EVENTS
- 41 – Claudius is proclaimed Roman Emperor.
- 1327 – Edward III becomes King of England.
- 1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
- 1579 – Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Friesland, Groningen and Overyssel formed the (Protestant) Dutch Republic with the signing of the Union of Utrecht to defend their rights against Catholic Spain.
- 1755 – Moscow University established.
- 1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
- 1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
- 1919 – The League of Nations is founded.
- 1924 – The first Winter Olympics begin. The I Olympic Winter Games were held in Chamonix, France.
- 1947 – The first arcade game is patented. Thomas Goldsmith’s “Cathode ray tube amusement device” is considered the ancestor of video games.
- 1959 – An American Airlines Boeing 707 made the first scheduled transcontinental U.S. flight, traveling from California to New York.
- 1961 – John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
- 1971 – In Uganda, a military coup led by Idi Amin deposed President Milton Obote. Amin then ruled as president-dictator until 1979 when he was ousted by Tanzanian soldiers and Ugandan nationalists. During his reign, Amin expelled all Asians from Uganda, and ordered the execution of more than 300,000 tribal Ugandans.
- 1977 – The world’s first solar power plant is opened. The solar furnace in Odeillo, France was the first power plant providing alternative energy.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1627 – Robert Boyle (Scientist and pioneer of modern chemistry)
- 1759 – Robert Burns (Poet)
- 1882 – Virginia Woolf (Author)
- 1835 – Andrew Carnegie (Entrepreneur)
- 1913 – Witold Lutosławski (Polish composer, conductor)
- 1933 – Corazon Aquino (Filipino politician, 11th President of the Philippines)
- 1981 – Alicia Keys (Singer and Songwriter)
DEATHS
- 389 – Gregory of Nazianzus (Turkish archbishop, theologian)
- 1947 – Al Capone (American gangster)
- 1954 – M. N. Roy (Indian activist, theorist)
- 1982 – Mikhail Suslov (Soviet politician)
- 2005 – Philip Johnson (American architect, designed the IDS Center, PPG Place)