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On 31 January 1606, four men - including Guy Fawkes - were dragged on hurdles from the Tower of London to Old Palace Yard, opposite the building they had tried to blow up, and hanged, drawn, and quartered. The famous date is 5 November. The decisive one is this one.
On 30 January 1648, in a German town that would give its name to a more famous treaty nine months later, Spain signed a separate peace with the Dutch Republic. The Eighty Years' War ended. Madrid finally admitted, in writing, that it had lost.
On 29 January 1886, Karl Benz filed a patent for a three-wheeled vehicle powered by a gas engine. The machine had no reverse gear, ran on pharmacy solvent, and almost nobody wanted one.
On 28 January 1069, Robert de Comines rode into Durham with a small army despite being told a rebel force was waiting for him. He and most of his men were killed. William the Conqueror's response laid waste to half of England's north and left marks on the land that are still visible today.
On 27 January 98 AD, Nerva died and Trajan became Roman emperor. For centuries after, the Senate greeted every new emperor with the same ritual wish: may you be better than Trajan. He was not without flaws, but the bar he set outlasted the empire itself.
On 26 January 661, Ali ibn Abi Talib was struck down during morning prayer by a former follower who couldn't forgive him for agreeing to negotiate. He was the last Rashidun caliph and the first Shia imam. His death split Islam in two.
On 25 January 750, the Abbasid rebels crushed the Umayyad Caliphate at the Battle of the Zab and then killed almost every member of the ruling dynasty. Almost. One prince swam a river and didn't look back — and built medieval Spain.
On 24 January AD 41, the Praetorian Guard assassinated Caligula and proclaimed Claudius emperor. Rome expected a joke. It got thirteen years of competent government instead.
On 23 January 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself the Hongwu Emperor and founded the Ming dynasty. He had been born to a destitute peasant family, orphaned by plague, and spent his teens wandering as a mendicant monk. He ended a century of Mongol rule over China.
On 22 January 1808, the Portuguese royal court arrived in Brazil after fleeing Napoleon. The colony became the empire's capital, Britain got the trade access it had always wanted, and Portugal spent a decade governing itself from the wrong continent.