- 481 – Vandal king Huneric organises a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops at Carthage.
- 1327 – The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
- 1329 – King John of Bohemia captures Medvėgalis, an important fortress of the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and baptizes 6,000 of its defenders.
- 1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
- 1662 – The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
- 1713 – The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan‘s order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
- 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
- 1796 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
- 1814 – Mayon in the Philippines erupts, killing around 1,200 people, the most devastating eruption of the volcano.
- 1835 – Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.
- 1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
- 1864 – Second Schleswig War: Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig, starting the war.
- 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
- 1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
- 1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
- 1896 – La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
- 1897 – Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
- 1908 – Lisbon Regicide: King Carlos I of Portugal and Infante Luis Filipe are shot dead in Lisbon.
- 1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar.
- 1924 – Russia–United Kingdom relations are restored, over six years after the Communist revolution.
- 1942 – World War II: Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of German-occupied Norway, appoints Vidkun Quisling the Minister President of the National Government.
- 1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy conducts Marshalls–Gilberts raids, the first offensive action by the United States against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater.
- 1942 – Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.
- 1942 – Mao Zedong makes a speech on “Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature”, which puts into motion the Yan’an Rectification Movement.
- 1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General.
- 1946 – The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.
- 1953 – North Sea flood of 1953 is caused by a heavy storm which occurred overnight, 31 January-1 February 1953; floods strike the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.K.
- 1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
- 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with “I Want to Hold Your Hand“.
- 1965 – The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is recorded on motion picture film, as well as in an iconic still photograph taken by Eddie Adams.
- 1968 – Canada’s three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
- 1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.
- 1972 – Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- 1974 – A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in São Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
- 1979 – Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.
- 1989 – The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie–Boulder.
- 1991 – A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.
- 1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal disaster case.
- 1996 – The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
- 1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
- 2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.
- 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
- 2004 – Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured.
- 2005 – King Gyanendra of Nepal carries out a coup d’état to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
- 2009 – The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay head of government.
- 2012 – Seventy-four people are killed and over 500 injured as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al Masry and Al Ahly in the city of Port Said.
- 2013 – The Shard, the sixth-tallest building in Europe, is opened to the public.
-Source: wikipedia
