1603 Scottish King James VI son of Mary Queen of Scots, becomes King James I of England in succession to Elizabeth I, thus joining the English and Scottish crowns.
1878 British frigate Eurydice sunk; 300 lost.
1906 "Census of the British Empire" shows Great Britain rules 1/5th of the world.
1942 US government begins moving native-born citizens with Japanese ancestry into detention centres under Executive Order 9066, with intention of preventing home-grown espionage.
1944 76 Allied officers escape Stalag Luft 3 (Great Escape)
1944 Ardeatine massacre: Nazis led by SS officers Herbert Kappler, Erich Priebke and Karl Hass execute 335 civilians and political prisoners in occupied Rome in retaliation for the previous day's Via Rassela bombing that killed 33 Germans.
1944 RAF rear gunner Nicholas Alkemade survives a jump from his Lancaster bomber 18,000 feet over Germany without a parachute; his fall broken by pine trees and soft snow, suffers only a sprained leg.
1945 Operation Varsity: In the largest one-day airborne operation of all time, British, US & Canadian paratroopers land east of the Rhine in Northern Germany.
1949 SS police chief in the Netherlands Hanns Albin Rauter's request for a pardon denied, executed by firing squad.
1958 Elvis Presley joins the U.S. Army (serial number 53310761)
1982 US sub Jacksonville collides with a Turkish freighter near Virginia.
1999 Kosovo War: NATO commences air bombardment against Yugoslavia, marking the first time NATO has attacked a sovereign country.
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