- 1567 – The Battle of Oosterweel, traditionally regarded as the start of the Eighty Years’ War.[1]
- 1591 – At the Battle of Tondibi in Mali, Moroccan forces of the Saadi dynasty, led by Judar Pasha, defeat the Songhai Empire, despite being outnumbered by at least five to one.[2]
- 1639 – Harvard College is named after clergyman John Harvard.[3]
- 1697 – Nojpetén, capital of the last independent Maya kingdom, falls to Spanish conquistadors, the final step in the Spanish conquest of Guatemala.[4]
- 1741 – The Battle of Cartagena de Indias (part of the War of Jenkins’ Ear) begins.[5]
- 1781 – William Herschel discovers Uranus.[6]
- 1809 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden is deposed in the Coup of 1809.[7]
- 1826 – Pope Leo XII publishes the apostolic constitution Quo Graviora in which he renewed the prohibition on Catholics joining freemasonry.[8]
- 1845 – Felix Mendelssohn‘s Violin Concerto receives its première performance in Leipzig with Ferdinand David as soloist.[9]
- 1848 – The German revolutions of 1848–1849 begin in Vienna.[10]
- 1862 – The Act Prohibiting the Return of Slaves is passed by the United States Congress, effectively annulling the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and setting the stage for the Emancipation Proclamation.[11]
- 1881 – Alexander II of Russia is assassinated.[12]
- 1884 – The Siege of Khartoum begins. It lasts until January 26, 1885.[13]
- 1900 – British forces occupy Bloemfontein, Orange Free State, during the Second Boer War.[14]
- 1920 – The Kapp Putsch briefly ousts the Weimar Republic government from Berlin.[15]
- 1930 – The news of the discovery of Pluto is announced by Lowell Observatory.[16]
- 1943 – The Holocaust: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.[17]
- 1954 – The Battle of Điện Biên Phủ begins with an artillery barrage by Viet Minh forces under Võ Nguyên Giáp; Viet Minh victory led to the end of the First Indochina War and French withdrawal from Vietnam.[18]
- 1957 – Cuban student revolutionaries storm the presidential palace in Havana in a failed attempt on the life of President Fulgencio Batista.[19]
- 1969 – Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module.[20]
- 1979 – The New Jewel Movement, headed by Maurice Bishop, ousts the Prime Minister of Grenada, Eric Gairy, in a coup d’état.[21]
- 1988 – The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan.[22]
- 1992 – The Mw 6.6 Erzincan earthquake strikes eastern Turkey with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe).[23]
- 1993 – The 1993 Storm of the Century affects the eastern United States, dropping feet of snow in many areas.[24]
- 1996 – The Dunblane massacre leads to the death of sixteen primary school children and one teacher in Dunblane, Scotland.[25]
- 1997 – The Missionaries of Charity choose Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as their leader.[26]
- 2003 – An article in Nature identifies the Ciampate del Diavolo as 350,000-year-old hominid footprints.[27]
- 2012 – The Sierre coach crash kills 28 people, including 22 children.[28]
- 2013 – The 2013 papal conclave elects Pope Francis as the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church.[29]
- 2016 – The Ankara bombing kills at least 37 people.[30]
- 2016 – Three gunmen attack two hotels in the Ivory Coast town of Grand-Bassam, killing at least 19 people.[31]
- 2020 – Breonna Taylor is killed when police officers forcibly enter her home in Louisville, Kentucky; her death sparked extensive protests against police brutality.[32]
-Source: wikipedia
