The first McDonald's restaurant opens in Moscow.
Jan 31, 1994 – RFE/RL launches broadcasts to the former Yugoslavia.