- 1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
- 1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
- 1630 – Dutch forces led by Hendrick Lonck capture Olinda in what was to become part of Dutch Brazil.
- 1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon: The last major battle of the first English Civil War.
- 1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania.
- 1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.[1]
- 1796 – Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) falls to the British, completing their invasion of Ceylon.[2]
- 1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
- 1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
- 1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
- 1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
- 1899 – Iceland‘s first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.[3]
- 1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.[4]
- 1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.[5]
- 1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA.
- 1934 – The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republikanischer Schutzbund.
- 1936 – The Popular Front wins the 1936 Spanish general election.
- 1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.[6]
- 1940 – World War II: Altmark incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
- 1942 – World War II: In Athens, the Greek People’s Liberation Army is established[7]
- 1943 – World War II: In the early phases of the Third Battle of Kharkov, Red Army troops re-enter the city.
- 1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
- 1945 – The Alaska Equal Rights Act of 1945, the first anti-discrimination law in the United States, was signed into law.[8]
- 1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
- 1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
- 1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
- 1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
- 1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
- 1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago).
- 1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
- 1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
- 1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
- 1986 – China Airlines Flight 2265 crashes into the Pacific Ocean near Penghu Airport in Taiwan, killing all 13 aboard.[9]
- 1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
- 1996 – A Chicago-bound Amtrak train, the Capitol Limited, collides with a MARC commuter train bound for Washington, D.C., killing 11 people.
- 1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground.
- 2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
- 2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004–05 regular season and playoffs.
- 2006 – The last Mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
- 2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town, Quetta, Pakistan kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.
-Source: wikipedia
