On This Day

January 23, 2013

1556 - An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed about 830,000 people.

1571 - The Royal Exchange in London, founded by financier Thomas Gresham, was opened by Queen Elizabeth I.

1789 - Georgetown College was established as the first Catholic college in the U.S. The school is in Washington, DC.

1845 - The U.S. Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

1849 - English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive medical degree. It was from the Medical Institution of Geneva, NY.

1907 - Charles Curtis, of Kansas, began serving in the United States Senate. He was the first American Indian to become a U.S. Senator. He resigned in March of 1929 to become U.S. President Herbert Hoover’s Vice President.

1920 - The Dutch government refused the demands from the Allies to hand over the ex-kaiser of Germany.

1924 - The first Labour government was formed, under Ramsay MacDonald.

1937 - In Moscow, seventeen people went on trial during Josef Stalin's "Great Purge."

1941 - The play, "Lady in the Dark" premiered.

1943 - Duke Ellington and the band played for a black-tie crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.

1943 - The British captured Tripoli from the Germans.

1950 - The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

1960 - The U.S. Navy bathyscaphe Trieste descended to a record depth of 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) in the Pacific Ocean.

1964 - Ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was completed. This amendment eliminated the poll tax in federal elections.

1968 - North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation's territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.

1971 - In Prospect Creek Camp, AK, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was reported as minus 80 degrees.

1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced that an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

1974 - Mike Oldfield’s "Tubular Bells" opened the credits of the movie, "The Exorcist".

1975 - "Barney Miller" made his debut on ABC-TV.

1977 - The TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel.

1978 - Sweden banned aerosol sprays because of damage to environment. They were the first country to do so.

1983 - "The A-Team" debuted on TV.

1985 - O.J. Simpson became the first Heisman Trophy winner to be elected to pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.

1985 - The proceedings of the House of Lords were televised for the first time.

1989 - Surrealist artist Salvador Dali died in Spain at age 84.

1997 - A judge in Fairfax, VA, sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside the CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people.

1997 - A British woman received a record £186,000 damages for Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).

2001 - A van used by the remaining two fugitives of the "Texas 7" was recovered in Colorado Springs, CO. A few hours later police surrounded a hotel where the convicts were hiding. Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody the next morning without incident.

2002 - John Walker Lindh returned to the U.S. under FBI custody. Lindh was charge with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorists and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban while a member of the al-Quaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan.

2003 - North Korea announced that it would consider sanctions an act of war for North Korea's reinstatement of its nuclear program.

January 24, 2013

1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of '49.

1899 - Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel.

1908 - In England, the first Boy Scout troop was organized by Robert Baden-Powell.

1916 - Conscription was introduced in Britain.

1922 - Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie.

1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.

1930 - Primo Carnera made his American boxing debut by knocking out Big Boy Patterson in one minute, ten seconds of the opening round.

1935 - Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA.

1942 - "Abie’s Irish Rose" was first heard on NBC radio.

1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1952 - Vincent Massey was the first Canadian to be appointed governor-general of Canada.

1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.

1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.

1965 - Winston Churchill died at the age of 90.

1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated. The radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada's Northwest Territory.

1980 - The United States announced intentions to sell arms to China.

1985 - Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief of a major city. She assumed the duties as head of the Portland, Oregon, force of 940 officers and staff.

1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.

1987 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. They were all later released.

1989 - Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.

1990 - Japan launched the first probe to be sent to the Moon since 1976. A small satellite was placed in lunar orbit.

1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigned due to allegations that he had spied for Moscow.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that limited the contributions that individuals could donate to a candidate during a single election.

2001 - In Colorado Springs, CO, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody after a 5-minute phone interview was granted with a TV station. They were the remaining fugitives of the "Texas 7."

2002 - The U.S. Congress began a hearing on the collapse of Enron Corp.

2002 - John Walker Lindh appeared in court for the first time concerning the charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad and aided terrorist groups. Lindh had been taken into custody by U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

2003 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began operations under Tom Ridge.

January 25, 2013

1504 - The English Parliament passed statutes against retainers and liveries, to curb private warfare.

1533 - England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn. Boleyn later gave birth to Elizabeth I.

1579 - The Treaty of Utrecht was signed marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic.

1799 - Eliakim Spooner patented the seeding machine.

1858 - Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia.

1870 - G.D. Dows patented the ornamental soda fountain.

1881 - Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.

1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded.

1915 - In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service.

1924 - The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.

1927 - jack Benny married Sadye Marks on this day. Sadye changed her name to Mary Livingstone.

1937 - NBC radio presented the first broadcast of "The Guiding Light." The show remained on radio until 1956 and began on CBS-TV in 1952.

1945 - Richard Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the production of "La Gioconda".

1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.

1949 - The first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

1950 - A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.

1959 - In the U.S., American Airlines had the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

1961 - John F. Kennedy presented the first live presidential news conference from Washington, DC. The event was carried on radio and television.

1971 - Charles Manson and three female members of his "family" were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and seven counts of murder in the first degree. They were all sentenced to death for the 1969 killings. The sentences were later commuted to life sentences.

1971 - Maj. Gen. Idi Amin led a coup that deposed Milton Obote and became president of Uganda.

1981 - Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.

1981 - The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States and were reunited with their families.

1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20, in Super Bowl XXI on NBC. The game featured TV commercials cost $550,000 for 30 seconds.

1993 - A gunman shot and killed two CIA employees outside the agencies headquarters in Virginia. Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani national, was later convicted of the shootings.

1995 - The defense gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial.

1998 - The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos had lost 3 previous Super Bowl appearances with quarterback John Elway.

1999 - At least 1,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit western Columbia. The quake registered 6.0 on the Richter Scale.

1999 - In Louisville, KY, man received the first hand transplant in the United States.

2001 - A minor earthquake hit northeastern Ohio. The quake measured only 4.2 on the Richter Scale.

2010 - In Arlington, TX, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame had its grand opening.

January 26, 2013

1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón discovered Brazil.

1736 - Stanislaus I formally abdicated as King of Poland.

1784 - In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the symbol to be the turkey.

1788 - The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in what became known as Sydney. The group had first settled at Botany Bay eight days before. This day is celebrated as Australia Day.

1802 - The U.S. Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.

1827 - Peru seceded from Colombia in protest against Simón Bolívar's alleged tyranny.

1837 - Michigan became the 26th state to join the United States.

1841 - Britain formally occupied Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded to the British.

1861 - In the U.S., Louisiana seceded from the Union.

1870 - The state of Virgina rejoined the Union.

1875 - George F. Green patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.

1905 - The Cullinan diamond, at 3,106.75 carats, was found by Captain Wells at the Premier Mine, near Pretoria, South Africa.

1911 - Inventor Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first successful seaplane.

1934 - The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City.

1939 - In the Spanish Civil War, Franco's forces, with Italian aid, took Barcelona.

1942 - The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War II went ashore in Northern Ireland.

1947 - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" was first heard on ABC radio.

1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president.

1950 - The American Associated Insurance Companies, of St. Louis, MO, issued the first baby sitter’s insurance policy.

1959 - "Alcoa Presents" debuted on ABC-TV. The show would later be renamed "One Step Beyond".

1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell as the first woman to be the "personal physician to the President".

1962 - The U.S. launched Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon. The probe missed its target by about 22,000 miles.

1965 - Hindi was made the official language of India.

1969 - California was declared a disaster area two days of flooding and mudslides.

1972 - In Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia, a JAT Yugoslav Airlines flight crashed after the detonation of a bomb in the forward cargo hold killing 27 people. The bomb was believed to have been placed on the plane by a Croatian extremist group. Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess, survived after falling 33,000 feet in the tail section. She broke both legs and became paralyzed from the waist down.

1979 - The ‘Gizmo’ guitar synthesizer was first demonstrated.

1984 - CBS television debuted Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer."

1992 - Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced that his country would stop targeting U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

1993 - Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.

1994 - In Sydney, Australia, a young man lunged at and fired two blank shots at Britain's Prince Charles.

1996 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater probe.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

1999 - Saddam Hussein vowed revenge against the U.S. in response to air-strikes that reportedly killed civilians. The strikes were U.S. planes defending themselves against anti-aircraft fire.

1999 - Gary Busey was released from jail after being arrested the night before for investigation of misdemeanor spousal abuse. Tiana Busey had no visible injuries.

2001 - Near Ciudad Boliva, Venezuela, twenty four people were killed when a 50-year-old DC-3 crashed.

2009 - The first trial at the International Criminal Court was held. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga was accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage, and rape.

2009 - The Icelandic government and banking system collapsed. Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned.

2010 - It was announced that James Cameron's movie "Avatar" had become the highest-grossing film worldwide. At the time it was the second highest-grossing film in the United States.

January 27, 2013

1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.

1870 - Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, IN.

1880 - Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp.

1888 - The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.

1900 - In China, foreign diplomats in Peking, fearing a revolt, demanded that the imperial government discipline the Boxer rebels.

1926 - John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.

1927 - United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

1931 - NBC radio debuted "Clara, Lu ’n’ Em" on its Blue network (later, ABC radio).

1943 - During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked Wilhlemshaven.

1944 - The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.

1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

1948 - Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50.

1951 - In the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.

1957 - The "CBS Radio Workshop" was heard for the first time.

1967 - At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.

1967 - More than 60 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty which banned the orbiting of nuclear weapons and placing weapons on celestial bodies or space stations.

1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

1977 - The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

1984 - Carl Lewis beat his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new indoor world record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches.

1984 - Wayne Gretzky set a National Hockey League (NHL) record for consecutive game scoring. He ended the streak at 51 games.

1985 - The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announced a plan to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union.

1992 - Former world boxing champion Mike Tyson went on trial for allegedly raping an 18-year-old contestant in the 1991 Miss Black America Contest.

1996 - Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was overthrown by a military coup. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara declared himself head of state.

1997 - It was revealed that French national museums were holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

1998 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC's "Today" show. She charged that the allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

1999 - The U.S. Senate blocked dismissal of the impeachment case against President Clinton and voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses.

2002 - A series of explosions occurred at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 1,000 people were killed in the blast and in the attempt to escape.

2003 - Altria Group, Inc. became the name of the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Capital Corporation.

January 28, 2013

1521 - The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church.

1547 - England's King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.

1788 - The first British penal settlement was founded at Botany Bay.

1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.

1871 - France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.

1878 - The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.

1878 - "The Yale News" was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.

1902 - The Carnegie Institution was established in Washington, DC. It began with a gift of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie.

1909 - The United States ended direct control over Cuba.

1915 - The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.

1916 - Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Wilson to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.

1918 - The Bolsheviks occupied Helsinki, Finland.

1922 - The National Football League (NFL) franchise in Decatur, IL, transferred to Chicago. The team took the name Chicago Bears.

1935 - Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.

1938 - The first ski tow started operation in Vermont.

1945 - During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that circus clown Emmett Kelly had been hired to entertain fans at baseball games.

1958 - Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) was seriously injured in an auto accident in New York. He would never return to play again.

1958 - Construction began on first private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor.

1965 - General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.

1973 - CBS-TV debuted "Barnaby Jones."

1980 - Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.

1982 - Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier. 42 days before he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.

1986 - The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.

1994 - In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

1997 - Clive Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.

1999 - Ford Motor Company announced the purchase of Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.

January 29, 2013

1728 - John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.

1802 - John Beckley became the first Librarian of Congress.

1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.

1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror."

1848 - Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland.

1850 - Henry clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.

1861 - In America, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.

1916 - In World War I, Paris was bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.

1924 - R. Taylor patented the ice cream cone rolling machine.

1936 - The first members of major league baseball's Hall of Fame were named in Cooperstown, NY.

1940 - The W. Atlee Burpee Seed Company displayed the first tetraploid flowers at the New York City Flower Show.

1949 - "The Newport News" was commissioned as the first air-conditioned naval ship in Virginia.

1956 - "Indictment" debuted on CBS radio and stayed on the air for three years.

1958 - Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

1958 - Charles Starkweather was captured by police in Wyoming.

1963 - The first members to the NFL's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, OH.

1963 - Britain was refused entry into the EEC.

1966 - "Sweet Charity" opened at the Palace Theatre in New York City. It ran for 608 performances.

1979 - U.S. President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House. The visit followed the establishment of diplomatic relations.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average peaked at 1,292.62.

1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."

1990 - Joseph Hazelwood, the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, went on trial in Anchorage, AK, on charges that stemmed from America's worst oil spill. Hazelwood was later acquitted of all the major charges and was convicted of a misdemeanor.

1995 - The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in National Football League (NFL) history to win five Super Bowl titles. The 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49-26.

1996 - French President Jacques Chirac announced the "definitive end" to nuclear testing.

1996 - La Fenice, the 204 year old opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected.

1997 - America Online agreed to give refunds to frustrated customers under threat of lawsuits across the country. Customers were unable to log on after AOL offered a flat $19.95-a-month rate.

1998 - A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL, killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. Eric Rudolph was charged with this bombing and three other attacks in Atlanta.

1999 - Paris prosecutors announced the end of the investigation into the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana.

1999 - The U.S. Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.

2001 - In Indonesia, thousands of student protesters stormed the parliament property and demanded that President Abdurrahman Wahid quit due to his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals. Wahid announced that he would not resign.

January 30, 2013

1649 - England's King Charles I was beheaded.

1790 - The first purpose-built lifeboat was launched on the River Tyne.

1798 - The first brawl in the U.S. House of Representatives took place. Congressmen Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold fought on the House floor.

1844 - Richard Theodore Greener became the first African American to graduate from Harvard University.

1847 - The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.

1862 - The U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, the "Monitor", was launched.

1889 - Rudolph, crown prince of Austria, and his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera, were found shot in his hunting lodge at Mayerling, near Vienna.

1894 - C.B. King received a patent for the pneumatic hammer.

1900 - The British fighting the Boers in South Africa ask for a larger army.

1910 - Work began on the first board-track automobile speedway. The track was built in Playa del Ray, CA.

1911 - The first airplane rescue at sea was made by the destroyer "Terry." Pilot James McCurdy was forced to land in the ocean about 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

1933 - "The Lone Ranger" was heard on radio for the first time. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and ended in 1955.

1933 - Adolf Hitler was named the German Chancellor.

1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

1950 - NBC-TV debuted "Robert Montgomery Presents." The show lasted for seven seasons.

1958 - Yves Saint Laurent, at age 22, held his first major fashion show in Paris.

1958 - The first two-way moving sidewalk was put in service at Love Field in Dallas, TX. The length of the walkway through the airport was 1,435 feet.

1960 - The women’s singles U.S. figure skating championship was won by Carol Heiss.

1962 - Two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, MI.

1964 - January 30 - The U.S. launched Ranger 6. The unmanned spacecraft carried television cameras and was intentionally crash-landed on the moon. The cameras did not return any pictures to Earth.

1968 - The Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

1972 - In Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot and killed thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers. The day is known as "Bloody Sunday."

1979 - The civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return. He had been living in exile in France.

1989 - The U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was closed.

1994 - Peter Leko became the world's youngest-ever grand master in chess.

1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of a 6,000-member U.N. peace-keeping contingent to assume security responsibilities in Haiti from U.S. forces.

1995 - Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced that clinical trials had demonstrated the effectiveness of the first preventative treatment for sickle cell anaemia.

1996 - Gino Gallagher, the reputed leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, was shot and killed as he queued for his unemployment benefit.

1997 - A New Jersey judge ruled that the unborn child of a female prisoner must have legal representation. He denied the prisoner bail reduction to enable her to leave the jail and obtain an abortion.

2002 - Slobodan Milosevic accused the U.N. war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. Milosevic was defending his actions during the Balkan wars.

2002 - Japan's last coal mine was closed. The closures were due to high production costs and cheap imports.

February 1, 2013

1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat.

1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City.

1793 - France declared war on Britain and Holland.

1793 - Ralph Hodgson patented oiled silk.

1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union.

1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly."

1867 - In the U.S., bricklayers start working 8-hour days.

1884 - The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.

1893 - Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio in West Orange, NJ.

1896 - Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin.

1898 - The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT, issued the first automobile insurance policy. Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, paid $11.25 for the policy, which gave him $5,000 in liability coverage.

1900 - Eastman Kodak Co. introduced the $1 Brownie box camera.

1913 - Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world.

1919 - The first Miss America was crowned in New York City.

1920 - The first armored car was introduced.

1920 - Canada's Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.

1921 - Carmen Fasanella registered as a taxicab owner and driver in Princeton, New Jersey. Fasanella retired November 2, 1989 after 68 years and 243 days of service.

1929 - Weightlifter Charles Rigoulet of France achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.

1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle.

1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.

1951 - The first telecast of an atomic explosion took place.

1951 - The first X-ray moving picture process was demonstrated.

1953 - CBS-TV debuted "Private Secretary."

1954 - CBS-TV showed "The Secret Storm" for the first time.

1957 - P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.

1958 - The United Arab Republic was formed by a union of Egypt and Syria. It was broken 1961.

1960 - Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service.

1968 - During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph.

1976 - "Sonny and Cher" resumed on TV despite a real life divorce.

1979 - Patty Hearst was released from prison after serving 22 months of a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Her sentence had been commuted by U.S. President Carter.

1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.

1987 - Terry Williams won the largest slot machine payoff, at the time, when won $4.9 million after getting four lucky 7s on a machine in Reno, NV.

1991 - A USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport. 35 people were killed.

1994 - Jeff Gillooly pled guilty in Portland, OR, for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding.

1996 - Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet.

1998 - Stuart Whitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against U.S. President Clinton.

2001 - Three Scottish judges found Abdel Basset al-Mergrahi guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. The court said that Megrahi was a member of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Amin Khalifa, who had been co-accused, was acquitted and freed.

2003 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

February 2, 2013

1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.

1802 - The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA.

1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.

1848 - The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.

1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.

1870 - The "Cardiff Giant" was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.

1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (known as the National League) was formed in New York. The teams included were the Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays.

1878 - Greece declared war on Turkey.

1880 - The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

1887 - The beginning of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA.

1892 - William Painter patented the crown-cork bottle cap.

1893 - The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison.

1897 - The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.

1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.

1935 - Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.

1943 - During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd.

1945 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1946 - The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made.

1946 - The Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Twenty Questions" for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later.

1949 - Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX.

1950 - "What's My Line" debuted on CBS television.

1962 - The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

1967 - The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.

1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

1980 - The situation known as "Abscam" began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.

1989 - The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.

1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

1999 - 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.

1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

2004 - It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

February 4, 2013

1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

1824 - J.W. Goodrich introduced rubber galoshes to the public.

1847 - In Maryland, the first U.S. Telegraph Company was established.

1861 - Delegates from six southern states met in Montgomery, AL, to form the Confederate States of America.

1865 - The Hawaiian Board of Education was formed.

1895 - The Van Buren Street Bridge opened in Chicago, IL.

1901 - "Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines" opened in New York City.

1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began after Japan laid siege to Port Arthur.

1913 - Louis Perlman received a patent for his demountable tire-carrying rims.

1932 - The first Winter Olympics were held in the United States at Lake Placid, NY.

1935 - CBS radio presented "Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" for the first time.

1936 - Radium E. became the first radioactive substance to be produced synthetically.

1938 - The play "Our Town", by Thornton Wilder, opened in New York City.

1941 - The United Service Organizations (USO) was created.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began a conference at Yalta to outline plans for Germany's defeat.

1948 - Ceylon gained independence within the British Commonwealth. The country later became known as Sri Lanka.

1952 - Jackie Robinson was named Director of Communication for NBC. He was the first black executive of a major radio-TV network.

1953 - "The Stooge" premiered at the Paramount Theatre in New York City.

1957 - Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc., of New York, began selling portable electric typewriters. The first machine weighed 19 pounds.

1964 - The Administrator of General Services announced that the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been ratified. The amendment banned the poll tax.

1968 - The world's largest hovercraft was launched at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

1973 - The Reshef was unveiled as Israel's missile boat.

1974 - Patricia (Patty) Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, CA, by the Symbionese Liberation Army.

1976 - An earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras killed more than 22,000 people.

1985 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan's defense budget called for a tripling of the expenditure on the "Star Wars" research program.

1993 - Russian scientists unfurled a giant mirror in orbit and flashed a beam of sunlight across Europe during the night. Observers saw it only as a momentary flash.

1997 - A civil jury in California found O.J. Simpson liable in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Goldman's parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

1997 - Two Israeli troop-carrying helicopters collided on their way to Lebanon, all 73 soldiers and airmen aboard were killed.

1997 - President Milosevic of Serbia apparently surrendered to the will of his people, ordering his government to recognize opposition victories in local elections held in November 1996.

1997 - Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins) scored his 600th National Hockey League (NHL) goal during his 719th game. Lemieux reached the milestone second fastest in history. Gretzky had reached the plateau during his 718th game.

1998 - In northeast Afghanistan, at least 5,000 people were killed in an earthquake that measured 6.1 on the Richter Scale.

1999 - Warplanes from Israel attacked south Lebanon just after rockets were fired toward Israel. No casualies were claimed on either side.

1999 - Gary Coleman was sentenced to a $400 fine, a suspended 90-day jail sentence, and ordered to attend 52 anger-management classes. The sentence stemmed from Coleman assaulting an autograph seeker on July 30, 1998.

1999 - Amadou Diallo, an unarmed West African immigrant, was shot and killed in front of his Bronx home by four plainclothes New York City police officers. The officers had been conducting a nighttime search for a rape suspect.

2000 - Austrian President Thomas Klestil swore in a coalition government that included Joerg Haider's far-right Freedom Party. European Union sanctions were a result of the action.

2003 - Yugoslavia was formally dissolved by lawmakers. The country was replaced with a loose union of its remaining two republics, Serbia and Montenegro.

February 5, 2013

1782 - The Spanish captured Minorca from the British.

1783 - Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.

1846 - "The Oregon Spectator", based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.

1861 - Samuel Goodale patented the moving picture peep show machine.

1885 - Congo State was established under Leopold II of Belgium, as a personal possession.

1881 - Phoenix, AZ, was incorporated.

1900 - The U.S. and Britain signed the Hay-Pauncefote Treaty, which gave the U.S. the right to build a canal in Nicaragua but not the right fortify it.

1917 - Mexico's constitution was adopted.

1917 - The U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act) with an overwhelming majority. The action overrode President Woodrow Wilson's December 14, 1916 veto.

1924 - The BBC time signals, or "pips", from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour.

1931 - Maxine Dunlap became the first woman licensed as a glider pilot.

1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt proposed enlarging the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed.

1940 - "Amanda of Honeymoon Hill" debuted on radio.

1953 - The Walt Disney’s film "Peter Pan" opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.

Disney movies, music and books

1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser was formally nominated to become the first president of the United Arab Republic.

1961 - The first issue of the "Sunday Telegraph" was published.

1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence.

1972 - Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA.

1982 - Great Britain imposed economic sanctions against Poland and Russia in protest against martial law in Poland.

1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 2,200-point for the first time. The market closed at 2201.49.

1988 - A pair of indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama's military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking.

1994 - White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

1997 - Switzerland's "Big Three" banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families.

1997 - Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced a $10 billion merger with Dean Witter.

1999 - Mike Tyson was sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting two people after a car accident on August 31, 1998. Tyson was also fined $5,000, had to serve 2 years of probation, and had to perform 200 hours of community service upon release.

2001 - It was announced the Kelly Ripa would be Regis Philbin's cohost. The show was renamed to "Live! With Regis and Kelly."

2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their separation.

2003 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq's material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.

February 6, 2013

1778 - The United States gained official recognition from France as the two nations signed the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance in Paris.

1788 - Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1815 - The state of New Jersey issued the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.

1843 - "The Virginia Minstrels" opened at the Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City. It was the first minstrel show in America.

1899 - The U.S. Senate ratified a peace treaty between the U.S. and Spain.

1900 - The Holland Senate ratified the 1899 peace conference decree that created in international arbitration court at The Hague.

1900 - U.S. President McKinley appointed W.H. Taft as commissioner to report on the Philippines.

1911 - The first old-age home for pioneers opened in Prescott, AZ.

1926 - The National Football League adopted a rule that made players ineligible for competition until their college class graduated.

1932 - Dog sled racing happened for the first time in Olympic competition.

1933 - The 20th Amendment to the Constitution was declared in effect. The amendment moved the start of presidential, vice-presidential and congressional terms from March to January.

1937 - K. Elizabeth Ohi became the first Japanese woman lawyer when she received her degree from John Marshall Law School in Chicago, IL.

1950 - NBC radio debuted "Dangerous Assignment".

1952 - Britain's King George VI died. His daughter, Elizabeth II, succeeded him.

1956 - St. Patrick Center opened in Kankakee, IL. It was the first circular school building in the United States.

1959 - The U.S., for the first time, successfully test-fired a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.

1971 - NASA Astronaut Alan B. Shepard used a six-iron that he had brought inside his spacecraft and swung at three golf balls on the surface of the moon.

1972 - Over 500,000 pieces of irate mail arrived at the mail room of CBS-TV, when word leaked out that an edited-for-TV version of the X-rated movie, "The Demand," would be shown.

1985 - The French mineral water company, Perrier, debuted its first new product in 123 years. The new items were water with a twist of lemon, lime or orange.

1987 - President Ronald Reagan turned 76 years old this day and became the oldest U.S. President in history.

1998 - Washington National Airport was renamed for U.S. President Ronald Reagan with the signing of a bill by U.S. President Clinton.

1999 - King Hussein of Jordan transferred full political power to his oldest son the Crown Prince Abdullah.

1999 - Excerpts of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky's videotaped testimony were shown at President Clinton's impeachment trial.

1999 - Heavy fighting resumed along the common border between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

2000 - Russia's acting President Vladimir Putin announced that Russian forces had captured Grozny, Chechnya. The capital city had been under the control of Chechen rebels.

2000 - In Finland, Foreign Minister Tarja Halonen became the first woman to be elected president.

2000 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton formally declared that she was a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from the state of New York.

2001 - Ariel Sharon was elected Israeli prime minister.

2002 - A federal judge ordered John Walker Lindh to be held without bail pending trial. Lindh was known as the "American Taliban."

February 7, 2013

1795 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

1818 - "Academician" began publication in New York City.

1877 - The first Guernsey Cattle Club was organized in New York City.

1882 - The last bareknuckle fight for the heavyweight boxing championship took place in Mississippi City.

1893 - Elisha Gray patented a machine called the telautograph. It automatically signed autographs to documents.

1913 - The Turks lost 5,000 men in a battle with the Bulgarian army in Gallipoli.

1922 - DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace offered 5,000 copies of "Reader's Digest" magazine for the first time.

1931 - The American opera "Peter Ibbetson," by Deems Taylor, premiered in New York City.

1936 - The U.S. Vice President’s flag was established by executive order.

1940 - "Pinocchio" world premiered at the Center Theatre in Manhattan.

1941 - The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra and Frank Sinatra recorded "Everything Happens to Me."

1943 - The U.S. government announced that shoe rationing would go into effect in two days.

1944 - During World War II, the Germans launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy.

1959 - The play "The Rivalry" opened in New York City.

1962 - The U.S. government banned all Cuban imports and re-export of U.S. products to Cuba from other countries.

1966 - "Crawdaddy" magazine was published by Paul Williams for the first time.

1974 - The nation of Grenada gained independence from Britain.

1976 - Darryl Sittler (Toronto Maple Leafs) set a National Hockey League (NHL) record when he scored 10 points in a game against the Boston Bruins. He scored six goals and four assists.

1977 - Russia launched Soyuz 24.

1984 - Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart made the first untethered space walk.

1985 - "Sports Illustrated" released its annual swimsuit edition. It was the largest regular edition in the magazine’s history at 218 pages.

1985 - "New York, New York" became the official anthem of New York City.

1986 - Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country ending 28 years of family rule.

1991 - The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.

1999 - King Hussein of Jordan died. His son was sworn in as king four hours after the announcement that his father had died.

2000 - California's legislature declared that February 13 would be "Charels M. Schulz Day."

February 8, 2013

1693 - A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.

1802 - Simon Willard patented the banjo clock.

1861 - The Confederate States of America was formed.

1861 - A Cheyenne delegation and some Arapaho leaders accepted a new settlement (Treaty of Fort Wise) with the U.S. Federal government. The deal ceded most of their land but secured a 600-square mile reservation and annuity payments.

1896 - The Western Conference was formed by representatives of Midwestern universities. The group changed its name to the Big 10 Conference.

1900 - In South Africa, British troops under Gen. Buller were beaten at Ladysmith. The British fled over the Tugela River.

1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began with Japan attacking Russian forces in Manchuria.

1910 - William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.

1918 - "The Stars and Stripes" newspaper was published for the first time.

1922 - The White House began using radio after U.S. President Harding had it installed.

1927 - The original version of "Getting Gertie’s Garter" opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in New York City.

1936 - The first National Football League draft was held. Jay Berwanger was the first to be selected. He went to the Philadelphia Eagles.

1952 - Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the British throne. Her father, George VI, had died on February 6.

1963 - The Kennedy administration prohibited travel to Cuba and made financial and commercial transactions with Cuba illegal for U.S. citizens.

1963 - Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League franchise in Dallas, TX, moved the operation to Kansas City. The new team was named the Chiefs.

1969 - The last issue of the "Saturday Evening Post" was published. It was revived in 1971 as a quarterly publication and later a 6 times a year.

1971 - The Nasdaq stock-market index debuted.

1973 - U.S. Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal.

1974 - The three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after 84 days.

1978 - The U.S. Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time. The subject was the Panama Canal treaties.

1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced a plan to re-introduce draft registration.

1985 - "The Dukes of Hazzard" ended its 6-1/2 year run on CBS television.

1993 - General Motors sued NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that some GM pickups were prone to fires after certain types of crashes. The suit was settled the following day by NBC.

2002 - The exhibit "Places of Their Own" opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The works displayed were by Geogia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Emily Carr.

February 9, 2013

1825 - The U.S. House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president. No candidate had received a majority of electoral votes.

1861 - The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis as its president.

1870 - The United States Weather Bureau was authorized by Congress. The bureau is officially known as the National Weather Service (NWS).

1884 - Thomas Edison and Patrick Kenny executed a patent application for a chemical recording stock quotation telegraph (U.S. Pat. 314,115).

1885 - The first Japanese arrived in Hawaii.

1895 - Volley Ball was invented by W.G. Morgan.

1895 - The first college basketball game was played as Minnesota State School of Agriculture defeated the Porkers of Hamline College, 9-3.

1900 - Dwight F. Davis put up a new tennis trophy to go to the winner in matches against England. The trophy was a silver cup that weighed 36 pounds.

1909 - The first forestry school was incorporated in Kent, Ohio.

1932 - America entered the 2-man bobsled competition for the first time at the Olympic Winter Games held at Lake Placid, NY.

1942 - The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II.

1942 - Daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the U.S.

1943 - During World War II, the battle of Guadalcanal ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.

1950 - U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists. This was the beginning of "McCarthyism."

1953 - The movie "Superman" premiered.

1958 - CBS radio debuted "Frontier Gentleman".

1960 - A verbal agreement was reached between representatives of the American and National Football Leagues. Both agreed not to tamper with player contracts.

1960 - The first star was placed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The star was for Joanne Woodward.

1969 - The Boeing 747 flew its inaugural flight.

1971 - The San Fernando Valley experienced the Sylmar earthquake that registered 6.4 on the Richter Scale.

1971 - The Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after mankind's third landing on the moon.

1975 - The Russian Soyuz 17 returned to Earth.

1984 - NBC Entertainment president, Brandon Tartikoff, gave an interviewer the "10 Commandments for TV Programmers."

1989 - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. completed the $25 billion purchase of RJR Nabisco, Inc.

1997 - "The Simpsons" became the longest-running prime-time animated series. "The Flintstones" held the record previously.

2001 - "Hannibal," the sequel to "Silence of the Lambs", opened in theaters.

February 10, 2013

1763 - The Treaty of Paris ended the French and Indian War. In the treaty France ceded Canada to England.

1840 - Britain's Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha.

1846 - Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began their exodus to the west from Illinois.

1863 - In New York City, two of the world’s most famous midgets, General Tom Thumb and Lavinia Warren were married.

1863 - The fire extinguisher was patented by Alanson Crane.

1870 - The city of Anaheim was incorporated for the first time.

1870 - The YWCA was founded in New York City.

1879 - The electric arc light was used for the first time.

1897 - "The New York Times" began printing "All the news that's fit to print" on their front page.

1920 - Major league baseball representatives outlawed pitches that involve tampering with the ball.

1923 - Ink paste was manufactured for the first time by the Standard Ink Company.

1925 - The first waterless gas storage tank was placed in service in Michigan City, IN.

1933 - The singing telegram was introduced by the Postal Telegraph Company of New York City.

1933 - Primo Carnera knocked out Ernie Schaaf in round 13 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Schaaf died as a result of the knockout punch.

1934 - The first imperforated, ungummed sheets of postage stamps were issued by the U.S. Postal Service in New York City.

1935 - The Pennsylvania Railroad began passenger service with its electric locomotive. The engine was 79-1/2 feet long and weighed 230 tons.

1942 - The Normandie, the former French liner, capsized in New York Harbor. The day before the ship had caught fire while it was being fitted for the U.S. Navy.

1949 - "Death of a Salesman" opened at the Morocco Theatre in New York City.

1962 - The Soviet Union exchanged capture American U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for the Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel being held by the U.S.

1967 - The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. The amendment required the appointment of a vice-president when that office became vacant and instituted new measures in the event of presidential disability.

1981 - The Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino caught fire. Eight people were killed and 198 were injured.

1989 - Ron Brown became the first African American to head a major U.S. political party when he was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk announced that black activist Nelson Mandela would be released the next day after 27 years in captivity.

1992 - Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, Miss Black American contestant.

1997 - The U.S. Army suspended its top-ranking enlisted soldier, Army Sgt. Major Gene McKinney following allegations of sexual misconduct. McKinney was convicted of obstruction of justice and acquitted of 18 counts alleging sexual harassment of six military women.

1998 - A man became the first to be convicted of committing a hate crime in cyberspace. The college dropout had e-mailed threats to Asian students.

1998 - Voters in Maine repealed a 1997 gay rights law. Maine was the first state to abandone such legislation.

1999 - Avalanches killed at least 10 people when they roared down the French Alps 30 miles from Geneva.

2005 - North Korea publicly announced for the first time that it had nuclear arms. The country also rejected attempts to restart disarmament talks in the near future saying that it needed the weapons as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.

2009 - A Russian and an American satellite collide over Siberia.

February 11, 2013

1752 - The Pennsylvania Hospital opened as the very first hospital in America.

1808 - Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel.

1812 - The term "gerrymandering" had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party.

1858 - A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.

1878 - The first U.S. bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club, was formed.

1929 - The Lateran Treaty was signed. Italy now recognized the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.

1936 - Pumping began the process to build San Francisco's Treasure Island.

1937 - General Motors agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union, which ended the current sit-down strike against them.

1940 - NBC radio presented "The Chamber music Society of Lower Basin Street" for the first time.

1943 - General Dwight David Eisenhower was selected to command the allied armies in Europe. (Today in World War II History)

1945 - During World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin. (Today in World War II History)

1957 - The NHL Players Association was formed in New York City.

1958 - Ruth Carol Taylor was the first black woman to become a stewardess by making her initial flight.

1960 - jack Paar walked off while live on the air on the "Tonight Show" with four minutes left. He did this in response to censors cutting out a joke from the show the night before.

1968 - The new 20,000 seat Madison Square Garden officially opened in New York. This was the fourth Garden.

1972 - McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish an autobiography of Howard Hughes. The work turned out to be fake.

1975 - Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a major party in Britain when she was elected leader of the Conservative Party.

1979 - Nine days after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran (after 15 years in exile) power was seized by his followers.

1982 - ABC-TV’s presentation of "The Winds of War" concluded. The 18-hour miniseries cost $40 million to produce and was the most-watched television program in history at the time.

1982 - France nationalized five groups of major industries and 39 banks.

1984 - The tenth Space Shuttle mission returned to Earth safely.

1989 - Rev. Barbara C. Harris became the first woman to be consecrated as a bishop in the Episcopal Church.

1990 - Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.

1990 - In Tokyo, Japan, James "Buster" Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in the tenth round to win the heavyweight championship.

1993 - Janet Reno was appointed to the position of attorney general by U.S. President Clinton. She was the first female to hold the position.

2000 - The space shuttle Endeavor took off. The mission was to gather information for the most detailed map of the earth ever made.

2000 - Great Britain suspended self-rule in Northern Ireland after the Irish Republican Army (IRA) failed to begin decommissioning (disarming) by a February deadline.

2002 - The six stars on NBC's "Friends" signed a deal for $24 million each for the ninth and final season of the series.

2006 - In Texas, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a quail hunt.

2009 - John Dingell of Michigan became the longest serving member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He had more than 53 years of service.

February 13, 2013

1542 - Catherine Howard was executed for adultery. She was the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII.

1633 - Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition.

1635 - The Boston Public Latin School was established. It was the first public school building in the United States.

1741 - "The American Magazine," the first magazine in the U.S., was published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1875 - Mrs. Edna Kanouse gave birth to America’s first quintuplets. All five of the baby boys died within two weeks.

1880 - Thomas Edison observed what became known as the Edison Effect for the first time.

1889 - Norman Coleman became the first U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

1900 - The Anglo-German accord of 1899 was ratified by Reichstag, in which Britain renounced rights in Samoa in favor of Germany and the U.S.

1914 - The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (known as ASCAP) was formed in New York City. The society was founded to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

1920 - The League of Nations recognized the continued neutrality of Switzerland.

1920 - The National Negro Baseball League was organized.

1935 - In Flemington, New Jersey, a jury found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of the kidnapping and death of the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was later executed for the crimes.

1937 - The comic strip "Prince Valiant" appeared for the first time.

1939 - Virginia Payne became a new character in NBC’s soap opera, "The Carter’s of Elm Street". She played the part of Mrs. Carter.

1945 - During World War II, the Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the German army.

1945 - During World War II, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city of Dresden.

1947 - "Family Theatre" was heard for the first time on Mutual radio.

1955 - Israel acquired 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls.

1960 - France detonated its first atomic bomb.

1965 - Sixteen-year-old Peggy Fleming won the ladies senior figure skating title at Lake Placid, NY.

1971 - South Vietnamese troops invaded Laos. They were backed by U.S. air and artillery support.

1984 - Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed at a record high of 1297.92 after it topped the 1300 mark earlier in the trading session.

1990 - In Ottawa, the United States and its European allies forged an agreement with the Soviet Union and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite Germany.

1991 - Hundreds of Iraqis were killed by two laser-guided bombs that destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad. U.S. officials identified the facility as a military installation, but Iraqi officials said it was a bomb shelter.

1997 - Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery brought the Hubble Space Telescope aboard for a tune up. The tune up allowed the telescope to see further into the universe.

1997 - The Dow Jones industrial average passed the 7,000 mark for the first time. The day ended at 7,022.44.

1999 - A bomb exploded just outside a government-owned bank in southern Kosovo. Nine people were killed.

2000 - Charles M. Schulz's last original Sunday "Peanuts" comic strip appeared in newspapers. Schulz had died the day before.

2001 - El Savador was hit with an earthquake that measured 6.6 on the Richter Scale. At least 400 people were killed.

2002 - In Alexandria, VA, John Walker Lindh pled innocent to a 10-count federal indictment. He was charged with conspiring to kill Americans and aiding Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.

2002 - Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.

2008 - Roger Clemens denied having taken performance-enhancing drugs in testimony before Congress.

2008 - Hollywood writers ended a 100-day strike.

February 14, 2013

1778 - The Stars and Stripes was carried to a foreign port, in France, for the first time. It was aboard the American ship Ranger.

1803 - Moses Coats received a patent on the Apple parer.

1849 - The first photograph of a U.S. President, while in office, was taken by Matthew Brady in New York City. President James Polk was the subject of the picture.

1859 - Oregon became the 33rd member of the Union.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell filed an application for a patent for the telephone. It was officially issued on March 7, 1876.

1889 - In Los Angeles, CA, oranges began their first trip to the east.

1895 - Oscar Wilde's final play, "The Importance of Being Earnest," opened at the St. James' Theatre in London.

1899 - The U.S. Congress approved voting machines for use in federal elections.

1900 - Russia imposed tighter imperial control over Finland in response to an international petition for Finland's freedom.

1900 - In South Africa, British Gen. Roberts invaded Orange Free State with 20,000 troops.

1903 - The U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor was established.

1912 - The first diesel engine submarine was commissioned in Groton, CT.

1912 - Arizona was admitted as the 48th U.S. state.

1918 - The motion picture "Tarzan of the Apes" was released.

1920 - The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. The first president of the organization was Maude Wood Park.

1929 - The "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in Chicago, IL. Seven gangsters who were rivals of Al Capone were killed.

1932 - The U.S. won the first bobsled competition at the Winter Olympic Games at Lake Placid, NY.

1940 - The first porpoise born in captivity arrived at Marineland in Florida.

1945 - Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations.

1946 - ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer) was unveiled. The device, built at the University of Pennsylvania, was the world's first general purpose electronic computer.

1954 - The TV show "Letter to Loretta" changed its name to "The Loretta Young Show." The show premiered on September 20, 1953.

1957 - Lionel Hampton’s only major musical work, "King David," made its debut at New York’s Town Hall.

1961 - Lawrencium, element 103, was first produced in Berkely, CA.

1962 - U.S. First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave a tour of the White House on television.

1966 - Rick Mount of Lebanon, IN, became the first high school, male athlete to be pictured on the cover of "Sports Illustrated".

1966 - Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia 76ers set a National Basketball Association (NBA) record as he reached a career high of 20,884 points after seven seasons.

1968 - The fourth Madison Square Gardens opened.

1979 - Twenty-year-old rookie, Don Maloney, of the New York Rangers, scored his first goal in the National Hockey League. It came on his first NHL shot.

1979 - Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists. He was killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.

1980 - Walter Cronkite announced his retirement from the "CBS Evening News."

1983 - A 6-year-old boy became the first person to receive a heart and liver transplants in the same operation.

1985 - Cable News Network (CNN) reporter Jeremy Levin was freed. He had been being held in Lebanon by extremists.

1989 - Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his novel "The Satanic Verses."

1989 - The first satellite of the Global Positioning System was placed into orbit around Earth.

1989 - Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the government of India. The court-ordered settlement was a result of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.

1997 - Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery began a series of spacewalks that were required to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope.

1998 - U.S. authorities officially announced that Eric Rudolph was a suspect in a bombing of an abortion clinic in Alabama.

2002 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Shays-Meehan bill. The bill, if passed by the U.S. Senate, would ban millions of unregulated money that goes to the national political parties.

2002 - Sylvester Stallone filed a lawsuit against Kenneth Starr. The suit alleged that Starr had given bad advice about selling Planet Hollywood stock.

2003 - In Madrid, Spain, a ceramic plate with a bullfighting motif painted by Pablo Picasso in 1949 was stolen from an art show. The plate was on sale for $12,400.

February 15, 2013

1758 - Mustard was advertised for the first time in America.

1764 - The city of St. Louis was established.

1799 - Printed ballots were authorized for use in elections in the state of Pennsylvania.

1842 - Adhesive postage stamps were used for the first time by the City Dispatch Post (Office) in New York City.

1879 - U.S. President Hayes signed a bill that allowed female attorneys to argue cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1898 - The USS Maine sank when it exploded in Havana Harbor for unknown reasons. More than 260 crew members were killed.

1900 - The British threaten to use natives in their war with the Boers.

1903 - Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian immigrants, introduced the first teddy bear in America.

1932 - George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on "The Guy Lombardo Show" on CBS radio.

1933 - U.S. President-elect Franklin Roosevelt escaped an assination attempt in Miami. Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was killed in the attack.

1942 - During World War II, Singapore surrendered to the Japanese.

1943 - "My True Story" was heard for the first time on ABC radio.

1946 - Edith Houghton, at age 33, was signed as a baseball scout by the Philadelphia Phillies becoming the first female scout in the major leagues.

1953 - The first American to win the women’s world figure skating championship was 17-year-old Tenley Albright.

1961 - A Boeing 707 crashed in Belgium killing 73 people.

1962 - CBS-TV bought the exclusive rights to college football games from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for a figure of $10,200,000.

1965 - Canada displayed its new red and white maple leaf flag. The flag was to replace the old Red Ensign standard.

1982 - During a storm, the Ocean Ranger, a drilling rig, sank off the coast of Newfoundland. 84 men were killed.

1985 - The Center for Disease Control reported that more than half of all nine-year-olds in the U.S. showed no sign of tooth decay.

1989 - After nine years of intervention, the Soviet Union announced that the remainder of its troops had left Afghanistan.

1991 - The leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland signed the Visegard agreement, in which they pledged to cooperate in transforming thier countties to free-market economies.

1995 - The FBI arrested Kevin Mitnick and charged him with cracking security in some of the nation's most protected computers. He served five years in jail.

2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush approved Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a site for long-term disposal of radioactive nuclear waste.

February 17, 2013

1801 - The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson was elected president and Burr became vice president.

1817 - The first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD.

1865 - Columbia, SC, burned. The Confederates were evacuating and the Union Forces were moving in.

1876 - Julius Wolff was credited with being the first to can sardines.

1878 - In San Francisco, CA, the first large city telephone exchange opened. It had only 18 phones.

1897 - The National Congress of Mothers was organized in Washington, DC, by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was the forerunner of the National PTA.

1913 - The Armory Show opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The full-scale exhibition was of contemporary paintings and was organized by the Association of Painters and Sculptors.

1924 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle. He did it with a time of 57-2/5 seconds in Miami, FL.

1933 - "Newsweek" was first published.

1933 - Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after Chic Young’s popular strip first debuted.

1934 - The first high school automobile driver’s education course was introduced in State College, PA.

1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. U.S. forces won the battle on February 22, 1944.

1947 - The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.

1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be approximately equal in population. (Westberry v. Sanders)

1965 - Comedienne Joan Rivers made her first guest appearances on " The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" on NBC-TV.

1968 - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield, MA.

1985 - U.S. Postage stamp prices were raised from 20 cents to 22 cents for first class mail.

1992 - In Milwaukee, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. In November of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison.

1995 - Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.

1996 - World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue" in Philadelphia, PA.

1997 - Pepperdine University announced that Kenneth Starr was leaving the Whitewater probe to take a full-time job at the school. Starr reversed the announcement four days later.

2005 - U.S. President George W. Bush named John Negroponte as the first national intelligence director.

February 18, 2013

1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.

1685 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas.

1735 - The first opera performed in America. The work was "Flora" (or "Hob in the Well") was presented in Charleston, SC.

1841 - The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It lasted until March 11th.

1861 - In Montgomery, AL, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.

1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.

1913 - The famous French painting "Nude Descending a Staircase", by the French artist, Marcel Duchamp, was displayed at an "Armory Show" in New York City.

1930 - Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane.

1930 - The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.

1932 - Sonja Henie won her 6th world women’s figure skating title in Montreal, Canada.

1938 - "The Big Broadcast of 1938" was released.

1949 - "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" debuted on CBS radio.

1952 - Greece and Turkey became members of NATO.

1953 - "Bwana Devil" opened. It was the first three-dimensional feature.

1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the "I Love Lucy" TV show through 1955.

1964 - "Any Wednesday" opened at the music Box Theatre in New York City. The play established Gene Hackman as an actor.

1970 - The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.

1972 - The California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.

1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise went on its maiden "flight" sitting on top of a Boeing 747.

1984 - Reed Larson (Detroit Red Wings) got two assists to become the highest scoring, American-born player in the history of the National Hockey League. Larson broke the record by scoring his 432nd point.

1987 - The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.

1998 - In Russia, money shortages resulted in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons.

1998 - In Nevada, two white separatists were arrested and accused of plotting a bacterial attack on subways in New York City.

2000 - The U.S. Commerce Department reported a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999. It was the largest calender-year trade gap in U.S. history.

2001 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.

2001 - FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested and accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

2003 - In South Korea, at least 120 people were killed when a man lit a fire on a subway train.

2006 - American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter speedskating in Turin. He was the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.

February 19, 2013

1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.

1846 - The formal transfer of government between Texas and the United States took place. Texas had officially become a state on December 29, 1845.

1856 - The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.

1864 - The Knights of Pythias was founded in Washington, DC. A dozen members formed what became Lodge No. 1.

1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).

1881 - Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.

1922 - Ed Wynn became the first big-name, vaudeville talent to sign on as a radio talent.

1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.

1942 - The New York Yankees announced that they would admit 5,000 uniformed servicemen free to each of their home ball games during the coming season.

1942 - Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.

1945 - During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.

1949 - Bollingen Foundation and Yale University awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry ($5,000) to Ezra Pound.

1953 - The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.

1959 - Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement with Britain, Turkey and Greece.

1963 - The Soviet Union informed U.S. President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of its troops in Cuba.

1981 - The U.S. State Department call El Savador a "textbook case" of a Communist plot.

1981 - Ford Motor Company announced its loss of $1.5 billion.

1985 - Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.

1985 - William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.

1985 - Cherry Coke was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification.

1986 - The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.

1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking publice service announcement aired for the first time on television. Yul Brynner filmed the ad shortly before dying of lung cancer. Brynner made it clear in the ad that he would have died from cigarette smoking before ad aired.

1997 - Deng Xiaoping of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries.

1999 - Dennis Franz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2001 - The museum at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center was dedicated.

2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.

2004 - Former Enron Corp. chief executive Jeffrey Skilling was charged with fraud, insider trading and other crimes in connection with the energy trader's collapse. Skilling was later convicted and sentenced to more than 24 years in prison.

2005 - The USS Jimmy Carter was commissioned at Groton, CT. It was the last of the Seawolf class of attack submarines.

2008 - Fidel Castro resigned the Cuban presidency. His brother Raul was later named as his successor.

February 20, 2013

1673 - The first recorded wine auction took place in London.

1792 - U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act thereby creating the U.S. Post Office.

1809 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state.

1815 - The USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely on May 15, 1815. The Cyane was purchased and became the USS Cyane.

1839 - The U.S. Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

1872 - Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured paper bags.

1872 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.

1872 - Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing machine.

1873 - The University of California got its first Medical School.

1880 - The American Bell Company was incorporated.

1901 - The first territorial legislature of Hawaii convened.

1921 - The motion picture "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" was released starring Rudolph Valentino.

1931 - The U.S. Congress allowed California to build the Oakland Bay Bridge.

1933 - The U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on the amendment to repeal Prohibition.

1944 - "Big Week" began as U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers during World War II.

1952 - Emmett L. Ashford became the first black umpire in organized baseball. He was authorized to be a substitute in the Southwestern International League.

1952 - "The African Queen" opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

1958 - Racing jockey Eddie Arcaro got win number 4,000, as he rode the winner at Santa Anita race track in Southern California.

1962 - John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

1965 - Ranger 8 crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of its surface.

1987 - After 11 years, David Hartman left ABC’s "Good Morning America."

1987 - A bomb exploded in a computer store in Salt Lake City, UT. The blast was blamed on the Unabomber.

1993 - Two ten-year-old boys were charged by police in Liverpool, England, in the abduction and death of a toddler. The two boys were later convicted.

1998 - American Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.

2001 - FBI Agent Robert Phillip Hanssen was arrested and charged with spying for the Russians for 15 years.

2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire raced through a train killing at least 370 people and injuring at least 65.

2003 - In West Warwick, RI, 99 people were killed when fire destroyed the nightclub The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, was one of the victims in the fire.

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