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On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
On Jan. 20, 1920, Federico Fellini , the Italian film director , was born.
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On this date in:
1801 - John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.
1841 - Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain.
1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
1896 - Comedian George Burns was born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City.
1920 - Movie director Federico Fellini was born in Rimini, Italy.
1936 - Britain's King George V died.
1942 - Nazi officials arrived at a "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews, during a conference at Lake Wannsee in Berlin.
1961 - John F. Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States.
1981 - Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days.
1986 - The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
1986 - Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
1987 - Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages.
1989 - George H.W. Bush took the oath of office as the 41st U.S. president.
1993 - Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president of the United States.
1993 - Actress Audrey Hepburn died at age 63.
2001 - George W. Bush took the oath of office as the 43rd president of the United States.
2001 - Hundreds of thousands of protesting Filipinos forced President Joseph Estrada to step down; Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in as the new president.
2004 - The Salvation Army announced it had received a $1.5 billion donation from the estate of Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald's founder Ray Kroc.
note: Hat-Tip to Phawker