- 457 Leo I crowned Eastern Roman Emperor, 1st to be crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople
- 1074 Battle of Montesarchio: Prince of Benevento, Pandulf IV killed battling the encroaching Normans in southern Italy
- 1238 Mongolian forces led by General Batu capture and burn the important Russian city of Vladimir, after an eight-day siege
First Prince of Wales
1301 Edward of Caernarfon (later Edward II) becomes the first English Prince of Wales
- 1522 Treaty of Brussels: Habsburgers split into Spanish and Austrian Branches
Spanish Inquisition
1569 King Philip II forms Inquisition in South America
- 1613 Michail Romanov (aged 16) becomes Tsar of Russia
- 1639 Academie Française begins Dictionary of French Language
Ballet of Peace
1668 Dutch Prince William III dances in premiere of "Ballet of Peace"
- 1759 Thomas Siddel is reported to have harvested a 17-1/4 lb (7.8 kg) 47-ibch long potato from his garden in Chester, England
1783 Great Siege of Gibraltar, launched by France and Spain against the British colony during the American War of Independence is lifted after 3 years and 7 months
- 1792 Austria and Prussia sign an anti-French covenant
- 1792 Domenico Cimarosa's opera "Il Matrimonio Segreto" premieres in Vienna
- 1795 11th Amendment to US Constitution affirming power of state courts is ratified [1]
- 1795 Dutch Prince William V accepts British occupation of Dutch Indies
- 1812 8.2 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri
Byron's Maiden Speech
1812 Poet Lord Byron (6th Baron Byron) makes his maiden speech in House of Lords
- 1817 Baltimore becomes the 1st American city lit by gas street lamps with the first turned on at Market and Lemon Streets (currently Baltimore and Holliday Streets)
- 1818 1st successful US educational magazine "Academician" begins (NYC)
- 1827 Ballet (Deserter) introduced to US at Bowery Theater (NYC)
- 1831 Belgium adopts its Constitution
I Had Rather be Right than President
1839 Henry Clay declares in the Senate, "I would rather be right than president"
- 1842 Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia, defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien
1845 The Portland Vase, thought to date to the 1st century BC is shattered into more than 80 pieces by a drunken visitor to the British Museum
- 1856 Colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation, the Electoral Act of 1856, anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot
Event of Interest
1857 French writer Gustave Flaubert is acquitted on a charge of obscenity for his work "Madame Bovary"
- 1862 Federal fleet attack on Roanoke Island, North Carolina
- 1863 HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189
- 1864 Federal troops occupy Jacksonville, Florida
- 1872 Alcorn Agricultural and Mechanical College opens near Lorman, Mississippi - 1st US black land grant college
- 1876 US President Grant's private secretary Orville acquitted in Whiskey Ring
- 1877 First American Guernsey Cattle Club is organized in New York City
- 1881 Battle at Ingogo, Transvaal: Boers defeat a superior British force
- 1883 Lt-colonel Borgnis-Desbordes founds Fort Bamako, Niger
- 1884 Canadian Rugby Football Union forms
- 1889 Astronomical Society of Pacific holds 1st meeting in San Francisco
- 1893 Vanderbilt University claims it participated in the first organised intercollegiate basketball game at the Nashville YMCA Gymnasium; Vanderbilt beats YMCA, 9-3
- 1894 The Cripple Creek miners' strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado
- 1900 British troops vacate Vaal Krantz, Natal
- 1903 VVV '03 soccer club is established in the Dutch southeastern city of Venlo
- 1904 Baltimore catches fire (1500 buildings destroyed in 80 blocks)
- 1905 Dominican Republic signs treaty turning over customs collection to US
- 1907 Conservative coalition take over Reichstag in Germany after rallying conservatives against the threat of a socialist government
- 1907 The Mud March, first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS)
Phillies Sell Waddell
1908 Philadelphia Athletics' manager and owner Connie Mack sells future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell to St Louis Browns for $5,000
- 1910 Edmond Rostand's play "Chantecler" premieres in Paris
- 1912 2nd Dutch 11 city skate (Coen de Koenig wins (11:40)
The Tramp
1914 Charlie Chaplin debuts silent film character The Tramp in "Kid Auto Races at Venice"
- 1914 Steel work completed on Exposition (Civic) Auditorium, San Francisco
- 1915 First wireless message sent from a moving train to a station is received
- 1915 Second Battle of Masurian Lakes: German armies surrounded a Russian army
- 1920 Russian Imperial Navy Admiral Kolchak, leader of anti-communist "White Movement" executed by Bolshevik firing squad in Irkutsk, Russian SFSR
- 1922 John Willard's play "Cat & the Canary" premieres in NYC
Event of Interest
1925 Anthropologist Raymond Dart publishes his landmark paper about the discovery of Australopithecus africanus (the Taung Child), confirming Charles Darwin's prediction of an African human origin [1]
- 1928 1st solo flight from England to Australia takes off from Croydon, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler (arrives 15 ½ days later)
- 1931 American opera "Peter Ibbetson" by Deems Taylor premieres at Metropolitan Opera, New York City
- 1933 Colonial troops in Suriname kill 2 demonstrators
- 1933 Social-Democrat meeting in Berlin "As thousands cheer" Marxism is dead
- 1934 1st contract for TVA power, Tupelo, Mississippi
- 1936 Felix the Cat, animated film released by Van Beuren Studios licensed from Otto Messmer
- 1936 Flag of the US Vice President authorized
Pinocchio
1940 Walt Disney's second feature-length movie, "Pinocchio," premieres in NYC
Music History
1941 Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto premieres publicly with Eugene Ormandy leading the Philadelphia Orchestra and soloist Albert Spalding at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1942 First indoor 15' pole vault by Cornelius Warmerdam at 15' 3/8"
- 1943 Shoe rationing begins in US (may purchase up to 3 more pairs in 1942)
Swinging on a Star
1944 Bing Crosby records "Swinging on a Star" for Decca Records (Academy Award Best Original Song)
- 1944 Germans launch counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy
- 1945 Harry Truman appoints Irwin C. Mollison judge of US Customs Court
- 1945 London, Washington and Moscow discuss final phase of World War II
- 1945 US 76th/5th Infantry divisions begin crossing the Sauer river near Echternach, Luxembourg, and breach the Siegfried Line
- 1946 Filibuster in US Senate kills FEPC (Fair Employment Practices Committee) bill
- 1947 The UK announces its intention to end the Mandate for Palestine
- 1948 After winning Lake Placid (1932) and Garmisch-Partenkirchen (1936) Olympic ski jumping gold medals, Birger Ruud comes out of retirement to win silver in St. Moritz in a Norwegian medal sweep
1st 100,000 Yankees Player
1949 Joe DiMaggio becomes 1st $100,000 a year baseball player, signs new contract with the New York Yankees
- 1950 Georges Bidault forms French government
- 1950 Senator Joe McCarthy finds "communists" in US Department of State (equiv. Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
State of Vietnam Recognised
1950 United States formally recognizes the State of Vietnam as the legitimate government of Vietnam, with Bảo Đại as leader
- 1958 Dodgers officially become the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc
- 1958 First showing of Dutch automatic transmission car, the DAF 600
- 1959 American pilots Bob Timm and John Cook break recently set airplane flight endurance record, exceeding 1550 hours (64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes), landing "The Hacienda", their modified Cessna 172 where they started, in Las Vegas, Nevada [1]
- 1960 Old handwriting found in at Qumran, near the Dead Sea
Jane Fonda Debut
1961 Jane Fonda made her acting debut in the NBC drama "A String of Beads"
- 1962 Gas explosion in Luisanthal coal mine Voelklingen Germany kills 298
Blockade of Cuba
1962 US President JFK begins blockade of Cuba by banning all Cuban imports and exports.
- 1964 Baskin-Robbins introduces Beatle Nut ice cream
- 1964 The Beatles land at New York's JFK airport, for 1st US visit
- 1965 Operations begin at Grupo Folklorico Antiyano on Curacao
- 1965 US begins regular bombing & strafing of North Vietnam
- 1965 WVIZ TV channel 25 in Cleveland, Ohio (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1966 KWCM TV channel 10 in Appleton, MN (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1967 A fire at a restaurant in Montgomery, Alabama kills 25 people
- 1968 Belgium government of Vanden Boeynants falls
- 1968 WLED TV channel 49 in Littleton, NH (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1969 British rock band The Who record their song "Pinball Wizard" at Morgan Studio's, London
- 1969 Diane Crump (20) becomes 1st woman jockey to ride against men at a major US racetrack, aboard Bridle ’n Bit in a race at Hialeah Park, in Hialeah, Florida [1]
- 1969 The original Hetch Hetchy Moccasin Powerhouse is removed from service
- 1970 "Hollywood Palace" last airs on ABC TV
- 1970 "Jingle Jangle" hits #10 on the pop singles chart by Archies
- 1970 LSU's "Pistol" Pete Marovich scores 69 pts in losing cause
- 1971 Switzerland votes for national women's suffrage in a referendum - last European country to do so except for Liechtenstein
Schenk's 3rd Gold
1972 Dutch Olympic 1,500m and 5,000m speed skating champion Ard Schenk wins his 3rd gold medal at the Sapporo Winter Games when he takes out the 10,000m
- 1973 North Ireland's United Loyalist Council hold a one-day strike, loyalist paramilitaries forcibly try to stop people going to work
- 1973 Rangers shut out Islanders 6-0 for the first time
- 1973 US Senate creates Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities
Hearst's Kidnappers Claim Responsibility
1974 American left-wing guerilla group Symbionese Liberation Army claim responsibility for the kidnapping of Patty Hearst, daughter of American publishing heir Randolph Hearst
- 1974 Grenada gains independence from Britain (National Day)
Blazing Saddles
1974 Mel Brooks' western spoof film "Blazing Saddles," starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder, premieres at the Pickwick Drive-In in Burbank, California; patrons watch from horseback rather than cars
British Snap Election
1974 UK Prime Minister Edward Heath calls for a 'snap' general election in the midst of a protracted miners' strike
- 1976 FCC raids & shuts down pirate radio station WCPR (Brooklyn New York)
Sittler's 10 Points
1976 Toronto center Darryl Sittler sets NHL record with 10 points in a Maple Leafs' 11-4 win over Boston at Maple Leaf Gardens; 6 goals, 4 assists
- 1976 World's then largest telescope at 605 cm, the BTA-6 begins operations in the USSR
- 1977 Soyuz 24 launches with 2 cosmonauts
- 1978 Ethiopian offensive in Ogaden desert
- 1979 "Supertrain", TV Anthology, Superbomb of 1979, debuts on NBC
- 1979 Colonel Benjedid Chadli succeeds president Boumedienne in Algeria
- 1979 Faoud Bacchus scores 250 for WI v India at Kanpur
The Wall
1980 Pink Floyd premiere their live version of "The Wall" at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena in Los Angeles, California
- 1982 Luis A Monge elected President of Costa Rica
- 1983 "José Cuervo" single released by Shelly West (Billboard Song of the Year 1983)
- 1983 Elizabeth Dole is sworn in as the 1st US female secretary of transportation
- 1984 American astronaut Bruce McCandless makes 1st untethered space walk
- 1984 David (born without immunity system) touches his mother for 1st time at age 12
- 1985 "New York, New York" becomes the official anthem of New York City
- 1985 Marshall U's Bruce Morris scores a basket from 92'5"
- 1985 NY Devil Don Lever becomes 57th NHLer to score 300 goals
Duvalier Flees
1986 Haiti's President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier flees to France: Henri Namphy becomes leader of Haiti
- 1987 Dennis Conner and 'Stars & Stripes' return the America's Cup yachting trophy to US
Open Your Heart
1987 Madonna's "Open Your Heart" single goes #1
- 1987 Police in South Korea make hundreds of arrests during protest demonstrations, the country's biggest for 6 years, after a student died in custody
Borg's Suicide Attempt
1989 Tennis superstar Björn Borg apparently attempts suicide in Milan, Italy
- 1990 Karachi police kill 22 anti-nationalistic demonstrators
- 1990 Lisa Leslie of Morningside HS in Inglewood California scores 101 in 1st half, South Torrance HS decides not to play 2nd half & loses 102-24
- 1990 USSR Communist party agrees to allow opposition political parties
NBA Hall of Fame
1991 Bob Knight, Larry O'Brien, Tiny Archibald, Dave Cowens, Harry Gallatin & Larry Fleisher elected to NBA Hall of Fame
- 1991 Jean-Bertrand Aristide sworn in as Haiti's 1st elected president
Attempt on John Major
1991 Provisional Irish Republican Army launches a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street during a cabinet meeting in an attempt to assassinate UK Prime Minister John Major, injuring four people
1992 The Maastricht Treaty is signed by 12 countries from the European Community (EC) to create the European Union (EU)
- 1994 American actor and singer Jim Nabors (Gomer Pyle, USMC) undergoes a liver transplant
Stern Stops Jumper
1994 Howard Stern stops a would-be jumper on the George Washington Bridge
Now that I've Found You
1995 Bluegrass and country musician Alison Krauss releases her compilation album "Now that I've Found You"
The Woman in Me
1995 Mercury Nashville Records releases "The Woman in Me", the 2nd studio album by Shania Twain (Billboard Album of the Year, 1996)
- 1997 US and Russia announce a summit set for Helsinki on March 20-21
- 1998 NHL's Dallas Stars retire Neal Broten's #7
- 1998 XVIII Winter Olympic Games open in Nagano, Japan
- 1999 Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein bin Talal
- 2000 Bahria University is established through Presidential Ordinance No. V of 2000 by the Government of Pakistan
- 2005 Britain's Ellen MacArthur becomes the fastest person to sail solo around the world, taking 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds
Uma Thurman Honored
2006 Uma Thurman is named a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France for outstanding achievement in the field of art and literature
- 2009 Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australian history
2010 Super Bowl XLIV, Sun Life Stadium, Miami Gardens, Miami, FL; New Orleans Saints beat Indianapolis Colts, 31-17; MVP: Drew Brees, New Orleans, QB
Laureus Awards
2011 Laureus World Sports Awards, Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi, UAE: Sportsman: Rafael Nadal; Sportswoman: Lindsey Vonn; Team: Spanish Men's National Football team
Sports History
2013 Adam Ondra completes the first ascent of La Dura Dura in Spain, his second 9b+ (5.15c) after Change
- 2013 Azerbaijan launches its first satellite, Azerspace-1
- 2013 Eugène Delacroix's painting "Liberty Leading the People" is vandalized at the Louvre-Lens museum, Northern France
- 2014 German treasurer Helmut Linssen resigns amid a scandal involving offshore banking accounts in the Bahamas and Panama
- 2014 XXII Winter Olympic Games open in Sochi, Russia
- 2016 Super Bowl L, Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA: Denver Broncos beat Carolina Panthers, 24–10; MVP: Von Miller, Denver, LB
- 2018 "The Los Angeles Times" is bought by LA doctor Patrick Soon-Shiong from Tronc for $500 million
- 2018 All citrus fruit can be traced to the southeastern foothills of the Himalayas, according to a DNA study published in "Nature"
Grand coalition
2018 Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party reaches a coalition deal with Social Democrats after four months of negotiations
- 2018 Armed groups release 300 child soldiers from Yambio, South Sudan according to UN
Sports History
2018 Brock Purdy signs his letter of intent to commit to Iowa State University
- 2018 DNA analysis of Chedder Man, UK's oldest complete skeleton shows he had dark skin and blue eyes
Enwonwu's Work Rediscovered
2018 Missing Nigerian painting masterpiece of Ife princess Adetutu Ademiluyi by Ben Enwonwu announced rediscovered in London
- 2018 White House aide Rob Porter resigns in wake of physical abuse allegations by ex-wives
- 2019 First reports of poisonous homemade alcohol killing people in the Indian states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, will go on to kill about 100
- 2019 France recalls its Italian ambassador from Rome after Italian deputy PM Luigi Di Maio met with yellow vest protesters
- 2019 Measles cases in Europe highest in a decade, tripling in a year to 82,596 according to WHO
- 2019 Measles outbreak declared in the Philippines with 1,813 cases and 26 deaths
- 2019 New kangaroo fossil research published from Riversleigh, Australia, show Kangaroos learned to hop 20 million years ago, much earlier than first thought
- 2019 Sierra Leone President Julius Maada Bio declares national emergency over rape and sexual assault violence after instances double
- 2021 Himalayan glacier crashes into the Dhauliganga river, destroying a dam and causing a huge flood in Uttarakhand province, India, killing 26, leaving 150 missing
- 2021 Sarah Thomas becomes the first woman to referee a Super Bowl in Tampa Bay, Florida
2021 Super Bowl LV, Raymond James Stadium, Tampa, FL: Tampa Bay Buccaneers dominate defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9; MVP: Tom Brady, TB Bucs, QB; Brady's record 7th SB win
2021 The Weeknd becomes the first Canadian solo artist to headline the Super Bowl half time show (Super Bowl LV)
- 2022 European security facing its most dangerous moment since the Cold War, amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to EU foreign policy chief [1]
LeBron Breaks Kareem's Record
2023 LeBron James scores 38 points to become NBA's all-time leading scorer as the Lakers go down 133-130 to Oklahoma City Thunder in Los Angeles; surpasses Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 38,387 career points [1]
- 2023 UK Metropolitan police officer David Carrick jailed for life for 85 serious offences including 48 rapes over 17 years, amid calls for a radical overhaul of the police service [1]
Biden's State of the Union
2023 US President Joe Biden delivers his state of the Union address, calling out the ultra-wealthy including Big Oil, addressing increasing threats from China and the killing of Tyre Nichols
Netanyahu Seeks Total Victory
2024 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects Hamas's ceasefire proposal, saying he will continue till "total victory", saying forces will push further south into city of Rafah [1]
Zaluzhny Replaced
2024 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy removes his top general Valery Zaluzhny, in the military's most significant shake-up in years [1]
- 2025 Greek island of Santorini is placed under a state of emergency amid a swarm of earthquakes that began 27 January [1]
