January 16, 1920 is a date featured in the series pilot "Boardwalk Empire". Events of the day include:
- Prohibition becomes official nationwide in the United States. The event is welcomed by a countdown and a party in Babette's Supper Club.
- Frederick Elliot inducts a new class of Prohibition Agents.
- Nucky Thompson meets Margaret Schroeder for the first time. She asks him to help her husband Hans Schroeder find a job since the bakery he works for is out of business until the tourist season. He only acceeds to give her money.
- Nucky purchases his first illegal shipping of alcohol from Bill McCoy.
- Nucky and Jimmy Darmody visit an illegal distillery run by Mickey Doyle in the basement of Berns' Funeral Home. Jimmy has an altercation with Mickey after he tricks him into drinking formaldehide as a practical joke.
- Johnny Torrio and Big Jim Colosimo broker a meeting between Nucky, Arnold Rothstein and Lucky Luciano in the Traymore Hotel of Atlantic City. Rothstein buys McCoy's shipment from Nucky and receives an invitation to Lolly's Casino.
- Outside the hotel, Jimmy meets Torrio's driver and enforcer, Al Capone.