| | 41 - Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew. |
| | 1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV. |
| | 1458 - Matthias I Corvinus becomes king of Hungary. |
| | 1624 - Alfonso Mendez, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa. |
| | 1679 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament. |
| | 1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor. |
| | 1848 - California gold rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. |
| | 1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia. |
| | 1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg. |
| | 1908 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement. |
| | 1916 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional. |
| | 1918 - A decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1, issued. |
| | 1924 - St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad. |
| | 1927 - Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England. |
| | 1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France |
| | 1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca. |
| | 1952 - Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada. |
| | 1966 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117. |
| | 1972 - Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been in hiding since 1944, when U.S. forces liberated the island during World War II. |
| | 1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale. |
| | 1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus. |
| | 1986 - Wapping dispute. Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International. |
| | 1993 - Turkish journalist and writer Ugur Mumcu assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara |
| | 1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charges he spied for Moscow. |
| | 2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation. |
| | 2006 - Disney agrees to purchase Pixar in an all-cash deal, making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney. |