• 41 - Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
• 1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
• 1679 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament.
• 1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1776 - Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he's transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
• 1826 - Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
• 1848 - California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
• 1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
• 1859 - Political union of Moldavia and Wallachia; Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
• 1862 - Bucharest proclaimed capital of Romania.
• 1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
• 1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.
• 1907 - Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scout movement.
• 1916 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
• 1918 - The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS)
• 1924 - Petrograd, formerly Saint Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad.
• 1927 - Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
• 1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France
• 1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
• 1952 - Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.
• 1966 - An Air India Boeing 707 jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border between France and Italy, killing 117.
• 1972 - Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he'd been since the end of World War II.
• 1977 - Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
• 1978 - Soviet satellite Cosmos 954 burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.
• 1978 - Rose Dugdale and Eddie Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the history of the Republic of Ireland.
• 1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
• 1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus.
• 1986 - Wapping dispute: Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International.
• 1993 - Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara.
• 1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.
• 2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

Births