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- 0211 Roman Emperor Septimius Severus dies, leaving the Roman Empire in the hands of his two quarrelsome sons, Caracalla and Geta.
- 0362 Roman Emperor Julian promulgates an edict that recognizes equal rights to all the religions in the Roman Empire.
- 0708 Sisinnius ends his reign as Catholic Pope
- 0960 The coronation of Zhao Kuangyin as Emperor Taizu of Song, initiating the Song Dynasty period of China that would last more than three centuries.
- 1194 Richard I Lion Hearted pays Leopold O Fenrik VI's ransom of 100,000
- 1454 In the Thirteen Years' War, the Secret Council of the Prussian Confederation sends a formal act of disobedience to the Grand Master.
- 1508 Maximilian I assumes imperial title without being crowned
- 1586 Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, becomes governor of Netherlands
- 1600 Tycho Brahe & Johannes Kepler meet for first time outside of Prague
- 1620 Prince Bethlen Gábor signs peace with emperor Ferdinand II
- 1657 Oliver Cromwell grants residency to Luis Caravajal
- 1697 3 VOC-ships anchor at Dirk-Hartogeiland, Australia
- 1699 350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow
- 1703 In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-Seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.
- 1783 England agrees to end hostilities against the US.
- 1783 In Calabria, Italy an earthquate casued 50,000 deaths. One of the world's most destructive earthquakes. A series of six strong earthquakes, occurring over a two-month period, caused massive destruction
- 1783 Worst quake in 8 years kills some 50,000 (Calabria, Italy)
- 1787 Shays' Rebellion (of debt-ridden Massachusetts farmers) fails
- 1787 The first Anglican bishops of New York & Pennsylvania consecrated in London
- 1789 George Washington is unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
- 1789 The first electoral college chooses Washington & Adams as President & Vice President
- 1794 French National Convention proclaims abolishment of slavery
- 1794 The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.
- 1797 Earthquake in Quito, Ecuador kills 40,000
- 1801 John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.
- 1803 William Dunlap, adapts French melodrama "Voice of Nature"
- 1810 British Navy seizes Guadeloupe.
- 1818 Sir Walter Scott supervised the rediscovery of the Honours of Scotland - the Scottish Crown Jewels - in Edinburgh Castle
- 1822 Free American Blacks settle Liberia, West Africa
- 1824 J W Goodrich introduces rubber galoshes to the public
- 1825 The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal.
- 1846 Mormons leave Nauvoo MO for settlement in the west
- 1847 The first US telegraph company established in Maryland
- 1849 University of Wisconsin begins in 1 room with 20 students
- 1854 Alvan Bovay proposes the name "Republican Party," Ripon WI
- 1855 Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela
- 1859 Codex Sinaiticus discovered in Egypt.
- 1861 Confederate constitutional convention meets for first time, Montgomery AL, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi & South Carolina elect Jefferson Davis President of Confederacy
- 1864 Skirmish at Big Black River Bridge, Mississippi
- 1865 Hawaiian Board of Education formed
- 1865 Robert E Lee is named commander-in-chief of Confederate Army
- 1866 Mary Baker Eddy cures her injuries by opening a bible
- 1875 Princess Louise marries Prince Philip von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha in Belgium
- 1887 Interstate Commerce Act authorizes federal regulation of railroads
- 1895 First rolling lift bridge opens, Chicago
- 1899 Revolt against US occupation of Philippines
- 1899 The Philippine-American War begins.
- 1913 Louis Perlman patents demountable auto tire-carrying wheel rim
- 1914 US Congress approves Burnett-anti-immigration law
- 1915 Experiments to find cause of pellagra begin at Mississippi Penitentiary
- 1915 Germany establishes a submarine blockade around the UK and declares any vessel in it a legitimate target.
- 1917 Belgium Council of Flanders established
- 1919 City of Bremen's Soviet Republic overthrown
- 1920 First flight from London to South Africa takes-off (1½ months)
- 1920 Visitor posting - Andrew Wawro born - USA
- 1924 The first Winter Olympics games close at Chamonix France
- 1926 Austrian chancellor Seipel wants to join Germany
- 1932 Japanese troop occupy Harbin, Manchuria
- 1932 Lake Placid, NY hosts the first Winter Olympics. Lake Placid would reprise this role in 1980.
- 1932 World War II: Japan occupies Harbin, China.
- 1933 Crew of Dutch "7 Provinces" mutiny after pay cuts
- 1933 Visitor posting - Robert was born
- 1933 German President Von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press
- 1936 Radium E. becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.
- 1936 The first radioactive substance produced synthetically (radium E)
- 1938 "Our Town," by Thornton Wilder opens on Broadway
- 1938 Hitler seizes control of German army & puts Nazi in key posts
- 1939 Glenn Cunningham (top miler) says 4-minute mile beyond human effort
- 1941 British tanks occupy Maus Libya
- 1941 Former Dutch premier De Geer flies to Berlin
- 1941 The United Service Organizations (USO) is created, at the request of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- 1941 World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.
- 1942 Clinton Pierce becomes first US General wounded in action in WWII
- 1944 US 7th Infantry Division captures Kwajalein
- 1945 FDR, Churchill & Stalin meet at Yalta
- 1948 Ceylon (later renamed Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth.
- 1948 Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) gains independence from Britain (National Day)
- 1949 Failed assassination attempt on Shah of Persia
- 1957 Electric portable typewriter placed on sale (Syracuse NY)
- 1957 USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, logs her 60,000th nautical mile, matching the endurance of the fictional Nautilus described in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
- 1959 Israel begins exporting copper ore
- 1961 Sputnik 7 launches into Earth orbit; probable Venus probe failure
- 1962 Russian newspaper Izvestia reports baseball is an old Russian game
- 1964 24th Amendment abolishes Poll tax
- 1964 FAA begins 6 month test of reactions to sonic booms over Oklahoma City OK
- 1965 Number one hit on UK music charts - The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Loving Feeling
- 1966 All Nippon Airways Boeing 727 jet plunges into Tokyo Bay, killing 133.
- 1966 All-Nippon Airways 727 crashes off Haneda Airport (Japan); kills 133
- 1967 "Wild Thing" hits #20 on the pop singles chart by Senator Bobby
- 1967 US launches Lunar Orbiter 3
- 1969 Beatles appoint Eastman & Eastman, as general counsel to Apple
- 1969 Yassar Arafat takes over as chairman of PLO
- 1969 Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
- 1971 Apollo 14 lander Antares lands on Moon (Shepard & Mitchell)
- 1971 British car maker Rolls Royce declared itself bankrupt
- 1971 Government exhibit under construction collapses, kills 65 in Brazil
- 1971 National Guard mobilized to quell rioting in Wilmington NC
- 1972 6th round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ends in Vienna Austria
- 1972 In Central Italy a 4.8 earthquate and a series of hundreds of relatively minor shocks near the Italian town of Ancona on the Adriatic coast caused wide-spread panic, some damage, several injuries, and one death
- 1972 Senator Strom Thurmond suggests John Lennon be deported
- 1973 "No, No Nanette" closes at 46th St Theater NYC after 861 performances
- 1973 Reshef, Israel's missile boat, unveiled
- 1974 Benzine rationing ends in Netherlands
- 1974 Chimpanzee Nim Chimsky signs his first word, at 2½ months
- 1974 Gas rationing ends in Netherlands
- 1974 Patricia Hearst (19), daughter of publisher Randolph Hearst kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army
- 1974 The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley, California.
- 1975 In Northeastern China a 7.4 earthquate caused heavy damage and casualties reported in Yingkou-Haicheng area.
- 1976 12th Winter Olympics games opens in Innsbruck, Austria
- 1976 7.5 earthquake kills 22,778 in Guatemala & Honduras
- 1976 A 7.5 earthquake was centered about 160 kilometers northeast of Guatemala City. Over 23,000 deaths
- 1976 In Guatemala and Honduras an earthquake kills more than 22,000.
- 1977 Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" released
- 1977 Wings release "Maybe I'm Amazed"
- 1978 Number one hit on UK music charts - Althia & Donna - Up Town Top Ranking
- 1980 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Bani-Sadr as president of Iran.
- 1982 Indoor distance record for a paper airplane (47 meters) Tacoma WA
- 1982 Suriname premier Chin A Sen flees
- 1983 José Happart becomes mayor of Voeren Belgium
- 1983 Pop singer-drummer Karen Carpenter dies in Downey, California, at age 32.
- 1984 Frank Aquilera sets world frisbee distance record (168 meters) Las Vegas
- 1985 20 countries (but not US) sign UN treaty outlawing torture
- 1985 Naval exercises canceled when US refuses to tell New Zealand of nuclear weapons
- 1986 Israeli fighters intercept Libyan liner (passenger plane)
- 1987 Flamboyant pianist-entertainer Liberace dies at his Palm Springs, California, home at age 67.
- 1987 President Reagan's veto of Clean Water Act is overridden by Congress
- 1987 Stars & Stripes beats Australia's Kookaburra 3, sweeps America's Cup
- 1988 Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega indicted on drug charges
- 1989 Dean Jones scores 216 vs West Indies at the Adelaide Oval
- 1990 10 Israeli tourists murdered near Cairo
- 1991 Hall of Fame's board of directors vote 12-0 to bar Pete Rose
- 1991 Visitor posting - Samantha born - USA
- 1991 The Baseball Hall of Fame votes to ban Pete Rose.
- 1991 US postage raises from 25¢ to 29¢
- 1992 A Coup d'tat is led by Hugo Chvez Fras, against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrs Prez.
- 1993 Admiral Studeman, ends term as acting director of CIA
- 1993 Marge Schott suspended from baseball for 1 year due to racism
- 1993 Russian space agency tests a 82' wide space mirror
- 1994 10th Soap Opera Digest Awards - Days of Our Lives wins
- 1994 20 die in armed assault on mosque in Khartum Sudan
- 1996 Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin ties all-time record low temperature at -26F (-32.2C)
- 1997 73 Israelis die when army copters collide
- 1997 A civil jury finds O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her companion, Ronald Goldman.
- 1997 After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Miloevi recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.
- 1997 En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.
- 1997 In Turkmenistan-Iran Border Region a 6.8 earthquate occured. At least 88 people killed, nearly 2,000 injured, about 5,500 houses destroyed and 11,000 houses damaged in the Bojnurd-Shirvan area, Iran
- 1997 Secretary of State Margaret Albright announces she just discovered that her grandparents were Jewish
- 1998 Bill Gates gets a pie thrown in his face in Brussels Belgium
- 1998 In the Tajikistan Border region of Afghanistan a 6.1earthquate at least 2,323 people killed, 818 injured, 8,094 houses destroyed, 6,725 livestock killed and landslides occurred in the Rostaq area, Afghanistan
- 1998 While in Belgium, Bill Gates is assaulted by a Belgian man and hit in the face with a cream pie.
- 1999 Hugo Chvez Fras, Venezuelan military and politician, is elected President of Venezuela.
- 1999 The New Carissa runs aground near Coos Bay, Oregon
- 1999 Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot dead by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race-relations in the city.
- 2000 German extortionist Klaus-Peter Sabotta is jailed for life for attempted murder and extortion in connection with the sabotage of German railway lines.
- 2004 Visitor posting - Mark Zuckenburg launches facebook in Harvard University - USA
- 2006 A stampede occurs in the ULTRA Stadium near Manila killing 88.
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