• 1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.
• 1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
• 1449 - Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI is crowned at Mistra.
• 1535 - Francisco Pizarro founds the city of Lima, Peru.
• 1494 - The first Mass in the New World is celebrated at La Isabela, Hispaniola.
• 1540 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
• 1579 - The Union of Atrecht is signed.
• 1649 - The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.
• 1661 - The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London.
• 1690 - Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
• 1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.
• 1781 - In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.
• 1838 - Samuel Morse first successfully tests the electrical telegraph.
• 1853 - American President-Elect Franklin Pierce and his family are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts.
• 1870 - The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).
• 1887 - `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II.
• 1893 - The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
• 1900 - Boers attack Ladysmith, South Africa - over 1,000 people killed.
• 1907 - Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
• 1912 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
• 1929 - King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the so-called January 6th Dictatorship, Šestojanuarska diktatura).
• 1929 - Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin a her work amongst India's poorest and diseased people.
• 1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
• 1931 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
• 1936 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules that the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act was unconstitutional in the case United States v. Butler et al.
• 1940 - Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznań, Warthegau.
• 1941 - President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
• 1942 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.
• 1950 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with the UK in response.
• 1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
• 1974 - In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
• 1978 - The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.
• 1980 - The beginning of the first GPS epoch.
• 1995 - A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
• 2004 - Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate is declared the official anthem of Karnataka.
• 2004 - Costas Simitis announces his resignation as president of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in Greece.
• 2005 - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers.
• 2005 - First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace begins in Brussels, Belgium.

Births