January 21

Events

 * 1840 - Charles Wheatstone and W.F. Cooke are granted the earliest English alphabetic telegraph patent.
 * 1930 - Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for a method of "Mounting for Diaphragms of Sound Boxes" (No. 1,744,533).

Births

 * 1909 - Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer (d. 2004)
 * 1910 - Eua Sunthornsanan, Thai composer and bandleader (d. 1981)
 * 1923 - Lola Flores, Spanish singer (d. 1995)
 * 1941 - Richie Havens, American musician
 * 1942 - Edwin Starr, American singer (d. 2003)
 * 1947 - Pye Hastings, English singer and musician (Caravan)
 * 1950 - Billy Ocean, West Indian musician
 * 1958 - Frank Ticheli, American composer
 * 1966 - Robert Del Naja, English musician
 * 1970 - Mark Trojanowski, American musician (Sister Hazel)
 * 1972 - Yasunori Mitsuda, Japanese composer
 * 1972 - Cat Power (Chan Marshall), American musician
 * 1976 - Emma Bunton, English singer (Spice Girls)
 * 1977 - Rick Ross, American rapper
 * 1979 - Spider Loc, American rapper, member of G-Unit
 * 1980 - Nana Mizuki, Japanese voice actress and singer
 * 1981 - Andy Lee, Korean singer (Shinhwa)