Events on February 1 48
Year 481
Vandal king Huneric organises a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops at Carthage.
Year 1327
The teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
Year 1329
King John of Bohemia captures Medvėgalis, an important fortress of the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and baptizes 6,000 of its defenders
Year 1411
The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn (Toruń), Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
Year 1662
The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
Year 1713
The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
Year 1793
French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Year 1814
Mayon in the Philippines erupts, killing around 1,200 people, the most devastating eruption of the volcano.
Year 1864
Second Schleswig War: Prussian forces crossed the border into Schleswig, starting the war.
Year 1865
President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Year 1893
Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
Year 1895
Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
Year 1896
La bohème premieres in Turin at the Teatro Regio (Turin), conducted by the young Arturo Toscanini.
Year 1942
World War II: Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of German-occupied Norway, appoints Vidkun Quisling the Minister President of the National Government.
Year 1942
World War II: U.S. Navy conducts Marshalls-Gilberts raids, the first offensive action by the United States against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater.
Year 1942
Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.
Year 1942
Mao Zedong makes a speech on "Reform in Learning, the Party and Literature", which puts into motion the Yan'an Rectification Movement.
Year 1946
Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary-General.
Year 1946
The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.
Year 1953
North Sea flood of 1953 is caused by a heavy storm which occurred overnight, 31 January-1 February 1953; floods strike the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.K.
Year 1960
Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Year 1964
The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
Year 1965
The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
Year 1968
Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams.
Year 1968
Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
Year 1968
The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.
Year 1972
Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
Year 1974
A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in São Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
Year 1979
Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.
Year 1989
The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
Year 1991
A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.
Year 1992
The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal disaster case.
Year 1998
Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
Year 2002
Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.
Year 2003
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
Year 2004
Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured.
Year 2005
King Gyanendra of Nepal carries out a coup d'état to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
Year 2009
The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country's first female prime minister and the world's first openly gay head of government.
Year 2012
At least 72 people are killed and over 500 injured as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in the city of Port Said.