| | 49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war. |
| | 236 - Saint Fabian begins his reign as a Catholic Pope. |
| | 1072 - Robert Guiscard conquers Palermo. |
| | 1475 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui. |
| | 1776 - Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense. |
| | 1806 - Dutch settlers in Cape Town surrender to the British. |
| | 1810 - Marriage of Napoleon and Josephine is annulled. |
| | 1811 - African-American slaves in Louisiana rebel in two parishes. |
| | 1861 - American Civil War: Florida secedes from the US. |
| | 1863 - The first section of the London Underground Railway opens, between Paddington and Farringdon Street. |
| | 1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil. |
| | 1901 - The first great Texas gusher, oil discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont, Texas. |
| | 1920 - League of Nations holds its first meeting and ratifies the Treaty of Versailles ending World War I. |
| | 1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Irish Free State. |
| | 1923 - Lithuania seizes and annexes Memel. |
| | 1927 - The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiers. |
| | 1929 - Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, makes his debut. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages. |
| | 1941 - Lend-Lease is introduced into the US Congress. |
| | 1946 - First General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented. |
| | 1957 - Harold Macmillan becomes the prime minister of the United Kingdom. |
| | 1969 - After 147 years, the last issue of The Saturday Evening Post is published. |
| | 1982 - The lowest ever UK temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Braemar in Aberdeenshire. This equaled the record set in the same place on February 11, 1895. The record would be equalled again at Altnaharra on December 30, 1995 |
| | 1984 - The US and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations. |
| | 1989 - Cuban troops begin withdrawing from Angola. |
| | 1990 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. |
| | 1999 - The Sopranos airs it's pilot episode at 9 pm on the HBO channel |
| | 1999 - A large piece of the chalk cliff at Beachy Head collapsed into the sea. |
| | 2000 - America Online announces an agreement to buy Time Warner for $162 billion, the largest corporate merger in history. |
| | 2001 - Wikipedia starts as part of Nupedia. It becomes a separate site five days later. |