60 – St Paul thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta
1098 – Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch
1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence
1355 – The St. Scholastica’s Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 62 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
1535 – 12 nude anabaptists run through Amsterdam streets
1567 – Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o’ Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.
1722 – Bartholomew Roberts, Welsh pirate (b. 1682) Dies
1763 – French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.
1783 – Fyodor Petrovich Tolstoy, Russian painter, adventurist and bon vivant, cousin of Leo Tolstoy (d. 1873) Born
1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. (her first cousin).
1855 – US citizenship laws amended; all children of US parents born abroad granted US citizenship
1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
1862 – American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroys the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina.
1870 – The YWCA is founded in New York City.
1880 – Jesse G Vincent, Arkansas, engineer designed 1st V-12 engine Born
1890 – Boris Pasternak, Moscow, Russian novelist/poet (Dr Zhivago, Nobel 1958) Born
1890 – Around 11 million acres “ceded” to US by Sioux Indians opens for settlement
1904 – Japan and Russia declare war
1905 – Walter Brown, Massachusetts US, original owner of the Boston Celtics and important figure in the development of ice hockey in the United States, Born
1915 – US President Wilson warns Germany that the US will hold it ‘to a strict accountability’ for ‘property endangered or lives lost’
1915 – US President Wilson protests to Britain on the use of US flags on British merchant ships to deceive the Germans
1918 – Ernesto Teodoro Moneta, Italian pacifist, Nobel Prize Laureate, dies at 84
1918 – Trotsky declares that Russia is leaving the war
1933 – Hitler proclaims end of Marxism
1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days later.
1934 – 1st Jewish immigrant ship to break the English blockade in Palestine
1937 – Don Wilson, rock guitarist (Ventures-Walk Don’t Run, Batman Theme) Born
1939 – Roberta Flack, Black Mountain North Carolina, US vocalist (If Ever I Saw Your Face) Born
1940 – The Soviet Union begins mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia.
1940 – “In The Mood” by Glenn Miller hits #1
1942 – The first gold record is presented to Glenn Miller for “Chattanooga Choo Choo”.
1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor.
1943 – “Manifesto of Algerian People” calls for equality & self-determination
1946 – Charles “Lucky” Luciano is deported to Italy, and never returns to the United States
1949 – Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” opens at Morosco Theater, NYC
1954 – President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
1955 – Greg Norman, Queensland, Australia, PGA golfer (1984 Kemper) Born
1955 – Jim Cramer, American financier and author, co-founded TheStreet.com was birthed.
1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder, US author (Little House on prairie), dies at 90
1962 – Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
1961 – Niagara Falls hydroelectric project begins producing power
1961 – George Stephanopoulos, American “journalist”, presidential adviser (Clinton) was birthed
1962 – Cliff Burton, American bass player and songwriter (Metallica, Faith No More, Trauma, and EZ-Street) (d. 1986) was born.
1962 – Roy Lichtenstein’s first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.
1964 – Glenn Beck, American journalist, producer, and author was birthed.
1967 – 25th Amendment (US Presidential Disability & Succession) ratified
1967 – Laura Dern, American actress (Jurassic Park, Mask, Smooth Talk, David Lynch Muse), Daughter of Bruce Dern, born in Los Angeles, California
1971 – Bill White becomes 1st African American baseball announcer (NY Yankees)
1971 – Royal Albert Hall bans scheduled concert featuring Frank Zappa
1972 – BBC bans “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” by Wings
1974 – Ty Law, NFL cornerback (NE Patriots) Born
1974 – Iran/Iraqi border fight breaks out
1978 – Frank C Carlucci succeeds John F Blake as deputy director of CIA
1981 – 8 killed & 198 injured by fire at Las Vegas Hilton
1982 – 28 skiers perform backflips while holding hands, Bromont, Quebec
1986 – “John Lennon: Live in NYC” album is released posthumously
1989 – Celtic KC Jones & Cavalier Lenny Wilkens elected to NBA Hall of Fame
1989 – Ron Brown chosen 1st African American chairman of a major US party (Democrats)
1990 – South African President de Klerk announces Nelson Mandela will be freed on Feb 11th
1991 – Lithuania votes for independence from USSR
1992 – Alex Haley, US writer (Autobiography of Malcolm X, Roots), dies at 70
1996 – The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.
1998 – Voters in Maine repeal a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law.
2000 – Jim Varney, American actor (b. 1949) Dies
2003 – France and Belgium break the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq.
2005 – Arthur Miller, American playwright, dies at 89
2008 – Roy Scheider, American Actor (b. 1932)
2009 – The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both.
2014 – Shirley Temple, American actress and diplomat, famous as a child star in the 1930s (Bright Eyes, Heidi), dies of natural causes at 85