EVENTS
- 44 BC – Julius Caesar is stabbed to death by Marcus Brutus.
- 1493 – Christopher Columbus returns to Spain after his first trip to the Americas.
- 1895 – Enrico Caruso makes his stage debut. The Italian tenor is arguably the most famous opera singer of all time.
- 1917 – The last emperor of Russia abdicates. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated following the February Revolution. He was later executed together with his family and some of his servants.
- 1956 – The Broadway musical My Fair Lady opens in New York City.
- 1972 – Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is premiered. The gangster movie based on Mario Puzo’s novel is one of the most popular films of all time.
- 1985 – The world’s first Internet domain name is registered. symbolics.com was registered by the Symbolics Computer Corporation of Massachusetts. There are over 1 billion domains today.
- 1990 – Mikhail Gorbachev becomes President of the Soviet Union. His economic and political reforms, as well as his advocacy of free speech, strengthened pro-democracy movements in other Eastern European countries and ultimately led to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
- 1998 – Titanic becomes the #1 box office movie ever.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1638 – Shunzhi (Emperor of China)
- 1767 – Andrew Jackson (US President #7)
- 1907 – Zarah Leander (Swedish actress, singer)
- 1932 – Alan Bean (Astronaut)
- 1947 – Ry Cooder (American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer)
- 1961 – Fabio (Model and Actor)
- 1972 – Mike Tomlin (NFL Head Coach)
- 1975 – Eva Longoria (Actress)
- 1975 – Will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas)
- 1979 – Kevin Youkilis (American baseball player)
DEATHS
- 1937 – H .P. Lovecraft (American writer)
- 1938 – Nikolai Bukharin (Russian politician)
- 1983 – Rebecca West (English journalist, author)
- 2001 – Ann Sothern (American actress)
- 2008 – Mikey Dread (Jamaican singer-songwriter, producer)