The report drew three main conclusions focused on the effect of smoking on the functioning of the respiratory system.

The 47-page pamphlet is credited with having a dramatic impact on public opinion in the colonies, and helped to consolidate the idea of independent republicanism.

As Star of the West approached Fort Sumter on the morning of 9 January it was met with cannon shots from cadet George E. Haynsworth on nearby Morris Island.

American President George Washington delivered the very first State of the Union address to Congress.

On the 7th January 1979 Pol Pot, the Cambodian revolutionary and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, was overthrown when Vietnamese forces captured the capital city Phnom Penh.

Fans of the rock band Led Zeppelin rampaged through the Boston Garden arena, causing thousands of dollars of damage.

Ross later achieved another ‘first’ in 1933 when she was appointed Director of the U.S. Mint by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On the 4th January 1642, Charles I attempted and failed to arrest the Five Members of Parliament, prompting the English Civil War and his own eventual execution for treason.

On the 3rd January 1961, the United States of America severed its diplomatic relationship with Cuba and closed the American embassy in Havana.

In response to Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan, Jimmy Carter brought the period of détente to an end.

On the 1st January 1942, the Declaration by the United Nations was agreed and signed by the representatives of four major Allied nations during the Second World War.

Arthur Guinness signed a 9,000 year lease for the derelict St. James’s Gate Brewery in Dublin.

On the 30th December 1922, the USSR – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – was founded.

More than 150 Native Americans from the Lakota tribe were killed by U.S. soldiers in the Wounded Knee Massacre.