1296 - Earl Floris V signs accord with French king
1317 - Phillips V, the Tall, crowned king of France
1349 - 700 Jews of Basel Switzerland, burned alive in their houses
1464 - 1st meeting of States-General of Netherlands
1493 - 1st sight of manatees (by Christopher Columbus)
1558 - Geneva becomes independent from Berne canton, Switzerland
1570 - Tsar Ivan the terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod
1718 - France declares war on Spain
1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in battle of Barari Ghat
1788 - Connecticut becomes 5th state
1792 - Russia & Turkey sign Peace of Jassy
1793 - Jean Pierre Blanchard makes 1st balloon flight in North America (Philadelphia)
1799 - Income Tax introduced in UK
1812 - Swedish Pomerania (Germany) seized by Napoleon
1834 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port San Julian, Patagonia
1839 - Daguerrotype photo process announced at French Academy of Science; Thomas Henderson measures 1st stellar parallax (Alpha Centauri)
1848 - People's uprising in Palermo Sicily
1854 - Astor Library opens in New York City NY
1855 - Clipper Guiding Star disappears in Atlantic, taking 480 with her
1857 - 7.9 earthquake shakes Fort Tejon CA
1861 - 1st hostile act of Civil War; Star of the West fired on, Sumter SC; Mississippi becomes 2nd state to secede
1863 -Jan 11th] Battle of Arkansas Post AR (Fort Hindman)
1879 - Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Fort Robinson; Kirland Warbler discovered on Andros Island in Bahamas
1880 - 6' (1.8 meters) of snow falls in Seattle in 5 days
1894 - "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" released in movie theaters
1905 - Bloody Sunday-demonstrators fired on by tsarist troops
1908 - Frans Schollaert succeeds De Trooz as premier of Belgium
1909 - Ernest Shackleton reaches 88º23' south
1912 - US Marines invade Honduras
1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes 1st autogiro (helicopter) flight, Spain
1925 - German Postal Minister A Höfle resigns due to corruption
1936 - Semi-automatic rifles adopted by US army
1937 - Italian regime bans marriages between Italians & Abyssinians
1940 - 2 German officers make emergency landing in Belgium
1941 - Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Lancaster military plane; 6,000 Jews exterminated in pogrom in Bucharest Romania
1942 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
1943 - Japanese government in Java limits sale & use of motorcars
1945 - US soldiers led by General Douglas MacArthur invade Philippines
1952 - Belgian Pholien government resigns; Marines give notice that they will recall Ted Williams to active duty
1953 - Korean ferryboat "Chang Tyong-Ho" sank off Pusan killing 249
1956 - Abigail Van Buren's "Dear Abby" column 1st appears in newspapers; Samir el-Rifai forms government in Jordan
1957 - Checheno-Ingush ASSR reformed in RSFSR; Karachayevo-Cherkess Autonomous Region reestablished in RSFSR; British premier Anthony Eden resigns; Dutch Newspaper Society expels communist daily paper "Truth"
1959 - Dam across Tera River collapses after heavy winter rains, 135 die
1960 - Building of Aswan dam in Egypt, begins
1964 - Anti-US rioting breaks out in the Panamá Canal Zone
1968 - Surveyor 7 space probe soft lands on the Moon
1969 - Concorde jetliner's 1st test flight (Bristol England)
1970 - Constitution of Singapore enacted
1972 - Passenger ship Queen Elizabeth destroyed by fire
1973 - Luna 21 launched, to Moon
1978 - Commonwealth of Northern Marianas established
1979 - High-school player Daryl Moreau makes 126th consecutive free throwsj; Supreme Court strikes down (6-3) PA law requiring doctors performing an abortion to try to preserve lives of potentially viable fetuses
1980 - 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1981 - Francisco Balsamao elected President of Portugal
1982 - 5.9 earthquake in New England & Canada; 1st since 1855
1983 - British PM Margaret Thatcher visits the Falkland Islands
1987 - New Nicaraguan constitution takes effect; Chinese/Vietnamese border fights, 1500 killed
1989 - Johnny Bench & Carl Yastrzemski elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1990 - 64th US manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10) launches into orbit; Supreme Court strikes down Dallas' ordinance imposing strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses; Jim Palmer & Joe Morgan elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1991 - Baker & Aziz meet in Geneva; talks fail to defuse the Persian Gulf crisis; Baseball officially bans Pete Rose from being elected to Hall of Fame; Dean Smith of North Carolina is 6th to win 700 career coaching basketball games
1995 - Ecuador & Peru involved in boundary fight; Worker accidentally cuts electrical wires at Newark Airport
1998 - Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov spacewalk record 3 hours 8 minutes; Decapitated head of Danish Little Mermaid is returned

Birthdays
1554 - Gregory XV (Alessandro Ludovisi), Roman Catholic pope (1621-23)
1803 - Christopher Gustavus Memminger, Confederate Secretary Treasurer
1816 - John Palmer Usher, Union Secretary of the Interior
1822 - John Porter Hatch, Union Brevet Major General
1832 - Esquire Maurits A de Savornin Lohman, Dutch Governor of Suriname
1859 - Carrie Lane Chapman, Catt women's rights leader/founder (League of Women Voters)
1913 - Richard Milhouse Nixon Yorba Linda CA, (R) 37th US President (1969-74); Peter John Norton naval diplomat/artist
1922 - Ahmed Sékou Touré, President of Guinea (1957-84); Har G. Khorana India/Canada bio-chemist (Nobel 1968)
1928 - Fernand J. St Germain (Representative-RI)
1933 - Robert Garcia (Representative-NY)
1935 - Dick Enberg, sportscaster
1938 - Aad Kosto, Dutch theologist/actor/assistant Secretary of Justice
1952 - Eveline L. Herfkens Dutch MP

Passings
1324 - Marco Polo, Italian explorer
1499 - Johan Cicero, elector of (Brandenburg, 1486-99), dies at 43
1798 - Pedro Pablo Abarca d Bolea, Earl of Aranda Spanish officer, dies at 79
1843 - Caroline Herschel, "1st lady of astronomy", dies at 98 in Germany
1878 - Victor Emmanuel II, King of Sardinia (1849-61)/Italy (1861-78), dies at 57
1879 - Don Joaquin B.F. Espartero, field marshall/viceroy of Navarra, dies at 86
1941 - Ko Boezeman, Dutch resistance fighter, dies
1995 - Souphanouvong (Red Prince), President of Laos (1975-87), dies at 85
1997 - Edward Osobka-Morawski, Prime Minister of Poland (1945-47), dies

Reported Missing in Action
1966
Schimberg, James P., US Army (IA); OV1C shot down (w/Williams), remains returned December, 1998

Williams, Thaddeus E., US Army (AL); OV1C shot down (w/Schimberg), remains returned December, 1998

1968
Daly, James A., Jr., US Army (NY); disappeared during ground action, released by PRG March, 1973 - deceased

Green, Norman M., USAF (DC); F4D shot down (w/Irsch)

Irsch, Wayne C., USAF (OK); F4D shot down (w/Green)

Newton, Warren E., US Army (OR); UH1C shot down

Phipps, James L., US Army (IL); UH1C shot down

Ramos, Rainier S., US Army (WA); UH1C shot down

Rehe, Richard R., US Army (CA); disappeared during ground action - DIC January, 1968 according to Daly

Sykes, Derri, US Army (IL); disappeared during ground action - DIC October, 1968 according to Daly

Watkins, Willie A., US Army (NC); released November, 1969

1969
Byrd, Hugh M., Jr., US Army (KY); O1G shot down (pilot, w/O'Brien)

O'Brien, Kevin, US Army (NY); O1G shot down (observer, w/Byrd)