- 0041 Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
- 1328 King Edward III of England marries Philippa of Henegouwen
- 1438 The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
- 1458 Matthias I Corvinus chosen king of Hungary
- 1534 François I signs classified treaty with evangelical German monarchy
- 1568 Abdij Church in Middelburg destroyed by fire
- 1568 In the Netherlands, Duke of Alva declares William of Orange an outlaw
- 1613 Amsterdam merchant Hans Bontemantel baptized
- 1616 Jacques Le Maire discovers Street Lemaire/Cape Receiver
- 1634 Emperor Ferdinand II declares Albrecht von Wallenstein a traitor
- 1639 Connecticut colony organizes under Fundamental Orders
- 1644 Battle at Nantwich Cheshire Parliamentary armies win
- 1652 Duke of Orléans joins Fronde rebels
- 1656 The first Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland
- 1679 King Charles II disbands English parliament
- 1722 Czar Peter the Great begins civil system
- 1722 Edward Wigglesworth appointed first US divinity professor (Harvard)
- 1742 Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
- 1742 German leaders elect Charles VII Albert Emperor
- 1776 Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
- 1826 Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
- 1839 Charles Darwin elected member of Royal Society
- 1847 1,500 New Mexican Indians & Mexicans defeated by US Colonel Price
- 1848 Gold is discovered in California by James Marshall at Sutters Mill triggering the San Francisco gold rush of '49.
- 1848 James Marshall finds gold in Sutter's Mill in Coloma CA
- 1848 UK hist Gold found at Sutter's Mill, California – starts the California gold rush
- 1857 The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
- 1859 Political union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
- 1861 Arsenal at Augusta GA seized by Confederacy
- 1861 Federal troops from Fort Monroe are sent to Fort Pikens
- 1862 Romania principality arises under King Alexander Cuza
- 1874 General J van Swieten conquers Kraton Atjeh, after 1000's die
- 1874 Mussorgsky's opera "Boris Godunov," premieres in St Petersburg Russia
- 1878 The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
- 1885 The CPR telegraph reaches the Pacific from Halifax; now operating from coast to coast.
- 1887 Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
- 1888 Jacob L. Wortman (of Philadelphia) receives a U.S. patent for the typewriter ribbon.
- 1892 Battle at Mengo, Uganda French missionaries attack British missionaries
- 1899 Rubber heel patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan
- 1900 Battle at Tugela-Spionkop, South Africa (Boers vs British army)
- 1900 Newcastle Badminton Club, world's oldest, formed in England
- 1900 UK hist Spion Kop reached by British; massive losses by Lancashire Regimant
- 1901 Emily Hobhouse views Lord Kitchener's concentration camp at Bloemfontein
- 1902 Denmark sells Virgin Islands to USA
- 1907 Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.
- 1908 General Baden-Powell starts Boy-Scouts
- 1908 Robert Baden-Powell organizes the first Boy Scout troop in England.
- 1913 Franz Kafka stops working on "Amerika"; it will never be finished
- 1915 German-British sea battle at Doggersbank & Helgoland
- 1916 In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
- 1917 Ernest Borgnine Academy Award-winning actor: Marty [1955], The Poseidon Adventure, The Dirty Dozen, McHale’s Navy was born
- 1918 Oral Roberts evangelist: founder: Oral Roberts University was born
- 1918 The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS)
- 1922 -54ºF (-48ºC), Danbury WI (state record)
- 1922 Eskimo Pie patented by Christian K Nelson of Iowa (not an Eskimo)
- 1922 Lehman Caves National Monument established
- 1923 Aztec Ruins National Monument, New Mexico established
- 1924 Mussolini disallows non-fascists work union
- 1924 Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad.
- 1924 Russian city of St Petersburg renamed Leningrad
- 1924 The Russian city of St. Petersburg is renamed Leningrad to honor the late revolutionary leader. It was later renamed back to St. Petersburg.
- 1925 Moving picture of a solar eclipse taken from dirigible over Long Island
- 1925 Sandler follows Branting as premier of Sweden
- 1927 Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
- 1930 J E Mills scores 117 on Test Cricket debut, New Zealand vs England, Wellington
- 1930 Stewie Dempster scores New Zealand's first Test century
- 1935 The first canned beer, "Krueger Cream Ale," is sold by Kruger Brewing Co in Richmond VA
- 1936 Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France
- 1936 Benny Goodman & orchestra record "Stompin' at the Savoy" on Victor Records
- 1939 30,000 killed by earthquake in Concepcion Chile
- 1939 Spanish government moves to Figueras
- 1940 The Naval Secretary notifies Secretary of War Henry Stimson, "Hostilities would be initiated by a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor."
- 1941 British troops march into Abyssinia
- 1942 Battle of Makassar Strait, destroyer attack on Japanese convoy in first surface action in the Pacific during World War II
- 1942 In Ottawa Wartime Prices and Trade Board rations sugar to 3/4 lb per person per week; cut to 1/2 lb
- 1943 Hitler orders nazi troops at Stalingrad to fight to death
- 1943 Jewish patients/nurses/doctors incinerated at Auschwitz-Birkenau
- 1944 Allied troops occupy Nettuno Italy
- 1945 Scottish 52nd Lowland division occupies Heinsberg
- 1946 Canada is appointed to the UN Atomic Energy Commission, set up to control and promote the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes
- 1948 Australia all out 674 vs India (Bradman 201, Hassett 198*)
- 1948 Dutch Liberal Party forms-People's party for Freedom & Democracy (VVD)
- 1948 In the Philippine Islands a 8.2 earthquake occurred near the southwest coast of Panay. Over $3.5 million property damage was sustained in the islands, and 72 people were killed.
- 1949 John (Adam) Belushicomedian: Second City improvisational troupe, original cast: Saturday Night Live was born
- 1950 Jackie Robinson signs highest contract ($35,000) in Dodger history
- 1951 Dutch government Drees-van Schaik resigns
- 1952 Fire in main building of French Port Martin Antarctic base
- 1952 Vincent Massey 1887-1967 sworn in as Governor General; first Canadian-born; serves from February 28, 1952 to September 15, 1959.
- 1956 96.5 cm precipitation at Kilauea Plantation, Hawaii (state record)
- 1960 Algeria uprises against French President De Gaulle
- 1961 Visitor posting - Neil Murphy birth date - United Kingdom
- 1962 28 refugees escape from East to West Germany
- 1962 Brian Epstein signs management contract with the Beatles
- 1962 Jackie Robinson is first Black elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1963 Number one hit on UK music charts - The Shadows - Dance On
- 1964 24th Amendment to US Constitution goes into effect & states voting rights could not be denied due to failure to pay taxes
- 1964 Martin Kresses final comic strip of Eric the Viking
- 1965 British statesman Winston Churchill dies in London at age 90.
- 1966 An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
- 1968 Number one hit on UK music charts - Georgie Fame - The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde
- 1969 Queen Juliana appointed honorary citizen of Addis Ababa
- 1969 Spanish General Franco announces state of emergency
- 1970 3rd ABA All-Star Game West 128 beats East 98 at Indiana
- 1971 Panarctic Oils caps a natural gas well on King Christian Island,NWT that had burned out of control for 3 months
- 1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.
- 1973 Canada joins the International Commission for Control and Supervision in Vietnam for 60-day period; ICCS a truce-observance commission; with Hungary, Poland, Indonesia.
- 1973 Warren Spahn is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
- 1975 Fastest Earth-bound object, 7200 kph, in vacuum centrifuge, England
- 1975 Visitor posting - Debra Marie Fournier was born at 11:57 pm, Rhode Island. - USA
- 1976 George Foreman KOs Ron Lyle in 5th round of a real slugfest
- 1976 Visitor posting - ARCELIA AYON born. MY PET IS A DOG NAMED PINKY - USA [email protected]
- 1977 5 lawyers murdered by fascist in Madrid
- 1977 Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
- 1978 A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite disintegrates as it falls into the atmosphere, spreading radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.
- 1978 Nuclear-powered USSR satellite Cosmos 954 re-enters the Earth's atmosphere and disintegrates over the Northwest Territories, scattering radioactive debris over the barrens east of Great Slave Lake; Canadian Armed Forces launches operation to recover debris; USSR later pays Canada $3 million under a UN treaty covering costs of cleanup.
- 1978 Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
- 1978 Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
- 1980 North of Livermore Valley, California s 5.9, earthquake injured 44 people and caused and estimated $11.5 million in property damage (of which, $10 million damage occurred at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory at Livermore
- 1981 Kim Hughes scores 213 vs India at Adelaide
- 1983 Hulk Hogan pins the Iron Sheik for World Wrestling Federation title
- 1983 Oaxaca, Mexico a 7.0 earthquake occured. Damage in the Juchitan area and slight damage in the Mexico City area. Felt strongly in southeastern Mexico.
- 1984 ABC network agrees to pay $386 million for US TV rights to the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics; a record sum to that date; CTV will handle the Canadian feed.
- 1984 Apple Computer Inc unveils its Macintosh personal computer
- 1984 The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
- 1985 15th Space Shuttle (51-C) Mission-Discovery 3 is launched
- 1985 Penny Harrington is sworn in as the first woman police chief of a major American city (Portland, OR).
- 1986 43rd Golden Globes Whoopi Goldberg, Color Purple win
- 1986 South Yemen Premier Haydar Bakr al-Attas becomes interim-president
- 1986 The NASA space probe Voyager Two passes within 50,679 miles of Uranus.
- 1986 Voyager 2 makes first fly-by of Uranus (81,593 km), finds new moons
- 1986 Wapping dispute. Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International.
- 1987 61st Australian Women's Tennis H Mandlikova beat M Navratilova (75 76)
- 1987 Number one hit on UK music charts - Steve 'Silk' Hurley - Jack Your Body
- 1988 Ben Johnson named the Associated Press (AP) male athlete of the year, the first Canadian track athlete so honoured
- 1988 First WWF Royal Rumble - Jim Duggan wins
- 1989 Serial killer Ted Bundy is put to death in Florida's electric chair.
- 1989 The first reported case of AIDS transmitted by heterosexual oral sex
- 1990 Japanese MUSES-A (Hiten) launched towards moon
- 1993 14th annual star-athon $24,000,000
- 1993 Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall dies in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 84.
- 1993 Polish ferry boat John Heweliusz sinks, 52 killed
- 1993 Soyuz TM-16 launches
- 1993 Turkish journalist and writer Uur Mumcu assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara