- 565 Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus
- 702 Military triumph of Wak Jalam Chan (Lady Six Sky), female ruler of the Maya city of Sa’aal (Naranjo) as depicted on Stela 24 Naranjo [1]
- 871 Battle of Basing: Danish invasion army beats Saxon Ethelred of Wessex
- 1371 King Robert II of Scotland (1371-90) is crowned, becoming the first monarch of the House of Stewart
- 1472 Great comet of 1471 (C/1471 Y1) becomes the closest comet in modern times, coming within 10 million kilometers of Earth [1]
- 1506 The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrive at the Vatican
- 1510 Jews are expelled from Colmar, Alsace
- 1517 Ottoman forces take Cairo, capital of the Mamluk Sultanate
Gregory Conquers Julius Caesar
1584 Parts of Switzerland adopt Gregorian calendar (& parts in 1812)
Convention Parliament Summoned
1689 Prince William of Orange (future King William III of Britain), summons Convention Parliament to discuss ruling jointly with his wife Mary (daughter of exiled King James II)
- 1690 Iroquois tribes renew allegiance to British against French
- 1758 Russian troops occupy Königsberg, East Prussia [OS=Jan 11]
- 1760 Battle at Wandewash India: British troops beat French
- 1771 Spain cedes Falkland Islands to Britain
- 1775 Marshal Oscar von Lubomirski confiscates goods being sold by Jews in settlements on the outskirts of Warsaw, Poland
- 1798 Coup d'état in Batavian Republic
- 1813 Americans capture Frenchtown, Michigan Territory
- 1814 1st Knights Templar grand encampment in US held in New York City
Byron Completes Poems
1816 Lord Byron completes poems "Parisina" and "Siege of Corinth"
Darwin Takes Cambridge Exam
1831 Charles Darwin takes his Bachelors of Art exam at Christ's College, Cambridge, coming tenth out of 171 candidates
Dickens in Boston
1842 Charles Dickens arrives in Boston, Massachusetts with his wife, Catherine
- 1850 Alta California becomes a daily paper, 1st such in Calif
- 1862 Confederate government raises premium for volunteers from $10 to $20
- 1863 January Uprising begins in Poland, prompted a rebellion against conscription into the Russian army
- 1863 The January Uprising, an insurrection in Russia's Kingdom of Poland aimed at restoration of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth begins; carries on for 1-1/2 years, but fails
- 1863 Union General Burnside's "Mud March"
- 1873 British SS Northfleet sinks at Dungeness, England, 300 die
- 1877 Arthur Tooth, an Anglican clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices
The British: 139. Zulu Warriors: 4,000. Let Battle Begin
1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift: British garrison of 150 holds off 3,000-4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses and a number of other decorations were awarded to the defenders.
- 1879 James Shields (D) elected US senator from Missouri after previously serving as US senator from Illinois & Minnesota
- 1879 Zulu warriors attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa
- 1881 "Cleopatra's Needle", a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk is erected in Central Park, New York [1]
- 1889 Columbia Phonograph was formed in Washington, D.C.
- 1890 Jose Marti forms La Liga (Union of Cuban exiles) in NYC
- 1895 National Association of Manufacturers organized in Cincinnati
- 1899 Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation
Britain Changes its Postage
1901 After 63 years Britain stops sale of Queen Victoria postage stamps series & begins King Edward VII series
- 1903 The Hay-Herran Treaty concerning the USA's right to the Panama Canal is signed by the Colombian Charge d'affaires in Washington, D.C. (never ratified)
1905 Russian Revolution
1905 In St Petersburg, Russia, a large demonstration of workers led by Father Gapon, march to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar; troops fire on protesters in what becomes known as 'Bloody Sunday'
- 1906 SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130
- 1908 Katie Mulcahey is arrested for lighting a cigarette, violating the 1-day old "Sullivan Ordinance" banning women from smoking in public, and is fined $5. Appearing before the judge she stated “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you have. I never heard of this new law, and I don’t want to hear about it. No man shall dictate to me.”
- 1909 Vassily Kandinsky forms Kunstlerverein in Munich
- 1910 Opera "Germania" premieres in NYC
- 1914 Paul Claudel's play "L'échange" premieres in Paris
- 1918 Ukraine proclaimed a free republic (German puppet)
- 1924 Dutch Blast Furnace & Steel Factory opens
- 1924 KGO-AM in San Francisco CA begins radio transmissions
- 1925 Albania Republic proclaimed under President Achmed Zogu
- 1926 Belgian chief of staff General Maglinse quits
- 1930 -35°F (-37°C), Mount Carroll, Illinois (state record)
- 1931 French government of Steeg falls
- 1931 Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
Our Town
1938 "Our Town", Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-winner of small-town life in Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, premieres (NJ)
- 1939 Aquatic Park, near Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco dedicated
- 1941 1st mass killing of Jews in Romania
- 1941 British and Australian troops capture Tobruk from Italians
- 1942 Sietze de Groot wins 8th Dutch 11 city skate (8:44:06)
- 1943 66.34 cm (26.12") precipitation over 24 hour period in Hoegees Camp, California (state record)
- 1943 Allied Joint Chiefs of Staff determine invasion of Sicily for July 10th
- 1943 Temperature rises 49°F (9°C) in 2 minutes in Spearfish, South Dakota
- 1944 Allied forces begin landing at Anzio on the Italian mainland
- 1945 Burma highway reopens
- 1945 Heavy US air raid on Okinawa
- 1949 Chinatown telephone exchange in San Francisco is closed
- 1951 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Johncrowe Ransom
Event of Interest
1951 Fidel Castro is ejected from a Winter League baseball game after hitting a batter
The Crucible
1953 Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" premieres at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway in NYC (1953 Tony for Best Play)
- 1955 Norwegian government of Einar Gerhardsen forms
- 1956 30 people die in a train crash in Los Angeles
- 1956 Canadian Football Council forms
- 1957 Mad Bomber (George P Metesky) accused of 30 explosions, arrested
- 1959 USAF concludes that less than 1% of UFOs are unknown objects
- 1962 The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.
Elysée Treaty of Cooperation
1963 Elysée treaty of cooperation between France and Germany signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer
- 1964 Kenneth Kaunda becomes the first President of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia)
- 1964 World's largest cheese (15,723 kg) manufactured in Wisconsin for New York's World Fair
- 1965 US launches TIROS 9 weather satellite
- 1968 Apollo Lunar Module is launched to Moon; unmanned lunar module tests made
- 1969 Orbiting Solar Observatory 5 launched into earth orbit
- 1970 1st commercial Boeing 747 flight, Pan American World Airways flies from New York City to London in 6½ hours
- 1970 Test debut of Barry Richards, South Africa v Australia, Cape Town
- 1972 An anti-internment march is held at Magilligan strand, County Derry; as the march nears the internment camp it is stopped by members of the Green Jackets and the Parachute Regiment of the British Army, who used barbed wire to close off the beach
Roe vs. Wade
1973 In a landmark decision the US Supreme Court legalizes most abortions (Roe v. Wade), authoring the majority opinion Harry Blackmun states that the criminalization of abortion does not have "roots in the English common-law tradition"
Russian Dissidents Arrested
1980 Russian dissidents Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner arrested in Moscow and banished to Gorky
- 1982 75% of North America is covered by snow
- 1983 2nd flight readiness firing of Challenger's main engines; 22 seconds
- 1984 Hilbert van de Thumb becomes European all-round skates
- 1985 -30°F (-34°C), Mountain Lake Bio Station, Virginia (state record)
- 1985 Cold wave damages 90% of Florida's citrus crop
- 1986 Ghorbanifar 1st suggests diversion of cash to contras, says North
- 1989 USSR performs nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
Red Troops into Azerbaijan
1990 President Mikhail Gorbachev sends Red Troops into the Soviet republic of Azerbaijan
- 1990 Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
- 1991 Cholera epidemic begins in Peru with first known sufferer, 300,000 people infected over the next 12 months
Kuwaiti Oil Fires
1991 Kuwaiti oil facilities are destroyed by Iraqi forces
- 1992 Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.
- 1992 Sarah, Duchess of York (aka Fergie) wears paper bag over her head on airline ride
- 1992 Space Shuttle STS-42 (Discovery 15) launches into space
- 1993 Johan Koss skates world record 5 km in 6:38.77
- 1994 5.5 magnitude earthquake strikes Sumatra
- 1995 Palestinian bomb attack in Beit Lid Israel, 21-22 killed
- 1997 Space shuttle Atlantis successfully returns to Earth
- 1998 STS 89 (Endeavour 12) launches into orbit
- 1999 Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India
- 2001 The British government launches pro-vaccine campaign
- 2002 Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Evo Morales Bolivia President
2006 Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president
- 2007 The jury portion of the trial against Robert Pickton, accused of being Canada's worst serial killer, opens in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada.
- 2013 A series of Baghdad car bombings kill 17 people
- 2013 The Bank of Japan doubles its inflation target to 2% and announces open-ended asset purchases for 2014 in the hope of ending deflation
- 2014 Water vapour is detected on the dwarf planet Ceres
- 2016 Winter storm conditions strand 500 motorists for 24 hours in Somerset and Bedford counties, about 80 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
- 2017 Chile declares a State of Emergency and requests international assistance as wildfires rage out of control
Kushner Sworn in
2017 Jared Kushner is sworn in as Senior Advisor to US President, Donald Trump
- 2018 US government ends three-day shutdown after an agreement in Congress to extend funding
- 2021 Lloyd Austin confirmed as defense secretary by the US Senate, and the first black head of the Pentagon
- 2023 China's northernmost city, Mohe, records record low temperature of -53C (-63F) [1]
- 2023 Chinese Year of the Rabbit begins with China marking the largest celebration of the New Year since 2020, after Covid-zero restrictions lifted [1]
Event of Interest
2024 New Hindu temple to the god Ram inaugurated by Indian PM Narendra Modi in Ayodhya city in a grand ceremony, on site of a mosque razed to the ground by Hindi militants in 1992 [1]
- 2024 World's first mass vaccine program against Malaria begins in Yaoundé, Cameroon, after successful trials of RTS,S vaccine showed it saved one in three lives [1]