660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu
55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman Emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome. This clears the way for Nero to become Emperor.
1543 – Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and English King Henry VIII sign anti-French covenant
1752 – The Pennsylvania Hospital opened as the very first hospital in America.
1768 – Samuel Adams letter, circulates around American colonies, opposing Townshend Act taxes
1805 – Lewis and Clark’s Shoshone guide Sacajawea gave birth to a son, Jean Baptiste.
1808 – Judge Jesse Fell experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He successfully showed how clean the coal burned and how cheaply it could be used as a heating fuel.
1811 – President Madison prohibits trade with Britain for 3rd time in 4 years
1812 – The term “gerrymandering” had its beginning when the governor of Massachusetts, Elbridge Gerry, signed a redistricting law that favored his party. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-did-term-gerrymander-come-180964118/
1858 – A French girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary near Lourdes.
1903 – US Congress adopts the Expedition Act, which authorizes the Attorney General to ‘expedite’ anti-trust cases through the courts, reflecting growing popular support for President Theodore Roosevelt’s “trust busting” campaign
1918 – US President Woodrow Wilson makes another speech before Congress and announces ‘the Four Principles’ – freedom of navigation, and end to secret diplomacy, and similar items – that supplement his Fourteen Points
1929 – The Lateran Treaty was signed. Italy now recognized the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City
1937 – General Motors agreed to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union, which ended the current sit-down strike against them.
1945 – During World War II, the Yalta Agreement was signed by U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin.
1956 – British diplomats Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean deny working as spies for Soviet Russia after reappearing in the Soviet Union after going missing 5 years earlier
1960 – Jack Paar walked off while live on the air on the “Tonight Show” with four minutes left. He did this in response to censors cutting out a joke from the show the night before.
1961 – Robert Weaver sworn in as Administrator of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, the 1st African American to be appointed to a US cabinet-level position
1974 – Henry Kissinger unveils Nixon Administration’s seven-point “Project Independence” plan to make the U.S. energy independent
1974 – Libya nationalizes three US oil companies that had not agreed to 51 percent nationalization in September
1975 – Margaret Thatcher became the first woman to head a major party in Britain when she was elected leader of the Conservative Party.
1979 – Nine days after the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Iran (after 15 years in exile) power was seized by his followers.
1982 – France nationalized five groups of major industries and 39 banks.
1988 – Anthony Kennedy appointed to US Supreme Court
1990 – South African resistance leader, Nelson Mandela, was released from prison after more than 27 years.
1993 – Janet Reno was appointed to the position of attorney general by U.S. President Clinton. She was the first female to hold the position.
1999 – Pluto moves further away from the sun than Neptune regaining its status as solar system’s outermost planet, a title it will retain for 228 years
2006 – In Texas, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a quail hunt.
2011 – As a result of the Arab Spring protests, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak announces his resignation and hands power of the country over to the military.
2013 – Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignation from February 28, the first pope to resign since 1415
2015 – Francesco Schettino, Captain of the Costa Concordia that ran aground 2012, is convicted of manslaughter in Grosseto and sentenced to 16 years in jail
2016 – It was reported that scientists had detected gravitational waves. The waves had been detected on September 14, 2015 by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in Livingston, LA, and Hanford, WA.
2016 – Last of Oregon militia occupying Malheur wildlife refuge surrenders to authorities after 41 days
2021 – US President Joe Biden rescinds the national emergency order used by Donald Trump to fund the border wall with Mexico
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
