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- 0816 Frankish emperor Louis grants archbishop Salzburg immunity
- 1428 King Alfonso V, orders Sicily's Jews to attend conversion sermons
- 1488 Roman catholic German emperor Maximilian I caught in Belgium
- 1512 French troops under Gaston de Foix rescues Bologna
- 1556 Kings Henri I & Philip II sign Treaty of Vaucelles
- 1572 Beggars assault Oisterwijk Netherlands, drive nuns out
- 1576 Henry of Navarre converts to Roman Catholicism in order to ensure his right to the throne of France.
- 1597 A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
- 1631 Rhode Island, founder, Roger Williams arrives in Boston from England
- 1644 First US livestock branding law passed, by Connecticut
- 1649 Prince of Wales becomes king Charles II
- 1679 German emperor Leopold I signs peace with France
- 1736 Methodists John & Charles Wesley arrive in Savannah GA
- 1777 Georgia becomes first US state to abolish both entail & primogeniture
- 1778 Articles of Confederation ratified by first state, South Carolina
- 1782 Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca (Western Mediterranean)
- 1783 Earthquakes ravage Calabria, killing 30,000
- 1783 Sweden recognizes the United States as an independent country.
- 1795 Zealand Netherlands surrenders to French General Michaud
- 1811 UK hist Prince of Wales (future George IV) made Regent after George III deemed insane
- 1817 The first US gas company incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for street lights)
- 1825 Hannah Lord Montague of New York creates first detachable shirt collar
- 1831 Jan van Speijk blows up his gunboat in Antwerp, killing about 30
- 1846 "Oregon Spectator" is first newspaper to be published on the West Coast
- 1850 Adding machine employing depressible keys patented, New Paltz NY
- 1855 British government of Palmerston forms
- 1859 Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander John Cuza as the United Principalities.
- 1861 First moving picture peep show machine is patented by Samuel Goodale
- 1861 Louisiana delegation except Mr Bouligny withdraws from Congress
- 1864 Federals occupy Jackson MS
- 1865 Battle of Hatcher's Run, VA (Armstrong's Mill, Dabney's Mill)
- 1879 Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
- 1881 Phoenix, Arizona, is incorporated as a city.
- 1885 King Lopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal possession.
- 1885 News of fall of Khartoum reaches London
- 1887 Snow falls on San Francisco
- 1894 Female suffrage organization in Amsterdam forms
- 1897 Marcel Proust meets Jean Lorrain in a pistol duel
- 1900 British troops under General Buller occupy Vaal Krantz, Natal
- 1901 Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster) patented by Ed Prescot
- 1901 Pierpont Morgan forms US Steel Corp
- 1904 American occupation of Cuba ends
- 1911 Society of Dutch Composers forms in Amsterdam
- 1916 Enrico Caruso recorded "O Sole Mio" for the Victor Talking Machine Company
- 1917 Mexico adopts it's constitution. The country now celebrates Constitution Day on February 5th to commemorate the event.
- 1917 The Congress of the United States passes a law, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, banning most Asian immigration to the United States.
- 1917 The current constitution of Mexico is adopted, establishing a federal republic with powers separated into independent executive, legislative, and judicial branches.
- 1918 First US pilot to down an enemy airplane, Stephen W Thompson
- 1918 Separation of church & state begins in USSR
- 1919 Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.
- 1921 Yankees purchase 20 acres in the Bronx for Yankee Stadium
- 1922 Reader's Digest magazine first published
- 1923 General mine strike against wage cuts in Saar
- 1923 Mass arrests of socialists & communists in Italy
- 1924 The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".
- 1927 Buster Keaton's movie "The General" released & bombed
- 1929 Jimmy Hatlo's "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoon debuts in San Francisco
- 1930 5th Aliyah to Israel begins
- 1931 Maxine Dunlap becomes first US women to earn a glider pilot license
- 1936 Charlie Chaplin releases the last movie of the silent film era, Modern Times.
- 1936 National Wildlife Federation forms
- 1937 First Charlie Chaplin talkie, "Modern Times," released
- 1937 U.S. president Roosevelt proposes increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court.
- 1938 Hans Engnestangen skates world record 500 meter (41.8 seconds)
- 1940 General Winckelman replaces General Reijnders as Dutch supreme commander
- 1940 Glenn Miller & his Orchestra record "Tuxedo Junction"
- 1941 Dutch Premier De Geer returns from Lisbon to Netherlands
- 1942 "Woman of the Year," starring Hepburn & Tracy opens at Radio City
- 1942 Braves get Tommy Holmes from Yanks for Buddy Hassett & Gene Moore
- 1943 Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots Nazi General Seyffardt
- 1943 Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, first transmission
- 1944 358 RAF-bombers attack Stettin
- 1945 Big Racket becomes fastest race horse at 69.6 kph (440 yards/20.8 seconds)
- 1945 British premier Churchill arrives in Yalta
- 1945 US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manilla
- 1945 World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.
- 1946 The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.
- 1947 Bolewet Beirut becomes President of Poland
- 1948 "The Nature of Things" science show premieres on NBC prime time
- 1948 Gretchen Fraser becomes first US woman Olympics slalom champion
- 1949 Huaso sets official world equestrian high-jump record, 2.47 m, Chicago
- 1953 "Peter Pan" by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC
- 1953 5th Emmy Awards I Love Lucy, Thomas Mitchell & Helen Hayes win
- 1953 UK hist Sweet rationing ends in Britain
- 1954 WCDC TV channel 19 in Adams MA (ABC) begins broadcasting
- 1956 7th Winter Olympics games close at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
- 1956 Louise Suggs win LPGA Havana Golf Open
- 1956 New York Mayor Robert Wagner & Brooklyn Boro President Frank Cashmore sponsor a bill to create a $30 million
- 1957 Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd Piano Concert
- 1958 A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.
- 1958 Clifton R Wharton confirmed as first US black foreign minister (Romania)
- 1958 Gamel Abdel Nasser nominated first President of United Arab Republic
- 1958 Vanguard TV-3 back-up launches into Earth orbit; reaches 6 km
- 1959 "Redhead" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 455 performances
- 1959 'The Day The Music Died' – plane crash kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper
- 1959 Australia regain the Ashes with a 10 wicket victory at Adelaide
- 1960 Number one hit on UK music charts - Anthony Newley - Why
- 1962 French President de Gaulle calls for Algeria's independence
- 1962 HSS-2 Sea King became the first helicopter to exceed 200 m.p.h. in an officially sanctioned trial.
- 1962 Suit to bar Englewood NJ from "racial segregated" schools is filed
- 1962 Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn within 16º
- 1963 Maarten Schmidt discovers enormous red shifts in quasars
- 1963 Soviet lunar probe failure
- 1965 Beursschouwburg opens in Brussels
- 1966 BBC opens a relay radio station on Ascension Island
- 1967 "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" premieres on CBS (later ABC, NBC)
- 1967 Anastasio Somoza elected President of Nicaragua
- 1967 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Robert Penn Warren
- 1968 KDTV TV channel 39 in Dallas-Fort Worth TX (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1968 Skater Kees Verkerk win Olympics gold in the 1500m
- 1968 Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins.
- 1969 "Turn-On," debuts & cancelled by ABC after flopping so badly
- 1969 Number one hit on UK music charts - The Move - Blackberry Way
- 1969 US population reaches 200 million
- 1969 Vince Lombardi, becomes part owner, vice president, general manager & head coach of Redskins
- 1970 First Test Cricket ton of Barry Richards, 126, 164 balls, 20 fours 1 six
- 1970 WSCV TV channel 51 in Ft Lauderdale FL (IND) suspends broadcasting
- 1971 Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro; Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hours
- 1971 Visitor posting - Five to No Legs Feeney - United Kingdom
- 1972 "Another Puff" by Jerry Reed peaks at #65
- 1972 Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
- 1972 Bob Douglas is first black elected to Basketball Hall of Fame
- 1972 Number one hit on UK music charts - T Rex - Telegram Sam
- 1972 US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers & baggage
- 1973 Comic strip "Hagar The Horrible" debuts
- 1973 Funeral for LC William Nolde, last US soldier killed in Vietnam War
- 1973 Juan Corona sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms for 25 murders
- 1974 British miner's strike
- 1974 John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran elected to the Congress of the United States.
- 1974 Mats Wermelin, Sweden, scores all points in 272-0 basketball win
- 1974 Maximum speed on Autobahn reduced to 100 kph
- 1974 US Mariner 10 returns first close-up photos of Venus' cloud structure
- 1976 Australia complete 5-1 series drubbing of West Indies
- 1976 Last day of Test Cricket for Lance Gibbs & Ian Redpath
- 1977 "CB Savage" by Rod Hart peaks at #67
- 1977 General Mills Adventure Theater premieres on CBS radio
- 1977 Sugar Ray Leonard beats Luis Vega in 6 rounds in his first pro fight
- 1978 Fred Newman makes 88 consecutive basketball free throws blindfolded
- 1979 Costliest single periodical ad, $3.2 million, Gulf + Western in Time
- 1980 Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel
- 1980 USS Coral Sea relieved Midway which had been on contingency operations in the Arabian Sea since the Iranian hostage crisis broke out in November 1979.
- 1981 Largest Jell-O made (9,246 gallons of watermelon-flavor) in Brisbane
- 1981 Military jury in North Carolina convicts Robert Garwood of collaborating with enemy
- 1982 DEA announces seizure of 3,192 tons of marijuana, 495 people
- 1982 Laker Airways collapse owing £270 million ($351 million)
- 1982 Suriname President Chin A Sen resigns & flees to Netherlands
- 1983 Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie brought to trial
- 1984 New Zealand beat England (82 & 93) by an innings in 3 days
- 1985 Visitor posting - Jessica Katjomuise and Christian Ronaldo are born on this day - Namibia
- 1986 Corazon Aquino & Ferdinand Marcos appear on "Nightline"
- 1987 Dow Jones average closes above 2,200 for first time
- 1987 Soyuz TM-2 launches
- 1988 Andre The Giant wins the WWF Championship from Hulk Hogan, becoming the champion with the shortest reign (45 seconds) in the history of the WWF.
- 1988 Arizona House of Representatives vote to impeach Republican Governor Evan Mecham
- 1988 Comic Relief holds the first "Red Nose Day", which raises 15 million in the United Kingdom for charity.
- 1988 Panamanian General Manuel Noriega indicted by US grand jury for drugs
- 1988 The first prime-time wrestling match in 30 years-Andre the Giant beats Hulk Hogan
- 1989 Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes first NBA player to score 38,000 points
- 1990 Visitor posting - Laura Davis was born! - USA
- 1991 A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides
- 1991 Visitor posting - DaVonna Simmons was born. - USA [email protected]
- 1992 Jury selection begins in the Los Angeles cops beating Rodney King case
- 1992 Mike Whitney career-best 7-27 at WACA in Test Cricket win vs India
- 1993 Visitor posting - Julie graced the Earth with her presence for the very first time. - USA
- 1993 Visitor posting - Victoria came upon this earth on a beautiful day - USA
- 1993 Grenade explodes in Sarajevo, killing 63 & injuring 160
- 1993 R James Woolsey, becomes 16th director of CIA
- 1994 "Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego," debuts on Fox TV
- 1994 Visitor posting - Stephanie Wood was born. - United Kingdom
- 1994 Visitor posting - Dylan Dalzell is born - USA
- 1994 Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
- 1994 During the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina more than 60 people are killed and some 200 wounded as a mortar shell slams into a downtown marketplace in Sarajevo.
- 1994 Medgar Evers' murderer Byron De La Beckwith sentenced to life, in Jackson MS, 30 years after the crime
- 1995 Japan's Shinshinto Party win local elections
- 1997 3 Swiss banks create $70 million Holocaust fund
- 1997 Brook Lee, Hawaii, crowned 46th Miss USA (en route to Miss Universe)
- 1997 The so-called Big Three banks in Switzerland announce the creation of a $71 million fund to aid Holocaust survivors and their families.
- 1998 Alberto Acciarito convicted of harassing his ex-wife Ingrid Rossellini
- 1999 Former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson is sentenced to a year in a Maryland jail for assaulting two motorists after a traffic accident.
- 2004 Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance Front capture the city of Gonaves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
- 2004 Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.
- 2010 Visitor posting - Julie celebrates her 17th birthday. - USA
- 2010 Visitor posting - today Jorge Boada turns 60. Born Feb 5, 1950 - USA
- 2010 Visitor posting - Abraham- my birthday yaya - USA
- 2010 Visitor posting - Giuseppe Napier Rotondi turns 21 on this day! - USA
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