0871 - Battle at Marton: Ethelred van Wessex beats Danish invasion army
1121 - Dirk VI becomes count of Holland
1458 - Hussite George van Podiebrad chosen king of Bohemia
1498 - Vasco da Gama's fleet visits Mozambique Island
1629 - English King Charles I leases house of commons
1675 - Prince William III installed as Governor of Overijssel
1776 - Americans begin shelling British troops in Boston
1789 - Pennsylvania ends prohibition of theatrical performances
1799 - Congress standardizes US weights & measures
1807 - Congress bans slave trade effective January 1, 1808
1819 - Territory of Arkansas organized
1819 - US passes its 1st immigration law
1824 - Interstate commerce comes under federal control
1831 - John Frazee becomes 1st US sculptor to receive a federal commission
1836 - Republic of Texas declares independence from Mexico
1853 - Territory of Washington organized after separating from Oregon Territory
1855 - Aleksandr Romanov becomes tsar of Russia
1858 - Frederick Cook, New Orleans, patents a cotton-bale metallic tie
1861 - Government Printing Office purchases 1st printing plant, Washington, DC; US Congress creates Dakota & Nevada Territories out of the Nebraska & Utah territories
1863 - Congress authorizes track width of 4'8½" for Union Pacific RR
1865 - General Early's army is defeated at Waynesborough
1866 - 1st US company to make sewing needles by machine incorporated, Connecticut
1867 - Congress abolishes peonage in New Mexico; Jesse James-gang robs bank in Savannah MO, 1 dead; US Congress creates the Department of Education, passes the 1st Reconstruction Act
1876 - Rutherford B. Hayes declared President (won electoral vote by 1), despite Samuel J. Tilden (D) winning popular vote
1893 - 1st federal railroad legislation passed; required safety features
1896 - Battle of Aduwa, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) defeats invading Italians
1899 - President McKinley signs bill creating Mount Rainier National Park (5th in US)
1901 - Hawaii's 1st telegraph company opens
1904 - "Official Playing Rules of Professional Base Ball Clubs" adopted
1907 - General Louis Botha named premier of Transvaal
1909 - Great Britain, France, Germany & Italy ask Serbia to set no territorial demands
1910 - 2 trains crash in snow storm in Wellington WA, 118 die
1915 - British Vice Admiral Carden begins bombing of Dardanelles forts; Vladmir Jabotinsky forms a Jewish military force to fight in Palestine
1917 - Jones Act: Puerto Rico territory created, US citizenship granted
1919 - 1st congress of Communist International opens at the Kremlin
1923 - "Time" magazine debuts
1925 - Japan's House of Representatives recognizes male suffrage; Nationwide road numbering system & US shield marker adopted; SDAP-Second-Faction (Dutch Socialists) of parliament demands drastic disarmament
1927 - Babe Ruth becomes highest paid baseball player ($70,000 per year)
1929 - Congress creates Court of Customs & Patent Appeals
1930 - 1st US indoor glider flight, St. Louis Terminal Building
1933 - "King Kong" premieres at Radio City Music Hall & RKO Roxy, NYC; Most powerful earthquake in 180 years hits Japan
1934 - Union Pacific tests light-weight high-speed passenger train, Omaha
1937 - Mexico nationalizes oil
1938 - Landslides & floods cause over 200 deaths (Los Angeles CA); Trials of Soviet leaders begins in the Soviet Union
1939 - Eugenio Pacelli chosen as Pope Pius XII; Mass Legislature votea to ratify the Bill of Rights; 147 years late
1940 - Soviet armies conquer Tuppura Island Finland
1942 - Admiral Helfrich departs Java for Ceylon
1943 - 1st transport from Westerbork Netherlands to Sobibor concentration camp; Sea battle in Bismarck Sea finishes, US & Australia win
1944 - Fumes from locomotive stalled in a tunnel suffocate 521 in Italy
1945 - 8th Air Force bombs Dresden; King Michael of Romania gives in to Communist government
1946 - Dutch troops land on East Bali; Ho Chi Minh elected President of North Vietnam
1946 - Kingman Douglass becomes deputy director of CIA
1949 - 1st automatic street light (New Milford CT); Lucky Lady II (USAF B-50 Superfortress), completes 1st nonstop round-the-world flight at Fort Worth TX, covering 23,452-mis in 94 hours
1950 - Silly Putty invented
1955 - King Norodom Sihanukh of Cambodia succeeded by his father
1956 - Morocco tears up the Treaty of Féz, declares independence from France
1958 - 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days
1958 - Yemen announces it will join the United Arab Republic
1962 - JFK announces US will resume above ground nuclear testing
1965 - "Sound Of Music" opens
1966 - 215,000 US soldiers in Vietnam
1968 - USAF displays Lockheed C-5A Galaxy, biggest plane in the world; USSR launches space probe Zond 4; fails to leave Earth orbit
1969 - 1st test flight of the supersonic Concorde
1970 - American Airlines' 1st flight of a Boeing 747; Rhodesia becomes independent republic; Supreme Court ruled draft evaders can not be penalized after 5 years
1972 - Jean-Bédel Bokassa appoints himself President for life of Central African Republic
1972 - Pioneer 10 launched for Jupiter flyby
1973 - "Black September" terrorists occupy Saudi Embassy in Khartoum
1974 - 1st class postage raised from 8¢ to 10¢; Grand jury concludes President Nixon is involved in Watergate cover-up
1976 - Walt Disney World logs its 50 millionth guest
1977 - Future Tonight Show host Jay Leno debuts with host Johnny Carson; Libya amends constitution
1978 - 1st broadcast of "Dallas" on CBS TV; Soyuz 28 carries 2 cosmonauts (1 Czechoslovakian) to Salyut 6
1981 - Aircraft hijacked by 3 Pakistani terrorists
1982 - Terror group "The Illuminated Path" frees 260 prisoners in Peru
1983 - Compact Disc recordings developed by Phillips & Sony introduced
1984 - Iran offensive against Iraq fails
1985 - US approves screening test for AIDS
1986 - Protesters try to stop Land Rover motor company being sold to US; Dutch Liberal Party merged with SDP
1989 - 12 European nations agree to ban chlorofluorocarbon production by 2000; Exxon Houston runs aground in Hawaii, spills 117,000 gallons of oil
1991 - UN votes in favor of US resolutions for cease fire with Iraq
1994 - Branch Davidian cult leader David Koresh promises to surrender if taped statement is broadcast; it is - he doesn't; William Natcher, (Representative-Democrat-KY), casts his 18,401 & last consecutive vote
1995 - Ferry boat sinks off Sumbe Angola, 42+ killed; Space shuttle STS-67 (Endeavour 8), launches
1997 - Saudi Arab billionaire Prince al-Waleed bin Talal aquires 5% of Apple; Soyuz TM-24 returns to Earth (Russia)

Birthdays
1316 - Robert II the Steward, King of Scotland (1371-90)
1409 - John II, French duke of Alençon/co-fighter of Jeanne d'arc
1459 - Adrian VI [Adriaan F. Boeyens], Pope (1522-23)
1769 - DeWitt Clinton (Governor/Senator-NY)
1793 - Sam[uel] Houston, 1st president of Texas (1836-38, 1841-44)
1810 - Leo XIII [Vincenzo G Pecci], 256th pope (1878-1903)
1824 - Henry Beebee Carrington, Union Brigadier General
1828 - Jefferson Columbus Davis, Union Brevet Major General
1829 - Carl Schurz, Union Major General / journalist / political reformer
1876 - Pius XII [Euhenio MGG Pacelli], 260th Pope (1939-58)
1908 - Jan Brasser Dutch resistance fighter (Witte Ko)/communist
1916 - Anne Vondeling Dutch politician (PvdA)
1917 - Desi Arnaz Santiago Cuba, singer/actor (Ricky Ricardo-I Love Lucy)
1923 - Robert H.Michel (Representative-IL)
1930 - Jan van Noor,Dutch 2nd Chamber member (CDA)
1931 - Duane F.Graveline, astronaut; Mikhail S.Gorbachev Privolnoye, Soviet Secretary-General (1985-91); Tom Wolfe Richmond, journalist/author (Right Stuff)
1940 - Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, chairman (South African Progressive Federal Party, 1979-86)
1943 - Rosa DeLauro (Representative-CT)
1946 - Brian J. Donnelly (Representative-MA)

Passings
0986 - Lotharius King of France (954-86), dies at 44
1122 - Floris II the fat one, count of Holland
1127 - Charles the Good, Count of Vlanderen, murdered
1333 - Wladyslaw IV the Short One/Great, duke/king of Poland
1383 - Amadeus VI count of Savoy
1840 - Heinrich Olbers, German astronomer (discoverer of comets & asteroids), dies at 81
1855 - Nicholas I Pavlovitch, tsar of Russia (1825-55), dies at 58
1862 - Frederick West Lander, Union Brigadier-General/poet, dies at 40
1895 - Ismail Pasha, kedive of Egypt (1863-79), dies at 64
1916 - Elisabeth OL [Carmen Sylva], Queen of Romania, dies at 72
1973 - Cleo Noel, US ambassador to Sudan is assassinated
1979 - Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Kurdish leader, dies at 75; Sir Richard Sykes, British ambassador is assassinated in Holland
1986 - Zafer Masri, mayor of Nablus, murdered
1991 - Clark Mollenhoff, US journalist (Pulitzer Prize)
1996 - Jacobo Majluta, President of Dominican Republic (1982), dies at 61

Reported Missing in Action
1965
Lockhart, Hayden J., USAF (OH); F100D shot down, released by DRV February, 1973 - retired as a Colonel - alive and well as of 1998

1966
Worst, Karl Edward, USAF (AR); O1E shot down, KIA, Body not recovered

1968
Martin, Donald E., US Army (IN); escaped April, 1968

Widener, Larry Allen, US Army (OH); KIA, remains recovered March, 1968 - ID'd February, 1974

1969
Bogiages, Christo C., Jr., USAF (FL); F105D shot down

Evans, William A., US Army SF (WI); KIA, Body not recovered (w/May)

May, Michael F., US Army SF (MI); KIA, Body not recovered (w/Evans)

1970
McVey, Lavoy D., USMC (CO); fell from helicopter during attempt to search for Skibbe,presumed Killed

Skibbe, David W., USMC (IL); wounded in field, cable on rescue helicopter hoist snapped during extraction, fell and presumed Killed