| | 1576 - Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France. |
| | 1597 - A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society. |
| | 1631 - Roger Williams emigrates to Boston. |
| | 1778 - South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation. |
| | 1782 - Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca. |
| | 1818 - Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of Sweden and Norway. |
| | 1846 - The Oregon Spectator becomes the first newspaper on the Pacific coast of the United States. |
| | 1859 - Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities. |
| | 1881 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated. |
| | 1885 - King Léopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession. |
| | 1917 - The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches. |
| | 1917 - The Congress of the United States passes a law, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, banning most Asian immigration to the United States. |
| | 1919 - Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists. |
| | 1922 - DeWitt and Lila Wallace publish the first issue of Reader's Digest. (Some sources say February 7.) |
| | 1924 - The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips". |
| | 1936 - Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times. |
| | 1937 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes a plan to enlarge the Supreme Court of the United States. |
| | 1945 - World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila. |
| | 1946 - The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea. |
| | 1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser is nominated to be the first president of the United Arab Republic. |
| | 1958 - A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered. |
| | 1961 - The Sunday Telegraph publishes its first issue. |
| | 1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle calls for allowing Algeria to be an independent nation. |
| | 1968 - Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins. |
| | 1971 - Project Apollo: Apollo 14 Mission - Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell aboard LM, Antares land on the Moon at Fra Mauro formation. |
| | 1972 - Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. |
| | 1974 - John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the Congress of the United States. |
| | 1978 - The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters ever to hit New England, forms. |
| | 1988 - Manuel Noriega is indicted on drug smuggling and money laundering charges. |
| | 1988 - Comic Relief hold the first "Red Nose Day", which raises £15 million in the United Kingdom for charity. |
| | 1991 - A Michigan court bars Dr. Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides. |
| | 1994 - Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. |
| | 1997 - The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families. |
| | 1997 - Morgan Stanley and Dean Witter investment banks announce a $10 billion merger. |
| | 2003 - U.S. plan to invade Iraq: Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council on Iraq. |
| | 2004 - Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered. |
| | 2004 - Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion. |
| | 2006 - The Pittsburgh Steelers win Super Bowl XL, defeating the Seattle Seahawks 21-10. |