| | 1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain. |
| | 1649 - King Charles I of England is beheaded. |
| | 1661 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is formally executed - after having been dead for two years. |
| | 1790 - The first boat specialized as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne. |
| | 1820 - Edward Bransfield lands on the Antarctic mainland. |
| | 1826 - The Menai Suspension Bridge connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales was opened. The bridge was not the first suspension bridge, but was so much larger than anything previously built that it is considered the world's first modern suspension bridge. |
| | 1835 - A mentally ill man named Richard Lawrence attempts to assassinate President Andrew Jackson in the United States Capitol -- the first assassination attempt against a President. Both of Lawrence's pistols misfire, and Jackson proceeds to beat his would-be assassin with his cane. |
| | 1841 - A fire destroys two-thirds of the then villa (now city) of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. |
| | 1847 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco. |
| | 1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched. |
| | 1889 - Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, was found dead with his mistress Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling . |
| | 1900 - United Kingdom forces fighting Boers in South Africa ask for reinforcements. |
| | 1911 - The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba. |
| | 1911 - The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy. |
| | 1913 - House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill. |
| | 1925 - Government of Turkey throws Patriarch Constantine VI out of Istanbul. |
| | 1933 - Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. |
| | 1943 - Second day of the Battle of Rennell Island. U.S. cruiser Chicago is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedo bombers. |
| | 1943 - Holocaust in Letychiv, Ukraine: German Gestapo organises mass shootings of Jews from Letychiv Ghetto. 200 surviving Jews from Letychiv slave labor camp were ordered to undress and were shot with machine-gun into ravin. Some 7.000 Jews were murdered in Letychiv. |
| | 1944 - United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands. |
| | 1945 - The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest maritime disaster in known history, killing roughly 9,000 people. |
| | 1948 - Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. |
| | 1962 - Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan. |
| | 1964 - Ranger program: Ranger 6 launched. |
| | 1968 - Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive begins when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam. |
| | 1969 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police. |
| | 1972 - Bloody Sunday: United Kingdom British Paratroopers kill fourteen Roman Catholic civil rights /anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland- Bloody Sunday (1972) |
| | 1972 - Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations. |
| | 1975 - First faroese stamp issued. |
| | 1979 - Varig 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander of Flight 820, disappears over the ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo. |
| | 1989 - The American embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan closes. |
| | 1994 - Péter Lékó becomes the youngest grand master in chess. |
| | 1995 - Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease. |
| | 1996 - Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit. |
| | 1996 - NBA superstar Magic Johnson plays the first game of his return to the Los Angeles Lakers. Magic retired in 1991 after contracting HIV. |
| | 2000 - Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169. |
| | 2003 - Belgium legally recognizes same-sex marriage. |
| | 2005 - A Royal Air Force C-130 Hercules is shot down over Iraq |