Celebrated annually this day, Epiphany is a major feast that commemorates, for Western Christians, the coming of the Magi and, for Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jesus' birth, baptism by John, and first miracle.
| 1950: | | | Great Britain announced its recognition of the People's Republic of China. |
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| 1941: | | | U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his Four Freedoms in his State of the Union message to Congress. |
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| 1878: | | | American poet, historian, and folklorist Carl Sandburg, whose Abraham Lincoln: The War Years won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1940, was born. |
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| 1838: | | | German composer Max Bruch was born in Cologne, Prussia. |
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| 1811: | | American Civil War statesman Charles Sumner was born in Boston. |
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| 1759: | | George Washington married Martha Dandridge in Virginia. |
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| 1540: | | | Henry VIII of England married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. |
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