1377 – Mass execution of population (between 2,500 and 5,000) of Cesena, Italy, by Breton troops of Giovanni Acuto under the command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, acting as the legate of Pope Gregory XI (Cesena Bloodbath).
1451 – Sultan Mehmed II (the Conqueror) inherits the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
1534 – Irish rebel Silken Thomas is executed by the order of Henry VIII in London, England.
1576 – Henry of Navarre (future Henry IV) escapes from Paris during the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre
1637 – Tulip mania collapses in the United Provinces (now the Netherlands) as sellers could no longer find buyers for their bulb contracts.
1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.
1747 – Samuel Osgood, American soldier, 1st United States Postmaster General (d. 1813) was born.
1740 – Charles de Bourbon, King of Naples, invites Jews to return to Sicily
1743 – Philadelphia establishes a “pesthouse” to quarantine immigrants
1752 – Dutch States-General forbids export of windmills
1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.
1783 – American Revolutionary War: Spain recognizes United States independence.
1787 – Militia led by General Benjamin Lincoln crush the remnants of Shays’ Rebellion in Petersham, Massachusetts.
1809 – The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress. (including present-day Wisconsin)
1821 – Elizabeth Blackwell, American physician (d. 1910) was born.
1830 – The sovereignty of Greece is confirmed in a London Protocol.
1855 – Wisconsin Supreme Court declares US Fugitive Slave Law unconstitutional
1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to citizens regardless of race.
1887 – To avoid disputed natl elections, Congress creates Electoral Count Act
1889 – Belle Starr, US female gangster, murdered at 40
Belle associated with the James-Younger gang and other outlaws. She was convicted of horse theft in 1883. Her story was popularized by novelist Richard Fox and later became a popular character in television and movies.
1894 – Norman Rockwell, American painter and illustrator (Sat Evening Post covers) (d. 1978) was born.
1900 – Governor of Kentucky William Goebel dies of wound sustained in an assassination attempt three days earlier in Frankfort, Kentucky.
1904 – Charles “Pretty Boy” Floyd, gangster and FBI Most Wanted criminal Born
1907 – James A. Michner, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, American author (Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii) Born
1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is “ratified”, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax. (In truth it was NOT legally ratified at all!)
1916 – Parliament buildings in Ottawa, Canada burn down.
1917 – US liner Housatonic is sunk by German submarine, on the same day that US President Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany and announced a new policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
1919 – League of Nations 1st meeting (Paris)
1919 – The Bolshevik army is defeated in a series of clashes with the White Russians, who are fighting to reclaims the government after the 1917 revolution
1922 – John Butler Yeats, Northern Irish artist, father of William Butler Yeats, (b. 1839) Dies
1924 – Woodrow Wilson, American politician, 28th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1856) died.
1927 – Kenneth Anger, American Underground Filmmaker Born
1928 – Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names ‘Sinanthropus pekinensis’ (now known as ‘Homo erectus’)
1931 – Arkansas legislature passes motion to pray for soul of H L Mencken after he calls state “apex of moronia”
1933 – German Minister Hermann Goering bans social-democratic newspaper Vorwarts
1935 – Johnny “Guitar” Watson, rock guitarist Born
1940 – Fran Tarkenton, Richmond Va, NFL QB (NY Giants, Minnesota Vikings) Born
1941 – US Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours
1943 – The USAT Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survived. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.
1943 – Blythe Danner, Phila PA, actress (Butterflies are Free) born
1943 – Dennis Edwards, Fairfield Alabama, lead singer of the Temptations (“Papa was a Rollin’ Stone”) born
1943 – Eric Haydock, bassist (Hollies-He Aint Heavy He’s My Brother) born
1944 – World War II: During the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign, U.S. Army and Marine forces seize Kwajalein Atoll from the defending Japanese garrison.
1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 to 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.
1945 – World War II: The United States and the Philippine Commonwealth begin a month-long battle to retake Manila from Japan.
1947 – Dave Davies, rock vocalist/guitarist (Kinks-Lola), born in London, England Born
1949 – Arthur (Killer) Kane, American musician (NY Dolls) Born
1950 – Morgan Fairchild, [Patsy McClenny], Dallas Tx, actress (Falcon Crest) Born
1951 – Tennessee Williams’ “Rose Tattoo” premieres in NYC
1956 – Lee Ranaldo, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Sonic Youth) was born.
1959 – Lol Tolhurst, English drummer (The Cure, Presence, Easy Cure, and Levinhurst) was born.
1958 – Lee Crystal, rocker (Joan Jett & Blackhearts-Ashes in the Wind) Born
1959 – American Airlines Electra crashes in NY’s East River, killing 65
1959 – Deaths of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1960 – “La Dolce Vita” directed by Federico Fellini and starring Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Anita Ekberg has its film premiere in Italy
1960 – Kerry Von Erich, American wrestler (d. 1993) was born.
1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a “Doomsday Plane” is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States’ bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC’s command post.
1965 – Orbiting Solar Observatory 2 launches into Earth orbit (552/636 km)
1966 – 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched US
1967 – “Purple Haze” recorded by Jimi Hendrix
1967 – Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.
1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption. Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.
1971 – There is a series of house searches by the British Army in Catholic areas of Belfast, resulting in serious rioting and gun battles
1971 – OPEC mandates “total embargo” against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate
1978 – Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat and US President Jimmy Carter discuss the Middle East peace process in Washington DC
1980 – Mohammed Ali tours Africa as Pres Carter’s envoy
1982 – Porn star John Holmes ordered to stand trial for murder
1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history’s first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.
1985 – Frank Oppenheimer, American physicist (Atom Bomb) (b. 1912) Dies
1989 – John Cassavetes, actor/director (Husbands, Dirty Dozen), dies at 59
1991 – Nancy Kulp, actress (Jane Hathaway-Beverly Hillbillies), dies at 69
1989 – Military coup overthrows Alfredo Stroessner, dictator of Paraguay
1992 – Defense opens calling Noriega “our ally in war on drugs”
1993 – Cincinnati Reds (MLB) owner Marge Schott suspended for 1 year due to racist comments
1993 – Federal trial of 4 police officers charged with civil rights violations in videotaped beating of Rodney King begins in LA Calif
1995 – Turner Fodrell, blues singer/guitarist, dies at 66
1996 – Audrey Meadows, actress (Alice-Honeymooners), dies at 69
1996 – Wild Jimmy Spruill, blues guitarist, dies at 61
1998 – Karla Faye Tucker is executed in Texas, becoming the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.
1998 – US military (NATO) plane clips cable car lines in northern Italy, kills 20
1998 – Mary Kay Letourneau (Bush Cousin), 36, former teacher, violates probation with 14 year-old father of her baby
1999 – Gwen Guthrie, American singer(“Ain’t Nothin’ Goin’ on but the Rent”) dies of cancer aged 48
2002 – Super Bowl XXXVI: New England Patriots beat St. Louis Rams, 20-17 at the Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans MVP: Tom Brady, New England, QB
2006 – Al Lewis, (Grandpa Munster) American actor (b. 1923) Dies
2012 – Ben Gazzara, American actor, dies from pancreatic cancer at 81
2014 – 2 students are shot & killed in a school shooting in Moscow