- 1130 Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II
Black Death
1349 900 Jews are burned alive in Strasbourg and similar number banned from the city after being blamed for the spread of the Black Death
- 1556 English Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic
Chronicle of Andean History and Spanish Rule
1615 Peruvian nobleman Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala writes to offer Spanish King Philip III his newly completed Chronicle of Andean history and Spanish rule - now only indigenous Andean viewpoint to survive (Danish National Library) [1]
King William III
1689 English parliament places Mary Stuart and Prince William III on the throne
1st Lord of Treasury
1743 Henry Pelham becomes Britain's First Lord of Treasury
Earth's Wobble
1747 Astronomer James Bradley presents his discovery of the wobbling motion of the Earth on its axis to the Royal Society, London
- 1766 Dutch governor Falck and King Keerthisiri Rajasinghe of Kandy sign Treaty of Batticaloa
General Benjamin Lincoln
1777 US Congress commissions Benjamin Lincoln a major general in the Continental Army
Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)
1797 Battle of Cape St. Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba y Ramos near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain Horatio Nelson distinguishes himself.
- 1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington, Pennsylvania
US History
1803 Chief Justice John Marshall declares that any act of U.S. Congress that conflicts with the Constitution is void
- 1804 Jean Victor Marie Moreau, French general who plotted to overthrow Napoleon in the Pichegru Conspiracy, arrested, and exiled to the United States
- 1804 Karadjordje leads the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire
- 1831 Ras Marye of Yejju marches into Tigray and defeats and kills Dejazmach Sabagadis in the Battle of Debre Abbay
Discovery of Lake Tahoe
1844 John C. Frémont and his party become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tahoe during his second expedition through the American West
Oldest Photo of a Serving US President
1849 In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes first serving US President to have his photograph taken (by Matthew Brady).
- 1855 Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.
- 1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state of the Union
- 1862 Galena, 1st US iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut
- 1867 Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Co issues 1st policy
- 1867 Morehouse College organizes (Augusta Georgia)
- 1870 Esther Morris appointed US' first female in Justice of the Peace in South Pass City, Wyoming, after previous justice, R.S. Barr, resigned to protest passage of Wyoming Territory's women's suffrage amendment in 1869
- 1870 Seraph Young becomes the first woman to legally vote in the modern United States, two days after the Utah legislature passed a law allowing women the vote
- 1872 1st US state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California)
Telephone Invention Dispute? That Rings a Bell
1876 Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents, the Supreme Court eventually rules Bell the rightful inventor
Importance of Being Earnest
1895 Oscar Wilde's play "Importance of Being Earnest" premieres at St James's Theatre in London
Historic Publication
1896 Austro-Hungarian Zionist Theodor Herzl publishes "Der Judenstaat" (The Jewish State), encouraging Jews to purchase land in Palestine
Sports History
1896 George Lohmann takes a hat-trick for England v South Africa, 8-7 for inning - their lowest ever
- 1896 Stanley Cup, Victoria Skating Rink, Montreal, Quebec: Winnipeg Victorias beat Montreal Victorias, 2-0
- 1896 Theodor Hertzl's "Der Judenstaat" (The Jewish State) is published, proposing a Jewish homeland as a means of escaping anti-Semitism in Europe
- 1899 US Congress begins using voting machines
- 1900 Date of events in Australian movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock"
- 1900 Russia responds to international pressure to free Finland by tightening imperial control over the country
Event of Interest
1903 President Theodore Roosevelt signs bill into law establishing US Department of Commerce & Labor
- 1918 USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1)
- 1919 The Polish-Soviet War begins.
- 1919 United Parcel Service forms
- 1920 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago
- 1921 Canadian 5 cent nickel coin is authorized
- 1921 Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing "Ulysses," in New York
Event of Interest
1924 Thomas J. Watson renames the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) as International Business Machines (IBM)
- 1925 State of emergency crisis in Bavaria ends, NSDAP re-allowed
Olympic Gold
1928 Clas Thunberg of Finland wins his 2nd gold medal of the Games and 5th career title when he takes out the 1,500m speed skating at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics
- 1928 Per-Erik Hedlund leads a Swedish sweep of the medals in the 50k cross-country at the St. Moritz Winter Olympics; Gustaf Jonsson & Volgar Andersson take the minor medals
Al Capone, Public Enemy Number One
1929 St Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed, allegedly on Al Capone's orders
- 1931 Spanish government of General Damasco Berenguer falls
Film Release
1931 The original "Dracula" film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire, is released
- 1932 The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show debuts on CBS radio, airing there until 1937, moving to NBC until 1949, and returning to CBS in 1949, before moving to television
- 1934 NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game: Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto
- 1936 Karl Schäfer of Austria wins his 2nd consecutive men’s figure skating Olympic gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games in Germany
- 1936 National Negro Congress organizes in Chicago
- 1936 Norwegian speed skater Ivar Ballangrud sets Olympic record 17:24.3 to win the 10,000m at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games; his 3rd gold medal from 4 events and 4th career Olympic gold
- 1936 US female Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson
- 1936 US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
Film & TV History
1939 Victor Fleming replaces George Cukor as director of film "Gone With The Wind"
- 1940 British merchant vessel fleet is armed
- 1941 Carson McCuller's "Reflections in a Golden Eye" published
- 1941 Cebrie Park in the Bronx renamed Halsey Street
- 1941 German Afrika Korps lands in Tripoli, Libya
- 1941 One millionth vehicle traverses the NY Midtown Tunnel
- 1942 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang, Sumatra
- 1942 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens
- 1942 The Polish resistance movement, the Home Army, is formed and will eventually become the largest resistance movement in occupied Europe
- 1942 World War II: Battle of Pasir Panjang contributes to the fall of Singapore.
- 1943 German offensive against US troops through de Faid-pass, Tunisia begins, starting the Battle of Sidi Bou Zid
- 1943 The Soviet Union recaptures the city of Rostov-on-Don, liberating Russia from the German 17th Army during WWII
- 1944 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java
- 1944 Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial & Sport Fishing"
- 1945 Peru, Paraguay, Chile & Ecuador joins UN
Bombing of Dresden
1945 Second day of the bombing of Dresden by Allied air forces
- 1945 World War II: Mostar is liberated by Yugoslav partisans.
- 1945 World War II: Prague is bombed probably due to a mistake in the orientation of the pilots bombing Dresden.
- 1949 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel)
- 1949 Dutch Drees government presents plan for the building of 30,000 houses
- 1950 Moroney scores cricket twin centuries for Australia at Johannesburg
- 1950 USSR & China sign peace treaty
Sports History
1951 Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta & takes middleweight title
- 1952 Giant slalom event for women debuts at the Winter Olympics at Oslo Games; American skier Andrea Mead-Lawrence wins gold ahead of Dagmar Rom of Austria and German Annemarie Buchner
- 1952 VI Winter Olympic Games open at Oslo, Norway
- 1953 "Trionfo di Afrodite (Triumph of Aphrodite)", the final work of Carl Orff's Trionfi trilogy premieres at La Scala in Milan, Italy
Event of Interest
1954 Senator John F. Kennedy appears on "Meet the Press"
- 1954 WTOC TV channel 11 in Savannah, GA (CBS) begins broadcasting
- 1955 WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St Petersburg, Florida (NBC) begins
- 1956 20th Congress of CPSU opens in Moscow
- 1956 Indonesia withdraws from Netherlands Indonesian Union
- 1956 Verhoeven, Nauta and De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate
- 1957 Georgia Senate unanimously approves Sen Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites
- 1958 Arab Federation of Iraq & Jordan forms
- 1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in NYC
- 1960 2nd Daytona 500: Junior Johnson survives a 37 car crash on Turn 4 to win driving a John Masoni owned Chevrolet
- 1960 Marshal Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan
- 1961 Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley Calif
Film and TV History
1962 US 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV
Film Release
1963 "8½" film directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni and Claudia Cardinale, is released (Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film 1964)
- 1963 US launches communications satellite Syncom 1
Music Single
1964 British pop music duo Peter & Gordon release single "A World Without Love" (written by Paul McCartney, credited to Lennon-McCartney)
- 1965 7th Daytona 500: Fred Lorenzen wins driving for Holman-Moody; race ends on lap 133 due to persistent rain
- 1966 Australian currency is decimalised, and decimal currency postage stamps introduced
- 1966 Russian writers Andrei Sinyavsky & Joey Daniel found guilty under the offense of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda for publishing their satirical writings abroad
NBA Record
1966 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points
Music Recording
1967 Aretha Franklin records her single "Respect" at Atlantic Studio in NYC; her rendition of Otis Redding's tune becomes Billboard Song of the Year (1967)
- 1967 Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up
- 1968 Norwegian 15k Olympic cross country champion Harald Grønningen wins his second gold medal of the Grenoble Winter Olympics in the 4 x 10k relay
- 1968 Soviet Union goes 1-2 in pairs figure skating at the Grenoble Winter Olympics; husband & wife team Oleg Protopopov and Liudmila Belousova edge teammates Tatiana Zhuk and Alexander Gorelik
- 1968 WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, NC (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1970 Stanley Lebowsky and Fred Tobias' musical "Gantry", based on Sinclair Lewis novel "Elmer Gantry", opens and closes at George Abbott Theater, NYC. after 1 performance
Daytona 500
1971 13th Daytona 500: Richard Petty wins his 3rd Great American Race; goes on to win the inaugural Winston Cup title
Musical Finale
1971 Clark Gesner's musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown", based on characters from Charles M. Schulz's' "Peanuts", and starring Gary Burghoff, closes at Theatre 80 in the East Village, NYC, after 1597 performances
- 1971 Movie "Ben Hur" 1st shown on television
US History
1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in the White House
- 1971 Tehran agreement signed; oil companies accept 55 percent tax rate, immediate increase in posted prices, and further successive increases
- 1972 CBS "Late Movie" premieres
- 1972 Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's musical "Grease" starring Barry Bostwick, Carole Demas, and Adrienne Barbeau, opens at the Eden Theatre (later transferring to the Broadhurst, the Royale, and the Majestic), NYC; runs for 3,388 performances
Music History
1972 John Lennon and Yoko Ono co-host the syndicated "The Mike Douglas Show" for entire week, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1972 Lord Widgery arrives in Coleraine, where the 'Bloody Sunday' (30 January 1972) Tribunal was to be based, and holds a preliminary hearing
- 1972 Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit & soft landing on Moon
Boxing Title Fight
1973 Muhammad Ali beats British heavyweight boxing champion Joe Bugner by unanimous points decision in 12 rounds at Las Vegas Convention Centre
- 1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station
- 1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1978 1st "micro on a chip" patented by Texas Instruments
- 1978 In girls' HS basketball, Chicago Latin beats Harvard St George
- 1979 In Kabul, Muslims kidnap the American ambassador to Afghanistan, Adolph Dubs who is later killed during a gunfight between his kidnappers and police
- 1979 Revival of Walter Donaldson and Gus Kahn's musical comedy "Whoopee!" opens at ANTA Theater, NYC; runs for 204 performances
Music Premiere
1980 Revival of Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins' musical "West Side Story" opens at Minskoff Theater, NYC; runs for 341 performances
Olympic Gold
1980 Soviet cross-country skier Nikolay Zimyatov wins first of 3 gold medals at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics when he takes out 30k event; also wins relay and 50k gold
Daytona 500
1982 24th Daytona 500: Bobby Allison wins with margin of victory over Cale Yarborough an impressive 23 seconds, more than half a lap
Olympic Games
1984 Britain's Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean famously dominate the ice dancing at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; perform to Maurice Ravel's "Bolero" in free dance routine; record 9-of-9 perfect scores for artistic impression
- 1984 Canadian speed skater Gaétan Boucher takes out the 1,000m gold medal at the Sarajevo Winter Olympics; also wins 1,500m; narrowly beats Soviet skater Sergey Khlebnikov in both events
Album Release
1985 "Whitney Houston" debut album by Whitney Houston is released (Grammy Award Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female 1986, Billboard Album of Year 1986)
- 1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut
- 1986 36th Berlin International Film Festival: "Stammheim" wins the Golden Bear
- 1987 Detroit Pistons-Philadelphia 76ers game draws crowd of 53,745 at Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac; third largest crowd in NBA history; Pistons win, 125-107
- 1988 30th Daytona 500: Bobby Allison beats his son, Davey, to the finish line; remembered for Richard Petty's rollover crash in the tri-oval on lap 106, rolls over 8 times and hit by Brett Bodine; walks away unhurt
Election of Interest
1988 Alfredo Stroessner re-elected President of Paraguay
Senior PGA Championship
1988 Senior PGA Championship, PGA National GC: South African Gary Player wins his second of 3 event titles by 3 strokes from Chi-Chi Rodríguez
- 1989 African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam
Historic Publication
1989 Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his publishers due to his novel "Satanic Verses". A bounty is also placed on his head.
- 1989 The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System are placed into orbit.
- 1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 mill damages for Bhopol disaster
- 1989 World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens
Film & TV History
1990 Alan Ayckbourn's "Man of the Moment," premieres in London
- 1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some
- 1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes a photograph of the entire solar system, the images transmitted in real-time with earth a 'pale blue dot'
Film Release
1991 "The Silence of the Lambs" film based on the book by Thomas Harris, directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, is released (Best Picture 1992)
Music History
1991 Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston's stage comedy "Mule Bone" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theate,r NYC; runs for 68 performances
- 1991 NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek wins record $3 mil salary arbitration
- 1992 Andre Cason runs world record 60 m indoor (6.41 sec)
- 1992 Cease fire in Somalia begins
Film Premiere
1992 Comedy film "Wayne's World" starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, based on their Saturday Night Live sketch premieres
- 1992 Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800m freestyle (7:46.60)
- 1992 Merlene Ottey runs world record 60m indoor (6.96 sec)
Daytona 500
1993 35th Daytona 500: Dale Jarrett, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, wins from Dale Earnhardt and Geoff Bodine
- 1993 Fire in Linxi department store in Tangshan China, kills 79
ESPY Awards
1994 2nd ESPY Awards: Barry Bonds, Julie Krone win
NBA Finals
1995 The Portland Trail Blazers trade Clyde Drexler to the Houston Rockets, who end up winning the 1995 NBA Championship
- 1995 Wellington 2-498d & 4-475 beat Canterbury 496 & 2-476d
Television Debut
1996 "Live by Request" debuts on the A&E Network, based on singer Tony Bennett's idea, the set list was determined by viewer phone calls; Bennett starred in the first episode, wins an Emmy Award (Individual Performance in a Variety or Music Program)
Daytona 500
1999 41st Daytona 500: Jeff Gordon wins; first Daytona 500 pole sitter to win the race since Bill Elliott in 1987
ESPY Awards
2000 8th ESPY Awards: Tiger Woods, Mia Hamm win
- 2000 The spacecraft NEAR Shoemaker enters orbit around asteroid 433 Eros, the first spacecraft to orbit an asteroid.
- 2002 Fishing vessel Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board
- 2004 In a suburb of Moscow, Russia, the roof of the Transvaal water park collapses, killing more than 25 people, and wounding more than 100 others.
- 2005 Lebanon's former Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, is assassinated, prompting the country to fall into chaos.
- 2005 Seven people are killed and 151 wounded in a series of bombings by suspected Al-Qaeda-linked militants that hit the Philippines' Makati financial district in Metro Manila, Davao City, and General Santos City.
- 2008 39th NAACP Image Awards: "The Great Debaters" wins Outstanding Motion Picture
- 2008 Northern Illinois University shooting: a gunman opened fire in a lecture hall of the DeKalb County, Illinois university resulting in 24 casualties; 6 fatalities (including gunman) and 18 injured.
- 2010 52nd Daytona 500: Jamie McMurray, driving for Earnhardt Ganassi Racing wins; Mark Martin, oldest polesitter in Daytona 500 history at 51 years, 27 days
NBA All-Star Game
2010 59th NBA All-Star Game, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX: East beats West, 141-139; MVP: Dwyane Wade, Miami Heat, G
Olympic Gold
2010 Alexandre Bilodeau wins the Gold Medal in the freestyle skiing men's moguls event, becoming the first Canadian to win a Gold Medal during a Canadian-hosted Olympics
- 2010 America's Cup: Team USA defeats Alinghi 2-0 to win in Spain
- 2011 The 2011 Bahraini uprising commenced.
- 2013 A suicide bombing kills 4 police officer and injures 5 in Dagestan
- 2013 Japan remains in recession as the economy shrinks by a further 0.1%
- 2013 Oscar Pistorius, a South African amputee sprinter, is charged with the murder of Reeva Steenkamp
- 2013 The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, will be switched off for two years for upgrading
