Events

• 987 – Bardas Phokas the Younger and Bardas Skleros, Byzantine generals of the military elite, begin a wide-scale rebellion against Emperor Basil II.
• 1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later king Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales.
• 1313 – King Thihathu founds the Pinya Kingdom as the de jure successor state of the Pagan Kingdom.
• 1783 – American Revolutionary War: French and Spanish forces lift the Great Siege of Gibraltar.
• 1807 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon finds Bennigsen’s Russian forces taking a stand at Eylau. After bitter fighting, the French take the town, but the Russians resume the battle the next day.
• 1813 – In the action of 07 February 1813 near the Îles de Los, the frigates Aréthuse and Amelia batter each other, but neither can gain the upper hand.
• 1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles leaves Singapore after just taking it over, leaving it in the hands of William Farquhar.
• 1842 – Battle of Debre Tabor: Ras Ali Alula, Regent of the Emperor of Ethiopia defeats warlord Wube Haile Maryam of Semien.
• 1863 – HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of Auckland, New Zealand, killing 189.
• 1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J’Accuse…!.
• 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.
• 1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.
• 1943 – World War II: Imperial Japanese Navy forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.
• 1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.
• 1951 – Korean War: More than 700 suspected communist sympathizers are massacred by South Korean forces.
• 1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.
  • Independence Day (Grenada).
• 1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.
• 1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.
• 1991 – Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
• 1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.
• 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.
• 1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
• 2012 – President Mohamed Nasheed of the Republic of Maldives resigns, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests calling for the release of Chief Judge unlawfully arrested by the military.
• 2013 – The US state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.
  • The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
• 2016 – North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.

People (Births)

• 1885 – Hugo Sperrle, German field marshal (d. 1953).
• 1906 – Oleg Antonov, Russian engineer, founded the Antonov Aircraft Company (d. 1984).
• 1908 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (d. 1983).
• 1909 – Amedeo Guillet, Italian soldier (d. 2010).
• 1919 – Desmond Doss, American army corporal and combat medic, Medal of Honour recipient (d. 2006).
• 1927 – Vladimir Kuts, Ukrainian-Russian runner and coach (d. 1975).
• 1928 – Lincoln D. Faurer, American general (d. 2014).
• 1932 – Alfred Worden, American colonel, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2020).
• 1963 – Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, American Naval officer and astronaut.
• 1966 – Kristin Otto, German swimmer.
• 1968 – Mark Tewksbury, Canadian swimmer and sportscaster.
• 1984 – Trey Hardee, American decathlete.
• 1989 – Elia Viviani, Italian cyclist.

People (Deaths)

• 199 – Lü Bu, Chinese warlord.
• 1849 – Mariano Paredes, Mexican general and 16th president (1845-1846) (b. 1797).
• 1919 – William Halford, English-American lieutenant, Medal of Honour recipient (b. 1841).
• 1920 – Alexander Kolchak, Russian admiral and explorer (b. 1874).
• 1963 – Learco Guerra, Italian cyclist and manager (b. 1902).
• 1964 – Sofoklis Venizelos, Greek captain and politician, 133rd Prime Minister of Greece (b. 1894).
• 1979 – Josef Mengele, German SS officer and physician (b. 1911).
• 1990 – Alfredo M. Santos, Filipino general (b. 1905).
• 1991 – Amos Yarkoni, Israeli colonel (b. 1920).
• 2010 – Franco Ballerini, Italian cyclist and coach (b. 1964).