| | 45 BC - The Julian calendar first takes effect. |
| | 404 - The last known gladiator competition in Rome takes place. |
| | 630 - Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the army that will capture it bloodlessly. |
| | 1259 - Michael VIII Palaeologus is proclaimed co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea with his ward John IV Lascaris. |
| | 1438 - Albert II of Habsburg is crowned King of Hungary. |
| | 1600 - Scotland begins using the Julian calendar. |
| | 1651 - Charles II is crowned King of Scotland. |
| | 1673 - Regular mail delivery begins between New York and Boston. |
| | 1700 - Russia begins using the Julian calendar. |
| | 1738 - Bouvet Island is discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier. |
| | 1788 - First edition of The Times of London, previously The Daily Universal Register, is published. |
| | 1797 - Albany replaces New York City as the capital of New York. |
| | 1801 - The legislative union of Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland is completed to form the United Kingdom. |
| | 1801 - The first known asteroid, 1 Ceres, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi. |
| | 1804 - French rule ends in Haiti. Haiti becomes the first black republic and first country independent in the West Indies. |
| | 1808 - The importation of slaves into the United States is banned. |
| | 1818 - Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus is published. |
| | 1861 - Porfirio Diaz conquers Mexico City. |
| | 1863 - American Civil War: The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory, though Abraham Lincoln had no jurisdiction there to enforce it. |
| | 1863 - The first claim under the Homestead Act is made by Daniel Freeman for a farm in Nebraska. |
| | 1880 - Ferdinand de Lesseps begins French construction of the Panama Canal. |
| | 1887 - Queen Victoria is proclaimed empress of India in Delhi. |
| | 1890 - The first Tournament of Roses is held in Pasadena, California. |
| | 1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin accepting immigrants to the United States. |
| | 1893 - Japan begins using the Gregorian calendar. |
| | 1898 - New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs. |
| | 1899 - Spanish rule ends in Cuba. |
| | 1901 - Nigeria becomes a British protectorate. |
| | 1901 - The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister. |
| | 1902 - The first Rose Bowl game is played in Pasadena, California, with the University of Michigan beating Stanford University by a score of 49-0. |
| | 1906 - British India officially adopts the Indian Standard Time |
| | 1908 - For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight. |
| | 1909 - Drilling began on the Lakeview Gusher. |
| | 1911 - Northern Territory is separated from South Australia and transferred to Commonwealth control. |
| | 1912 - The Republic of China is established. |
| | 1916 - German troops abandon Yaoundé and their Kamerun colony to British forces and begin the long march to Spanish Guinea. |
| | 1927 - Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian). |
| | 1934 - Alcatraz Island becomes a U.S. federal prison. |
| | 1934 - Nazi Germany passes the "Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring". |
| | 1935 - Bucknell University wins the first Orange Bowl 26-0 over the University of Miami. |
| | 1937 - The first Cotton Bowl game is played in Dallas, Texas. TCU defeats Marquette University 16-6. |
| | 1939 - The first Vienna New Year's Concert is held. |
| | 1942 - The Declaration by the United Nations is signed by twenty-six nations. |
| | 1946 - The first civil flight from Heathrow Airport occurs. |
| | 1948 - After partition, India declines to pay the agreed share of Rs.550 million in cash balances to Pakistan. |
| | 1949 - UN Cease-fire orders to operate in Kashmir from one minute before midnight. War between India and Pakistan stops accordingly. |
| | 1956 - The Republic of the Sudan achieves independence from the Egyptian Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. |
| | 1958 - The European Community is established. |
| | 1959 - Cultivars of plants named after this date must be named in a modern language, not in Latin. |
| | 1959 - Fulgencio Batista, president of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution. |
| | 1960 - The Republic of Cameroon achieves independence from France and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. |
| | 1964 - The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is divided into the independent republics of Zambia and Malawi, and the British-controlled Rhodesia. |
| | 1970 - Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Miles, and Billy Cox are recorded live at the Fillmore East. The resulting album, Band of Gypsys, is the last Hendrix album to be released before his death. |
| | 1971 - Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television. |
| | 1973 - The Kingdom of Denmark, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland are admitted into the European Community. |
| | 1978 - Air India Flight 855 Boeing 747 explodes and crashes into the sea off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. |
| | 1979 - Formal diplomatic relations are established between the People's Republic of China and the United States of America. |
| | 1981 - The Republic of Greece is admitted into the European Community. |
| | 1981 - The Republic of Palau achieves self-government though it is not independent from the United States. |
| | 1982 - Peruvian Javier Pérez de Cuéllar becomes the first Latin American to hold the title of Secretary-General of the United Nations. |
| | 1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet. |
| | 1984 - AT&T is broken up into twenty-two independent units. |
| | 1984 - The Sultanate of Brunei becomes independent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. |
| | 1985 - The Internet's Domain Name System is created. |
| | 1985 - The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone. |
| | 1986 - Aruba becomes independent of Curaçao, though it remains in free association with the Kingdom of the Netherlands. |
| | 1986 - The Kingdom of Spain and the Portuguese Republic are admitted into the European Community. |
| | 1988 - The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America comes into existence, creating the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States. |
| | 1990 - David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor. |
| | 1993 - Dissolution of Czechoslovakia: Czechoslovakia is divided into the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. |
| | 1993 - A single market within the European Community is introduced. |
| | 1994 - The Zapatista Army of National Liberation initiates twelve days of armed conflict in the Mexican State of Chiapas. |
| | 1994 - The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect. |
| | 1995 - The World Trade Organization comes into effect. |
| | 1995 - The Kingdom of Sweden and the republics of Austria and Finland are admitted into the European Union. |
| | 1995 - The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe becomes the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. |
| | 1995 - The Draupner wave in the North Sea in Norway is detected, confirming the existence of freak waves. |
| | 1997 - The Republic of Zaïre officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Zaïre. |
| | 1999 - The Euro currency is introduced. |
| | 2000 - As the world celebrates, no major crisis arises from the dreaded Y2K computer 'millennium bug'. |
| | 2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states. |
| | 2002 - Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei. |
| | 2006 - Sydney, Australia swelters in 45C heat, a record for the city. |