1477Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is defeated and killed in a conflict with René II, Duke of Lorraine; Burgundy subsequently becomes part of France.
1675Battle of Colmar: The French army defeats forces from Austria and Brandenburg.
1757Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, who becomes the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering (the traditional form of capital punishment used for regicides).
1822The government of Central America votes for total annexation to the First Mexican Empire.
1875The Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world, is inaugurated in Paris.
1895Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1900Irish nationalist leader John Edward Redmond calls for revolt against British rule.
1911Kappa Alpha Psi, the world's third-oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
1912The sixth All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Prague Party Conference) opens. In the course of the conference, Vladimir Lenin and his supporters break from the rest of the party to form the Bolshevik movement.
1913First Balkan War: The Battle of Lemnos begins; Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
1914The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses.
1919The German Workers' Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded in Munich.
1925Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1941Amy Johnson, a 37-year-old pilot and the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, disappears after bailing out of her plane over the River Thames, and is presumed dead.
1944The Daily Mail becomes the first major London newspaper to be published on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.
1945The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet Provisional Government of the Republic of Poland.
1948The Semiramis Hotel bombing kills at least 23 people.
1949In his State of the Union address, United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
1953The play Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett receives its première in Paris.
1957In a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
1967Cultural Revolution: The Shanghai People's Commune is established following the seizure of power from local city officials by revolutionaries.
1968Alexander Dubček comes to power in Czechoslovakia, effectively beginning the "Prague Spring".
1969The Venera 5 space probe is launched at 06:28:08 UTC from Baikonur.
1969Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes in Fernhill, West Sussex, UK, while on approach to Gatwick Airport, killing 50 people.
1970The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme). Between 10,000 and 15,000 people are known to have been killed and about another 26,000 are injured.
1970A Spantax Convair CV-990 Coronado crashes during takeoff from Stockholm Arlanda Airport, killing five people.
1975The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
1976The Khmer Rouge announce that the new Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea is ratified.
1976The Troubles: Gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus at Kingsmill in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK, allegedly as retaliation for a string of attacks on Irish Catholic civilians in the area by Loyalists, particularly the killing of six Catholics the night before.
1991Somali Civil War: The United States Embassy to Somalia in Mogadishu is evacuated by helicopter airlift days after the outbreak of violence in Mogadishu.
1993The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
2003A suicide bombing at the Tel Aviv central bus station kills 23 people and injures over 100 more.
2005The dwarf planet Eris is discovered by Palomar Observatory-based astronomers, later motivating the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to define the term planet for the first time.
2014A launch of the communication satellite GSAT-14 aboard the GSLV MK.II D5 marks the first successful flight of an Indian cryogenic engine.
2022Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dismisses Prime Minister Asqar Mamin and declares state of emergency over the 2022 Kazakh unrest.
2023The 2023 Sinaloa unrest begins.
2024Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 makes an emergency landing at Portland International Airport after a door plug blows off the Boeing 737 MAX 9 operating the flight. There are no fatalities, but the accident prompts the 737 MAX to be grounded and renews scrutiny on Boeing's manufacturing and design issues.
Nacimientos (214)
1209Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall, English prince, nominal King of Germany (died 1272)
1530Gaspar de Bono, monk of the Order of the Minims (died 1571)
1548Francisco Suárez, Spanish priest, philosopher, and theologian (died 1617)
1587Xu Xiake, Chinese geographer and explorer (died 1641)
1592Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor (died 1666)
1620Miklós Zrínyi, Croatian military commander (died 1664)
1640Paolo Lorenzani, Italian composer (died 1713)
1735Claude Martin, French-English general and explorer (died 1800)
1767Jean-Baptiste Say, French economist and academic (died 1832)
1779Stephen Decatur, American commander (died 1820)
1779Zebulon Pike, American general and explorer (died 1813)
1781Gaspar Flores de Abrego, three terms mayor of San Antonio, in Spanish Texas (died 1836)
1793Harvey Putnam, American lawyer and politician (died 1855)
1808Anton Füster, Austrian priest and activist (died 1881)
1834William John Wills, English surgeon and explorer (died 1861)
1838Camille Jordan, French mathematician and academic (died 1922)
1846Rudolf Christoph Eucken, German philosopher and author, Nobel Prize laureate (died 1926)
1846Mariam Baouardy, Syrian Roman Catholic nun; later canonized (died 1878)
1855King Camp Gillette, American businessman, founded the Gillette Company (died 1932)
1864Bob Caruthers, American baseball player and manager (died 1911)
1865Fatima Cates, British Muslim convert and activist (died 1900)