EVENTS
- 1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
- 1777 – American general of the Continental Army, George Washington, defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
- 1888 – Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw.
- 1924 – English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, Egypt.
- 1946 – An Englishman known during World War II as “Lord Haw Haw” (William Joyce) was hanged for treason in London. Joyce had broadcast Nazi propaganda via radio from Germany to Britain during World War II.
- 1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1959 – Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
- 1961 – President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba two years after Communist dictator Fidel Castro had seized power and just weeks before John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the next president.
- 1983 – In football, Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys makes the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history tying Bob Gage (1949).
- 1990 – Manuel Noriega, the deposed leader of Panama, surrendered to American authorities on charges of drug trafficking after spending 10 days hiding in the Vatican embassy following the U.S. invasion of Panama.
- 1993 – President George Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Start-II (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks) Treaty, eliminating about two-thirds of each country’s long range nuclear weapons.
- 1994 – Millions of people from the former Apartheid Homelands gain South African citizenship. The apartheid regime had stripped the black inhabitants of the right to citizenship to ensure a white majority of the de jure population.
BIRTHDAYS
- 106 – Cicero (Roman Politician)
- 1892 – JRR Tolkien (Lord of the Rings Author)
- 1924 – Hank Stram (Sport Broadcaster and football coach)
- 1926 – George Martin (Music Producer for Beatles)
- 1945 – Steven Stills (Singer Songwriter)
- 1945 – Victoria Principal (Actress)
- 1951 – Mel Gibson (Actor and director)
- 1969 – Michael Schumacher (Autoracer)
- 1981 – Eli Manning (NFL Football Quarterback)
DEATHS
- 1946 – William Joyce (American/English politician, broadcaster)
- 1967 – Jack Ruby (American murderer)
- 2003 – Sid Gillman (American football player)
- 2005 – Will Eisner (American illustrator)
- 2010 – Mary Daly (American philosopher, theologian)