• 1460 - Wars of the Roses: Battle of Wakefield.
• 1816 - The Treaty of St. Louis is proclaimed.
• 1853 - Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.
• 1853 - A dinner party is held inside a life-size model of an Iguanodon created by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and Sir Richard Owen in south London.
• 1862 - The USS Monitor sinks off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
• 1896 - José Rizal is executed by firing squad in Manila.
• 1897 - Natal annexes Zululand.
• 1903 - A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills 600.
• 1905 - Former Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated near his home in Caldwell, Idaho.
• 1906 - The All India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India Empire, which later laid down the foundations of Pakistan.
• 1919 - Lincoln's Inn in London admits its first female bar student.
• 1922 - The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed.
• 1924 - Edwin Hubble announces the existence of other galaxies.
• 1927 - The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.
• 1936 - The United Auto Workers union stages its first sit-down strike.
• 1940 - California opens its first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway.
• 1943 - Subhash Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.
• 1944 - King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving his throne vacant.
• 1947 - King Michael of Romania is forced to abdicate by the Soviet-backed Communist government of Romania.
• 1953 - The first ever NTSC color television sets go on sale for about USD at $1,175 each from RCA.
• 1965 - Ferdinand Marcos becomes President of the Philippines.
• 1972 - Vietnam War: The United States halts heavy bombing of North Vietnam.
• 1977 - For the second time, Ted Bundy escapes from his cell in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
• 1993 - Israel and the Vatican establish diplomatic relations.
• 1995 - The lowest ever United Kingdom temperature of -27.2°C was recorded at Altnaharra in the Scottish Highlands. This equalled the record set at Braemar, Aberdeenshire on February 11, 1895 and January 10, 1982.
• 1996 - In the Indian state of Assam, a passenger train is bombed by Bodo separatists, killing 26.
• 1996 - Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.
• 1997 - In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people are killed from four villages.
• 2000 - Rizal Day Bombings: A series of bombs explode in various places in Metro Manila, Philippines within a span of a few hours, killing 22 and injuring about a hundred.
• 2003 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft recuses himself and his office from the Plame affair.
• 2004 - A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina kills 194.
• 2005 - Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.
• 2006 - Madrid Barajas International Airport is bombed.
• 2006 - Saddam Hussein is executed by hanging.

Births