EVENTS:
- 1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.
- 1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.
- 1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
- 1946 – Sailors of the Royal Indian Navy mutiny in Bombay harbour, from where the action spreads throughout the Provinces of British India, involving 78 ships, twenty shore establishments and 20,000 sailors
- 1965 – The Gambia becomes independent from the United Kingdom.
- 1979 – Snow falls in the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria for the only time in recorded history.
- 2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur in Iran when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.
- 2007 – Terrorist bombs explode on the Samjhauta Express in Panipat, Haryana, India, killing 68 people.
- 2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.
- 2014 – At least 76 people are killed and hundreds are injured in clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Kiev, Ukraine.
- 2018 – 66 people die when Iran Aseman Airlines Flight 3704 crashes in the Dena sub-range in the Zagros Mountains of Iran.
- 2021 – Perseverance, a Mars rover designed to explore Jezero crater on Mars, as part of NASA‘s Mars 2020 mission, lands successfully.
BIRTHS:
HOLIDAYS and OBSERVANCES:
