60 – St Paul thought to have been shipwrecked at Malta
1720 – Edmond Halley appointed as the second Astronomer Royal at the Greenwich Observatory
1763 – Treaty of Paris ends French-Indian War, surrendering Canada to Britain
1824 – Simón Bolívar named dictator by the Congress of Peru
1879 – Henry Morton Stanley departs for the Congo
1906 – British battleship HMS Dreadnought launches after only 100 days, renders all other capital ships obsolete with its revolutionary design
1952 – India holds its first general election: Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru remains in power
1972 – Two British soldiers are killed in a land mine attack near Cullyhanna, County Armagh; an IRA member is shot dead during an exchange of gunfire with RUC officers
1977 – Bomb explosion in Moscow metro
1990 – South African President F. W. de Klerk announces Nelson Mandela will be freed on February 11th
1993 – US officially backs peace plan in Bosnia
1997 – O.J. Simpson jury reaches decision on $25M in punitive damages
2005 – His Royal Highness Charles, Prince of Wales announces engagement to Camilla Parker Bowles
2016 – Venezuelan government orders more than 100 malls to close early to save electricity, due to drought caused by El Niño
2019 – Sexual abuse investigation into US Southern Baptist churches reveals 400 church members implicated with over 700 victims, according to The Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News
2019 – Insect populations are collapsing worldwide threatening a“catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems” according to a global review saying 40% declining, 30% endangered
2020 – More than 30 bushfires put out by heaviest rainfall for 30 years in New South Wales, Australia, helping end one of the worst bushfire seasons ever, 46 million acres burnt, over 1 billion animals killed, 34 people dead
Film & TV:
1989 – To gain deregulation WWF admits pro wrestling is an exhibition & not a sport, in a NJ court
1993 – “Michael Jackson Talks To Oprah Winfrey” airs on ABC & drew an astounding 39.3 rating/56 share, 90 million people
Music:
1942 – Glenn Miller awarded 1st Ever Gold Record for selling 1 million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo”
2006 – XX Winter Olympic Games open in Turin, Italy, Luciano Pavarotti sings “Nessun dorma” in his last ever performance
Sport:
1989 – To gain deregulation WWF admits pro wrestling is an exhibition & not a sport, in a NJ court
