| 1154 | | Henry II is crowned king of England. |
| 1562 | | The French Wars of Religion between the Huguenots and the Catholics begins with the Battle of Dreux. |
| 1793 | | French troops recapture Toulon from the British. |
| 1862 | | Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest begins tearing up the railroads in Union generals Grant and Rosecrans rear, causing considerable delays in the movement of Union supplies. |
| 1900 | | The French Parliament votes amnesty for everyone involved in the Dreyfus Affair. |
| 1909 | | American socialist women denounce suffrage as a movement of the middle class. |
| 1941 | | Japanese land on Hong Kong and clash with British troops. |
| 1941 | | Adolf Hitler assumes the position of commander in chief of the German army. |
| 1942 | | The British advance 40 miles into Burma in a drive to oust the Japanese from the colony. |
| 1944 | | During the Battle of the Bulge, American troops begin pulling back from the twin Belgian cities of Krinkelt and Rocherath in front of the advancing German Army. |
| 1945 | | Congress confirms Eleanor Roosevelt as U.S. delegate to the United Nations. |
| 1950 | | The North Atlantic Council names General Dwight D. Eisenhower as supreme commander of Western European defense forces. |
| 1959 | | Reputed to be the last civil war veteran, Walter Williams, dies at 117 in Houston. |
| 1974 | | Nelson Rockefeller is sworn in as vice president of the United states after a House of Representatives vote. |
| 1982 | | Four bombs explode at South Africa's only nuclear power station in Johannesburg. |
| 1984 | | British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang sign an agreement that committed Britain to return Hong Kong to China in 1997 in return for terms guaranteeing a 50-year extension of its capitalist system. Hong Kong was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years. |
| 1998 | | President Bill Clinton is impeached. The House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Clinton, charging him with lying under oath to a federal grand jury and obstructing justice. Clinton was the second president in American history to be impeached. |