- 60 St. Paul is thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta
- 822 U Cit Tok', pretender to the throne of the Maya city of Copán assumes control of the city (as inscribed on Altar L)
- 1098 Crusaders defeat Prince Ridwan of Aleppo at Antioch
- 1355 The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 62 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days
Albert's Oath
1525 Albert of Prussia pledges a personal oath to Sigismund I the Old and is invested with the duchy for himself and his heirs
- 1535 Twelve nude Anabaptists run through the streets of Amsterdam
Former Queen Sent to the Tower
1542 Dethroned Queen Catherine Howard. 5th wife of King Henry VIII, transferred to Tower of London prison for her impending execution
- 1549 Tomé de Sousa appointed as the 1st Governor-General of Brazil
- 1635 Playwright William Davenant's court masque "The Temple of Love" is performed at Whitehall featuring Queen Henrietta Maria
- 1635 The Académie Française formed in Paris by Cardinal Richelieu
- 1676 King Philip's War: a force of 1,500 Wampanoag, Nipmuc, and Narragansett Indians kill over 30 men and destroy buildings in Lancaster, Massachusetts
- 1713 Netherlands & Britain sign accord concerning anti-French Barrier [OS=Jan 31]
- 1716 Jacobite and Scottish pretender to the throne, James Francis Edward Stuart, returns to France
Edmond Halley Astronomer Royal
1720 Edmond Halley is appointed as the second Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory
- 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the French-Indian War, France agrees to surrender Canada to Great Britain
- 1774 Andrew Becker demonstrates diving suit
Voltaire Returns to Paris
1778 Voltaire returns to Paris to great acclaim after an absence of 28 years
- 1794 Joseph Haydn's 99th Symphony in E premieres, in London, England
- 1798 French army led by Louis Alexandre Berthier captures Rome
- 1807 US Coast Survey authorized by Congress
- 1837 Russian poet Alexander Pushkin is fatally injured in a duel with French officer Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès (1/29 OS)
- 1842 Moreton Bay Penal Colony abolished and opened for free settlement (modern city of Brisbane, Australia) [1]
- 1846 Beginning of Mormon march to western US
- 1846 British defeat Sikhs in battle of Sobraon, India
- 1855 US citizenship laws amended; all children of US parents born abroad granted US citizenship
1859 General Horsford defeats Begum of Oude and Nana Sahib in Indian Mutiny
- 1860 Johannes Brahms' orchestral music piece "Serenade No. 2 in A" premieres in Hamburg
- 1862 Dutch 2nd government of Thorbecke forms
- 1862 Julius Benedict and Dion Boucicault's opera "Lily of Killarney" premieres at Convent Garden in London
- 1863 1st US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia
- 1866 Dutch government of Frans van der Putte forms
- 1868 Conservatives & military seize Convention Hall in Florida
- 1870 City of Anaheim in California incorporates for the 1st time, but disincorporates after two years as the tax burden was too high
- 1870 The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) forms in NYC
- 1878 Pact of Zanjón signed between Cubans rebels and the Spanish bringing the 10 Years War to an end
- 1879 1st electric arc light used (California Theater)
Arcanum
1880 Pope Leo XIII publishes encyclical Arcanum about Christian marriage
- 1881 Jacques Offenbach's opera "Les Contes d'Hoffman" premieres in Paris
- 1882 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera "Snyegurochka" premieres in St Petersburg
- 1883 Fire at un-insured New Hall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, kills 71
- 1890 Around 11 million acres ceded to US by Sioux Indians, then opened for settlement
- 1897 NY Times begins using slogan "All the News That's Fit to Print"
- 1899 -39°F (-39°C), Milligan, Ohio (state lowest record temperature)
- 1900 Peter Ostlund skates world record 500m (45.2 sec)
- 1904 Japan and Russia declare war
- 1906 British battleship HMS Dreadnought launches after only 100 days and renders all other capital ships obsolete with its revolutionary design
- 1906 State of siege proclaimed in Zululand
Burns vs. Palmer
1908 Canadian world heavyweight boxing champion Tommy Burns KOs Englishman Jack Palmer in round 4 in London in his 8th title defense
- 1912 Hobbs & Rhodes make 323 cricket opening stand v Aust at MCG
- 1913 Edward Sheldon's "Romance" premieres in NYC
Passive Resistance Prisoners Released
1914 In accordance with the understanding reached by General Jan Smuts and civil rights leader M.K. Gandhi, 60 passive resistance prisoners are released from Pietermaritzburg Prison; 40 passive resisters released in Durban, 8 in Newcastle, 11 in Port Elizabeth
British US Flag Deception
1915 US President Woodrow Wilson protests to Britain on the use of US flags on British merchant ships to deceive the Germans
- 1915 US President Woodrow Wilson warns Germany that the US will hold it 'to a strict accountability' for 'property endangered or lives lost'
Biggest Oil Gusher Ever
1916 Biggest oil well gusher ever - Edward L. Doheny's Cerro Azul No. 4 first gushes 600 feet in the air near Tampico, Mexico
- 1916 Military conscription begins in Britain
- 1917 Johanna Westerdijk installed as the Netherlands' 1st female professor
- 1918 In Finland, General Carl Gustaf Emil Von Mannerheim gathers an army known as the 'White Guard' to mount a counter revolution against the Bolshevik 'Red Guard'
- 1920 Baseball outlaws all pitches involving tampering with ball
- 1920 Jozef Haller de Hallenburg performs symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea
- 1923 Ink paste manufactured for 1st time by Standard Ink Company
- 1923 Owen Davis' "Icebound" premieres in NYC
- 1923 SDAP speaks out against allied occupation of the Ruhr
Youngest MLB Manager
1924 Bucky Harris at 27, becomes youngest major league baseball manager (Washington Senators)
- 1925 1st waterless gas storage tank put into service, Michigan City, Indiana
- 1926 Building of Olympic Stadium Amsterdam, begins
Coolidge Requests Disarmament
1927 US President Calvin Coolidge asks for second disarmament conference
- 1929 Bishop Stephen Alencastre dedicates the beautiful Romanesque church of Saint Patrick in Honolulu
- 1930 Grain Stabilization Corporation authorized by Congress
- 1931 New Delhi becomes the capital of India
- 1932 Sweden goes 1-2 in the 18k cross country event at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics; Sven Utterström wins gold ahead of teammate Axel Wikström
- 1933 -54°F (-48°C), Seneca, Oregon (state record)
- 1933 Dutch seaplane bombs Dutch ship
- 1933 Mutiny on "7 Provinces" ends (began Feb 4th), 23 killed
- 1933 The Postal Telegraph-Cable Company of New York City delivers the 1st singing telegram [1]
- 1934 1st Jewish immigrant ship to break the English blockade in Palestine
- 1934 Byrd souvenir sheet issued, NYC; 1st unperforated ungummed US stamp
- 1938 King Carol II of Romania drives out dictator Goga
- 1941 1st highway post office makes 1st trip, Washington, D.C. to Harrisonburg, Virginia
- 1941 Anti-Nazi "Het Parool" begins publishing in Netherlands
Fused Silica
1942 American chemist James Franklin Hyde is granted a patent for fused silica - a glass production breakthrough
1942 Glenn Miller and his Orchestra are awarded the first-ever gold record for selling 1 million copies of "Chattanooga Choo Choo"
- 1943 "Manifesto of Algerian People" calls for equality & self-determination
- 1943 British 8th Army sweeps through North Africa to Tunisia
- 1943 Van der Veen Resistance starts fire in Amsterdam employment bureau
- 1944 Belgian resistance fighter and author Kamiel van Baelen arrested
- 1944 U-666/U-545/U-283 sink off Ireland
- 1945 "Rum and Coca-Cola" by the Andrews Sisters hits #1
- 1947 Italy cedes most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia
- 1947 Netherlands Radio Union forms
- 1947 Province of Petsamo returned to Soviet Union by Finland
- 1947 WW II peace treaties signed
- 1948 American composer Leroy Anderson completes his orchestral work 'Sleigh Ride' which becomes a worldwide holiday favorite
- 1948 Greek Gen Markos' guerrilla army bombs Saloniki
- 1951 "John and Marsha" by Stan Freberg, a parody of daytime soap operas which had only two voices repeating each other's names, peaks at #21 in the USA
First General Election
1952 India holds its first general election; Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru remains in power
- 1953 Ice Dance Championship at Davos won by Westwood & Demmy GRB
- 1953 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Jennifer & John Nicks of GRB
- 1953 Men's Figure Skating Champion in Davos won by Hayes Alan Jenkins USA
Eisenhower Against Vietnam Intervention
1954 President Dwight Eisenhower warns against US intervention in Vietnam
- 1955 The US Navy evacuate 1000s from Tachen Islands in the Pacific
- 1956 "My Friend Flicka" premieres on CBS (later NBC) TV
- 1959 Dutch Princess Wilhelmina publishes "Lonely, but not alone"
- 1959 Tornado in St Louis kills 19 & injures 265
- 1960 Charles Ives' composition "Lincoln, the Great Commoner" premieres
- 1961 AFL's LA Chargers move to San Diego
- 1961 Niagara Falls hydroelectric project begins producing power
Piston's 7th Symphony
1961 Walter Piston's 7th Symphony, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra premieres under direction of Eugene Ormandy; wins 1961 Pulitzer Prize
- 1962 Jim Beatty sets American indoor mile record (3:58.9) in LA
- 1962 USSR swaps spy Francis Gary Power to US for Rudolph Abel
- 1964 Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager sinks after colliding with aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, killing 82
- 1964 WBGU TV channel 27 in Bowling Green, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
The Redcoats are Coming
1965 British folk-pop duo Chad and Jeremy guest star in "The Redcoats are Coming" episode of American TV sitcom "The Dick Van Dyke Show"
Valley of the Dolls
1966 "Valley of the Dolls" by Jacqueline Susann is published by Bernard Geis Associates in the US - sold over 31 million copies
- 1966 Pierre Harmel's Belgium government resigns
- 1967 25th Amendment (US Presidential Disability & Succession) ratified
- 1968 "Spooky" by Classics IV hits #3
Fleming Wins Gold
1968 American two-time world champion Peggy Fleming comfortably wins the Olympic women's figure skating gold medal at the Grenoble Winter Games
- 1969 Louisiana State University's Pete Maravich scores 66, despite his team losing to Tulane 101-94
- 1970 26.4 cm precipitation falls on Mount Washington NH (state record)
- 1970 Dry powder avalanche moving at 120 mph smashes into youth hostel at Val d'Isere, France, killing 40 Belgian, French, & German youths
Tapestry
1971 A&M Records releases "Tapestry", the second album by singer-songwriter Carole King; wins 4 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year (1972), tops charts in four countries, and goes on to sell over 30 million copies
- 1971 American Mensa Ltd incorporates in New York City
- 1971 Bill White becomes 1st African American baseball announcer (NY Yankees)
- 1972 BBC bans "Give Ireland Back to the Irish" by Wings
- 1972 Ras al Khaima joins United Arab Emirates
- 1972 Two British soldiers are killed in a land mine attack near Cullyhanna, County Armagh; an IRA member is shot dead during an exchange of gunfire with RUC officers
- 1972 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
- 1973 2nd time Rangers shut-out Islanders 6-0
- 1973 83m wide gas tank on Staten Island explodes, 40 die
- 1974 Iran / Iraqi border fight breaks out
- 1974 Judy Ikenberry wins 1st Us women's marathon (2:55:17)
- 1974 Silver futures hit record $4.81½ an ounce in London
- 1975 (William) "Judy" Johnson selected to baseball Hall of Fame
- 1975 The Provisional Irish Republican Army agrees to a truce and ceasefire with the British government and the Northern Ireland Office; Seven "incident centres" are established in nationalist areas to monitor the ceasefire
- 1977 Bomb explosion in Moscow metro
- 1977 Jonathan Netanyahu Lane in the Bronx, New York, named in honor of the Bronx-born Israeli soldier who died freeing hostages in Entebbe Raid in Uganda in 1976
- 1978 Frank C. Carlucci succeeds John F. Blake as deputy director of the CIA
- 1978 U.S. premiere of "Blue Collar", Paul Schrader's first film direction
You Really Got Me
1978 Warner Bros. Records releases the eponymous debut album of American rock band Van Halen; featuring the singles "You Really Got Me", "Runnin' with the Devil", and "Jamie's Cryin'", it becomes a commercial smash with sales of over ten million copies
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?
1979 "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?" by Rod Stewart peaks at #1
- 1980 Ianford Wilsons "Talley's Folly" premieres in NYC
- 1981 8 killed and 198 injured by fire at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada; a busboy is later convicted of arson and murder, and sentenced to life in prison [1]
- 1982 28 skiers perform backflips while holding hands, Bromont, Quebec
- 1983 Anglican synod vote 338-100 against unilateral UK nuclear disarmament
Zimyatov's Fourth Gold
1984 Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins a career 4th Olympic gold medal when he takes out the 30k event in Sarajevo; 3 gold in Lake Placid 1980
- 1985 Andrea Schöne skates ladies world record 5 km (7:32.82)
- 1985 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating of STS 51-E mission
- 1985 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
John Lennon: Live in NYC
1986 "John Lennon: Live in NYC" album is released posthumously
- 1987 Philippine troops murder 17 civilians in Lupao Massacre
- 1988 3-judge panel of 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco strikes down Army's ban on homosexuals (later overturned by appeal)
- 1988 Rocky Malebane-Metsing coup in Bophuthatswana fails
NBA Hall of Fame
1989 Celtic KC Jones and Cavalier Lenny Wilkens elected to NBA Hall of Fame
- 1989 Minor League Football System opens organizational meeting, St Louis
- 1989 Ron Brown chosen 1st African American chairman of a major US party (Democrats)
- 1989 Test Cricket debut of Aaqib Javed, Pak v NZ age 16 years 189 days
- 1989 Tony Robinson of Jamaica becomes Nottingham's 1st black sheriff
- 1989 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1989 WWF admits pro wrestling is an exhibition and not a sport in a New Jersey court to gain deregulation
- 1990 Perrier Water pulls product from shelf due to benzine in water
- 1991 Johann Koss skates world record 10 km (13:43.54)
- 1991 Lithuania votes for independence from USSR
- 1992 "Dangerous Women" final episode on WWOR-TV
- 1992 Mike Tyson convicted of raping Desiree Washington in Indiana
Blair Wins Gold
1992 Speed skater Bonnie Blair wins the 1st gold medal for the US at the 1992 Winter Olympics
- 1993 Jani Sievinen swims world record 200m backstroke (1:55.59)
- 1993 US officially backs peace plan in Bosnia
- 1995 Sun Cayun pole vaults female indoor world record (4.12m)
- 1996 A bomb explodes in Docklands area of London, ending the 17-month ceasefire; James McArdle is eventually found guilty and jailed for 25 years
Deep Blue Beats Kasparov
1996 IBM chess-playing computer Deep Blue becomes the first computer to win a game of chess against a reigning human chess champion, Garry Kasparov
- 1997 5th ESPY Awards: Michael Johnson, Amy Van Dyken Lobo win
- 1997 Comet Shoemaker-Holt 2 Closest Approach to Earth (1.9245 AU)
- 1997 Lemrick Nelson found guilty in the fatal stabbing on Hasidic Jew Yankel Rosenbaum in Crown Heights Brooklyn in 1991
Simpson Jury Awards $25m
1997 O.J. Simpson jury reaches decision on $25M in punitive damages
- 1997 Soyuz TM-25 launches to the MIR
- 1998 AOL raises monthly flat rate internet access from $19.95 to $21.95
- 1998 Olympic figure skater Peggy Fleming undergoes breast cancer surgery
- 1998 Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon the law
- 2003 France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
The College Dropout
2004 Kanye West releases his debut album "The College Dropout" (2005 Grammy Best Rap Album)
XX Winter Olympics
2006 XX Winter Olympic Games open in Turin, Italy, Luciano Pavarotti sings "Nessun dorma" in his last ever performance
- 2008 The 2008 Namdaemun fire severely damages Namdaemun, the first National Treasure of South Korea.
- 2011 Jerry Sloan resigns as head coach of the Utah Jazz
- 2013 36 people are killed and 39 are injured in a stampede at a train station in Allahabad, India
- 2013 5 people are killed by a falling lifeboat from the cruise ship Thomson Majesty in the Canary islands
- 2013 55th Grammy Awards: "Somebody That I Used To Know" (Goyte); "We Are Young" (fun); and "Babel" (Mumford & Sons) win
2013 55th Grammy Awards: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross win for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"
- 2013 Nigeria defeat Burkina Faso 1-0 to win the football 2013 Africa Cup of Nations
This Is How We Roll
2014 "This Is How We Roll" single released by Florida Georgia Line featuring Luke Bryan (Billboard Song of the Year 2014)
- 2014 After winning Vancouver (2010) Olympic moguls title, Canadian freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau wins 2nd consecutive Olympic gold medal in Sochi; beats teammate Mikaël Kingsbury
- 2014 Canadian short track speed skater Charles Hamelin wins his 3rd career Olympic gold medal in the 1,500m in Sochi; Vancouver (2010) 500m and 5,000m relay champion
- 2014 German alpine skier Maria Höfl-Riesch retains her Olympic combined title (Vancouver 2010) when she Nicole Hosp beats of Austria by 0.4s
- 2014 Netherlands sweeps the medals in the men's 500m speed skating at the Sochi Winter Olympics; Michel Mulder wins gold ahead of teammates Jan Smeekens and Ronald Mulder
Jon Stewart Leaves The Daily Show
2015 American comedian Jon Stewart announces he will be leaving late-night talk and satirical news program "The Daily Show" at the end of the year
Fiorina and Christie Drop Out
2016 Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie suspend their campaigns
- 2016 Venezuelan government orders more than 100 malls to close early to save electricity, due to drought caused by El Niño
- 2018 Adam Ondra completes the first-ever flash of a confirmed 9a+ (5.15a) route with his ascent of Super Crackinette in France
- 2018 German biathlete Laura Dahlmeier wins women's 7.5k sprint gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics; also wins 10k pursuit gold
- 2018 Sochi (2014) Olympic large hill ski jump champion Andreas Wellinger of Germany wins the individual normal hill gold medal at Pyeongchang by just 0.2m from Norway's Johann André Forfang
- 2018 Swedish cross country skier Charlotte Kalla wins 3rd career Olympic gold medal in the 15k skiathlon in Pyeongchang; also wins 10k freestyle gold in Vancouver (2010) and 4 x 5k relay in Sochi (2014)
- 2018 Tottenham Hotspur edge Arsenal, 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in front of English Premier League record single-game attendance of 83,222 fans
2019 61st Grammy Awards: Childish Gambino first rapper to win Best Song and Best Record for "This Is America"; Best Album "Golden Hour" Kacey Musgraves
- 2019 Insect populations are collapsing worldwide threatening a“catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems” according to a global review saying 40% declining, 30% endangered
- 2019 Mine collapse at an illegal gold mine in north-eastern Liberia traps about 40 people underground
- 2019 Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar announces her 2020 presidential campaign
- 2019 Number of women alleging sexual assault by former Costa Rica President Óscar Arias Sánchez grows to nine
- 2019 Sexual abuse investigation into US Southern Baptist churches reveals 400 church members implicated with over 700 victims, according to The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News
- 2019 The eight centrally owned and operated team Alliance of American Football gets underway; Orlando Apollos beat Atlanta Legends, 40-6 at Spectrum Stadium, Orlando, FL
- 2020 More than 30 bushfires put out by heaviest rainfall for 30 years in New South Wales, Australia, helping end one of the worst bushfire seasons ever, 46 million acres burnt, over 1 billion animals killed, 34 people dead
- 2021 17,000 year old conch shell discovered to be oldest known wind instrument, after being reassessed by archaeologists, originally found in Marsoulas cave, Pyrenees [1]
- 2021 Astronomers confirm the planetoid named Farfarout as the most distant orbiting the Sun, almost four times more distant than Pluto [1]
- 2023 World War II era bomb found in Great Yarmouth, England explodes in "unplanned" detonation as experts attempt to disarm it [1]
- 2024 Hungarian President Katalin Novak resigns after pardoning a man involved in a child sexual abuse case [1]
- 2025 Guatemala declares three days of national mourning after a bus crash kills 55 people after crashing into a ravine [1]
