| 1. | 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon. |
| 2. | 1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. |
| 3. | 1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. |
| 4. | 1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont. |
| 5. | 1777 - American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton. |
| 6. | 1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia. |
| 7. | 1823 - Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico. |
| 8. | 1825 - Rensselaer School, the first engineering college in the U.S. is opened in Troy, New York. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. |
| 9. | 1833 - Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. |
| 10. | 1834 - The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City. |
| 11. | 1848 - Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia. |
| 12. | 1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States. |
| 13. | 1868 - Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Choshu seize power. |
| 14. | 1871 - Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine. |
| 15. | 1888 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time. |
| 16. | 1888 - Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw. |
| 17. | 1899 - The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times. |
| 18. | 1920 - Curse of the Bambino: The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a sum of $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000. |
| 19. | 1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia. |
| 20. | 1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt. |
| 21. | 1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy. |
| 22. | 1932 - Martial law declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit. |
| 23. | 1938 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin D. Roosevelt. |
| 24. | 1938 - Woman in White is first broadcast on the NBC Red network. The program remains on the radio for the next ten years. |
| 25. | 1947 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time. |
| 26. | 1951 - Dragnet is first broadcast on NBC-TV. |
| 27. | 1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress. |
| 28. | 1957 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch. |
| 29. | 1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed. |
| 30. | 1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state. |
| 31. | 1961 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba. |
| 32. | 1961 - The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers. |
| 33. | 1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro. |
| 34. | 1966 - The first Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California. |
| 35. | 1966 - The Psychedelic Shop, the world's first Head shop, opened on Haight Street near Ashbury in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco. |
| 36. | 1973 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner. |
| 37. | 1983 - Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys makes the longest run from scrimmage (99 yards) in NFL history. |
| 38. | 1983 - CiTV launches on ITV1 in the UK. |
| 39. | 1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. |
| 40. | 1988 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century. |
| 41. | 1990 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces. |
| 42. | 1991 - Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal. |
| 43. | 1991 - Gulf War: The British government announces the expulsion of 75 Iraqis from the country. |
| 44. | 1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). |
| 45. | 1993 - In an AFC Wild Card game, the Buffalo Bills comeback from a 35-3 deficit against the Houston Oilers and win the game in overtime 41-38, the largest comeback in NFL history. |
| 46. | 1994 - An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkhutsk, Russia, killing 125 people including one on the ground. |
| 47. | 1997 - The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys. |
| 48. | 1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launches. |
| 49. | 1999 - Israel detains, later to expel, 14 members of Concerned Christians. |
| 50. | 2000 - The last "Peanuts" comic strip is created by Charles Schulz. |
| 51. | 2003 - The Ohio State University becomes the first NCAA Division I football team to complete a season 14-0 by winning the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl over the University of Miami 31-24, and is crowned BCS National Champion. |
| 52. | 2004 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people aboard. |