1619 – Trial against Johan van Oldenbarnevelt begins in The Hague for alleged crimes against the federal government
1745 – Jacobite troops occupy Fort Augustus, Scotland
1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington. ( 6 cents – 12 cents depending on distance. A lot of money in those days!)
1809 – US Supreme Court rules federal government power greater than any state
1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
1831 – Polish revolutionaries defeat Russians in battle of Growchow
1839 – Congress prohibits dueling in District of Columbia
1864 – American Civil War: Battle of Olustee: The largest battle fought in Florida during the war.
1869 – Tennessee Governor W C Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis
1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.
1895 – Congress authorizes a US mint at Denver, Colorodo
1895 – Frederick Douglass, escaped slave, anti-slavery leader, Statesman dies at 77
1901 – The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time.
1902 – Ansel Adams, photographer (1966 ASMP Award) Born
1909 – Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
1910 – Butros Ghali, prime minister of Egypt from 1908 to 1910, assassinated by Nationalist at 64
1916 – Jackie Gleason, Brooklyn New York, American comedian (Ralph Kramden-Honeymooners) Born
1919 – French premier Clemenceau injured during assassination attempt
1921 – Riza Khan Pahlevi seizes control of Iran
1922 – WOR-AM in New York City begins radio transmissions
1923 – Christy Mathewson becomes pres of Boston Braves
1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt, don’t my jeans look great (poor little rich girl) Mother Of CNN Anderson Copper – Birthed
1925 – Robert Altman, Kansas City MO, director (Nashville, M*A*S*H) Born
1927 – Golfers in SC arrested for violating Sabbath
1927 – Roy Cohn, lawyer, “grand inquisitor” (for Sen Joseph McCarthy) Birthed
1927 – Sidney Poitier, American actor, director, and diplomat was born.
1929 – American Samoa organizes as territory of US
1931 – The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.
1933 – The Congress of the United States proposes the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.
1933 – Adolf Hitler secretly meets with German industrialists (Tied to P. Bush / Skull & Bones) to arrange for financing of the Nazi Party’s upcoming election campaign.
1934 – Bobby Unser, auto racer (1968, 75, 81 Indianapolis 500) Born
1937 – David Ackles, Illinois, vocalist/songwriter (American Gothic) Born
1937 – Nancy Wilson, Chillicothe Ohio, jazz vocalist (Feel Like Making Love) Born
1938 – UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns, says PM Chamberlain “appeased” Germany
1939 – Barbara Ellis, Olympia Wa, rocker (Fleetwoods) Born
1942 – Phil Esposito, Sault Ste. Marie Ontario, NHL center/GM (Bruins, Rangers) Born
1942 – Lt E H O’Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers, becomes America’s first World War II flying ace
1943 – New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer’s corn field (Mexico)
1943 – American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies.
1943 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.
1944 – World War II: The “Big Week” began with American bomber raids on German aircraft manufacturing centers.
1944 – Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers
1946 – J[erome] Geils, rock guitarist (J Geils Band-Centerfold), born in NYC, New York, Born
1947 – Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in LA
1947 – Earl Mountbatten of Burma appointed as last viceroy of India to oversee the move to independence.
1948 – Billy Zoom, Punk Rock Guitarist. X – born
1950 – Dylan Thomas arrives in NYC for his 1st US poetry reading tour
1951 – Gordon Brown, Giffnock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, British Labour Prime Minister (2007–10) Birthed
1953 – US Court of Appeals rules that Organized Baseball is a sport & not a business, affirming the 25-year-old Supreme Court ruling
1953 - Poison Ivy, American musician (The Cramps) Born
1954 – Jon Brant, American bass player (Cheap Trick) was born.
1955 – Kelsey Grammer, Virgin Islands, actor (BOSS -Cheers/Fraiser) Born
1959 – Ray McDonald, dancer, dies of barbituate overdose at 38
1959 – The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate.
1959 – Joel Rifkind, NY serial killer, Birthed
1960 – Jimi Hendrix, rock and roll guitarist, plays his first gig.
1962 – John Glenn is 1st American to orbit Earth (Friendship 7)
1963 – Charles Barkley, Leads Alabama, NBA forward (Phoenix, Rockets, Oly-gold-96) Born
1963 – Ian Brown, English rock vocalist (Stone Roses-Made of Stone) Born
1963 – William Baldwin, NY, actor (Backdraft, Sliver, Flatliners) Born
1966 – Chester W Nimitz, US admiral (WW II), dies at 80
1966 – Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR
1966 – Cindy Crawford, Dekalb Ill, super model (Sports Illustrated Swimsuit) Born
1967 – Kurt Cobain, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Nirvana) (d. 1994) was born.
1967 – Lili Taylor, actress (Ransom, Short Cuts) Born
1968 – State troopers used tear gas to stop demonstration at Alcorn A & M
1969 – Vaginal Cream Davis, American drag queen and LA performance artist – Born
1970 – Cheyenne Brando, Papeete Tahiti, daughter of Marlon, Born
1971 – Bruin Phil Esposito is NHL’s quickest to score 50 goals in a season
1971 – Major General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself president of Uganda
1971 – National Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio & TV stations to go off the air. Mistake wasn’t resolved for 30 minutes
1972 – Walter Winchell, writer/actor (Dondi, Love & Hisses), dies at 74
1975 – Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British Conservative Party
1975 – A feud begins between the Official Irish Republican Army and the Irish National Liberation Army; the two groups assassinate a number of each other’s volunteers until the feud ends in June 1975 (cointelpro?)
1978 – 4th People’s Choice Awards: John Wayne & Barbra Streisand win (Motion Picture) and James Garner & Mary Tyler Moore win (TV)
1979 – 11 ‘loyalists’ known as the “Shankill Butchers” are sentenced to life in prison for 19 murders; the gang was named for its late-night kidnapping, torture and murder (by throat slashing) of random Catholic civilians in Belfast
1985 – After defending his WBC flyweight championship, Sot Chitalada’s check for $104,000 is stolen by a ringside pickpocket
1987 – Bomb blamed on “Unabomber” explodes by computer store in Salt Lake City
1988 – Peter Kalikow purchases NY Post from Rupert Murdoch for $37.6 million
1991 – A gigantic statue of Albania’s long-time dictator, Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital, Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters.
1992 – Dick York, actor (Bewitched), dies of emphysema at 63
1992 – Ross Perot says he’ll run for President on Larry King Show
1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian businessman, founded Lamborghini (b. 1916) died.
2001 – The United States Supreme Court declines to consider an appeal by five major oil companies against Unocal’s patent on production of cleaner “reformulated” gasoline sold in California
2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the club ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 300 others.
2005 – Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout.
2005 – Sandra Dee, American actress (b. 1944) Dies
2005 – Hunter S. Thompson, American journalist and author (b. 1937) Dies / Assassinated?
2005 – Pam Bricker, American jazz singer and Thievery Corporation vocalist (b. 1954) Dies
2006 – Curt Gowdy, American sportscaster (b. 1919) dies
2010 – Alexander Haig, American soldier and politician (b. 1924) Dies
2012 – Scientists successfully regenerate Silene stenophylla from a 31,800 year old piece of fruit, greatly surpassing the previous record of 2,000 years
2012 – South Korea angers North Korea as it proceeds with live fire drills in disputed Korean sea borders
2013 – Estonia becomes the first country to establish a national system of fast chargers for electric cars
2013 – Kepler-37b, the smallest known exoplanet, is discovered
2014 – Dozens of Euromaidan anti-government protesters died in in Ukraine’s capital Kiev, many reportedly killed by REBEL snipers.