1. In 589, Emperor Wen of Sui Dynasty destroyed the Chen Dynasty, bringing an end to the Southern and Northern Dynasties.

2. In 1258, Hulagu, the younger brother of Kublai Khan, captured Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, ending the Abbasid Dynasty and killing the last Abbasid caliph, Al - Musta'sim.

3. In 1555, Dong Qichang, a court official, calligrapher and painter in the late Ming Dynasty, was born.

4. In 1763, the Treaty of Paris was signed by Britain, France, Portugal and Spain, ending the Seven Years' War.

5. In 1804, the Haitian Revolution ended, with Haiti becoming the first independent black - led republic in the world.

6. In 1837, the famous Russian poet and writer Pushkin died.

7. In 1861, the Confederate States of America was formed.

8. In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens, Greece.

9. In 1904, Japan and Russia officially launched the Russo - Japanese War over the rights and interests in Northeast China.

10. In 1906, the British battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched.

11. In 1912, the RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank on its maiden voyage.

12. In 1917, the February Revolution in Russia overthrew the Romanov dynasty.

13. In 1919, women's groups from the Allied Powers and the United States held the International Women's Congress of the League of Nations, presenting the demands of women to the delegations participating in the Paris Peace Conference.

14. In 1922, the Indian National Congress called off the "Non - Cooperation Movement".

15. In 1923, German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen died.

16. In 1933, Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany.

17. In 1935, the University of Pennsylvania Museum announced that archaeologists had discovered the ruins of the oldest known city while excavating the Tell Brak mound in northern Mesopotamia, which is about 5,700 years old.

18. In 1940, the Battle of Britain began as Germany launched an air campaign against the United Kingdom.

19. In 1942, during World War II, the Japanese army achieved a decisive victory in the attack on Singapore, marking the fall of the city known as the "Gibraltar of the East".

20. In 1944, the D - Day invasion occurred, with Allied forces landing on the beaches of Normandy, France.

21. In 1945, the German troop transport ship General von Steuben, converted from a luxury liner, was sunk by a Soviet submarine on its way back with wounded soldiers and refugees, killing more than 4,000 people.

22. In 1950, the Korean War began when North Korea invaded South Korea.

23. In 1953, Mohamed Naguib became President of Egypt.

24. In 1958, the Munich air disaster occurred, killing 8 Manchester United players.

25. In 1961, the Berlin Wall construction began.

26. In 1962, the United States and the Soviet Union exchanged spies in Berlin. The United States released Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and the Soviet Union returned American pilot Francis Gary Powers.

27. In 1964, Ghana's Tema Port was completed and officially opened.

28. In 1969, the first manned moon landing occurred as Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon.

29. In 1974, a national strike by British coal miners led to the downfall of the Conservative Party.

30. In 1990, South African President F. W. de Klerk announced the unconditional release of Nelson Mandela.

31. In 1992, in Indianapolis, boxer Mike Tyson was convicted of raping a beauty pageant contestant.

32. In 1996, IBM's supercomputer Deep Blue made its first challenge against Russian chess player Garry Kasparov.

33. In 2001, the US nuclear submarine USS Greeneville accidentally struck and sank the Ehime - Maru, a Japanese training vessel.

34. In 2005, the British royal family announced that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles would get married on April 8 of the same year.

35. In 2006, the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics opened.

36. In 2009, a commercial satellite of the United States collided with a defunct Russian military satellite, the first such collision in history.

37. In 2010, the 21st Winter Olympics closed in Vancouver.

38. In 2011, a magnitude 6.3 earthquake hit Christchurch, New Zealand, causing significant damage and loss of life.

39. In 2012, Facebook filed for an initial public offering (IPO), aiming to raise up to $5 billion.

40. In 2013, the first case of H7N9 avian influenza was reported in China.

41. In 2014, the Winter Olympics opened in Sochi, Russia.

42. In 2015, the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft successfully landed a probe on a comet for the first time.

43. In 2016, the World Health Organization declared the Zika virus a public health emergency of international concern.

44. In 2017, the United Kingdom formally notified the European Union of its intention to leave the EU, triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

45. In 2018, the Winter Olympics opened in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

46. In 2019, SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft made an uncrewed test flight to the International Space Station.

47. In 2020, the first cases of COVID - 19 outside of China were reported in several countries, marking the start of the global spread of the pandemic.

48. In 2021, the United States began its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which had been ongoing since 2001.

49. In 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine.

50. In 2023, a major earthquake struck Turkey and Syria, causing widespread destruction and a high number of casualties.