| 588 | BC | Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon laid siege to Jerusalem, which fell on July 23, 586 BC |
| 0 | | Armed Forces Day in Nigeria and Army Day in India |
| 0 | | Feast of St. Maurus, Patron of the Azores |
| 69 | | Coup installs Marcus Salvius Otho as Roman Emperor (Jan 15-April 16, 69) -- Learn More |
| 708 | | Accession of Pope Sisinnius (15 Jan-4 Feb 708) |
| 946 | | Caliph al-Mustaqfi of Baghdad (944-946) is deposed and blinded, as he did to his predecesor |
| 1495 | | French besiege Gaeta (to Feb 16), held for Ferrante II of Naples |
| 1517 | | The Turks sack Cairo |
| 1535 | | Henry VIII becomes head of the Church in England, in order to divorce his wife |
| 1552 | | Treaty of Chambord: Catholic France agrees to support German Protestants against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor |
| 1582 | | Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, losing access to the sea |
| 1680 | | French explorer Sieur de la Salle builds Ft Crevecoeur |
| 1709 | | The Austro-Papal War ends -- Learn More |
| 1757 | | Robert-François Damiens stabs Louis XV with a pen knife |
| 1762 | | Samuel Fraunces opens a tavern in New York City |
| 1799 | | French & Polish troops plunder Itri, murdering 60 |
| 1851 | | President Hose é Joaquín de Herrera of Mexico (1848-1851) ousted in a coup by Mariano Arista (1851-1852) |
| 1865 | | Union soldiers, sailors, & marines (among them George Dewey), storm Ft Fisher, NC |
| 1919 | | The 'Great Molasses Flood' in Boston, 21 die |
| 1919 | | Pianist Ignace Paderewski is named primier & foreign minister of Poland (to Dec 9, 1919) |
| 1942 | | Bataan: Japanese troops penetrate US/Philippine defenses |
| 1942 | | Chinese halt a Japanese offensive near Changsha in Hunan Province. |
| 1942 | | Japanese Southern Army invades Burma from Thailand. |
| 1942 | | Malaya: Japanese "end run" landings dislocate the British left. |
| 1943 | | Dedication of the Pentagon |
| 1943 | | Guadalcanal: US forces make only limited gains. |
| 1943 | | Japanese superbattleship 'Musashi' arrives at Truk, to ride at anchor for several months. |
| 1943 | | Papua: Allied forces make limited gains near Sanananda |
| 1944 | | European Advisory Commission decides to divide Germany |
| 1944 | | New Guinea: Australians reach north coast of Huon Peninsula, near Sio. |
| 1945 | | Japanese offensive in China advances on the U.S. airbase in Sichuan. |
| 1945 | | Red Army liberates the Krakow-Plaszow concentration camp |
| 1949 | | Mao's Red army captures Tientsin |
| 1951 | | German court gives Ilse Koch, "The Bitch of Buchenwald", life (suicide in prison, 1967) |
| 1962 | | Naval Battle of Etna Bay, New Guinea: Dutch defeat the Indonesians |
| 1973 | | Pres Nixon suspends all US offensive action over North Vietnam |
| 1997 | | Dr Jerry Lineger, Capt, USN, joins MIR via Space Shuttle Atlantis |
| 1342 | | Duke Philip II "the Bold" of Burgundy (1363-1404) |
| 1432 | | King Afonso V "the African" of Portugal (1438-1481) |
| 1485 | | Catherine of Aragon, Mrs. Henry VIII No. 1, d. 1535 |
| 1504 | | Michele Ghisleri - Pope St. Pius V (1566-1572) |
| 1716 | | Philip Livingston, Signer of the Declaration of Independence, d. 1778. |
| 1809 | | Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, anarchist, journalist, d. 1865 |
| 1815 | | Henry Morris Naglee, saucy Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1886 |
| 1817 | | Lewis Golding Arnold, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1871 |
| 1821 | | John C. Breckinridge, Vice-President (1857-1861), Maj Gen, CSA |
| 1821 | | Lafayette McLaws, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1897 |
| 1894 | | Ecaterina Teodoroiu, Romanian army nurse and infantry officer, kia 1917 |
| 1908 | | Edward Teller, "Father of the H-Bomb," d. 2003 |
| 1913 | | Alexander Ivanovich Marinesko, Soviet submariner, captain of the 'S-13,' which sank the German ship 'Wilhelm Gustloff" in the Baltic1945, with the loss of c. 9,000 passengers |
| 1914 | | Hugh Trevor-Roper, MI-6 veteran, historian ("The Last Days of Adolph Hitler"), d. 2003 |
| 1918 | | Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt (1954-1971) |
| 1920 | | John J. O'Connor, Vicar-General of the Armed Forces, Archbishop of NY (1984-2000), d. 2000. |
| 1929 | | Martin Luther King Jr, American, assassinated 1968 |
| 1934 | | David Chandler, historian ("The Campaigns of Napoleon"), d. 2004 |
| 69 | | Roman Emperor Servius Sulpicius Galba (June 68-Jan 15, 69), 70, and L. Calpurnius Piso, 30, his adopted heir, murdered in the Forum, and Praetorian Centurion Sempronius Densus, killed trying to defend them |
| 936 | | King Rudolph of West Francia (923-936), c. 45, sometime Duke of Burgundy (921-923) |
| 1208 | | Pierre de Castelnau, Papal Legate, murdered by the Cathars, initiating the Albigensian Cursade |
| 1330 | | Martino Zaccaria, Lord of Phocea and Chios (1314-1330) |
| 1519 | | Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, Conquistador, beheaded at 41 on trumped up charges of treason |
| 1595 | | Ottoman Sultan Murad III (1574-1595), 48 |
| 1705 | | Earl Walraad "the Young" of Nassau-Ottweiler |
| 1815 | | Amy Lyon, later Emma Hart, later Emma, Lady Hamilton, Nelson's beloved, at 49 |
| 1896 | | Matthew B Brady, 73, war photographer |
| 1919 | | Karl Liebknecht (47) and Rosa Luxemburg (47), communist revolutionaries, murdered by the Freikorps in Berlin |
| 1926 | | John Harling, 93, the last known veteran of the "Light Brigade". |
| 1948 | | Josephus Daniels, 85, SecNav (1913-1921) -- Learn More |
| 1950 | | General of the Air Force Henry "Hap" Arnold, 63 |
| 1988 | | Sean MacBride, sometime commander of the IRA, at 83 |
| 1996 | | King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (1966-90), 51 |