- 1234 Mongol army takes the Jin city of Caizhou, last holdout of Jin Emperor Ai-Tsung, who commits suicide rather than be captured
- 1267 Synod of Breslau orders Jews of Silesia to wear special cone shaped hats as a means of identification, the traditional garb had become less prevalent
- 1287 Massive storm across south-east England hits Cinque Ports realines the coastline, New Romney port now a mile inland [1]
- 1499 France & Venice sign treaty against Milan
- 1537 Pope Paul III routes Cardinal Pole to England
- 1540 The first recorded race meet in England (Roodee Fields, Chester)
- 1554 Battle at London: Sir Thomas Wyatt defeated and his rebellion against Queen Mary crushed
- 1555 Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake for heresy
Siege of Maastricht
1574 Louis of Nassau ends siege of Maastricht
Robert Walpole Ennobled
1742 Sir Robert Walpole, often referred to as the first British Prime Minister, ennobled as 1st Earl of Orford
- 1822 American Indian Society organizes
- 1822 Haiti invades the newly founded Dominican Republic.
John Quincy Adams Elected
1825 House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams 6th US president
- 1849 Roman Republic declared in Rome replacing following flight of Pope Pius IX
Constitution of the United States
1861 Confederate Provisional Congress declares all laws under the US Constitution were consistent with constitution of Confederate states (US Civil War)
Confederate Elects President and VP
1861 Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens elected President and VP of the Confederate States of America (US Civil War)
- 1861 Tennessee votes against secession (US Civil War)
Event of Interest
1870 US President Ulysses S Grant signs law resulting in US Army Signal Service’s establishment of its "Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce", later known as the National Weather Service
State of Emergency in Seattle
1886 US President Grover Cleveland declares a state of emergency in Seattle because of anti-Chinese violence
Falstaff
1893 Giuseppe Verdi's comic opera "Falstaff" premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy
The Benin Pendant Mask
1897 Invasion of Benin City by British Expedition force, the city is burnt and looted, marks the end of the Nigerian Kingdom of Benin formed in the 11th century
A Humorous Diplomatic Atlas of Europe and Asia
1904 Japanese torpedo boats make a surprise attack on Russian ships Port Arthur naval base, Manchuria, beginning the Russo-Japanese War. Japanese also land troops at Chemulpo (Inchon), near Seoul, Korea; in 3 weeks they advance to the Yalu River, the border of Manchuria.
- 1906 Natal proclaims state of siege in Zulu uprising
- 1909 1st US federal legislation on narcotics prohibits importation, possession, and use of "smoking opium"
- 1912 US Tennis Association amends rule taking bye away from defending champion
- 1913 Beginning of the Ten Tragic Days in Mexico City, with revolts leading to 3,000 deaths
- 1916 Britain's military service act enforced (conscription)
- 1916 NL votes down a proposal by Giants, Braves, & Cubs to increase club player limit from 21 to 22 (The Reds want to decrease to 20)
- 1918 Sacha Guitry's "Deburan" premieres in Paris
- 1918 US Army chaplain school organizes at Ft Monroe, Virginia
- 1920 International treaty recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard
- 1920 Joint Rules Com bans foreign substances & alterations to baseballs
- 1922 Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty
- 1922 Italian government of Bonomi falls
- 1922 Snow on Mauna Loa, Hawaii
- 1922 World War Foreign Debt Commission is established by Congress to settle the problem of Allied war and postwar loans
- 1923 Soviet Union Council of Labour and Defence passes resolution creating the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR, the forerunner of Aeroflot Airline
- 1924 Nakhichevan ASSR constituted within Azerbaijan SSR
Security Treaty
1925 German Minister Gustav Stresemann proposes security treaty with France
- 1925 Haifa Technion (Israel) opens
- 1926 Teaching theory of evolution forbidden in Atlanta, Georgia schools
- 1929 USSR, Estonia, Latvia, Poland & Romania sign Litvinov's Pact, providing for renunciation of war among its signatories
- 1932 US airship Columbia crashes during storm (Flushing, NY)
- 1932 USA enters Olympic 2-man bobsled competition for 1st time
- 1933 -63°F (-53°C), Moran, Wyoming (state record)
- 1934 -14.3°F (-25.7°C), coldest day in New York City
- 1934 -51°F (-46°C), Vanderbilt, Michigan (state record)
- 1934 Balkan Entente alliance forms (Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey & Romania)
- 1936 German skier Franz Pfnür wins the inaugural Olympic men’s combined gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games ahead of teammate Gustav Lantschner
- 1939 Belgian Spaak government falls
- 1941 British troops conquer El Agheila
- 1941 Nazi collaborators destroy pro-Jewish café Alcazar Amsterdam (Alcazar refused to hang "No Entry for Jews" signs in front of cafe)
- 1942 Daylight Savings War Time goes into effect in US
- 1942 Japanese troops land near Makassar, South Celebes
- 1942 Philadelphia "Phillies" change nickname (temporarily) to "Phils"
- 1943 Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, ending the epic World War II battle on the Solomon Islands in the Pacific
- 1943 National League of Baseball seeks a buyer for the Philadelphia Phillies as owner Gerry Nugent falls in arrears
48-hour Work Week
1943 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs an executive order setting a minimum 48-hour work week in a number of critical war industries
Willie Sutton Escapes
1947 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes jail in Philadelphia
- 1948 WLWT TV channel 5 in Cincinnati, OH (NBC) begins broadcasting
McCarthy's Red Scare
1950 Senator Joseph McCarthy charges State Department infested with 205 communists
Browns Sign Paige
1951 St Louis Browns sign pitcher Satchel Paige, 45
CIA Director Dulles
1953 General Walter Bedell Smith ends term as 4th Director of Central Intelligence Agency; Allen Dulles becomes Acting Director
- 1953 WNEP TV channel 16 in Scranton Wilkes-Barre, PA (ABC) 1st broadcast
- 1954 Mario Scelba forms new government in Italy
- 1955 Dutch 2nd Chamber accepts crematory law
- 1955 Unity Committee of US trade unions American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) agree to merge, subject to ratification by each group's executive committee
- 1956 -5°F (-20.6°C) in Sicily
- 1956 KHPL (now KWNB) TV channel 6 in Hayes Center, NB (ABC) 1st broadcast
- 1956 R Lacoste follows Catroux as premier of Algeria
- 1960 AFL & NFL agree verbally to a no tampering pact
- 1961 Joseph Ileo appointed Premier of Congo
- 1961 The Beatles first gig at Liverpool's Cavern Club; they would play there nearly 300 times over the next two years
- 1962 Jamaica signs agreement to become independent
- 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1963 1st test flight of Boeing 727 jet
- 1963 7th largest snowfall in NYC history (42.4 cm, 16.7")
Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show
1964 1st appearance of the Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show", live from New York; broadcast draws 73.7 million television viewers
- 1964 G.I. Joe “action figure” introduced at the American International Toy Fair in New York
- 1964 Hanumant Singh scores 105 India v England on debut at Delhi
- 1964 IX Winter Olympic Games close in Innsbruck, Austria
- 1964 NYC news anchor Jim Jenson's 1st appearance on WCBS-TV
- 1966 Dow-Jones Index hits record 995 points
- 1966 UK Government announces construction of a nuclear reactor on the North coast of Scotland
- 1968 A rare 3-way tie for silver in the women's 500m speed skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; Soviet Lyudmila Titova wins from American trio of Jenny Fish, Mary Meyers and Dianne Holum
- 1968 Rotterdam metro opened by Princess Beatrix
- 1968 World champion Jean-Claude Killy of France wins the downhill at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; first of 3-event clean sweep of the alpine skiing events at the Games
- 1969 1st flight of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet
- 1969 KGTO TV channel 36 in Fayetteville, AR (ABC/NBC) begins broadcasting
- 1971 5 men are killed near a BBC transmitter on Brougher Mountain, County Tyrone, in a landmine attack carried out by the Irish Republican Army
- 1971 Apollo 14 returns to Earth
- 1971 Elektra Records releases eponymous debut album of American singer-songwriter Carly Simon; garners two Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist
- 1971 Probably 1st gay theme TV episode - All in the Family
- 1971 Quake in San Fernando Valley kills 64 & causes over $½B damage
- 1971 Satchel Paige becomes 1st Negro League player elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1972 British government declares state of emergency after month-long coal miners' strike
- 1972 William Craig, who had been Northern Ireland Minister for Home Affairs, launches 'Ulster Vanguard' as an umbrella movement for the right-ring of Unionism
Paul Williams on The Tonight Show
1973 American singer-songwriter and actor Paul Williams sings the torch song "Here's That Rainy Day" in full Planet of the Apes make-up and costume on Johnny Carson's "The Tonight Show"
- 1973 Pragati Legislature Party elects Patnaik as leader of opposition in the state assembly in Orissa, India
- 1974 "Daddy What If" by Bobby Bare peaks at #41
- 1974 "The Americans (A Canadian's Opinion)" by Gordon Sinclair peaks at #24
British Miners' Strike
1974 British miners begin a strike in reaction to a wage dispute, prompting Prime Minister Edward Heath to declare a state of emergency and call for a special election
- 1975 Soyuz 17 returns to Earth
- 1976 Oscar Charleston selected to baseball's Hall of Fame
- 1979 ABC airs "Heroes of Rock N Roll" special, featuring archival performances of 62 artists
- 1979 Beginning of James Clavell's novel "Whirlwind"
- 1979 New York City premiere of Paul Schrader's allegedly fact based film "Hardcore"
- 1979 Nigeria amends constitution
- 1979 UK Football club Nottingham Forest makes £1m transfer deal
- 1979 Walter Hill's drama film "The Warriors" is released in the United States, sparking gang violence at many theaters and a halt to the film's marketing campaign
Barry 1st 3-Pointers
1980 Rick Barry of the Houston Rockets is the 1st in NBA history to score eight 3-pointers in a game
- 1983 Belgium buys 44 F-16s
- 1984 East German ski jumper Jens Weißflog wins first of 3 career Olympic gold medals in the Normal Hill individual event at the Sarajevo Winter Games
- 1984 East German speed skater Karin Enke wins the 1,500m in world record 2:03.42 at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 1,000m gold
- 1984 Finnish cross-country skier Marja-Liisa Hämäläinen wins the 10k gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; first of 3 individual medal sweep, also winning 5k and 20k events
Event of Interest
1985 DEA agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena is tortured and murdered on orders of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo
- 1986 Halley's Comet reaches 30th perihelion (closest approach to Sun)
- 1986 Haydar Bakr al-Attas appointed president of South Yemen
- 1986 Marvin Johnson stops Leslie Stewart in 7 rounds in Indianapolis to win WBA light heavyweight boxing title; record 3rd time he regains a version of light heavyweight crown
- 1986 Tomb of Tutanchamon's treasurer Maya found in Egypt
- 1986 West German team swims world record 4x200 m freestyle (7:05.17)
Event of Interest
1987 Former US national security adviser Robert McFarlane attempts suicide by overdosing on Valium hours before scheduled testimony before panel investigating illegal arms-for-hostages "Iran-Contra" affair
- 1987 NY Stock Exch installs ladies restroom in the Exchange Luncheon Club
- 1988 NH begins a NCAA record 32-game losing streak at home (ends Feb 1991)
- 1989 Kevin Johnson (Phoenix) ends NBA free throw streak of 57 games
- 1989 Michael Manley's Socialist Party wins Jamaica parliamentary election
- 1990 "Bradys" return to TV for 6 episodes on CBS TV
- 1990 Doina Melinte runs world indoor record 1.5k (4:00:27) & mile (4:17:13)
- 1990 Namibia's constitution ratified
- 1990 Spacecraft Galileo flies by Venus at an altitude of 10,000 miles (16,000 km) in a gravity assist maneuver to gain speed on its way to Jupiter [1]
- 1991 "This Is Ponderous" by 2nu peaks at #46
- 1991 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 5k (6:41:73)
Norris vs. Leonard
1991 Terry Norris knocks down Sugar Ray Leonard twice and beats him to defend his WBC Super Welterweight title
- 1991 US Supreme Court agrees to hear Joseph Doherty case
- 1992 Fastest yodeler-22 tones/15 falsetto in 1 sec by Thomas School of Germany
- 1992 Heike Henkel high jumps female indoor world record (2.07m)
- 1992 Jani Sievinen swims world record 400m medley (4:07.10)
- 1995 Irina Privalova runs female world record 50m (5.96 sec)
Riverdance Premieres
1995 Irish music and dance show "Riverdance" first opens in Dublin, Ireland with lead dancer Michael Flatley
- 1995 STS-63 - 2nd mission of US/Russian Shuttle-Mir Program goes into space
- 1996 The Irish Republican Army declares the end of its 18 month ceasefire shortly followed by a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf.
- 1996 WYNY-FM in NYC changes calls to WKTU-FM
The Simpsons Record Run
1997 Fox cartoon series "The Simpsons" airs 167th episode; longest-running animated series in cartoon history
6th ESPY Awards
1998 6th ESPY Awards: Ken Griffey Jr, Mia Hamm win
Georgian President Survives
1998 Failed assassination attempt on Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze
- 2001 American submarine USS Greeneville accidentally strikes and sinks the Ehime-Maru, a Japanese training vessel operated by the Uwajima Fishery High School; nine the Ehime-Maru's crew members were killed, including four high school students.
Michaels Joins Saturday Night Football
2006 Al Michaels joins NBC's "Sunday Night Football" broadcast with John Madden
- 2011 Latvia leaves deep recession with an annualised growth of 3.7% in the last quarter of 2010, it is reported today
Pink Friday
2011 Nicki Minaj's "Pink Friday" album reaches number one on the Billboard 200 in its eleventh week on the chart
- 2013 5 people are killed after Cessna plane crashes on a Brussels runway
- 2013 Adam Ondra completes the second ascent of the 9b (5.15b) route, Fight or flight
- 2014 Australian National University scientists discover the oldest known star at 13.6 billion years old
- 2014 Olympic teams figure skating event debuts in Sochi with Russia taking the gold medal; pairs champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov win first of 2 gold at the Games
- 2014 Protest erupt in Sarajevo and other cities in Bosnia-Herzegovina; the unemployment rate remains at 40% (57% for youth)
- 2014 Slopestyle snowboarding event makes Olympic debut at Sochi Winter Games; American Jamie Anderson is inaugural women's gold medallist
- 2014 Slovak biathlete Anastasiya Kuzmina retains her Olympic 7.5k sprint title (Vancouver 2010) at the Sochi Winter Games
- 2014 Switzerland votes to return immigration quotas
Fifty Shades of Grey
2015 Film "Fifty Shades of Grey" released, based on the erotic novel by E. L. James, starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan, directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson
- 2016 Two German passenger trains collide near Bad Aibling, Bavaria, killing 10 and seriously injuring 18
New Hampshire Primary
2016 US primary elections: New Hampshire Primary, In Republican race Donald Trump wins (35%), John Kasich 2nd (16%), and Bernie Sanders (60%) defeats Hillary Clinton (38%) in Democratic race
XXIII Winter Olympics
2018 XXIII Olympic Winter Games open in PyeongChang, South Korea
Warren Runs for President
2019 Elizabeth Warren officially announces her 2020 presidential campaign in Lawrence, Massachusetts
Academy Awards
2020 92nd Academy Awards: "Parasite" 1st non English film to win Best Picture, Best Director Bong Joon-ho, Best Actor Joaquin Phoenix, Best Actress Renée Zellweger
- 2020 Deaths from COVID-19 virus overtake those of Sars (2003) with 813 deaths worldwide, with more than 34,800 known infections
- 2020 Fastest conventional plane flight from New York to London made by British Airways Boeing 747-436 in 4 hours and 56 minutes; average speed of 1,327 km/h / 825 mph, aided by tailwinds from due to Storm Ciara
- 2020 Solar Orbiter probe attached to an Atlas rocket lifts off from Cape Canaveral
- 2020 Storm Ciara makes landfall in northern Scotland bringing widespread wind and flooding to northern Europe resulting in 18 deaths
- 2020 Suspected militants attack and kill at least 30 people, many while sleeping in their cars in Auno, north-eastern Nigeria, kidnapping women and children
- 2021 United Arab Emirates is the fifth entity to successfully orbit a probe around Mars, as probe Hope begins to study the planet's atmosphere.
Impeachment of Donald Trump
2021 US Senate Impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump begins in Washington D.C.
Electricity Crisis
2023 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declares "a national state of disaster" to respond to the country's electricity crisis amid daily blackouts
