St. Sylvester becomes Pope
Death of St. Aidan (Madoc) of Ferns
Ferdinand of Hapsburg, King of Hungary, and John Zapolyai, King of Hungary, reach a truce
The Earl of Hertford is appointed Duke of Somerset and Lord-Protector of England
Death of Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal
Guy Fawkes, convicted for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James the First, was executed.
First trip both ways around Cape Horn
The Virginia colony requests more orphaned apprentices for employment
Robert Morris, Declaration of Independence signer. born
The Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart dies.
Franz Schubert was born. Schubert was born in Vienna and he died in Vienna. He lived only 31 years. He never heard his own Ninth Symphony in public performance and was led to believe it was unplayable. born
The sale of white bread was prohibited in London.
James G. Blaine, the 'Plumed Knight' born
San Francisco Orphan's Asylum, 1st in California, founded.
Philadelphia music critic James Huneker born
House of Representatives approves a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery.
General Robert E. Lee was named General-in-Chief of all the Confederate armies.
Birds fly over the western part of San Francisco in such large numbers that they actually darken the sky.
Western novelist and dentist Zane Grey (The Spirit of the Border, The Last of the Plainsmen, Riders of the Purple Sage) born
Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova born
C.D. Wright was appointed as the first Commissioner of Labor in the United States.
Singer-comedian Eddie (Iskowitz) Cantor (If You Knew Susie like I Know Susie, Alabamy Bound, Dinah, Ida, Makin' Whoopee, Ma He's Makin' Eyes at Me) born
France the Army and the Navy ban corporal punishment.
The Pan American Conference ends in Mexico City with all agreed to settle disputes in peace.
Actress Tallulah Bankhead (Stage Door Canteen, Die! Die! My Darling!) born
The German Reichstag exempts royal families from tax obligations.
Congress passes resolution naming San Francisco as the site of the celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal.
Entertainer (Thomas Morfit) Garry Moore (The Garry Moore Show; I've Got a Secret, To Tell the Truth) born
German U-boats sink two British steamers in the English Channel.
Germans use poison gas on the Russians at Bolimov.
President Wilson refuses the compromise on Lusitania reparations.
Germany served notice that it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
Jackie Robinson, the first black to play major league baseball born
Opera singer and actor (Alfred Cocozza) Mario Lanza (Be My Love, The Loveliest Night of the Year, Because You're Mine) born
Actor John Agar (Body Bags, Curse of the Swamp Creatures, Invisible Invaders, Revenge of the Creature, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Sands of Iwo Jima, Fort Apache) born
Author Norman Mailer (The Armies of the Night; Miami and the Siege of Chicago, The Executioner's Song, The Naked and the Dead, An American Dream) born
Actress Carol (Lowe) Channing (Hello, Dolly!, Thoroughly Modern Millie) born
Civil rights leader Benjamin Hooks born
The Soviet Union expelled communist revolutionary Leon Trotsky. He was later assassinated in Mexico.
Actress Jean Simmons (The Big Country, Elmer Gantry, The Robe, Spartacus, Great Expectations, The Thorn Birds, North and South) born
Lt. Ralph S. Barnaby of the U.S. Navy became the first glider pilot to have his craft released from a large blimp at Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks born
Actor James Franciscus (Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Good Guys Wear Black, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy) born
The Federal Farm Mortgage Corp. is set up to provide low interest loans that are backed by government bonds.
The Soviet premier tells Japan to get out of Manchuria. The rise of militaristic nationalism led Japan down the road to Pearl Harbor and World War II.
The radio show, "The Green Hornet" was introduced by its famous theme song, "The Flight of the Bumble Bee". The show premiered on WXYZ radio, in Detroit, Michigan, and stayed on the air for 16 years.
Minimalist opera composer Philip Glass was born in Baltimore. born
Actress Suzanne Pleshette (The Bob Newhart Show, Oh God Book 2, The Birds, If It's Tuesday This Must be Belgium) born
The first Social Security check was issued, by the U.S. Government. The check was for $22.54 and was issued to Ida Fuller of Brattlesboro, Vermont. Her check number was 00-000-001.
House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (Democrat, Missouri) born
Actress Jessica Walter (Temptress, The Execution, The Flamingo Kid, She's Dressed to Kill, Play Misty for Me, Three's a Crowd, For the People, Dinosaurs, Bare Essence) (some sources 1944) born
During World War Two, US forces began invading Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
Private Eddie Slovik became the only US soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.
Baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan born
The first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast from the NBC station in Chicago.
Paris protests the Soviet recognition of Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
President Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb. Truman said, ``A leader has to lead, or otherwise he has no business in politics.''
Singer and songwriter Phil Collins (In the Air Tonight, I Missed Again, You Can't Hurry Love, Sussudio, One More Night, Two Hearts) born
Singer-musician KC (KC and the Sunshine Band) born
Rock singer Johnny Rotten born
Swimmer Shirley Babashoff (she holds the record for American woman winning the most Olympic medals) born
The United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, "Explorer One."
Actor Anthony LaPaglia born
Julie Andrews, Henry Fonda, Rex Harrison and Jackie Gleason, appeared in a two-hour TV special titled, "The Fabulous '50s."
Singer-musician Lloyd Cole born
Ham the chimp is 1st animal sent into space by the US.
Actor John Dye ("Touched By An Angel") born
Rock musician Al Jaworski (Jesus Jones) born
U.S. planes resume bombing of North Vietnam after a 37-day pause.
Actress Minnie Driver born
Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Junior, Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard "Apollo 14" on a mission to the moon.
Actress Portia de Rossi born
Ernesto Miranda, famous from the Supreme Court ruling on "MirandaRights," is stabbed to death in Arizona.
Singer Justin Timberlake ('N Sync) born
Lech Walesa announces an accord in Poland, giving labor Saturdays off.
Sandy Duncan, of Tyler, Texas, gave her final performance as "Peter Pan" in Los Angeles. She completed 956 performances without missing a show, and flew a total of 261.5 miles while on stage.
The Israeli Cabinet agreed to a multi-national peace-keeping force to act as a buffer between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai peninsula.
Newsman Edwin Newman retired from NBC News after 35 years with the network.
The final Jeep, the workhorse vehicle that came home a hero from World War II, rolled off the assembly line at the AMC plant in Toledo, Ohio.
Discount airline pioneer People Express flew its last flights before merging into Continental Airlines.
Members of the United Steelworkers union ratified a contract with USX Corporation, ending a six-month work stoppage.
The Washington Redskins crushed the Denver Broncos, 42-to-10, to win Super Bowl 22 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego.
Jury selection began in the trial of former National Security Council aide Oliver North, charged in connection with the Iran-Contra affair. (North was later convicted on three counts, but those convictions were set aside, and the case was not retried.)
McDonald's Corporation opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.
During the Gulf War, Army Specialist Melissa Rathbun-Nealy and Army Specialist David Lockett were captured by Iraqi forces near the Kuwaiti-Saudi border; both were eventually released.
Allied forces claimed victory against Iraqi attackers at Khafji, Saudi Arabia.
Leaders of the UN Security Council's member states held an unprecedented summit, after which they issued a declaration on collective security, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation.
The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills 52-to-17 in Super Bowl 27, played at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.
Gerry Adams, president of the pro-IRA Sinn Fein party, arrived in New York after being granted a 48-hour visa so that he could take part in a conference on the violence in Northern Ireland.
In Somalia, a convoy of U.S. soldiers opened fire on hundreds of Somali civilians outside a food distribution center, killing at least eight.
After Congress failed to act quickly, President Clinton used his emergency authority to provide financially troubled Mexico with a $20 billion loan.
The prosecution in the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson began presenting its case.
Legendary Broadway producer-director George Abbott died in Miami Beach, Florida, at age 107
In one of the worst attacks in Sri Lanka's civil war, a truck packed with explosives rammed into the central bank and exploded, killing 88 people and wounding 14-hundred others.
The last Cubans held in refugee camps at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base boarded a plane for Florida.
Three days of deliberations in the O.J. Simpson civil trial in Santa Monica, California, were scrapped and the jury forced to start all over again after the only black woman on the panel was replaced because of misconduct.
Endeavour after four months on the Russian space station Mir.
Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham presented what they called convincing proof that the AIDS virus originated in chimpanzees and spread to people in Africa.
The Denver Broncos repeated as NFL champions, defeating the Atlanta Falcons 34-19 in Super Bowl XXXIII.
An Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.
Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker was suspended by baseball commissioner Bud Selig for disparaging foreigners, homosexuals and minorities in a Sports Illustrated interview.
Pro Bowl linebacker Ray Lewis was charged with murder in the deaths of two people outside an Atlanta nightclub hours after the Super Bowl. (Lewis ended his trial early by pleading guilty to obstruction of justice; two co-defendants were acquitted at trial.)
Protests at New York's Hamilton College over controversial professor
Survey reveals US student apathy for freedom of speech
Slovak escapes from avalanche using urine
Vandals deface Australia's Myall Creek memorial
Virgin of Suyapa visits Honduran suburb devastated by massacre
RAF Hercules crashes north of Baghdad killing ten
Kofi Annan notes high turnout in Iraq elections
MetLife to acquire Travelers Life and Annuity from Citigroup
Report into 2003/2004 New South Wales (Australia) hospital safety released
Steve Kubby, co-author of California Proposition 215, grows dangerously ill in US custody
Al-Jazeera airs new video of Ayman al-Zawahri
Americans spent more than they earned in 2005
100th British soldier killed in Iraq
U.S. Senate confirms Supreme Court nominee Alito
Virginia takes action against Zebra Mussels in private pond
Nominations announced for 78th Academy Awards
Internet Explorer 7 beta released to the public
Coretta Scott King passes away
West Papuan refugees may face death if deported
Petrol pricing in Bathurst, NSW reduced for only seven days
Several dead after gas station explosion
India wins the cricket series against West Indies by 3-1
Prestigious design award given to TAG Heuer
Sweden to open embassy in Second Life
Steel Industry: Tata buys Corus
Man arrested after attempting to break into Prince Charles's home
Militants to present evidence Malacanang sanctioned killings
Confirmed bird flu death in Nigeria
'Bridezilla' YouTube video: many debate legitimacy
New Zealand exam insulter revealed
Schwarzenegger endorses McCain for U.S. Presidency
China's winter weather threatens food supplies
Brechin thrown out of Scottish Cup after dispute
Getting the exclusive lowdown on The Lowdown
Franco-Belgian bank Dexia to restructure, lose 900 jobs
Brain chemical Serotonin behind locustsâ swarming instinct
Discworld author films his battle with Alzheimer's
Iraqi provincial elections relatively peaceful
British Airways plans to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 50% by 2050
US Republicans elect first African-American chairman
Swiss canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden fights back after invasion of German naked hikers
Sony net profit falls by 95%
Trial date set for fraud case against Church of Scientology in France
Holocaust denial bishop apologizes
Gaddafi loses African Union chair
China threatens to take action over US-Taiwan deal
Snow causes German travel woes
US government stops Haiti evacuations
Roger Federer wins Australian Open
Asian ministers pledge to increase wild tiger numbers
Man found dead after car crash in Shetland
Domestic stabbing suspect arrested in Massachusetts
Elizabeth II annuls Fred Goodwin knighthood
Main belt asteroid No. 274301 named 'Wikipedia'