0837 15th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1526 Saxony & Hesse form League of Gotha (league of Protestant princes)
1531 Evangelical German monarchy/towns form Schmalkaldische Union
1557 1st Russian Embassy opens in London
1563 William Byrd is appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral
1594 Henri IV crowned king of France
1665 Battle at Elmina, Gold Coast Vice-Admiral De Ruyter beats English
1667 Abraham Crijnssen conquerors Fort Willoughby (Zeelandia), Suriname
1670 Jews are expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I
1678 Earl of Shaftesbury freed out of London Tower
1696 English/Welsh nobles lay down Oath of Association
1700 Pacific island of New Britain discovered
1713 French troops bomb Willemstad Curaçao
1801 Washington DC placed under Congressional jurisdiction
1803 Great fire in Bombay, India
1813 1st federal vaccination legislation enacted
1813 Congress authorizes use of steamboats to transport mail
1814 Ludwig von Beethovens 8th Symphony in F, premieres
1816 Dutch regain Suriname
1827 1st Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans LA
1844 Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti (National Day)
1854 Composer Robert Schumann saved from suicide attempt in Rhine
1861 US Congress authorizes 1st stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing
1861 Warsaw Massacre Russians fire on crowd demonstrating against Russian rule of Poland
1864 Near Andersonville GA, rebels open a new POW camp “Camp Sumter”
1864 6th & last day of Battle at Dalton, Georgia (about 600 casualties)
1865 Civil War skirmish near Sturgeon MO
1869 John Menard is 1st black to make a speech in Congress
1871 Meeting of Alabama claims commission
1872 Charlotte Ray, 1st Black woman lawyer, graduated Harvard U
1873 Dutch socialist Samuel van Wooden demands law against child labor
1874 Baseball 1st played in England, at Lord’s Cricket Grounds
1877 US Electoral College declares R Hayes winner Presidential election
1879 Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener)
1881 Battle at Amajuba, South Africa Boers vs British army under General Colley
1883 Oscar Hammerstein patents 1st cigar-rolling machine
1890 D Needham & P Kerrigan box 100 rounds (6 hours 39 minutes), San Francisco; match is draw
1900 Conference in London calls for creation of a British labor party
1900 Battle at Pietershoogte; Boer General Cronjé surrenders to English in Pardenberg, South-Africa
1901 NL Rules Committee decrees that all fouls are to count as strikes except after two strikes
1906 France & Britain agree to joint control of New Hebrides
1908 Sacrifice fly adopted (repealed in 1931, reinstated 1954)
1908 Star #46 was added to US flag for Oklahoma
1912 Lord Kitchener opens Khartoum-El Obeid (Nyala) railway
1919 1st public performance of Holst’s “The Planets”
1919 American Association for the Hard of Hearing formed (New York NY)
1921 US female Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld Blanchard
1921 US male Figure Skating championship won by Sherwin Badger
1922 Supreme Court unanimously upheld 19th amend woman’s right to vote
1922 Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes 1st National Radio Conference
1922 G B Shaw’s “Back to Methusaleh I/II” premieres in New York NY
1924 Belgium’s Theunis government falls
1925 Hitler resurrects NSDAP political party in Munich
1925 Test Cricket debut of Clarrie Grimmett, who took 5-45 & 6-37 vs England
1927 For 2nd Sunday in a row golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath
1929 Turkey signs Litvinov-pact
1929 Russia & US sign trade agreement
1930 Bouvet Island declared a Norwegian dependency
1932 Explosion in coal mine Boissevain, Virginia, USA (38 dead)
1933 German parliament building, Reichstag, destroyed by fire (set by Nazis, blamed on communists)
1933 Jean Genet’s “Intermezzo” premieres in Paris
1936 Willy den Ouden swims world record 100 meter free style (1:04.6)
1937 Bradman scores 169 in 5th Test Cricket vs England in 223 minutes
1938 Britain & France recognize Franco government in Spain
1939 Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes
1939 Belgian government of Pierlot falls
1939 English Spook house Borley Rectory destroyed in a fire
1942 Battle of Java Sea began 13 US warships sunk-2 Japanese
1942 J S Hey discovers radio emissions from the Sun
1942 1st transport of French Jews to Nazi-Germany
1945 Battle of US 94 Infantry
1946 4th “Road” film, “Road to Utopia” premieres (New York NY)
1947 Paul-Emile Victor French polar expeditions organized
1949 Chaim Weizmann becomes 1st Israeli President
1950 General Chiang Kai-shek elected President of Nationalist China
1951 22nd amendment to the Constitution is ratified, limiting President to 2 terms in office
1955 Betty Jameson wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Open
1956 Elvis Presley’s releases “Heartbreak Hotel”
1956 Female suffrage in Egypt
1957 Mao’s speech “On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People”
1957 Premiere of only prime-time network TV show beginning with an “X” “Xavier Cugat Show” on NBC (until X-Files)
1958 USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR
1959 Boston Celtic Bob Cousy sets NBA record with 28 assists Boston Celtics score 173 points against Minneapolis Lakers
1959 Chicago Cards trade running back Ollie Matson to Los Angeles Rams for 9 players
1960 Oil pipe line from Rotterdam to Ruhrgebied opens
1960 US Olympics Ice Hockey Team beats USSR 3-2 en route to gold medal
1962 South-Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem’s palace bombed, 1st US killed
1963 Mickey Mantle of New York Yankees sign a baseball contract worth $100,000
1964 “What Makes Sammy Run?” opens at 84th St Theater NYC for 540 performances
1965 “High Spirits” closes at Alvin Theater NYC after 375 performances
1965 Dutch Marijnen government resigns
1965 France performs Underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria
1966 Ice Dance Championship at Davos won by Diane Towler/Bernard Ford Great Britain
1966 Ice Pairs Championship at Davos won by Belousova & Protopopov of USSR
1966 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Davos won by Peggy Fleming of US
1966 Men’s Figure Skating Championship in Davos won by Emmerich Danzer Austria
1967 Antigua & St Christopher-Nevis become associated states of UK
1967 Dominica gains independence from England
1967 Pink Floyd release their 1st single “Arnold Layne”
1967 Rio de la Plata Treaty
1969 General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup
1969 President Nixon visits West-Berlin
1970 New York Times (falsely) reports US army has ended domestic surveillance
1972 President Nixon & Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued Shanghai Communique
1973 American Indian Movement occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota
1973 Dick Allen signs a record $675,000 3-year contract with White Sox
1973 Pope Paul VI publishes constitution motu proprio Quo aptius
1974 “People” magazine begins sales
1974 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1975 House of Representatives pass $21.3 billion anti-recession tax-cut bill
1975 CDU-politician Peter Lorentz kidnapped in West Berlin
1976 Final meeting between Mao tse Tung & Richard Nixon
1977 Keith Richards gets suspended sentence for heroin possession, Canada
1977 Judy Rankin wins LPGA Bent Tree Golf Classic
1978 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1980 22nd Grammy Awards What a Fool Believe, Streisand-Diamond duet (You Don’t Bring Me Flowers)
1980 Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF wins elections in Zimbabwe
1980 Terrorists occupies Dominican embassy in Bogota
1981 Greatest passenger load on a commercial airliner-610 on Boeing 747
1981 Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder record “Ebony & Ivory”
1982 Dan Issel (NBA-Nuggets), hits on 63rd consecutive free throw
1982 Earl Anthony becomes 1st pro bowler to win more than $1 million
1982 Wayne Williams found guilty of murdering 2 of 28 blacks in Atlanta GA
1982 France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island
1983 Eamonn Coghlan sets indoor mile record of 3 49.78
1983 Jan Stephenson wins Tucson Conquistadores LPGA Golf Tournament
1984 WRC-AM in Washington DC changes call letters to WWRC
1984 Carl Lewis jumps world record indoor (8,675 meters)
1984 Worker’s union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa
1985 Farmers converge in Washington to demand economic relief
1985 Mauritania’s new constitutional charter published
1985 US dollar is worth ƒ3.9355 (Netherlands)
1987 Donald Regan resigned as White House chief of staff
1987 NCAA cancels SMU’s entire 1987 football schedule for gross violations of NCAA rules regarding athletic corruption
1987 “Washington Week In Review”, 20th anniversary on PBS
1987 Mike Conley triple jumps world indoor record (17.76 meters)
1988 Bonnie Blair (US) wins Olympics 500 meter speed skating in record 39.1
1988 Katarina Witt (GDR) wins 2nd consecutive Olympics figure skating
1988 Ayako Okamoto wins LPGA Orient Leasing Hawaiian Ladies Golf Open
1988 Gulfstream G-IV goes around the world 36 08 34
1989 German war criminals Austria der Fünten/Fischer, freed in Holland
1990 Exxon Corp & Exxon Shipping are indicted on 5 criminal counts (Valdez)
1991 Noureddine Morcelli set 1500 meter mark at 3 34 16
1991 Singer James Brown is released from prison
1991 Ben Elton’s “Silly Cow” premieres in London
1991 Gulf War ends after Iraqi troops retreat & Kuwait is liberated
1992 Larry Smith, named 9th Commissioner of the CFL
1992 Tiger Woods, 16, becomes youngest PGA golfer in 35 years
1993 PBA National Championship Won by Ron Palombi Jr
1994 17th Olympics Winter games close in Lillehammer, Norway
1994 Maronite church near Beirut bombed, 10 killed
1995 Car bomb explodes in Zakho, North-Iraq (54-80 killed)
1996 Mark Waugh scores 126 in World Cup against India
1997 “Last Night of Ballyhoo” opens at Helen Hayes Theater NYC
1997 Singer Sade (Helen Folasade), arrested in Jamaica for disobeying a cop
1998 14th Soap Opera Digest Awards
1998 Apple discontinues developing Newton computer
1998 FBI arrests 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati
1998 New England Patriot David Meggett arrested in Toronto on sex assault charges