On This Day In History

    661 Rashidun Caliphate, then the largest empire in history, ends with death of Ali. Succeeded by the Umayyad Caliphate
    672 St Vitalian ends his reign as Catholic Pope
    847 Sergius II ends his reign as Catholic Pope
    1142 Wrongful execution of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
    1302 Dante becomes a Florentine political exile
    1343 Pope Clement VI issues the Bull Unigenitus.
    1538 States of Gelderland accepts Willem van Kleef as viceroy
    1556 Willem of Orange becomes a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece
    1593 Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno
    1662 1st American lime kiln begins operation (Providence RI)
    1778 Piccinni's opera "Roland" premieres in Paris
    1785 1st US state university chartered, Athens, Georgia
    1823 President Monroe appoints first US ambassadors to South America
    1825 U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears."
    1864 Battle of Fair Gardens, TN
    1864 Civil War skirmish at Kelly's Ford, Va
    1870 1st sorority (Kappa Alpha Theta) (DePauw U in Greencastle, Indiana)
    1870 After accepting 15th amendment, Virginia is readmitted to Union
    1870 Manitoba & Northwest Territories incorporated
    1886 First British government of Salisbury resigns
    1888 National Geographic Society formed in Washington, D.C.
    1891 Mine explosion kills 109 at Mount Pleasant Pennsylvania
    1894 1st college basketball game, University of Chicago beats Chicago YMCA 19-11
    1894 Midwinter Fair opens in Golden Gate Park
    1896 Tasmania bowl out Victoria for 65 for their 1st ever innings victory
    1897 British troops occupy Bida Gold Coast (Ghana)
    1900 Social Democrat Party of America (Debs' party) holds 1st convention
    1900 Foreign diplomats in Peking, China, write formal notes of protest demanding that the Chinese Government stop the Boxes and other groups leading attacks on Westerners and Christians.
    1902 5 workers killed on explosion during IRT subway construction (NYC)
    1905 Maurice Rouvier forms government in France
    1906 Rudolf Gundersen skates world record 500m at 44.8 sec
    1908 Pasiphaë, a satellite of Jupiter, discovered by Melotte
    1909 The Young Left is founded in Norway.
    1914 A petition is written and submitted by the black and coloured women of the Orange Free State, an independent Boer sovereign republic in southern Africa, against the carrying of passes by women
    1915 US Marines occupy Haiti
    1916 Communist party "Spartacus Letters" 1st published in Berlin
    1917 Coen de Koning wins 2nd official 11 cities race (9:53) (record)
    1918 "Tarzan of the Apes", 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theater
    1918 The first hostilities occurred in the Finnish Civil War.
    1924 Egyptian king Foead nominates Saad Zaghloel Pasja premier
    1927 20th Women's Australian Championships: Esna Boyd beats Sylvia Lance Harper (5-7, 6-1, 6-2)
    1927 20th Men's Australian Championships: Gerald Patterson beats John Hawkes (3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16, 6-3)
    1933 Otto Meisnner (Head of the German President's Office) dines with British ambassador Sir Horace Rumbold
    1934 French government of Chautemps falls (Stavisky Affair)
    1934 VARA refuses to hire after commemoration of Marinus Van de Lubbe
    1934 27th Women's Australian Championships: Joan Hartigan Bathurst beats Margaret Molesworth (6-1, 6-4)
    1934 27th Men's Australian Championships: Fred Perry beats Jack Crawford (6-3, 7-5, 6-1)
    1936 29th Women's Australian Championships: Joan Hartigan Bathurst beats Nancye Wynne Bolton (6-4, 6-4)
    1936 29th Men's Australian Championships: Adrian Quist beats Jack Crawford (6-2, 6-3, 4-6, 3-6, 9-7)
    1939 First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
    1940 -17°F (-27°C), CCC Camp F-16, Georgia (state record)
    1941 Peruvian agent Rivera-Schreiber warns of Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor
    1942 -19°F (-27.4°C), Netherland's coldest day since 1850
    1943 1st US air attack on Germany (Wilhelmshafen)
    1944 Leningrad liberated from Germany in 880 days at the loss of 600,000 killed
    1944 Casey Stengel, manager of the Boston Braves since 1938, resigns Lou Perini, Guido Rugo, & Joseph Maney buy control of Boston Braves
    1945 Nazi occupiers forbid food transport to West (The Netherlands)
    1945 Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps in Poland
    1945 S Romberg, H&D Fields' musical premieres in NYC
    1945 Wally van Hall, Dutch banker and resistance leader, arrested
    1948 1st locomotive to carry 1,000,000 pounds (450,000 kg) operates
    1948 1st tape recorder sold
    1949 Chinese liner "Taiping" collides with a collier off south China
    1950 2nd Emmy Awards: Ed Wynn Show & Texaco Star Theater win
    1951 "Peter Pan" closes at Imperial Theater NYC after 320 performances
    1951 US begins 126 nuclear tests at Nevada Test Site
    1953 Netherlands end Marshall aid
    1955 "Plain & Fancy" opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 476 performances
    1955 1955 NFL Draft: George Shaw from University of Oregon first pick by Baltimore Colts
    1956 NFL's NY Giants switches games from Polo Grounds to Yankee Stadium
    1957 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA Lake Worth Golf Open
    1958 Ferenc Munnich succeeds Kadar as premier of Hungary
    1958 46th Women's Australian Championships: Angela Mortimer Barrett beats Lorraine Coghlan Robinson (6-3, 6-4
        1962 "Family Affair" opens at Billy Rose Theater NYC for 65 performances
        1963 Jevgeni Grishin skates world record 500m in 39.6 sec
        1963 Sam Rice, Eppa Rixey, Elmer Flick, & John Clarkson elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
        1964 Barlow & Graeme Pollock complete 341 stand at Adelaide Oval
        1964 Margaret Chase Smith (Sen-R-Maine) tries for Republican Pres bid
        1965 1st ground station-to-aircraft radio communication via satellite
        1965 Groundbreaking for "Dragon Gateway" at Grant Avenue
        1966 Wisconsin State Circuit Court Judge Elmer W Roller rules either the Braves stay in Milwaukee or NL must promise Wisc an expansion team for 1966
        1967 A fire in the Apollo I Command Module kills astronauts Grissom, White & Chaffee during a launch rehearsal
        1967 The Beatles sign a 9 year worldwide contract with EMI records
        1967 New Orleans Saints sign their 1st player (Paige Cothren-kicker)
        1967 Treaty signed banning military use of nuclear weapons in space
        1968 "Darling of the Day" opens at George Abbott Theater NYC for 31 performances
        1969 14 spies hanged in Baghdad
        1969 9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus, Syria
        1969 Actress Thelma Ritter suffers a heart attack (she dies Feb 5th)
        1969 Ian Paisley sentenced to 3 years
        1970 58th Women's Australian Open: Margaret Court beats Kerry Melville Reid (6-1, 6-3)
        1971 Montgomery St Station, last link in Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco, 'holed thru'
        1971 The body of a man who had been shot dead is found in Belfast
        1972 Two Royal Ulster Constabulary officers shot dead by IRA in an attack on their patrol car in the Creggan Road, Derry
        1972 The British Army and the Irish Republican Army engage in gun battles near County Armagh; British troops fire over 1,000 rounds of amunition
        1973 UCLA's basketball team wins 61st consecutive game (NCAA record)
        1973 US & North Vietnam's William Rogers & Nguyen Duy Trinh sign cease-fire, ending longest US war and miltary draft
        1973 US female Figure Skating championship won by Janet Lynn
        1973 US male Figure Skating championship won by Gordon McKellen Jr
        1974 "Lorelei" opens at Palace Theater NYC for 320 performances
        1976 "Laverne & Shirley" spinoff from "Happy Days" premieres on ABC TV
        1976 9th ABA All-Star Game: Denver 144 beats ABA 138 at Denver
        1976 Morocco-Algeria battles in West Sahara
        1976 Viv Richards scores his 1st Test century against Australia
        1982 "Joseph & the Amazing Dreamcoat" opens at Royale NYC for 747 performances
        1982 Mauno Koivisto installed as president of Finland
        1982 Philadelphia trades Larry Bowa & Ryne Sandberg to Cubs for Ivan DeJesus
        1982 Roberto S Cordova installed as president of Honduras
        1982 West Indies beat Australia 3-1 to win cricket's World Series Cup
        1983 World's longest underwater tunnel (53.90 km) opens, Honshu-Hokkaid
        1985 "Doug Henning & His World..." closes at Lunt-Fontanne NY after 60 perf
        1985 15th Space Shuttle (51-C) Mission-Discovery 3 returns to Earth
        1985 Hollis Stacy wins LPGA Mazda Golf Classic
        1985 Mark Mckoy cycles world record 50m hurdles indoor (5.25)
        1985 NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 22-14
        1987 Midnight Rockers beat Buddy Rose & Doug Somers for AWA World Tag Team
        1988 Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approves nomination of Judge Anthony Kennedy to US Supreme Court
        1989 German war criminals Fischer & Aus der Funten freed
        1989 Kevin Johnson (Phoenix) begins NBA free throw streak of 57 games
        1989 Okla linebacker Mark VanKeirsblilck assaults an Ok grad student
        1990 6th Sundance Film Festival: "Chameleon Street" wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
        1991 Dutch Pacifist Socialistic Party disbands
        1991 Nadine Strossen is 1st female president of the ACLU
        1991 Super Bowl XXV: NY Giants beat Buffalo Bills, 20-19 in Tampa Super Bowl MVP: Ottis Anderson, NY Giants, RB ("Wide Right"
        1991 7th Sundance Film Festival: "Poison" wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
        1992 "Crazy He Calls Me" opens at Walter Kerr Theater NYC for 7 performances
        1992 19th American Music Awards: C & C Music Factory, Michael Bolton win
        1992 Jane Fonda undergoes arthroscopic surgery on her right knee
        1993 DC-3 crashes in Kinshasa, killing 12
        1994 "No Man's Land" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 61 performances
        1994 Carlos Reina succeeds pres Callejas in Honduras
        1994 Romanian social democrats form government with anti-Semites
        1995 Eric Cantona of Manchester United fined and banned from playing football after attacking a fan
        1996 15 day old conjoined twins separate:Sarah Morales survives, Sarahi dies
        1996 Catherine Roskam becomes the 1st NY female Episcopal bishop
        1996 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
        1996 Germany celebrates its 1st Holocaust Remembrance Day
        1996 Shiv Chanderpaul scores 303* for Guyana v Jamaica at Kingston
        1996 Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
        1997 "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus" opens at Gershwin NYC
        1998 Crane crashes into Roosevelt Island tram (NYC), injuring 10
        1998 Roland Clarkson discovers 2^3021377-1 (37th known Mersenne prime)
        1998 WNBA begins filling rosters of Washington Mystics & Detroit Shock
        2002 90th Men's Australian Open: Thomas Johansson beats Marat Safin (3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6)
        2008 56th NHL All-Star Game: East beats West 8-7 at Atlanta, Georgia
        2008 24th Sundance Film Festival: "Frozen River", directed by Courtney Hunt, wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic
        2013 20 police officers have been killed in a series of bomb attacks in Kandahar, Afghanistan
        2013 In Port Said, Egypt, protests result in 7 people being killed and 630 are injured
        2013 11 people are killed and 32 are injured after a bus crashes down a ravine in Serta, Portugal
        2013 7 people are killed and 3 are injured after a retaining wall collapses during a football match at the Ugur Sports Facility, Turkey
        2013 Magnus Carlsen wins the 2013 Tata Steel Chess Tournament
        2013 Spain defeats Denmark to win the 2013 World Men's Handball Championship
        2013 NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 62-35
        2013 101st Men's Australian Open: Novak Đoković beats Andy Murray (6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2)
        2013 29th Sundance Film Festival: "Fruitvale Station", directed by Ryan Coogler, wins Grand Jury Prize Dramatic