1199 – John is crowned King of England.
1703 – Tsar Peter the Great founds the city of Saint Petersburg.
1813 – War of 1812: In Canada, American forces capture Fort George.
1818 – Amelia Bloomer, American activist (d. 1894) was born.
1837 – Wild Bill Hickok, American lawman (d. 1876) was born.
1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian Unification.
1863 – American Civil War: First Assault on the Confederate works at the Siege of Port Hudson.
1907 – Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco, California.
1911 – Vincent Price, St Louis MO, actor (House on Haunted Hill, Fly, Laura) Born
1922 – Christopher Lee, English actor and singer was born.
1923 – Henry Kissinger, German-American politician, 56th United States Secretary of State, Nobel Prize laureate was birthed.
1927 – The Ford Motor Company ceases manufacture of the Ford Model T and begins to retool plants to make the Ford Model A.
1930 – The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public.
1933 – New Deal: The U.S. Federal Securities Act is signed into law requiring the registration of securities with the Federal Trade Commission.
1933 – The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon Three Little Pigs, with its hit song “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?”
1935 – New Deal: The Supreme Court of the United States declares the National Industrial Recovery Act to be unconstitutional in A.L.A. Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States, (295 U.S. 495).
1937 – In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County, California.
1941 – World War II: The U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims an “unlimited national emergency”.
1941 – World War II: The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic killing almost 2,100 men.
1949 – Robert Ripley, American cartoonist, publisher, and businessman, founded Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (b. 1890) died.
1957 - Siouxsie Sioux, [Susan Ballion], Kent England (Siouxsie & Banshees) Born
1958 – Neil Finn, rocker (Split Enz-I Got You, Crowded House) Born
1964 – Adam Carolla, American comedian and television personality Born
1965 – Vietnam War: American warships begin the first bombardment of National Liberation Front targets within South Vietnam.
1967 – Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census.
1967 – The U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy is launched by Jacqueline Kennedy and her daughter Caroline.
1967 – Eddie Harsch, Canadian-American keyboard player and bass player (The Black Crowes and The Detroit Cobras) was born.
1968 – Major League Baseball’s National League awards Montreal the first franchise in Canada and the first franchise outside the United States. (the Montreal Expos)
1971 – Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, American singer (TLC) (d. 2002) Born
1986 – Dragon Quest, the game credited as setting the template for role-playing video games, is released in Japan.
1992 – Tony “Big Tuna” Accardo, mobster (St Valentines Day), dies at 86
1992 – Uncle Charlie Osborne, American fiddler (b. 1890) dies
1995 – In Culpeper, Virginia, the actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.
1997 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules that Paula Jones can pursue her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Bill Clinton while he is in office.
1998 – Oklahoma City bombing: Michael Fortier is sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000 for failing to warn authorities about the terrorist plot.
2011 – Jeff Conaway, American actor (Taxi) (b. 1950) Dies
2011 – Gil Scott-Heron, American poet, musician and author (b. 1949) Dies
Source