On February 1

The Burmese military staged a coup d'état that deposed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking nationwide protests and a civil war.

Following an Egyptian Premier League match in Port Said, Al Masry fans rioted and violently attacked Al Ahly supporters, resulting in 74 deaths.

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (pictured) became the first female prime minister of Iceland.

During the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, Janet Jackson's breast was exposed by Justin Timberlake in what was later referred to as a "wardrobe malfunction", resulting in an immediate crackdown and widespread debate on perceived indecency in U.S. broadcasting.

All seven crew members aboard Space Shuttle Columbia were killed when the orbiter disintegrated over Texas during reentry.

The Timor-Leste Defence Force was established from the erstwhile anti-Indonesian independence movement Falintil.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile and soon led the Iranian Revolution to overthrow the Pahlavi dynasty.

Kuala Lumpur (pictured), the capital of Malaysia, was granted city status.

Civil rights movement: Four African-American students staged the first of more than five months of sit-ins at an F. W. Woolworth lunch counter (pictured) in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest the company's policy of racial segregation.

Invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, the first working prototype of the Wankel rotary engine ran for the first time at the research and development department of NSU Motorenwerke AG.

Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States federal government, began broadcasting to Germany during World War II.

Giacomo Puccini's opera La bohème premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, eventually becoming one of the most frequently performed operas internationally.

The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary, a 352-page volume that covered words from A to ant, was published.

More than 1,200 people died in the most destructive recorded eruption of Mayon in the Philippines.

Sino-Dutch conflicts: After besieging Fort Zeelandia for nine months, Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong secured the Dutch East India Company's surrender and the end of their rule in Taiwan.

The First Peace of Thorn was signed, ending the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War.

The Teutonic Knights successfully besieged the hillfort of Medvėgalis (pictured) in Samogitia, Lithuania, and baptised the defenders in the Catholic rite.

Fourteen-year-old Edward III was crowned King of England, but with the country ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.