2009 Barack Obama, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becomes the United States’ first African-American president.

1265 First English Parliament summoned other than by royal command (in this instance by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester) mets in Westminster Hall

1841 China cedes Hong Kong to the British during the 1st Opium War

1921 Republic of Turkey declared out of remnants of Ottoman Empire

1942 Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee Conference in Berlin to organize the “final solution”, the extermination of Europe’s Jews

1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented (and never to be repeated) 4th term as US President

1981 Ronald Reagan inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America