| 0 | | Armed Forces Day in Iraq |
| 0 | | Christmas Eve in the Orthodox Calendar, and Three Kings Day in the Roman Calendar |
| 878 | | Battle of Chippenham: the Danes rout King Alfred's Anglo-Saxons |
| 1156 | | Battle of the Isle of Islay: Lord Somerled of the Isles defeats the Danes |
| 1400 | | Attempted assasination of Henry IV of France and his family |
| 1422 | | Hussite general Jan Ziska defeated King Sigismund of Bohemia in the Battle of Nebovidy/Nemecky Brod -- https://strategypage.com/cic/docs/cic218b.asp#two |
| 1424 | | Hussite general Jan Ziska defeated the Ultraist Hussites in the Battle of Skalice |
| 1449 | | Constantine XI Palaeologos became [the last] Byzantine Emperor -- Learn More |
| 1497 | | Jews are expelled from Graz, Styria, Austria |
| 1515 | | First recorded accidental discharge of a firearm, a wheellock pistol wounds a strumpet in Constance |
| 1540 | | Anne of Cleves becomes Mrs. King Henry VIII No. 4 (annulled July 9, 1540) |
| 1776 | | Alexander Hamilton organized the "New York Provincial Company of Artillery", now the oldest unit in the Regular Army -- Learn More |
| 1781 | | Battle of Jersey: the British defeat a French attempt to capture the Channel Islands |
| 1842 | | Anglo-Indian forces began a disastrous retreat from Kabul, with only one man avoiding death or capture -- Learn More |
| 1861 | | Florida state troops seize the Federal arsenal at Apalachicola |
| 1915 | | Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry entered the trenches near Ypres, the first Dominion unit to serve on the Western Front -- Learn More |
| 1927 | | US marines sent to Nicaragua |
| 1929 | | King Alexander I establishes a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia |
| 1940 | | Germans massacre Poles in Poznan |
| 1941 | | in his State of the Union address, FDR defined the "Four Freedoms"; of speech & worship, from want & fear. |
| 1942 | | Malaya: British hold the Japanese north of Kuala Lumpur |
| 1942 | | Philippine Army units hold the Dinalupihan-Orani line |
| 1943 | | Papua: US and Australian troops mass for a final assault on Sanananda. |
| 1944 | | Nimitz issues plan for the capture of the Marshall Islands. |
| 1950 | | Britain recognizes Communist China |
| 1960 | | A bomb destroys National Airlines Flight 2511 from New York to Miami over North Carolina, in a still unsolved case |
| 1961 | | Nikita Khruschev declares that the Soviet Union will back Third World "wars of national liberation" |
| 1978 | | The Crown of St. Stephen is returned to Hungary, after 32 years in American custody |
| 2021 | | Thousands of self-proclaimed 'Patriots' stormed the Capitol building -- five die |
| 1367 | | King Richard II of England (1377-99), deposed and later murdered |
| 1412 | | Joan of Arc, warrior maid, executed 1431, canonized 1920 |
| 1425 | | King Henry IV "The Impotent" of Castile (1454-1474) |
| 1587 | | Gaspar de Guzmán y Acevedo, 1st Count-Duke of Olivares, Spanish premier (1621-43), d. 1645 |
| 1670 | | Alexander Gordon, Scottish Jacobite and Russian general, d. 1752 |
| 1745 | | Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier, co-inventor of ballooning with his brother Joseph-Michel, d. 1799 |
| 1799 | | Jedediah Smith, mountain man, fur trader, Indian fighter, d. 1831 |
| 1807 | | Joseph Holt, Brig Gen, U.S., d. 1894 |
| 1822 | | Heinrich Schliemann, who found Troy, which had never really been lost, d. 1890 |
| 1827 | | John Calvin Brown, Maj Gen, C.S.A., d. 1889 |
| 1827 | | John Wesley Frazer, Brig Gen, C.S.A., d. 1906 |
| 1854 | | Sherlock Holmes, famous fictional detective |
| 1878 | | Carl Sandburg, soldier, poet, biographer, d. 1967 |
| 1880 | | Tom Mix, deserter, movie star, d. 1940 |
| 1897 | | Peter Veres, Hungarian Minister of Defense (1947-1948), d. 1970 |
| 1905 | | Eric Frank Russell, SOE toymaker, science fictioneer ("Wasp"), d. 1978 |
| 1911 | | Eduardo Frei Montalva, President of Chile (1964-1970), d. 1982 father of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, President of Chile (1994-2000) |
| 664 | | ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, c. 80, Arab general, Companion of Mohammed, conqueror of Egypt |
| 1397 | | King Peter IV "the Ceremonious" or "the Daggerman" of Aragon, 67 |
| 1448 | | Christopher III of Bavaria, King of Denmark (1440-1448), Sweden (1441-1448), & Norway (1442-1448), 29 |
| 1481 | | Akhmat, Khan of the Great [Golden] Horde (1465-1481) |
| 1537 | | Duke Alessandro "Il Moro" de' Medici of Florence (1532-1537), 26 |
| 1693 | | Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV "the Hunter" (1648-1687), 51, in forced retirement |
| 1694 | | Francesco Morosini, Venetian admiral, on campaign at 75 |
| 1799 | | Willem Georg Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau, 25 |
| 1813 | | Louis Baraguey d'Hilliers, 49, Napoleonic dragoon |
| 1882 | | Richard Henry Dana, Jr., 66, sailor, author ("Two Years Before the Mast") |
| 1913 | | Frederick Hitch, 56, who won a VC at Rorke's Drift |
| 1919 | | Theodore Roosevelt, sometime President, holder of the Medal of Honor and the Nobel Peace Prize, at 60 |
| 1945 | | LtGen Herbert Lumsden, CB, DSO, MC, Churchill's personal representative to MacArthur's HQ, 47, kamikaze strike on the bridge of the USS New Mexico (BB-40) |
| 2006 | | CWO Hugh Thompson, who saved lives at My Lai, at 62. |
| 2007 | | Roberta Wohlsteter, historian ("Pearl Habor: Warning & Decision"), at 94 |
| 2017 | | Prince Bayezid Effendi -- Osman Bayezid Osmanoglu, sometime U.S. soldier, Heir to the Ottoman Throne (2009-17), 92 |