600 – Pope Gregory the Great decrees saying “God bless You” is the correct response to a sneeze
1659 – 1st known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey
1741 – Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, “The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle”.
1760 – Native American hostages killed in Fort Prince George, South Carolina
1804 – A raid was led by Lt. Stephen Decatur to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia. The ship had been taken by pirates.
1838 – Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions
1857 – The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC. It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf. The school was later renamed Gallaudet College.
1859 – The French Government passes a law to set the A-note above middle C to a frequency of 435 Hz, in an attempt to standardize the pitch
1861 – Abraham Lincoln stops his train at Westfield on his way to Washington to thank 11-year old Grace Bedell in person for her advice to grow a beard to gain more votes
1862 – During the U.S. Civil War, about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, TN.
1916 – The German ambassador in Washington announces that Germany will pay an indemnity for American lives lost on the Lusitania
1917 – 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid
1923 – Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.
1929 – In mysterious murder suicide Ned Doheny Jr., son of oil magnate Edward L. Doheny, dies along with secretary Hugh Plunkett at Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles
1937 – Wallace H. Carothers received a patent for nylon. Carothers was a research chemist for Du Pont.
1942 – Bangka Island massacre: Japanese soldiers machine-gun 22 Australian Army nurses and 60 Australian and British soldiers and crew members from two sunken ships. Only one nurse and two soldiers survive.
1943 – Sign on Munich facade: “Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!” done by “White Rose” student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22
1948 – Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time
1957 – The “Toddlers’ Truce”, a controversial television close down between 6 and 7 pm, abolished in the United Kingdom
1959 – Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista.
1960 – The U.S.S. Triton began the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip ended on May 10.
1968 – The country’s first 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala.
1987 – John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem. He was accused of being “Ivan the Terrible”, a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the ruling.
1988 – 1st documented combat action by US military advisors in El Salvador
1989 – Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, announced that a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was the reason that Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down the previous December. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground were killed.
1992 – Ethiopia finds the remains of former Emperor Haile Selassie on the grounds of the Imperial Palace, under the private lavatory of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam, who overthrew the Emperor
1999 – A bomb exploded at the government headquarters in Uzbekistan. Gunfire followed the incident. The event apparently was an attempt on the life of President Islam Karimov.
1999 – Across Europe, Kurdish rebels take over embassies and hold hostages after Turkey arrested one of their rebel leaders, Abdullah Öcalan.
1999 – Testimony began in the Jasper, TX, trial of John William King. He was charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted and sentenced to death.
2002 – The operator of a crematory in Noble, GA, was arrested after dozens of corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around in the surrounding woods.
2005 – The NHL announced the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season due to a labor dispute. It was the first time a major sports league in North America lost an entire season to a labor dispute.
2006 – The last Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) is decommissioned by the United States Army
2013 – 84 people are killed and 190 are injured after a market bombing in Hazara Town, Pakistan
2016 – Former French President Nicholas Sarkozy is placed under investigation for campaign funds
2017 – Suicide attack on shrine of Sufi saint Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Sehwan, Pakistan kills 72, Islamic State claims responsibility
2019 – Pope Francis defrocks ex-cardinal and archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick for sexually abusing minors and adults. First Cardinal to be removed for sexual abuse.
2020 – America evacuates 400 citizens from COVID-19-infected cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined in Yokohama port, Japan
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
