History of 15 January
- 1982 – Britain and the Vatican resumed full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years.
- 1985 – “Playboy” magazine announced its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton and elsewhere would come to an immediate end.
- 1988 – Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder was fired as a CBS sports commentator one day after telling a TV station in Washington, DC, that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.
- 1998 – Researchers announce that an altered gene helped to defend against HIV.
- 1991 – The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm. The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
- 1992 – Officials of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders signed a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war. At least 75,000 people were killed during the fighting.
- 1998 – The first woman to enroll at Virginia Military Institute withdrew from the school.
- 1998 – NASA officially announced that John Glenn would fly aboard the space shuttle Discoveryin October.
- 1998 – It was announced that Texas would receive $15.3 billion in a tobacco industry settlement. The payouts were planned to take place over 25 years.
- 1998 – Three federal judges secretly granted Kenneth Starr authority to probe whether U.S. President Clinton or Vernon Jordan urged Monica Lewinsky to lie about her relationship with Clinton.
- 2000 – Ricardo Lagos was elected Chile’s first socialist president since Salvador Allende.
- 2002 – U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that John Walker Lindh would be brought to the United States to face trial. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorist organizations, and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban of Afghanistan.
- 2002 – The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted sanctions against Osama bin Laden, his terror network and the remnants of the Taliban. The sanctions required that all nations impose arms embargoes and freeze their finances.
- 2009 – The iTunes Music Store reached 500 million applications downloaded.
- 2016– Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.
- 2018– Myanmar police open fire on a group of ethnic Rakhine protesters, killing seven and wounding twelve.
Celebrating Birthday Today
- 1981 – Jamie Lundmark, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1981 – Paul Rofe, Australian cricketer
- 1981 – Bobby Zamora, English footballer, striker
- 1982 – Preston, English singer-songwriter
- 1982 – Tuncay, Turkish footballer
- 1983 – Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
- 1983 – Andriy Rusol, Ukrainian footballer
- 1984 – Stephan Lichtsteiner, Swiss footballer
- 1984 – Miroslav Radović, Serbian footballer
- 1985 – Joe Flacco, American football player
- 1985 – Jayde Herrick, Australian cricketer
- 1985 – Gintaras Januševičius, Russian-Lithuanian pianist
- 1985 – Twins Jonathan and Simon Richter, Danish-Gambian footballers
- 1985 – Sidharth Malhotra, Indian actor
- 1986 – Johannes Rahn, German footballer
- 1986 – Mark Trumbo, American baseball player
- 1986 – Reto Ziegler, Swiss footballer, left back
- 1987 – Jake Epstein, Canadian actor
- 1987 – Charlotte Henshaw, English swimmer
- 1988 – Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer
- 1988 – Jorge Torres Nilo, Mexican footballer
- 1991 – Matt Duchene, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1993 – Hannes Anier, Estonian footballer
- 1993 – Amandine Hesse, French tennis player
- 1994 – Chris Smith, Australian rugby league player
- 1995 – Mikaela Turik, Australian-Canadian cricketer
- 1998 – Cameron Murray, Australian rugby league player