457 – Leo I the Thracian becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
1074 – Pandulf IV of Benevento is killed battling the invading Normans at the Battle of Montesarchio.
1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later King Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
1497 – The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
1807 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen's Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day.
1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.
1813 – In the action of 7 February 1813 near the Îles de Los, the frigates Aréthuse and Amelia batter each other, but neither can gain the upper hand.
1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
1842 – Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
1854 – A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Lectures started October 16, 1855.
1856 – The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the second piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.
1863 – HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
1894 – The Cripple Creek miner's strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek, Colorado.
1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'accuse.
1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
1904 – A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
1907 – The Mud March is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).
1935 – The classic board game Monopoly is invented.
1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
1943 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
1951 – Korean War: Seven hundred five suspected communist sympathizers are butchered by South Korean forces.
1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.
1964 – The Beatles first arrive in the United States. Their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show two days later would mark the beginning of the British Invasion.
1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).
1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
1991 – Haiti's first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.
1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
1997 – NeXT merges with Apple Computer, starting the path to Mac OS X.
1999 – Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.
2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leaves 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.
2012 – President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military.
2013 – At least 51 people are killed in a crash involving a bus and truck in Zambia.
2014 – The opening ceremony for the 2014 Winter Olympics is held in the Russian city of Sochi.
2014 – Over 350 people were injured in the anti-government unrest in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
