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Today in History, January 20th

On January 20, 1981, Iran freed 52 American hostages minutes after Reagan's inauguration. Plus JFK's inaugural and the Wannsee Conference.

By Grant Oster Updated November 10, 2026 3 min read Sources checked

Published January 20, 2026 · Last updated November 10, 2026

January 20 is best known for 1981, when Iran freed 52 American hostages minutes after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president, ending a 444-day crisis. The date is also Inauguration Day, which has seen John F. Kennedy’s “ask not” speech in 1961 and Barack Obama becoming the first African American president in 2009.

The big story: The Iran hostage crisis ends (1981)

The crisis began on November 4, 1979, when militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran. They were furious that the deposed shah had been let into the United States for medical care. Women, minority Americans, and non-U.S. captives were soon let go, but 52 Americans stayed in captivity for well over a year. Their ordeal shaped American politics. A rescue mission ordered by President Jimmy Carter in April 1980 failed, and eight U.S. service members died. Carter lost the November election to Ronald Reagan, then spent his last weeks in office negotiating through Algerian go-betweens. The final deal freed almost $8 billion in frozen Iranian assets, but the captives did not leave until Carter was out of office. The hostages were released minutes after Reagan took the oath on January 20, 1981. The next day, Carter flew to West Germany to welcome them back.

More events on January 20

Year	What happened
1841	During the First Opium War, the Chuenpi Convention ceded the island of Hong Kong to Britain.
1863	Union general Ambrose Burnside launched an offensive in Virginia that heavy rain turned into the “Mud March.” He called it off three days later.
1937	Franklin D. Roosevelt began his second term, the first presidential inauguration held on January 20 under the 20th Amendment.
1942	SS official Reinhard Heydrich met with Nazi officials at Wannsee, outside Berlin, to coordinate the “Final Solution,” the plan to murder Europe’s Jews.
1961	John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic president, was sworn in on a snowy day and told Americans to “ask what you can do for your country.”
1980	President Jimmy Carter called for moving the Moscow Summer Olympics unless Soviet troops left Afghanistan within a month. The U.S. later led a boycott of the Games.
1996	Yasser Arafat won the first Palestinian general election with about 88 percent of the vote.
2001	Protesters forced Philippine President Joseph Estrada from the presidential palace amid a corruption scandal, and Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo took power.
2009	Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president, the first African American to hold the office, before a crowd estimated at 1.8 million.
2021	Kamala Harris became the first woman, first Black American, and first Asian American to serve as U.S. vice president.

Born on January 20

1896: George Burns, comedian and actor born Nathan Birnbaum in New York City.
1920: Federico Fellini, Italian film director, born in Rimini.
1930: Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut and the second person to walk on the moon, born in Montclair, New Jersey.