116 – Emperor Trajan sends laureatae to the Roman Senate at Rome on account of his victories and being conqueror of Parthia.
1804 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate USS Philadelphia.
1862 – American Civil War: General Ulysses S. Grant captures Fort Donelson, Tennessee.
1933 – The Blaine Act ends Prohibition in the United States.
1959 – Fidel Castro becomes Premier of Cuba after dictator Fulgencio Batista was overthrown on January 1.
1960 – The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton begins Operation Sandblast, setting sail from New London, Connecticut, to begin the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.
1968 – In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
2006 – The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army.
Births
1698 – Pierre Bouguer, French mathematician, geophysicist, and astronomer (d. 1758)
1812 – Henry Wilson, 18th Vice President of the United States (d. 1875)
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1843 – Henry M. Leland, American engineer and businessman, founded Cadillac and Lincoln (d. 1932)
1868 – Edward S. Curtis, ethnologist and photographer (d. 1952)
1935 – Sonny Bono, American actor, singer, and politician (d. 1998)
1941 – Kim Jong-il, North Korean commander and politician, 2nd Supreme Leader of North Korea (d. 2011)
Deaths
549 – Zhu Yi, Chinese general (b. 483)
1862 – William Pennington 13th Governor of New Jersey, (b. 1796)
1990 – Keith Haring, American painter and activist (b. 1958)
2016 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Egyptian politician and diplomat, 6th Secretary-General of the United Nations (b. 1922)