| | 27 BC - Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian receives the title Augustus by the Roman Senate. |
| | 550 - Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison. |
| | 929 - Emir Abd-ar-rahman III of Cordoba declares himself caliph, thereby establishing the Caliphate of Cordoba. |
| | 1362 - A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt. |
| | 1412 - The Medici family are made official bankers of the Papacy. |
| | 1456 - Painter Filippo Lippi elopes with Lucrezia Buti, a young nun from the convent of Saint Margherita. |
| | 1492 - The first grammar of a modern language, in Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella. |
| | 1547 - Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia. |
| | 1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain. |
| | 1572 - The Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. |
| | 1581 - English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism. |
| | 1605 - The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid. |
| | 1761 - British capture Pondicherry, India from the French. |
| | 1777 - Vermont declares its independence from New York. |
| | 1780 - American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent. |
| | 1795 - French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands. |
| | 1809 - Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña. |
| | 1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory. |
| | 1878 - Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from the Ottoman rule. |
| | 1883 - The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil service, is passed. |
| | 1896 - Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire. |
| | 1900 - The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands. |
| | 1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole. |
| | 1917 - German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States. |
| | 1919 - Temperance movement: The 18th Amendment, authorizing Prohibition, is passed by the Congress of the United States, going into effect one year later. |
| | 1920 - Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. was established on the campus of Howard University. |
| | 1945 - Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker. |
| | 1956 - President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine. |
| | 1968 - Youth International Party (Yippies) is founded. |
| | 1969 - Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before. |
| | 1969 - Metroliner train starts running. |
| | 1970 - Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects. |
| | 1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt. |
| | 1986 - First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force. |
| | 1991 - Gulf War: United States begins bombing Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, which began following Operation Desert Shield . |
| | 1992 - El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City that ends a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000. |
| | 1995 - UPN begins broadcasting. |
| | 2001 - Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. |
| | 2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban. |
| | 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which will be its final one. Columbia disintegrates 16 days later on re-entry. |
| | 2005 - Adriana Iliescu gives birth at age 66 and becomes the oldest woman in the world to do so. |
| | 2006 - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state. |
| | 2006 - Liu Xinjuan is committed by the Chinese government to a psychiatric hospital, allegedly for political activism. |
| | 2007 - The Burning Crusade, a highly-anticipated patch to Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, is set to release. |