- 0393 Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine year old son Honorius co-emperor.
- 1368 In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.
- 1490 First printing of Ramban's Sha'ar ha-Gemul
- 1492 "Pentateuch" (Jewish holy book) first printed
- 1510 Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
- 1533 Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
- 1546 Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel: the Tiers Livre.
- 1552 2nd version of Book of Common Prayer becomes mandatory in England
- 1556 Most deadly earthquake kills 830,000 in Shansi Province, China
- 1556 The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
- 1570 Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland, assassinated; civil war breaks out
- 1570 The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
- 1571 Queen Elizabeth I opens Royal Exchange in London
- 1571 The Royal Exchange opens in London.
- 1579 The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
- 1579 Union of Utrecht signed, forming protestant Dutch Republic
- 1631 France & Sweden sign anti-German Treaty of Bärwald
- 1637 Dutch Governor Johan Mauritius lands in Pernambuco Brazil
- 1643 Sir Thomas Fairfax takes Leeds for the Parliamentarians
- 1656 Blaise Pascal published the first of his Lettres provinciales.
- 1663 King Louis XIV affirms covenant with Rÿnstaten
- 1668 England, Netherlands & Sweden signs Triple Alliance against French
- 1719 Principality of Liechtenstein created within Holy Roman Empire
- 1719 The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
- 1723 Georg Friedrich Händel's opera "Ottone," premieres in London
- 1789 Georgetown College becomes the first Roman Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
- 1793 2nd partition of Poland, between Prussia & Russia
- 1793 Humane Society of Philadelphia (first aid society) organized
- 1796 Armand-Gaston Camus becomes chairman of Council of 500
- 1812 7.8 earthquake shakes New Madrid, Missouri
- 1833 Joseph Pease, a Quaker, admitted to Parliament on his affirmation
- 1834 In Quebec City fire destroys the old Chateau Saint-Louis, originally built by Samuel de Champlain, and home to the Governors of New France.
- 1845 Congress agrees that all national elections in the U.S. will fall on the Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
- 1845 Congress decided that all national elections would take place on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
- 1845 Uniform US election day for President & Vice President authorized
- 1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in U.S. history to receive a medical degree.
- 1849 Mrs Elizabeth Blackwell becomes first woman physician in US
- 1849 Patent granted for an envelope-making machine
- 1855 The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
- 1856 Steamer Pacific lost
- 1861 Agoston Haraszthy, first vintner in Sonoma Valley, imports 100,000 cuttings of 350 varieties from Europe
- 1865 -Jan 25th) Battle of City Point, VA (James River, Trent's Reach)
- 1870 173 Blackfoot Indians (140 women & children) killed in Montana by US Army
- 1870 In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Indians, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
- 1879 National Archery Association formed, Crawfordsville IN
- 1888 Natural gas discovered in Kingsville Ontario,by well drillers
- 1894 G W Bunbury of Dublin sets shorthand record of 250 wpm for 10 minutes
- 1897 Elva Zona Heaster found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
- 1899 Emilio Aguinaldo was sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
- 1902 Winnipeg Victorias sweep Toronto Wellingtons in 2 for the Stanley Cup
- 1904 lesund Fire: Norwegian coastal town lesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil architecture.
- 1907 Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes first Native American US senator
- 1908 US & Great-Britain demand end of abuses in Congo
- 1909 The first radio rescue at sea
- 1912 The Aermore Manufacturing Company, a Chicago concern, received a patent for the Aermore Exhaust Horn, a multiple-pipe horn powered by engine exhaust that played a chord like a church organ.
- 1912 The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
- 1916 Temp falls from 44ºF (7ºC) to -56ºF (49ºC) night of 23-24, Browning MT
- 1918 Stellarton, Nova Scotia a coal gas explosion kills eighty-eight men in the Allan Shaft at Stellarton
- 1920 Dutch government refuses to turn over ex-Kaiser Wilhelm I of Germany to the allies
- 1920 The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
- 1922 At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes.
- 1923 Taxi strike in Amsterdam begins (through March 9th)
- 1924 Bal Thackeray - The leader of Indian Politician Party Shiv Sena was born
- 1924 Ramsey MacDonald forms first Labour government in Britain
- 1930 Clyde Tombaugh photographs planet Pluto
- 1930 George Washington Birthplace National Monument VA established
- 1932 El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers
- 1932 New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt announces his candidacy for U.S. President on the Democratic party ticket.
- 1933 20th amendment changes date of Presidential Inaugurations to 1/20
- 1935 Iroquois Falls Ontario the thermometer hits -60C, the lowest temperature ever recorded in Ontario.
- 1936 Catholic People's Party (KVP) of Curaçao forms
- 1937 In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
- 1937 Karl Radek & 16 others go on trial in Stalin's great purge
- 1940 Pianist Ignaz Paderewski becomes premier of Polish government in exile
- 1941 Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
- 1941 German prisoner of war Franz von Werra escapes from a train and makes it back to Germany, only to die in action a year later; the only German POW to make a successful escape in Canada.
- 1941 Ground breaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center
- 1942 Japanese capture Rabaul, New Guinea
- 1942 Tank battle at Adzjedabia, African corps vs British army
- 1943 British 8th army marches into Tripoli
- 1943 Detroit Red Wings scores NHL record 8 goals in 1 period
- 1943 Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.
- 1943 Japanese Mount Austen on Guadalcanal captured
- 1943 Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
- 1945 Dutch Premier Gerbrandy, exiled in London, offers his resignation
- 1945 World War II: Karl Dnitz launches Operation Hannibal.
- 1946 Rear Admiral Sidney W Souers, USNR, becomes first director of CIA
- 1948 Bradman scores 201 in 272 minutes vs India, 21 fours 1 six
- 1948 Gen. Eisenhower said he could not accept a presidential nomination from either party; four years later, he ran as a Republican and was elected 34th president of the United States.
- 1948 Huston's "Treasure of Sierra Madre" starring Humphrey Bogart opens
- 1948 Test debut of Neil Harvey, vs India at Adelaide
- 1950 3rd edition of Joseph Kane's Famous first Facts published
- 1950 Israeli Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel
- 1950 Rebel army of cap Raymond Westerner occupies Bandung
- 1950 The Israeli Knesset approves a resolution to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
- 1950 The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
- 1951 3rd Emmy Awards Alan Young Show, Alan Young & Gertrude Berg
- 1952 Death of John Treloar who, along with CEW Bean, did more than any other individual to establish and develop the Australian War Memorial Treloar served as director of the Memorial from 1920 to 1952
- 1953 Bobby Simpson makes 1st-class debut for New South Wales 16 years 357 days
- 1954 Harry van Thorn chosen chairman of Dutch KVP
- 1954 Longest undefeated streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (18 games)
- 1954 Visitor posting - RAY BRANNON born - United Kingdom
- 1956 Montreal Canadiens hockey player Jean Beliveau appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine
- 1958 Dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazábal takes power
- 1960 Piccard & Walsh in bathyscaph "Trieste" reach 10,900 meters in Mariana Trench
- 1960 The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet)in the Pacific Ocean.
- 1961 Supreme Court rules cities & states have right to censor films
- 1961 Venezuela adopts constitution
- 1962 British spy Kim Philby defects to USSR
- 1962 Libya, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb
- 1964 24th Amendment ratified, barring poll tax in federal elections
- 1964 Arthur Miller's "After the Fall," premieres in New York City NY
- 1964 The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
- 1968 North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
- 1968 Spy ship USS Pueblo & 83-man crew seized in Sea of Japan by N Korea
- 1968 The North Korean Navy seizes the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, detaining its crew on suspicion of espionage.
- 1968 The USS Pueblo was seized in the Sea of Japan by North Korea, which claimed the ship was on a spy mission. The crew was held for 11 months before being released on Dec. 22, 1968.
- 1969 Cream releases their last album "Goodbye"
- 1970 Australia's first amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (California)
- 1970 Dolle Mina burns her bra in Amsterdam
- 1970 US launches 2nd generation weather satellite, ITOS 1
- 1971 -80ºF (-62ºC), Prospect Creek Camp AK (US record)
- 1971 The temperature at Prospect Creek, Alaska, dropped to 80 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States.
- 1972 Bootlegger sells wood alcohol to wedding party-100 die-New Delhi
- 1972 Entire population of Istanbul under 24 hour house arrest
- 1973 A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
- 1973 Helgafell, island of Heimaey Iceland erupts for first time in 7,000 years
- 1973 Jordan Air crash at Kano, Nigeria kills 176 Moslem pilgrims
- 1973 Neil Young interrupts his concert to read a message handed to him, announcing the signing of the Vietnam peace accord. "Peace has come," he says; after ten minutes of audience celebration, he launches into his single, Southern Man
- 1973 President Nixon announced that U.S. troops would cease fighting in Vietnam at midnight Jan. 27.
- 1974 The first edition of women's magazine "Story"
- 1974 Visitor posting - C.Scott Laney born
- 1975 "Barney Miller" premieres on ABC TV
- 1975 The situation comedy Barney Miller, starring Hal Linden in the title role, debuts ABC TV.
- 1976 Ian Redpath hits his only 2 sixes in Cricket Tests, vs West Indies Adelaide
- 1976 Washington Capitals end 25 game winless streak (0-22-3) beat New York Rangers 7-5
- 1977 $1.5-million Serge Lepage dress exhibited, Paris
- 1977 Miniseries "Roots" premieres on ABC
- 1978 Belgian industrial Haron Empain kidnapped in Paris
- 1978 Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's protective ozone layer.
- 1979 Willie Mays elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1980 President Carter reinstated the Selective Service System.
- 1981 Jochem Bird elected mayor of West Berlin
- 1982 World Airways DC-10 skids at Boston Logan Airport killing 2
- 1983 "A-Team" with Mr T premieres on NBC
- 1983 Bjorn Borg announces his retirement from tennis
- 1983 Russian radioactive satellite falls into Indian Ocean
- 1983 Visitor posting - Stephnie Richard born - Houston, TX - USA
- 1984 Greatest unpaced 1-hour bicycle distance, F Moser (Italy), 51.15 km
- 1984 Hulk Hogan defeats Iron Sheik to become WWF champ
- 1984 Stuart & Lillian Kelly of Brantford collect $13,890,588.80 for winning ticket in Lotto 6-49; largest to date
- 1985 Britains House of Lords debate first televised
- 1985 O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
- 1986 The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
- 1986 The first induction of Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis & Elvis Presley)
- 1987 Dow Jones rises 64 points then drops 110 points (44.15 point loss)
- 1987 Japan first exceeds military spending cap of 1% of GNP ($23 billion)
- 1988 45th Golden Globes Last Emperor, Sally Kirkland, Michael Douglas
- 1988 62nd Australian Women's Tennis Steffi Graf beats Chris Evert (61 76)
- 1988 Experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan & Jeana Yeager, complete first nonstop, round-the-world flight without refueling lands
- 1988 Sandinista missiles downed a cargo plane that was dropping U.S.-financed supplies to Contra rebels in southeastern Nicaragua. Four crewmen were killed.
- 1989 Challenge to "who is a Jew" law filed in Israeli Supreme Court
- 1989 Surrealist painter Salvador Dali dies at age 84.
- 1990 Dean Jones scores twin Test tons vs Pakistan at Adelaide Oval
- 1990 Visitor posting - Genevieve Marie Theberge is born in Rapid City, SD - USA
- 1991 "Seinfeld" debuts on NBC-TV
- 1991 High-denomination banknotes withdrawn in USSR
- 1991 World's largest oil spill, caused by embattled Iraqi forces in Kuwait
- 1992 In Ottawa the Supreme Court of Canada rules that the federal government can conduct environmental reviews on any projects under its jurisdiction
- 1993 50th Golden Globes Scent of a Woman, wins
- 1993 Convicted diet doc killer Jean Harris was freed, discharged from a New York state hospital after heart surgery and with a grant of clemency from the governor.
- 1993 Graham Gooch scores his 100th 100, on tour at Cuttack
- 1993 Indian Airlines B737 crashes art Aurangabad, 61 die
- 1993 New York Newsday reports Oregon's Senator Bob Packwood sexually harassed 23 women
- 1994 Worldwide Day for peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina
- 1995 British Columbia blocks Alcan's $1.3-billion (Canadian) Kemano power dam development, citing the threat to its salmon fishery.
- 1995 Defence Minister David Collenette disbands the Canadian Airborne Regiment, effective March 5; after some of its soldiers were found to be involved in the death of a Somali boy during the UN mission
- 1995 In Toronto Ontario surgeons at The Hospital for Sick Children perform a 17 hour operation to separate Pakistani Siamese twins Hira and Nida Jamal; Nida will died a month later
- 1995 The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), a nationally funded watchdog organization, warned Internet users about sophisticated new hacker techniques
- 1996 Chris Cairns scores 120, 96 balls, 10x4, 9x6 in Test New Zealand vs Zimbabwe
- 1996 General Electric threw in the towel in the struggle to keep its Genie online service competitive in the growing battle with the Web. The company announced it would sell the service to Yovelle Renaissance Corporation, which would turn Genie into a Web site.
- 1996 The first version of the Java programming language is released.
- 1997 Madeline Albright was sworn into office to become the first woman secretary of state.
- 1997 Visitor posting - Renata Masciarelli born - Mexico
- 1998 Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba
- 1999 Monica Lewinsky is ordered by a federal judge to submit to an interview in the impeachment trial of U.S. President Bill Clinton.
- 2001 7 people, allegedly Falun Gong followers, attempted to set themselves on fire in Tiananmen Square. (known as Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident)
- 2002 "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody.
- 2002 Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped -- and subsequently murdered -- in Karachi, Pakistan.
- 2003 Pilot 1 and 2 of the television series MythBusters.
- 2004 Senate Democrats demanded an investigation of U.S. government dealings with Halliburton Co. following revelations of kickbacks on Iraq contracts.
- 2005 Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third President of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine.
- 2006 After over 12 years of Liberal Party rule, Stephen Harper's Conservative Party wins the most seats in the Canadian federal election. Harper becomes the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada with a minority government, assuming office February 6.
- 2010 Visitor posting - William is born to join his cousins the Quad - Canada
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