116 – Emperor Trajan sends laureatae to the Roman Senate at Rome on account of his victories and being conqueror of Parthia.
1249 – Andrew of Longjumeau is dispatched by Louis IX of France as his ambassador to meet with the Khagan of the Mongol Empire.
1270 – Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Livonian Order in the Battle of Karuse.
1646 – Battle of Torrington, Devon – the last major battle of the first English Civil War.
1699 – First Leopoldine Diploma is issued by the Holy Roman Emperor, recognizing the Greek Catholic clergy enjoyed the same privileges as Roman Catholic priests in the Principality of Transylvania.
1742 – Spencer Compton, Earl of Wilmington, becomes British Prime Minister.
1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
1852 – Studebaker Brothers wagon company, precursor of the automobile manufacturer, is established.
1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1866 – Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington becomes British Secretary of State for War.
1874 – Silver Dollar becomes legal US tender.
1881 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
1899 – Iceland's first football club, Knattspyrnufélag Reykjavíkur, is founded.
1918 – The Council of Lithuania unanimously adopts the Act of Independence, declaring Lithuania an independent state.
1923 – Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
1930 – The Romanian Football Federation joins FIFA.
1934 – The Austrian Civil War ends with the defeat of the Social Democrats and the Republican Schutzbund.
1936 – Elections bring the Popular Front to power in Spain.
1937 – Wallace H. Carothers receives a United States patent for nylon.
1940 – World War II: Altmark Incident: The German tanker Altmark is boarded by sailors from the British destroyer HMS Cossack. 299 British prisoners are freed.
1943 – World War II: Red Army troops re-enter Kharkov.
1943 – World War II: Insertion of Operation Gunnerside, Norway.
1945 – World War II: American forces land on Corregidor Island in the Philippines.
1957 – The "Toddlers' Truce", a controversial television close down between 6.00 pm and 7.00 pm is abolished in the United Kingdom.
1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1961 – Explorer program: Explorer 9 (S-56a) is launched.
1961 – The DuSable Museum of African American History is chartered.
1962 – Flooding in the coastal areas of West Germany kills 315 and destroys the homes of about 60,000 people.
1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
1978 – The first computer bulletin board system is created (CBBS in Chicago, Illinois).
1983 – The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia kill 75.
1985 – Hezbollah is founded.
1986 – The Soviet liner MS Mikhail Lermontov runs aground in the Marlborough Sounds, New Zealand.
1987 – The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi guard dubbed "Ivan the Terrible" in Treblinka extermination camp, starts in Jerusalem.
1991 – Nicaraguan Contras leader Enrique Bermúdez is assassinated in Managua.
1998 – China Airlines Flight 676 crashes into a road and residential area near Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in Taiwan, killing all 196 aboard and seven more on the ground.
1999 – In Uzbekistan, a bomb explodes and gunfire is heard at the government headquarters in an apparent assassination attempt against President Islam Karimov.
1999 – Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrests one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
2005 – The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
2005 – The National Hockey League cancels the entire 2004-2005 regular season and playoffs.
2006 – The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
2013 – A bomb blast at a market in Hazara Town in Quetta, Pakistan, kills more than 80 people and injures 190 others.
