On This Day

February 4, 2014

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, 2014

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.

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.

1952 - In New York City, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians "don't walk."

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, 2014

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, 2014

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, 2014

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, 2014

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, 2014

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, 2014

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 12, 2014

1541 - The city of Santiago, Chile was founded.

1554 - Lady Jane Grey was beheaded after being charged with treason. She had claimed the throne of England for only nine days.

1733 - Savannah, GA, was founded by English colonist James Oglethorpe.

1870 - In the Utah Territory, women gained the right to vote.

1878 - Frederick W. Thayer patented the baseball catcher’s mask.

1879 - The first artificial ice rink opened in North America. It was at Madison Square Garden in New York City, NY.

1880 - The National Croquet League was organized in Philadelphia, PA.

1892 - In the U.S., President Lincoln's birthday was declared to be a national holiday.

1907 - A collision of the steamer Larchmont and a schooler resulted in the death of more than 300 people. The incident occurred off New England's Block Island.

1909 - The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

1912 - China's boy emperor Hsuan T'ung announced that he was abdicating, ending the Manchu Ch'ing dynasty. Subsequently, the Republic of China was established.

1915 - The cornerstone of the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC.

1918 - All theatres in New York City were shut down in an effort to conserve coal.

1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio.

1924 - "The Eveready Hour" became radio’s first sponsored network program. The National Carbon Company was the first sponsor of a network show.

1934 - The Export-Import Bank was incorporated.

1940 - Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of the radio play "The Adventures of Superman."

1968 - "Soul on Ice" by Eldridge Cleaver was published for the first time.

1971 - James Cash (J.C.) Penney died at the age of 95. The company closed for business for one-half day as a memorial to the company's founder.

1973 - The State of Ohio went metric, becoming the first in the U.S. to post metric distance signs.

1973 - American prisoners of war were released for the first time during the Vietnam conflict.

1985 - Johnny Carson surprised his audience by shaving the beard he had been wearing on "The Tonight Show."

1993 - In Liverpool, England, a 2-year-old boy, James Bulger, was lured away from his mother at a shopping mall and beaten to death. Two ten-year-old boys were responsible.

1998 - A U.S. federal judge declared that the presidential line-item veto was unconstitutional.

1999 - U.S. President Clinton was acquitted by the U.S. Senate on two impeachment articles. The charges were perjury and obstruction of justice.

2001 - The space probe NEAR landed on the asteroid Eros. It was the first time that any craft had landed on a small space rock.

2002 - Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, exercised his constitutional rights and refused to testify to the U.S. Congress about the collapse of Enron.

2002 - The trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic began at the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. Milosevic was accused of war crimes during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

2002 - Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi.

2002 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco and Franco Knie won a defamation-of-character lawsuit against the Swiss magazine "Facts." The case involved a photomontage created by the magazine.

2003 - The U.N. nuclear agency declared North Korea in violation of international treaties. The complaint was sent to the Security Council.

2004 - Mattel announced that "Barbie" and "Ken" were breaking up. The dolls had met on the set of their first television commercial together in 1961.

February 13, 2014

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, 2014

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 Coates received a patent for 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.

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, 2014

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 16, 2014

1741 - Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle".

1804 - A raid was led by Lt. Stephen Decatur to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia. The ship had been taken by pirates.

1857 - The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC. It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf. The school was later renamed Gallaudet College.

1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, TN.

1868 - The Jolly Corks organization, in New York City, changed it name to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).

1883 - "Ladies Home Journal" began publication.

1914 - The first airplane flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco took place.

1918 - Lithuania proclaimed its independence.

1923 - Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.

1932 - The first fruit tree patent was issued to James E. Markham for a peach tree which ripens later than other varieties.

1937 - Wallace H. Carothers received a patent for nylon. Carothers was a research chemist for Du Pont.

1938 - The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance program was authorized.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines.

1946 - The first commercially designed helicopter was tested in Connecticut.

1948 - NBC-TV began airing its first nightly newscast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre", which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.

1959 - Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista.

1960 - The U.S.S. Triton began the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip ended on May 10.

1962 - Jimmy Bostwick defeated his brother, Pete, to win the U.S. Open Court-Tennis championships for the third time.

1963 - Paul Anka married Marie-Ann DeZogheb in Paris.

1968 - In the U.S., the first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, AL.

1970 - Joe Frazier began his reign as the undefeated heavyweight world champion when he knocked out Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He lost the title on January 22, 1973, when he lost for the first time in his professional career to George Foreman.

1972 - Wilt Chamberlain (Los Angeles Lakers) reached the 30,000-point mark in his NBA career during a game against the Phoenix Suns.

1977 - The Anglican archbishop of Uganda, Janani Luwum, was killed in automobile accident. Two other men were also killed.

1985 - "Kojak" returned to network television after an absence of seven years with the CBS-TV special, "Kojak: The Belarus File."

1987 - John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem. He was accused of being "Ivan the Terrible", a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the ruling.

1989 - Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, announced that a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was the reason that Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down the previous December. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground were killed.

1999 - A bomb exploded at the government headquarters in Uzbekistan. Gunfire followed the incident. The event apparently was an attempt on the life of President Islam Karimov.

1999 - Kurds seized embassies and held hostages across Europe following Turkey's arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

1999 - Testimony began in the Jasper, TX, trial of John William King. He was charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted and sentenced to death.

2002 - The operator of a crematory in Noble, GA, was arrested after dozens of corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around in the surrounding woods.

2005 - The Kyoto global warming pact went into effect in 140 nations.

2005 - The NHL announced the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season due to a labor dispute. It was the first time a major sports league in North America lost an entire season to a labor dispute.

February 17, 2014

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, 2014

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, 2014

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, 2014

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.

February 21, 2014

1804 - The first self-propelled locomotive on rails was demonstrated in Wales.

1842 - John J. Greenough patented the sewing machine.

1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

1858 - The first electric burglar alarm was installed in Boston, MA.

1866 - Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from a dental school. The school was the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.

1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune began publication.

1878 - The first telephone directories issued in the U.S. were distributed to residents in New Haven, CT. It was a single page of only fifty names.

1904 - The National Ski Association was formed in Ishpeming, MI.

1916 - During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began in France. The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany.

1925 - The first issue of "The New Yorker" was published.

1932 - William N. Goodwin patented the camera exposure meter.

1943 - "Free World Theatre" debuted on the Blue network (now ABC radio).

1945 - "The Lion and the Mouse" was first broadcast on "Brownstone Theatre."

1947 - Edwin Land demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera to the Optical Society of America in New York City. It was the first camera to take, develop and print a picture on photo paper all in about 60 seconds. The photos were black and white. The camera went on sale the following year.

1950 - The first International Pancake Race was held in Liberal, Kansas.

1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims.

1968 - An agreement between baseball players and club owners increased the minimum salary for major league players to $10,000 a year.

1973 - Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert. More than 100 people were killed.

1975 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.

1988 - In Baton Rouge, LA, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin. He announced that he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Swaggart had been linked to an admitted prostitute.

1989 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."

1995 - Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. He landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.

1999 - India's Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee concluded two days of meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Nowaz Sharif.

2000 - David Letterman returned to his Late Night show about five weeks after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass operation.

2003 - David Hasselhoff and his wife Pamela were injured in a motorcycle accident. The accident was caused by a strong gust of wind. Hasselhoff fractured his lower back and broke several ribs. His wife fractured her left ankle and right wrist.

February 22, 2014

1630 - Quadequine introduced popcorn to English colonists at their first Thanksgiving dinner.

1784 - "Empress of China", a U.S. merchant ship, left New York City for the Far East.

1819 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

1855 - The U.S. Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 for continuance of the work on the Washington Monument. The next morning the resolution was tabled and it would be 21 years before the Congress would vote on funds again. Work was continued by the Know-Nothing Party in charge of the project.

1859 - U.S. President Buchanan approved the Act of February 22, 1859, which incorporated the Washington National Monument Society "for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government."

1860 - Organized baseball’s first game was played in San Francisco, CA.

1865 - In the U.S., Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery.

1879 - In Utica, NY, Frank W. Woolworth opened his first 5 and 10-cent store.

1885 - The Washington Monument was officially dedicated in Washington, DC. It opened to the public in 1889.

1892 - "Lady Windermere's Fan", by Oscar Wilde, was first performed.

1920 - The first dog race track to use an imitation rabbit opened in Emeryville, CA.

1923 - The first successful chinchilla farm opened in Los Angeles, CA. It was the first farm of its kind in the U.S.

1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.

1954 - ABC radio’s popular "Breakfast Club" program was simulcast on TV for the first time.

1969 - Barbara Jo Rubin became the first woman to win a U.S. thoroughbred horse race.

1973 - The U.S. and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.

1984 - The U.S. Census Bureau statistics showed that the state of Alaska was the fastest growing state of the decade with an increase in population of 19.2 percent.

1994 - The U.S. Justice Department charged Aldrich Ames and his wife with selling national secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames was later convicted to life in prison. Ames' wife received a 5-year prison term.

1997 - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and colleagues announced that an adult sheep had been successfully cloned. Dolly was actually born on July 5, 1996. Dolly was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell.

2002 - In the Philippines, An MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashed into the ocean. All 10 men aboard were killed.

February 23, 2014

1574 - France began the 5th holy war against the Huguenots.

1660 - Charles XI became the king of Sweden.

1792 - The Humane Society of Massachusetts was incorporated.

1813 - The first U.S. raw cotton-to-cloth mill was founded in Waltham, MA.

1820 - The Cato Street conspiracy was uncovered.

1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries established the first pharmacy college.

1822 - Boston was incorporated as a city.

1836 - In San Antonio, TX, the siege of the Alamo began.

1839 - In Boston, MA, William F. Harnden organized the first express service between Boston and New York City. It was the first express service in the U.S.

1847 - Santa Anna was defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico by U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary.

1861 - U.S. President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take his office after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.

1861 - Texas became the 7th state to secede from the Union.

1870 - The state of Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

1874 - Walter Winfield patented a game called "sphairistike." More widely known as lawn tennis.

1875 - J. Palisa discovered asteroid #143 (aka Adria).

1883 - Alabama became the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.

1886 - Charles M. Hall completed his invention of aluminum.

1887 - The French/Italian Riviera was hit by an earthquake that killed about 2,000.

1896 - The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.

1898 - In France, Emile Zola was imprisoned for his letter, "J'accuse," which accused the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus.

1900 - The Battle of Hart's Hill took place in South Africa between the Boers and the British army.

1904 - The U.S. acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.

1905 - The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago, IL, by Attorney Paul Harris and three others.

1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first radio contest was held.

1915 - Nevada began enforcing convenient divorce law.

1916 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the McKinley Memorial $1 gold coin.

1919 - The Fascist Party was formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini.

1927 - The Federal Radio Commission began assigning frequencies, hours of operation and power allocations for radio broadcasters. On July 1, 1934 the name was changed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

1932 - Robert Short became the first American to die in an arial battle with the Japanese. (more info)

1940 - Russian troops conquered Lasi Island.

1940 - Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" was released.

1945 - The 28th Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division of the U.S. Marines reached the top of Mount Surabachi. A photograph of these Marines raising the American flag was taken.

1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh, PA.

1955 - The French government was formed by Edgar Faure.

1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NFL operations did fall within coverage of antitrust laws.

1958 - Juan Fangio, 5-time world diving champion, was kidnapped by Cuban rebels.

1963 - The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It prohibited poll taxes in federal elections.

1966 - The Bitar government in Syria was ended with a military coup.

1967 - Jim Ryun set a record in the half-mile run when ran it in 1:48.3.

1968 - Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) became the first player to score 25,000 career points in the NBA.

1970 - Guyana became a republic.

1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $4 million more for the release of Patty Hearst. Hearst had been kidnapped on February 4th.

1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Iran's new parliament would have to decide the fate of the hostages taken on November 4, 1979, at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

1985 - The TV show "Gimme a Break" was broadcast live before a studio audience. It was the first TV sitcom to be seen live since the 1950s.

1991 - During the Persian Gulf War, ground forces crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or withdraw of Iraqi forces.

1993 - Gary Coleman won a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.

1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial closed about 4,000 for the first time at 4,003.33.

1997 - NBC-TV aired "Schindler's List." It was completely uncensored.

1997 - Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building. He killed one person and wounded six more before killing himself.

1998 - In central Florida, tornadoes killed 42 people and damaged and/or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.

1999 - In Ankara, Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan was charged with treason. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the Kurdish rebel leader.

1999 - White supremacist John William King was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering James Byrd Jr. Byrd was dragged behind a truck for two miles on a country road in Texas.

2000 - Robby Knievel made a successful motorcycle jump of 200 feet over an oncoming train.

2005 - The New York, NY, city medical examiner's office annouced that it had exhausted all efforts to identify the remains of the people killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, due to the limits of DNA technology. About 1,600 people had been identified leaving more than 1,100 unidentified.

February 25, 2014

1570 - England's Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.

1751 - Edward Willet displayed the first trained monkey act in the U.S.

1793 - The department heads of the U.S. government met with U.S. President Washington for the first Cabinet meeting on U.S. record.

1836 - Samuel Colt received a patent for a "revolving gun".

1901 - The United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized a graduated income tax.

1919 - The state of Oregon became the first state to place a tax on gasoline. The tax was 1 cent per gallon.

1928 - The Federal Radio Commission issued the first U.S. television license to Charles Jenkins Laboratories in Washington, DC.

1930 - The bank check photographing device was patented.

1933 - The aircraft carrier Ranger was launched. It was the first ship in the U.S. Navy to be designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier.

1940 - The New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens played in the first hockey game to be televised in the U.S. The game was aired on W2WBS in New York with one camera in a fixed position. The Rangers beat the Canadiens 6-2.

1948 - Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

1950 - "Your Show of Shows" debuted on NBC.

1956 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow.

1972 - Germany gave a $5 million ransom to Arab terrorist who had hijacked a jumbo jet.

1986 - Filippino President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule after a tainted election.

1999 - William King was sentenced to death for the racial murder of James Byrd Jr in Jasper, TX. Two other men charged were later convicted for their involvement.

1999 - In Moscow, China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Russia's President Boris Yeltsin discussed trade and other issues.

2000 - In Albany, NY, a jury acquitted four New York City police officers of second-degree murder and lesser charges in the February 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo.

2005 - Dennis Rader was arrested for the BTK serial killings in Wichita, KS. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.

February 26, 2014

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba. He then began his second conquest of France.

1848 - The second French Republic was proclaimed.

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the National Currency Act.

1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public.

1881 - S.S. Ceylon began his world-wide cruise, beginning in Liverpool, England.

1907 - The U.S. Congress raised their own pay to $7500.

1916 - Mutual signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract.

1919 - In Arizona, the Grand Canyon was established as a National Park with an act of the U.S. Congress.

1929 - U.S. President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Grand Teton National Park.

1930 - New York City installed traffic lights.

1933 - A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.

1945 - In the U.S., a nationwide midnight curfew went into effect.

1952 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed an atomic bomb.

1957 - The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1979 - "Flatbush" debuted on CBS-TV.

1986 - Corazon Aquino was inaugurated president of the Philippines. Long time President Ferdinand Marcos went into exile.

1987 - The Tower Commission rebuked U.S. President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 - The U.S.S.R. conducted its first nuclear weapons test after a 19-month moratorium period.

1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that Iraqi troops were being withdrawn from Kuwait.

1993 - Six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb had been built by Islamic extremists.

1995 - Barings PLC collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. The company was Britain's oldest investment banking firm.

1998 - A Texas jury rejected an $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price drop after on-air comment about mad-cow disease.

1998 - In Oregon, a health panel rules that taxpayers must help to pay for doctor-assisted suicides.

2001 - A U.N. tribunal convicted Bosnian Croat political leader Dario Kordic and military commander Mario Cerkez of war crimes. They had ordered the systematic murder and persecution of Muslim civilians during the Bosnian war.

2002 - In Rome, Italy, a bomb exploded near the Interior Ministry. No injuries were reported.

2009 - Former Serbian president Milan Milutinovic was acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia regarding war crimes during the Kosovo War.

2009 - The Pentagon reveresed its 18-year policy of not allowing media to cover returning war dead. The reversal allowsd some media coverage with family approval.

February 27, 2014

1700 - The Pacific Island of New Britain was discovered.

1801 - The city of Washington, DC, was placed under congressional jurisdiction.

1827 - New Orleans held its first Mardi Gras celebration.

1861 - In Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five protesting marchers were killed in the incident.

1867 - Dr. William G. Bonwill invented the dental mallet.

1883 - Oscar Hammerstein patented the first cigar-rolling machine.

1896 - The "Charlotte Observer" published a picture of an X-ray photograph made by Dr. H.L. Smith. The photograph showed a perfect picture of all the bones of a hand and a bullet that Smith had placed between the third and fourth fingers in the palm.

1900 - In South Africa, the British received an unconditional surrender from Boer Gen. Piet Cronje at Paardeberg.

1922 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 19th Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote.

1933 - The Reichstag, Germany's parliament building in Berlin, was set afire. The Nazis accused Communist for the fire.

1939 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.

1949 - Chaim Weizmann became the first Israeli president.

1951 - The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting U.S. Presidents to two terms.

1972 - The Shanghai Communique was issued by U.S. President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai.

1973 - The American Indian Movement occupied Wouned Knee in South Dakota.

1974 - "People" magazine was first issued by Time-Life (later known as Time-Warner).

1981 - Chrysler Corporation was granted an additional $400 million in federal loan guarantees. Chrysler had posted a loss of $1.7 billion in 1980.

1982 - Wayne B. Williams was convicted of murdering two of the 28 black children and young adults whose bodies were found in Atlanta, GA, over a two-year period.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved the telecast of its debates on a trial basis.

1990 - The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping were indicted on five criminal counts in reference to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1991 - U.S. President George H.W. Bush announced live on television that "Kuwait is liberated."

1997 - In Ireland, divorce became legal.

1997 - Don Cornelius received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Britain's House of Lords agreed to give a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. This was the end to 1,000 years of male preference.

1999 - Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new hot air balloon endurance record when they had been aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes. The two were in the process of trying to circumnavigate the Earth.

1999 - Nigeria returned to civilian rule when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo became the country's first elected president since August of 1983.

2002 - In Boston, twenty people working at Logan International Airport were charged with lying to get their jobs or security badges.

February 28, 2014

1827 - The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad became the first railroad incorporated for commercial transportation of people and freight.

1844 - Several people were killed aboard the USS Princeton when a 12-inch gun exploded.

1849 - Regular steamboat service to California via Cape Horn arrived in San Francisco for the first time. The SS California had left New York Harbor on October 6, 1848. The trip took 4 months and 21 days.

1854 - The Republican Party was organized in Ripon, WI. About 50 slavery opponents began the new political group.

1861 - The U.S. territory of Colorado was organized.

1881 - Thomas Edison hired Samuel Insull as his private secretary.

1883 - The first vaudeville theater opened.

1885 - AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph) was incorporated. The company was capitalized on only $100,000 and provided long distance service for American Bell.

1893 - Edward G. Acheson showed his patent for Carborundum.

1900 - In South Africa, British troops relieved Ladysmith, which had been under siege since November 2, 1899.

1911 - Thomas A. Edison, Inc. was organized.

1940 - The first televised basketball game was shown. The game featured Fordham University and the University of Pittsburgh from Madison Square Gardens in New York.

1948 - Bud Gartiser set a world record when he cleared the 50-yard low hurdles in 6.8 seconds.

1951 - A Senate committee issued a report that stated that there were at least two major crime syndicates in the U.S.

1953 - In a Cambridge University laboratory, scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA.

1954 - In San Francisco "Birth of a Planet" was aired. It was the first American phase-contrast cinemicrography film to be presented on television.

1956 - A patent was issued to Forrester for a computer memory core.

1962 - The John Glenn for President club was formed by a group of Las Vegas republicans.

1974 - The U.S. and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a break of seven years.

1979 - Mr. Ed, the talking horse from the TV show "Mr. Ed", died.

1983 - "M*A*S*H" became the most watched television program in history when the final episode aired.

1986 - Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was assassinated in Stockholm.

1993 - U.S. Federal agents raided the compound of an armed religious cult in Waco, TX. The ATF had planned to arrest the leader of the Branch Davidians, David Koresh, on federal firearms charges. Four agents and six Davidians were killed and a 51-day standoff followed.

1994 - NATO made its first military strike when U.S. F-16 fighters shot down four Bosnian Serb warplanes in violation of a no-fly zone over central Bosnia.

1995 - The Denver International Airport opened after a 16-month delay.

1998 - Serbian police began a campaign to wipe out "terrorist gangs" in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

2001 - The Northwest region of the U.S., including the state of Washington, was hit by an earthquake that measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale. There were no deaths reported.

2002 - In Ahmadabad, India, Hindus set fire to homes in a Muslim neighborhood. At least 55 people were killed in the attack.

2002 - Sotheby's auction house announced that it had identified Peter Paul Reubens as the creator of the painting "The Massacre of the Innocents." The painting was previously thought to be by Jan van den Hoecke.

March 1, 2014

1498 - Vasco de Gama landed at what is now Mozambique on his way to India.

1562 - In Vassy, France, Catholics massacred over 1,000 Huguenots. The event started the First War of Religion.

1692 - In Salem Village, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Salem witch trials began. Four women were the first to be charged.

1781 - In America, the Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation.

1784 - In Great Britain, E. Kidner opened the first cooking school.

1790 - The U.S. Congress authorized the first U.S. census.

1803 - Ohio became the 17th U.S. state.

1810 - Sweden became the first country to appoint an Ombudsman, Lars August Mannerheim.

1811 - Egyptian ruler Mohammed Ali massacred the leaders of the Mameluke dynasty.

1815 - Napoleon returned to France from the island of Elba. He had been forced to abdicate in April of 1814.

1845 - U.S. President Tyler signed the congressional resolution to annex the Republic of Texas.

1862 - Prussia formally recognized the Kingdom of Italy.

1864 - Louis Ducos de Hauron patented a machine for taking and projecting motion pictures. The machine was never built.

1867 - Nebraska became the 37th U.S. state.

1869 - Postage stamps with scenes were issued for the first time.

1872 - The U.S. Congress authorized the creation of Yellowstone National Park. It was the world's first national park.

1873 - E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, NY, began the manufacturing the first practical typewriter.

1879 - The library of Hawaii was established.

1890 - "Literary Digest" was available for the first time.

1896 - The Battle of Adowa began in Ethiopia between the forces of Emperor Menelik II and Italian troops. The Italians were defeated.

1900 - In South Africa, Ladysmith was relieved by British troops after being under siege by the Boers for more than four months.

1907 - In Odessa, Russia, there were only about 15,000 Jews left due to evacuations.

1907 - In Spain, a royal decree abolished civil marriages.

1907 - In New York, the Salvation Army opened an anti-suicide bureau.

1911 - Industrialist Henry Frick acquired Velasquez's "Portrait of King Philip IV."

1911 - Jose Ordonez was elected President of Uraguay.

1912 - Captain Albert Berry made the first parachute jump from a moving airplane.

1927 - The Bank of Italy became a National Bank.

1932 - The 22-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh was kidnapped. The child was found dead in May.

1937 - U.S. Steel raised workers’ wages to $5 a day.

1937 - In Connecticut, the first permanent automobile license plates were issued.

1941 - FM Radio began in Nashville, TN, when station W47NV began operations.

1941 - Bulgaria joined the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact.

1941 - "Duffy’s Tavern" debuted on CBS Radio.

1947 - The International Monetary Fund began operations.

1947 - Chinese Premier T.V. Soong resigned.

1949 - Joe Louis announced that he was retiring from boxing as world heavyweight boxing champion.

1950 - Klaus Fuchs was convicted of giving U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

1954 - The United States announced that it had conducted a hydrogen bomb test on the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.

1954 - Five U.S. congressmen were wounded when four Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire from the gallery of the U.S. House of Representatives.

1959 - Archbishop Makarios returned to Cyprus from exile.

1961 - The Peace Corps was established by U.S. President Kennedy.

1962 - Pakistan announced that it had a new constitution that set up a presidential system of government.

1966 - The Soviet probe, Venera 3 crashed on the planet Venus. It was the first unmanned spacecraft to land on the surface of another planet.

1966 - Ghana ordered all Soviet, East German and Chinese technicians to leave the country.

1969 - Mickey Mantle announced his retirement from major league baseball.

1971 - A bomb exploded in a restroom in the Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol. There were no injuries. A U.S. group protesting the Vietnam War claimed responsibility.

1974 - Seven people were indicted in connection with the Watergate break-in. The charge was conspiring to obstruct justice.

1983 - The New Jersey Transit strike began. It ended on April 2.

1984 - The U.S.S.R. performed a nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan, Semipalatinsk, U.S.S.R.

1987 - The Boston Celtics defeated Detroit 112-102 to post their 2,235th NBA win.

1987 - S&H Green Stamps became S&H Green Seals. The stamps were introduced 90 years earlier.

1988 - Soviet troops were sent into Azerbaijan after ethnic riots between Armenians and Azerbaijanis.

1989 - In Washington, DC, Mayor Barry and the City council imposed a curfew on minors.

1990 - In Cairo, 16 people were killed in a fire at the Sheraton Hotel.

1992 - Bosnian Serb snipers fired upon civilians after a majority of the Moslem and Croatian communities voted in favor of Bosnia's independence.

1992 - King Fahd of Saudi Arabia announced major political reforms that ceded some powers after 10 years of disciplined rule.

1992 - Bosnian Muslims and Croats voted to secede from Yugoslavia.

1993 - The U.S. government announced that the number of food stamp recipients had reached a record number of 26.6 million.

1994 - Israel released about 500 Arab prisoners in an effort to placate Palestinians over the Hebron massacre.

1995 - The European Parliament rejected legislation that would have allowed biotechnology companies to patent new life forms.

1995 - Yahoo! was incorporated.

1999 - The Angolan Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia, exploded. Four other bombs went off in the capital.

1999 - In Uganda, eight tourists were brutally murdered by Hutu rebels.

2002 - Operation Anaconda began in eastern Afghanistan. Allied forces were fighting against Taliban and Al Quaida fighters.

2003 - In New York, a $250,000 Salvador Dali sketch was stolen from a display case in the lobby at Rikers Island jail. On June 17, 2003, it was announced that four corrections officers had surrendered and pled innocent in connection to the theft. The mixed-media composition was a sketch of the crucifixion.

2003 - In the U.S., approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations around the government became part of the Department of Homeland Security. This completed the largest government reorganization since the beginning of the Cold War.

2003 - Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was captured by CIA and Pakistani agents near Islamabad. He was the suspected mastermind behind the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001

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