• 1079 - Omar Khayyám completes the Iranian calendar.
• 1454 - Thirteen Years' War: Delegates of the Prussian Confederation pledge allegiance to Casimir IV of Poland, and the Polish king agrees to help in their struggle for independence from the Teutonic Knights.
• 1479 - Treaty of Alcaçovas - Portugal gives the Canary Islands to Castile in exchange for claims in West Africa.
• 1521 - Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
• 1788 - The First Fleet arrives at Norfolk Island in order to found a convict settlement.
• 1820 - The Missouri Compromise is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, but makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
• 1834 - York, Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
• 1836 - Texas Revolution: Battle of the Alamo - After a thirteen day siege by an army of 3,000 Mexican troops, the 187 Texas volunteers defending the Alamo are defeated and the fort is captured.
• 1853 - The Giuseppe Verdi opera La Traviata premieres in Venice.
• 1857 - The Supreme Court of the United States rules in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case.
• 1869 - Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
• 1899 - Bayer registers aspirin as a trademark.
• 1901 - In Bremen an assassin attempts to kill Wilhelm II of Germany.
• 1921 - The Portuguese Communist Party is founded as the Portuguese Section of the Communist International.
• 1925 - Belgium annexes Eupen, Malmedy, and Sankt Vith.
• 1927 - Fritz Lang's Metropolis is released.
• 1933 -The United States bank holiday of the Great Depression began, lasting until March 10.
• 1940 - Winter War: An armistice is signed by Finland and the Soviet Union.
• 1945 - A communist-dominated government under Petru Groza assumes power in Romania.
• 1946 - Vietnam War: Ho Chi Minh signs an agreement with France which recognizes Vietnam as an autonomous state in the Indochinese Federation and the French Union.
• 1951 - The trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg begins.
• 1953 - Georgy Maksimilianovich Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
• 1957 - United Kingdom colonies Gold Coast and British Togoland become the independent Republic of Ghana.
• 1957 - Israel withdraws its troops from the Sinai Peninsula.
• 1964 - Prophet Elijah Muhammad officially gives Cassius Clay the name Muhammad Ali meaning "beloved of Allah".
• 1964 - Constantine II becomes King of Greece.
• 1975 - Algiers Accord: Iran and Iraq announce a settlement of their border dispute.
• 1981 - After 19 years presenting the CBS Evening News, Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
• 1984 - Twelve-month-long strike in British coal industry begins.
• 1987 - The British ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes in about 90 seconds killing 193.
• 1988 - Three unarmed members of the Provisional Irish Republican Army are killed by the SAS on the territory of Gibraltar in the conclusion of Operation Flavius.
• 1992 - The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
• 1992 - Founding of the Council of the Baltic Sea States.
• 1994 - Referendum in Moldova results in the electorate voting against possible reunification with Romania.
• 1997 - Picasso's painting Tête de Femme is stolen from a London gallery, and is recovered a week later.
• 2006 - South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds signs a bill into legislation that would ban most abortions in the state.
• 2007 - Former White House aide I. Lewis Libby, Jr. is found guilty on four of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice trial.

Births