| 1776 | | After crossing the Delaware River into New Jersey, George Washington leads an attack on Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, and takes 900 men prisoner. |
| 1786 | | Daniel Shay leads a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. |
| 1806 | | Napoleon's army is checked by the Russians at the Battle of Pultusk. |
| 1862 | | 38 Santee Sioux are hanged in Mankato, Minnesota for their part in the Sioux Uprising in Minnesota. Little Crow has fled the state. |
| 1866 | | Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, head of the Department of the Platte, receives word of the Fetterman Fight in Powder River County in the Dakota territory. |
| 1917 | | As a wartime measure, President Woodrow Wilson places railroads under government control, with Secretary of War William McAdoo as director general. |
| 1925 | | Six U.S. destroyers are ordered from Manila to China to protect interests in the civil war that is being waged there. |
| 1932 | | Over 70,000 people are killed in a massive earthquake in China. |
| 1941 | | General Douglas MacArthur declares Manila an open city in the face of the onrushing Japanese Army. |
| 1943 | | The German battleship Scharnhorst is sunk by British ships in an Arctic fight. |
| 1944 | | Advancing Soviet troops complete their encirclement of Budapest in Hungary. |
| 1945 | | The United States, Soviet Union and Great Britain, end a 10-day meeting, seeking an atomic rule by the UN Council. |
| 1953 | | The United States announces the withdrawal of two divisions from Korea. |
| 1962 | | Eight East Berliners escape to West Berlin, crashing through gates in an armor-plated bus. |
| 1966 | | Dr. Maulana Karenga celebrates the first Kwanza, a seven-day African-American celebration of family and heritage. |
| 1979 | | The Soviet Union flies 5,000 troops to intervene in the Afghanistan conflict. |
| 2006 | | Former U.S. President Gerald R. Ford dies at age 93. Ford was the only unelected president in America's history. |