• 680 - Battle of Karbala: Shia Imam Husayn bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was decapitated by forces under Caliph Yazid I. This is commemorated by Shi'a Muslims as Aashurah.
• 732 - Battle of Tours: Near Poitiers, France, leader of the Franks, Charles Martel and his men, defeat a large army of Moors, stopping the Muslims from spreading into Western Europe. The governor of Cordoba, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is killed during the battle.
• 1471 - Battle of Brunkeberg in Stockholm: Sten Sture the Elder, the Regent of Sweden, with help of farmers and miners, repels an attack by Christian I, King of Denmark.
• 1575 - Battle of Dormans: Roman Catholic forces under Duke Henry of Guise defeated the Protestants, capturing Philippe de Mornay among others.
• 1582 - Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day doesn't exist in this year in Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain.
• 1631 - A Saxon army takes over Prague.
• 1780 - The Great Hurricane of 1780 kills 20,000-30,000 in the Caribbean.
• 1845 - In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opens with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.
• 1860 - The original cornerstone of the University of the South is laid in Sewanee, Tennessee.
• 1868 - Carlos Céspedes issues the Grito de Yara from his plantation, La Demajagua, proclaiming Cuba's independence.
• 1889 - Barnard College is founded.
• 1910 - Tau Epsilon Phi Fraternity is established at Columbia University.
• 1911 - Wuchang Uprising leads to the demise of Qing Dynasty, the last Imperial court in China, and the founding of the Republic of China.
• 1911 - The KCR East Rail commences service between Kowloon and Canton.
• 1913 - U.S. President Woodrow Wilson triggers the explosion of the Gamboa Dike thus ending construction on the Panama Canal.
• 1919 - Richard Strauss' opera Die Frau ohne Schatten receives its debut performance in Vienna.
• 1920 - The Carinthian Plebiscite determines that the larger part of Carinthia became part of Austria.
• 1933 - United Airlines Chesterton Crash: A United Airlines Boeing 247 is destroyed by sabotage, the first such proven case in the history of commercial aviation.
• 1935 - A tornado destroys the 160 metre tall wooden radio tower in Langenberg. As a result of this catastrophe, few wooden towers are constructed after this date.
• 1938 - The Munich Agreement cedes the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
• 1942 - Soviet Union establishes diplomatic relations with Australia.
• 1944 - Holocaust: 800 Gypsy children are systematically murdered at Auschwitz death camp.
• 1945 - The Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang signed a principle agreement in Chongqing about the future of post-war China. Later, the pact is commonly referred to as the Double-Ten Agreement.
• 1954 - The Communist Party of Honduras is founded.
• 1957 - U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower apologizes to the finance minister of Ghana, Komla Agbeli Gbdemah, after he was refused service in a Dover, Delaware restaurant.
• 1957 - The Windscale fire in Cumbria, UK becomes the world's first major nuclear accident.
• 1963 - France cedes control of the Bizerte naval base to Tunisia.
• 1967 - The Outer Space Treaty, signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, enters into force.
• 1969 - King Crimson releases their debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King, considered by many to be the first progressive rock album.
• 1970 - Fiji becomes independent.
• 1970 - In Montreal, Quebec, a national crisis hits Canada when Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte becomes the second statesman kidnapped by members of the FLQ terrorist group.
• 1971 - Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, the London Bridge reopens in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
• 1973 - Vice President of the United States Spiro Agnew resigns after being charged with federal income tax evasion.
• 1985 - United States Navy F-14 fighter jets intercept an Egyptian plane carrying the Achille Lauro cruise ship and force it to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily where they're arrested.
• 1986 - An earthquake measuring 7.5 on the Richter Scale strikes San Salvador, El Salvador, killing an estimated 1,500 people.
• 1995 - South African President Nelson Mandela attends Genadendal.
• 1997 - An Austral Airlines DC-9-32 crashes and explodes near Nuevo Berlin, Uruguay, killing 74.
• 2005 - Negotiations between the CDU/CSU and SPD in Germany had concluded that both parties would form a grand coaltion with Angela Merkel of the CDU as chancellor after both parties lost seats in the 2005 German federal election. She was subsequently elected in the Bundestag as chancellor on November 22 of the same year.

Births