- 0098 Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.
- 0672 St. Vitalian ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 0847 Sergius II ends his reign as Catholic Pope.
- 1142 Wrongful execution of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
- 1186 Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, weds Constance of Sicily.
- 1302 Dante becomes a Florentine political exile
- 1343 Pope Clement VI issues the Bull Unigenitus.
- 1416 Republic of Dubrovnik, as a first state in Europe, outlaw slavery
- 1538 States of Gelderland accepts Willem van Kleef as viceroy
- 1556 Willem of Orange becomes knight of Guilder Flies
- 1593 Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno
- 1606 Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, and ending in their execution on January 31.
- 1662 First American lime kiln begins operation (Providence RI)
- 1671 Pirate Henry Morgen lands at Panama City
- 1678 The first fire engine company in the United States went into service.
- 1695 Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his death in 1703.
- 1710 Czar Peter the Great sets first Russian state budget
- 1736 Abdication of Stanislas, last king of Poland
- 1756 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , Composer Classical Era, born - died 5 December 1791. Full baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart
- 1778 Piccinni's opera "Roland" premieres, Paris
- 1785 First US state university chartered, Athens GA
- 1785 The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
- 1823 President Monroe appoints first US ambassadors to South America
- 1825 U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
- 1832 Visitor posting - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) born (Alice in Wonderland) - United Kingdom
- 1864 Battle of Fair Gardens, Tennessee
- 1864 Civil War skirmish at Kelly's Ford VA
- 1870 After accepting 15th amendment, Virginia is readmitted to Union
- 1870 Manitoba & Northwest Territories incorporated
- 1870 The college sorority, Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University in Greencastle IN
- 1880 Thomas A. Edison receives a U.S. patent for the electric incandescent light bulb.
- 1886 First British government of Salisbury resigns
- 1888 In Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Society is founded.
- 1888 The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
- 1894 First college basketball game, University of Chicago beats Chicago YMCA 19-11
- 1894 Midwinter Fair opens in Golden Gate Park
- 1896 Tasmania bowl out Victoria for 65 for their first ever innings victory
- 1900 Social Democrat Party of America (Debs' party) holds first convention
- 1902 5 workers killed on explosion during IRT subway construction (New York City NY)
- 1905 Maurice Rouvier forms government in France
- 1906 Rudolf Gundersen skates world record 500m at 44.8 seconds
- 1908 Pasiphaë, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Melotte
- 1909 The Young Left is founded in Norway.
- 1910 Thomas Crapper, British plumber who invented the modern flush toilet, dies today.
- 1915 US Marines occupy Haiti
- 1916 Communist party "Spartacus Letters" first published in Berlin
- 1918 "Tarzan of the Apes," first Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theater
- 1918 The first hostilities occurred in the Finnish Civil War, beginning the war.
- 1924 Egyptian king Foead nominates Saad Zaghloel Pasja premier
- 1924 Lenin placed in Mausoleum in Red Square
- 1926 John Logie Baird makes the first television broadcast.
- 1926 US Senate agrees to join World Court
- 1933 Otto Meisnner dines with British ambassador Rumbold
- 1939 First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
- 1940 -17ºF (-27ºC), CCC Camp F-16, Georgia (state record)
- 1941 Peruvian agent Rivera-Schreibér warns of Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor
- 1941 World War II: Fighting at Derna, Libya, begins. Following the capture of Tobruk, two brigades of the 6th Australian Division under Major General Iven Mackay pursue the Italians westwards and encounters an Italian rear guard at Derna.
- 1942 -19ºF (-27.4ºC), Netherlands' coldest day since 1850
- 1942 HMS THANET, sunk south east Malaya in South China Sea - by gunfire of Japanese 5.5in cruiser 'Sendai' and destroyers while attacking Japanese troop transports
- 1943 The first US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen)
- 1943 World War II: Fifty bombers mount the first entirely American air raid against Germany, targeting Wilhelmshaven.
- 1944 Leningrad liberated from Germany in 880 days with 600,000 killed
- 1945 Nazi occupiers forbid food transport to West (The Netherlands)
- 1945 Russian troops liberate the Nazi concentration camps Birkenau and Auschwitz.
- 1945 Wally van Hall, "banker in defiance," arrested
- 1945 World War II: Lt.Col. Mucci comades Army Rangers to liberate the prisoners of the Cabanatuan POW camp.
- 1948 The first locomotive to carry 1,000,000 pounds (450,000 kg) operates
- 1949 Chinese liner "Taiping" collides with a collier off south China
- 1949 The Chief of Naval Operations authorized conversion of all new-construction cruisers to accommodate helicopters.
- 1950 2nd Emmy Awards Ed Wynn Show & Texaco Star Theater win
- 1951 Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats.
- 1951 The Air Force tests a one-kiloton atomic bomb at Frenchman Flats in the Nevada desert.
- 1951 Visitor posting - Charles DeWitt Wright was born in Philadelphia, Pa, USA
- 1953 Netherlands end Marshall aid
- 1958 Ferenc Münnich follows Kádár as premier of Hungary
- 1961 "Sing Along with Mitch" [Miller] premieres on NBC TV
- 1961 Visitor posting - Ivan Korey Farnworth III born in Yerington Nevada
- 1964 "Introducing the Beatles" album released in US
- 1964 Barlow & Graeme Pollock complete 341 stand at Adelaide Oval
- 1964 Margaret Chase Smith (Senator-R-ME) tries for Republican Presidential bid
- 1965 The first ground station-to-aircraft radio communication via satellite
- 1966 Number one hit on UK music charts - The Overlanders - Michelle
- 1967 A treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons is signed by representatives of more than 60 countries.
- 1967 Beatles sign a 9 year worldwide contract with EMI records
- 1967 Fire in the spacecraft! The world is shocked to learn that astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee die in a flash fire during testing of the Apollo I space capsule at Cape Kennedy, Florida.
- 1967 More than sixty nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
- 1967 Treaty banning military use of nuclear weapons in space, signed
- 1967 UK hist Three US astronauts killed in fire during Apollo launch pad test
- 1969 14 spies hung in Baghdad
- 1969 9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus Syria
- 1969 Actress Thelma Ritter suffers a heart attack (she dies Feb 5th)
- 1969 Noordiers vicar Ian Paisley sentenced to 3 years
- 1970 Movie rating system modifies "M" rating to "PG"
- 1973 Number one hit on UK music charts - Sweet - Blockbuster
- 1973 US & Vietnam sign cease-fire, ending longest US war & military draft
- 1973 William Rogers & Nguyen Duy Trinh sign US-N Vietnam treaty
- 1976 "Laverne & Shirley" spin-off from "Happy Days" premieres on ABC TV
- 1976 Morocco-Algeria battles in Westerly Sahara
- 1976 Viv Richards scores his first Test century against Australia
- 1977 Record company EMI sacks the controversial United Kingdom punk rock group the Sex Pistols.
- 1977 The Vatican reiterates that the Roman Catholic Church does not allow women to enter the priesthood.
- 1977 The first broadcast of "Roots" mini-series on ABC TV
- 1979 36th Golden Globes Midnight Express, Jon Voight & Jane Fonda
- 1979 Number one hit on UK music charts - Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick
- 1982 Mauno Koivisto installed as President of Finland
- 1982 Roberto S Cordova installed as President of Honduras
- 1983 Pilot shaft of World's longest subaqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honsh and Hokkaid breaks through.
- 1983 World's longest subaqueous tunnel (53.90 km) opens, Honshu-Hokkaid
- 1984 Carl Lewis beats his own indoor world long jump record by 9 inches (23.5 centimeters) with a 28-foot, 10-inch (8.795-meter) jump.
- 1984 John & Yoko release "Milk & Honey" album
- 1984 Michael Jackson is burned during filming for Pepsi commercial
- 1984 Pop singer Michael Jackson is hospitalized when his hair catches fire while filming a Pepsi commercial in Los Angeles.
- 1986 13th American Music Award Whitney Houston, Huey Lewis & Crystal Gayle
- 1987 Midnight Rockers beat Buddy Rose & Doug Somers for AWA World Tag Team
- 1988 Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves nomination of Judge Anthony M Kennedy to US Supreme Court
- 1989 German war criminals Fischer & Austrian der Fünten freed
- 1989 Oklahoma's linebacker, Mark VanKeirsblilck assaults an Oklahoma grad student
- 1989 Visitor posting - on 27th January 1989 Nirupam married Arti - India [email protected]
- 1990 Dissolution of Polish communist party
- 1990 Four top aides of executed dictator Nicolae Ceausescu go on trial in Romania, charged with genocide.
- 1990 Number one hit on UK music charts - Kylie Minogue - Tears On My Pillow
- 1992 19th American Music Award C & C Music Factory, Michael Bolton win
- 1992 Jane Fonda undergoes arthroscopic surgery on her right knee
- 1992 Mike Tyson goes on trial for rape (he is found guilty)
- 1992 Presidential candidate Bill Clinton (D) & Genifer Flowers accuse each other of lying over her assertion they had a 12-year affair
- 1993 DC-3 crashes in Kinshasa, killing 12
- 1994 Carlos Reina succeeds President Callejas in Honduras
- 1994 Romanian social-democrats form government with anti-Semites
- 1995 Five thousand mourners gather at the site of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its liberation.
- 1996 15 day old siamese twins separated-Sarah Morales survives, Sarahi dies
- 1996 70th Australian Open Women's Tennis Monica Seles beats Anke Huber (64 61)
- 1996 Catherine Roskam becomes the first New York female Episcopal bishop
- 1996 Colonel Ibrahim Bar Manassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
- 1996 Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
- 1996 Shiv Chanderpaul scores 303* for Guyana vs Jamaica at Kingston
- 1997 "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus," opens at Gershwin New York City NY
- 1997 24th American Music Award Toni Braxton & Alanis Morissette win
- 1997 It is revealed that French museums have nearly 2,000 pieces of art that were stolen by Nazis.
- 1997 It's the worst snowstorms to hit northwest China in 30 years. An update today from Beijing says the storms have killed 39 people and caused more than 24 million dollars in losses.
- 1997 The weekend rescue of more than 300 anglers from the ice of Lake Simcoe could cost up to 500 000 dollars. The ice fishers were stranded after a 32 kilometre-long pressure crack openedup between them and shore.
- 1998 Crane crashes into Roosevelt Is (New York City NY) Tram, injuring 10
- 1998 First Lady of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton appears on The Today Show, calling the attacks against her husband part of a vast right-wing conspiracy.
- 2001 Ten members of the Oklahoma State University men's basketball team and support staff die in a plane crash in Colorado.
- 2002 Several explosions at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria kill more than 1,000.
- 2007 Approximately 100,000 protesters converge on the Mall in Washington, D.C. for the January 27, 2007 anti-war protest sponsored by United for Peace and Justice.
More historical events added daily - keep checking back