From Historynet: Today in History January 16

1547          Ivan IV  crowns himself the new Czar of Russia in Assumption Cathedral in Moscow.

1786          The Council of Virginia guarantees religious freedom.

1847          John C. Fremont , the famed "Pathfinder" of Western exploration, is appointed governor of California.

1865          General William T. Sherman  begins a march through the Carolinas.

1900          The U.S. Senate recognizes the Anglo-German Treaty of 1899 by which the UK renounced its rights to the Samoan Islands.

1909          One of Ernest Shackleton's  polar exploration teams reaches the Magnetic South Pole.

1914          Maxim Gorky  is authorized to return to Russia after an eight year exile for political dissidence.

1920          The League of Nations holds its first meeting in Paris.

1920          Allies lift the blockade on trade with Russia.

1939          Franklin D. Roosevelt  asks for an extension of the Social Security Act to include more women and children.

1940          Hitler  cancels an attack in the West due to bad weather and the capture of German attack plans in Belgium.

1942          Japan's advance into Burma begins.

1944          Eisenhower  assumes supreme command of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.

1945          The U.S. First and Third armies link up at Houffalize, effectively ending the Battle of the Bulge.

1956          The Egyptian government makes Islam the state religion.

1965          Eighteen are arrested in Mississippi for the murder of three civil rights workers.

1975          The Irish Republican Army calls an end to a 25-day cease fire in Belfast.

1979          The Shah  leaves Iran.

1991          The Persian Gulf War begins. The massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq -- Operation Desert Storm -- ends on February 28, 1991, when President George Bush  declares a cease-fire, and Iraq pledges to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms.