| 303 | | Emperor Diocletian orders the general persecution of Christians in Rome. |
| 1516 | | The Hapsburg Charles I succeeds Ferdinand in Spain. |
| 1540 | | Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado begins his unsuccessful search for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold in the American Southwest. |
| 1574 | | The 5th War of Religion breaks out in France. |
| 1615 | | The Estates-General in Paris is dissolved, having been in session since October 1614. |
| 1778 | | Baron von Steuben joins the Continental Army at Valley Forge. |
| 1821 | | Poet John Keats dies of tuberculosis at the age of 25. |
| 1836 | |
The Alamo is besieged by Santa Anna. |
| 1846 | | The Liberty Bell tolls for the last time, to mark George Washington's birthday. |
| 1847 | |
Forces led by Zachary Taylor defeat the Mexicans
at the Battle of Buena Vista. |
| 1854 | | Great Britain officially recognizes the independence of the Orange Free State. |
| 1861 | |
Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from
the Union. |
| 1885 | | John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap fails to open. |
| 1898 | | Writer Emile Zola is imprisoned in France for his letter J'accuse in which he accuses the French government of anti-semitism and the wrongful imprisonment of army captain Alfred Dreyfus. |
| 1901 | | Britain and Germany agree on a boundary between German East Africa and Nyasaland. |
| 1904 | | Japan guarantees Korean sovereignty in exchange for military assistance. |
| 1916 | | Secretary of State Lansing hints that the U.S. may have to abandon the policy of avoiding "entangling foreign alliances". |
| 1921 | |
An airmail plane sets a record of 33 hours and
20 minutes from San Francisco to New York. |
| 1926 | | President Calvin Coolidge opposes a large air force, believing it would be a menace to world peace. |
| 1936 | | In Russia, an unmanned balloon rises to a record height of 25 miles. |
| 1938 | |
Twelve Chinese fighter planes drop bombs on
Japan. |
| 1942 | | A Japanese submarine shells an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, the first Axis bombs to hit American soil. |
| 1944 | | American bombers strike the Marianas Islands bases, only 1,300 miles from Tokyo. |
| 1945 | | Eisenhower opens a large offensive in the Rhineland. |
| 1945 | | U.S. Marines plant an American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima. |
| 1946 | | Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita is hanged in Manila, the Philippines, for war crimes. |
| 1947 | | Several hundred Nazi organizers are arrested in Frankfurt by U.S. and British forces. |
| 1950 | | New York's Metropolitan Museum exhibits a collection of Hapsburg art. The first showing of this collection in the U.S. |
| 1954 | | Mass innoculation begins as Salk's polio vaccine is given to children for first time. |
| 1955 | | Eight nations meet in Bangkok for the first SEATO council. |
| 1960 | | Whites join Negro students in a sit-in at a Winston-Salem, N.C. Woolworth store. |
| 1964 | | The U.S. and Britain recognize the new Zanzibar government. |
| 1967 | | American troops begin the largest offensive of the war, near the Cambodian border. |
| 1972 | | Black activist Angela Davis is released from jail where she was held for kidnapping , conspiracy and murder. |
| 1991 | | French forces unofficially start the Persian Gulf ground war by crossing the Saudi-Iraqi border. |
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