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Two hundred forty-two people die in a nightclub fire in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.
Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.
The 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis ends when Porfirio Lobo Sosa becomes the new President of Honduras.
The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.
An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria kills at least 1,100 people and displaces over 20,000 others.
Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
In a military coup Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane.
The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.
Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.
The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.
United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.
Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The Soviet submarine S-80 sinks when its snorkel malfunctions, flooding the boat.
Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.
World War II: The Red Army liberates the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.
Boshin War: The Battle of Toba-Fushimi between forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and pro-Imperial factions begins, which will end in defeat for the shogunate, and is a pivotal point in the Meiji Restoration.
The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".
The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan and Caliph of Islam in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his abdication in 1703.
Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.
Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. Nearly 200 years later, Martin Luther would protest this.
Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, marries Constance of Sicily.
The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown. Constantine VII becomes sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire.
Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.
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