Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 3
This is a list of selected January 3 anniversaries that appear in the "On this day" section of the Main Page. To suggest a new item, in most cases, you can be bold and edit this page. Please read the selected anniversaries guidelines before making your edit. However, if your addition might be controversial or on a day that is or will soon be on the Main Page, please post your suggestion on the talk page instead.
Please note that the events listed on the Main Page are chosen based more on relative article quality and to maintain a mix of topics, not based solely on how important or significant their subjects are. Only four to five events are posted at a time and thus not everything that is "most important and significant" can be listed. In addition, an event is generally not posted this year if it is also the subject of the scheduled featured article, featured list or picture of the day.
To report an error when this appears on the Main Page, see Main Page errors. Please remember that this list defers to the supporting articles, so it is best to achieve consensus and make any necessary changes there first.
- 1521 – Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church after Luther refused to retract 41 of his 95 theses.
- 1749 – Benning Wentworth, Governor of the New Hampshire Colony, began to issue the New Hampshire Grants on land which was also claimed by New York, and is now Vermont.
- 1848 – Joseph Jenkins Roberts (pictured) began his term as the first President of Liberia.
- 1888 – The 91-cm refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, USA, at the time the largest telescope in the world, was used for the first time.
- 1958 – Ten former British colonies in the Caribbean joined to form a new self-governing West Indies Federation.
- 1959 – The Alaska Territory, an organized incorporated territory of the United States, became the 49th state of the union, and the first U.S. state outside of the 48 contiguous states.