| 1657 | | France and England form an alliance against Spain. |
| 1743 | | Handel's Messiah is performed for the first time in London. |
| 1775 | | American revolutionary hero Patrick Henry, while addressing the House of Burgesses, declares "give me liberty, or give me death!" |
| 1791 | | Etta Palm, a Dutch champion of woman's rights, sets up a group of women's clubs called the Confederation of the Friends of Truth. |
| 1848 | | Hungary proclaims its independence of Austria. |
| 1857 | | Elisha Otis installs the first modern passenger elevator in a public building, at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City. |
| 1858 | | Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia patents the cable street car, which runs on overhead cables. |
| 1862 | | Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson faces his only defeat at the Battle of Kernstown, Va |
| 1880 | | John Stevens of Neenah, Wis., patents the grain crushing mill. This mill allows flour production to increase by 70 percent. |
| 1901 | | A group of U.S. Army soldier led by Brig. Gen. Frederick Funston capture Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of the Philippine Insurrection of 1899. |
| 1903 | | The Wright brothers obtain an airplane patent. |
| 1909 | | British Lt. Ernest Shackleton finds the magnetic South Pole. |
| 1909 | | Theodore Roosevelt begins an African safari sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society. |
| 1917 | | Austrian Emperor Charles I makes a peace proposal to French President Poincare. |
| 1920 | | Great Britain denounces the United States because of its delay in joining the League of Nations. |
| 1921 | | Arthur G. Hamilton sets a new parachute record, safely jumping 24,400 feet. |
| 1927 | | Captain Hawthorne Gray sets a new balloon record soaring to 28,510 feet. |
| 1933 | | The Reichstag gives Adolf Hitler the power to rule by decree. |
| 1942 | | The Japanese occupy the Anadaman Islands in the Indian Ocean. |
| 1951 | | U.S. paratroopers descend from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea. |
| 1956 | | Pakistan becomes the first Islamic republic, although it is still within the British Commonwealth. |
| 1967 | | Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. calls the Vietnam War the biggest obstacle to the civil rights movement. |
| 1970 | | Mafia boss Carlo Gambino is arrested for plotting to steal $3 million. |
| 1972 | | The United States calls a halt to the peace talks on Vietnam being held in Paris. |
| 1981 | | U.S. Supreme Court upholds a law making statutory rape a crime for men but not women. |
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