History on this day

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• 1077 German King Heinrich IV petitions Pope Gregory VII for forgiveness
• 1276 Pierre de Tarantaise elected Pope Innocence V
• 1287 The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
• 1324 Zen Buddhist religious debate between Tendai & Shingon
• 1522 Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
• 1525 The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
• 1542 Parliament passes bill of attainder against Queen Katherine Howard
• 1664 Count Miklos of Zrinyi sets out to battle Turkish invasion army
• 1677 1st medical publication in America (pamphlet on smallpox), Boston
• 1732 Russia & Persia sign Treaty of Riascha
• 1749 The Verona Philharmonic Theatre was destroyed by fire. It was rebuilt in 1754.
• 1789 1st American novel, WH Brown's "Power of Sympathy" is published
• 1793 Prussia & Russia sign partition treaty, dividing Poland.
• 1793 Louis XVI of France is executed by the guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for high treason.
• 1813 Pineapple introduced to Hawaii (or 01/111)
• 1818 Keats writes his poem "On a Lock of Milton's Hair"
• 1821 Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die
• 1827 Freedom Journal, 1st Black paper, begins publishing
• 1830 Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported
• 1863 City of Dublin leases part of Cattle Market for 100,000 years
• 1864 The Tauranga Campaign of the New Zealand Wars begins
• 1874 Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa" premieres in Vienna
• 1879 Henrik Ibsen's "Et Dukkehjem" premieres in Copenhagen
• 1880 1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis, Tennessee
• 1887 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) forms
• 1887 Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
• 1890 1st issue of Propria Cures, Amsterdam student-weekly newspaper
• 1893 The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, was formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate which is now Botswana.
• 1894 Oscar Fredriksen skates world record 500m in 47.8 sec
• 1899 Opel manufactured its first automobile.
• 1900 The second contingent of Canadian troops sails from Halifax to fight in South Africa against the Boers
• 1901 Clyde Fitch's "Climbers" premieres in NYC
• 1903 "Wizard of Oz" premieres in NYC
• 1903 International Theater (Majestic, Park) opens at 5 Columbus Circle NYC
• 1904 Leos Janacek's opera "Jenufa" premieres in Brno
• 1907 Kenora Thistles sweep Mont Wanderers in 2 for Stanley Cup
• 1908 August Strindberg's "Spoksonaten" premieres in Stockholm
• 1908 NYC regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public
• 1910 British-Russian military intervention in Persia
• 1913 Aristide Briand forms French government for the 2nd time
• 1915 Kiwanis International founded in Detroit
• 1919 Irish militant nationalist party Sinn Fein creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence
• 1920 14th Davis Cup: Australasia beats Great Britain in Sydney (4-1)
• 1921 The Italian Communist Party was founded at Livorno.
• 1922 1st slalom ski race run, Murren, Switzerland
• 1925 Albanian parliament announces itself a republic; Ahmed Zogoe president
• 1926 Belgian parliament accepts Locarno treaties
• 1927 1st national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)
• 1929 Robert Sherriff's "Journey's End" premieres in London
• 1932 USSR & Finland stop non-attack treaty
• 1935 12.0" (30.5 cm) of rain falls, Quinault RS, Wash (state record)
• 1935 WFI-AM in Philadelphia Penn merges with WLIT as WFIL (now WEAZ)
• 1935 Wilderness Society incorporated in USA
• 1938 Dutch government starts obligatory unemployment insurance
• 1939 US female Figure Skating championship won by Joan Tozzer
• 1939 US male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee
• 1940 Foreign correspondents in Netherlands subjected to censorship
• 1941 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria
• 1941 1st commercial extraction of magnesium from seawater, Freeport, TX
• 1941 Australian and British troops attack Tobruk, Libya
• 1941 British communist newspaper "Daily Worker" banned
• 1942 Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
• 1942 Count Basie records "One O'Clock Jump"
• 1942 Tito's partisans occupy Foca
• 1943 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk
• 1943 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
• 1943 Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Royal Navy, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet
• 1944 447 German bombers attack London
• 1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
• 1945 British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma
• 1946 "Nellie Bly" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC for 16 performances
• 1947 "Sweethearts" opens at Shubert Theater NYC for 288 performances
• 1947 Arthur Honegger's 4th Symphony premieres in Basel
• 1948 W Indies v England, Test debut Walcott, Weekes & Jim Laker
• 1949 1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman)
• 1950 "Lend an Ear" closes at National Theater NYC after 460 performances
• 1950 NY jury finds former State Dept official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury
• 1954 1st gas turbine automobile exhibited (NYC)
• 1954 USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, launched on the Thames, Connecticut.
• 1954 4th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 98-93 (OT) at New York City
• 1956 "Comedy in Music (Victor Borge)" closes at Golden NYC after 849 performances
• 1956 William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of New Yorker
• 1957 KSAT TV channel 12 in San Antonio, TX (ABC) begins broadcasting
• 1958 KMOT TV channel 10 in Minot, ND (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1958 Phillies agree to televise 78 games into NYC (doesn't happen)
• 1958 8th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 130-118 at St. Louis
• 1960 Little Joe 4 suborbital Mercury test reaches 16 km
• 1960 Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook, South Africa; 417 die of methane poisoning
• 1961 "Conquering Hero" closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 8 performances
• 1961 KIFI TV channel 8 in Idaho Falls, ID (NBC) begins broadcasting
• 1961 Portuguese rebels seize cruise ship Santa Maria
• 1962 JFK arrives in Uruguay
• 1962 Mickey Wright wins LPGA Sea Island Women's Golf Invitational
• 1962 Snow falls in San Francisco
• 1964 Carl T Rowan named director of US Information Agency
• 1965 Iranian premier Hassan Ali Mansur assassinated by 17-year-old Mohammad Bokharaei, a member of the Fadayan-e Islam.
• 1967 AFL Pro Bowl: East beats West 30-23
• 1967 US female Figure Skating championship won by Peggy Fleming
• 1967 US male Figure Skating championship won by Gary Visconti
• 1968 AFL Pro Bowl: East beats West 25-24
• 1968 NFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 38-20
• 1968 US B-52 bomber with nuclear bomb on board crashes in Greenland
• 1968 Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh - One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
• 1969 22nd NHL All-Star Game: West beat East 3-3 at Montreal
• 1971 "Alias Smith & Jones" premieres on ABC TV
• 1972 Assam's North East Frontier Agency becomes Arunachal Pradesh terr
• 1972 Belgian government of Eyskens-Cools forms
• 1972 Manipur, Meghalaya & Tripura become separate states of Indian union
• 1972 Mizoram, formerly part of Assam, creates an Indian union territory
• 1972 Tripura becomes a full-fledged state in India.
• 1973 NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 33-28
• 1973 Leslie Nielson appears on M*A*S*H in "Ringbanger"
• 1974 Gold hits record $161.31/silver hits record $3.97 an ounce in London
• 1975 28th NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 7-1 at Montreal
• 1976 Supersonic Concorde, 1st commercial flights, by Britain & France
• 1978 Bee Gees' "Saturday Night Fever" album goes #1 for 24 weeks
• 1979 Neptune becomes outermost planet (Pluto moves closer)
• 1979 Price of gold increases to record $875 troy oz
• 1979 Super Bowl XIII: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 35-31 in Miami Super Bowl MVP: Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, QB
• 1980 Gold hits record $850 an ounce
• 1980 Les Henson, Virginia Tech, makes 89' 3" basketball field goal
• 1981 "Shakespeare's Cabaret" opens at Bijou Theater New York City for 54 performances
• 1981 Bernhard Goetz is assaulted for 1st time on a New York City subway train
• 1981 Norman Stronge and his son James (both former Ulster Unionist Members of Parliament) are assassinated by the Irish Republican Army at their home Tynan Abbey, which is then burnt down
• 1982 "Little Me" opens at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC for 36 performances
• 1982 NY Islanders begin then NHL record 15 game winning streak
• 1983 Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Anthony E Hecht
• 1984 US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Hamilton
• 1985 -19°F (-28°C), Caesar's Head, South Carolina (state record)
• 1985 -34°F (-37°C), Mt Mitchell, North Carolina (state record)
• 1985 Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java
• 1985 Dennis Potvin ties Bobby Orr's career record of 270 NHL goals
• 1986 100 participate in Nude Olympics race in 38°F (3°C), Indiana
• 1986 Allison J Brown, 17, of Oklahoma, crowned 4th Miss Teen USA
• 1986 Bomb attack in East-Beirut, 27 killed
• 1992 UN serves Libya a resolution to hand over intelligence agents accused of two airliner bombings
• 1993 Nigerian singer Fela Kuti arrested on suspicion of murder
• 1994 Dow Jones passes 3900 (record 3,914.20)
• 1994 Lorena Bobbitt found temporarily insane when she cut off her husband's penis
• 1996 Karrie Webb wins LPGA HealthSouth Inaugural Golf Tournament
• 1996 US male Figure Skating championship won by Rudy Galindo
• 1997 An inquiry in North Wales names more than 80 child abusers
• 1998 Pope John Paul II visits Cuba
• 1999 In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the US Coast Guard intercepts a ship carrying 4,300 kg of cocaine.
• 2001 58th Golden Globes: Gladiator, Tom Hanks, & Julia Roberts win
• 2002 The Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
• 2004 Canada: The residence of reporter Juliet O'Neill is searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
• 2004 NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
• 2005 In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.
• 2007 Awashima Marine Park in Japan catches a video tape of the rare frilled shark.
• 2007 AFC Championship Game: Indianapolis Colts beat New England Patriots 38-34
• 2007 NFC Championship Game: Chicago Bears beat New Orleans Saints 39-14
• 2008 Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.
• 2008 The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies.
• 2013 30 people are killed in a car bombing in Salamiyeh, Syria
• 2013 41 people are injured after two trains collide in Vienna, Austria
• 2013 18 people are killed and 24 are injured after a bus falls down a ravine in Yungas, Bolivia
• 2013 1 person is killed and 15 are injured by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Indonesia
• 2013 Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Netherlands’ Minister of Finance, becomes the President of the Euro Group
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