| | 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield. |
| | 1816 - The Treaty of St. Louis is proclaimed. |
| | 1853 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest. |
| | 1853 - A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London. |
| | 1862 - USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. |
| | 1879 - The Pirates of Penzance is first performed (Paignton, Devon, England). |
| | 1880 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger, its first president. |
| | 1896 - José Rizal was executed by firing squad in Manila. |
| | 1897 - Natal annexes Zululand. |
| | 1899 - Ibrox Stadium is inaugurated. |
| | 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600. |
| | 1905 - Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho. |
| | 1906 - The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, which later laid down the foundations of Pakistan. |
| | 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student. |
| | 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed. |
| | 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies. |
| | 1927 - The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo. |
| | 1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike. |
| | 1940 - California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway. |
| | 1943 - Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair. |
| | 1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant. |
| | 1947 - King Michael of Romania forced to abdicate by the Soviet-backed Communist government of Romania. |
| | 1948 - The play Kiss Me, Kate opens for the first of 1,077 performances. |
| | 1953 - Television Technology: The first ever NTSC color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each from RCA. |
| | 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines. |
| | 1972 - Vietnam War: The US halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam. |
| | 1977 - Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. |
| | 1980 - After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time US TV series The Wonderful World of Disney is cancelled by NBC. |
| | 1981 - Wayne Gretzky scores his 50th goal in 39 games, still a National Hockey League record. |
| | 1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations. |
| | 1995 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982. |
| | 1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26. |
| | 1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel. |
| | 1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people are killed from four villages. |
| | 2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred. |
| | 2003 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announces a ban on the sale of dietary supplement ephedra. |
| | 2003 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair. |
| | 2004 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194. |
| | 2005 - Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin. |
| | 2006 - Saddam Hussein, former President of Iraq, is executed by hanging at a military base in Iraq. |