Wikipedia:Selected anniversaries/January 3

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 * 250 – Emperor Decius ordered everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods, resulting in widespread persecution of Christians.
 * 1521 – Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther for refusing to retract 41 alleged errors found in his 95 Theses and other writings.
 * 1777 – American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeated British troops at the Battle of Princeton.
 * 1888 – The 36-inch (91 cm) refracting telescope (pictured) at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, the largest in the world until 1897, was used for the first time.
 * 1911 – A gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the operational involvement of Winston Churchill, then Home Secretary.
 * 1973 – CBS announced the sale of the New York Yankees professional baseball team to a group of investors headed by American businessman George Steinbrenner.
 * 1976 – The multilateral International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, part of the International Bill of Human Rights, came into effect.
 * 2002 – Israeli forces seized MV ''Karine A, which was carrying 50 tonnes of smuggled weapons on behalf of the Palestinian National Authority.
 * Born/died this day: | George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle |d|1670| William Leslie |d|1777| Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie |b|1810| Savitribai Phule |b|1831| William Harrison Ainsworth |d|1882|Clement Attlee |b|1883|Cyril Bassett |b|1892| J. R. R. Tolkien |b|1892| Anna May Wong |b|1905 | Frenchy Bordagaray |b|1910| Joy Adamson |d|1980