Nothingandall: On this day in History

0066 -5th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
0946 - Eadgyth dies. German Queen.
1340 - King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
1497 - Emperor Go-Nara of Japan was born (d. 1557).
1500 - Some sources tell that the Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón become the first European to discover Brazil when he reaches the northeastern coast of Brazil during a voyage under his command. I always learned that had been the Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral the first one to discover Brazil in 22 April 1500. May be I was wrong.
1531 - Lisbon, Portugal is hit by an earthquake - about 30.000 die.
1541 - Florent Chrestien was born (d. 1596). French writer.
1564 - The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
1565 - Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.
1567 - Nicholas Wotton dies. English diplomat.
1589 - Job is elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
1630 - Henry Briggs dies (b. 1556). English mathematician who, having invented the common (Briggsian) logarithms, actively popularized them and is largely responsible for scientists' acceptance of logarithms throughout Europe.
1636 - Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul dies (b. 1552). French diplomat.
1654 - Portuguese troops conquer last Dutch base on Recife (Brazil).
1697 - Isaac Newton received and solved Jean Bernoulli's brachistochrone problem. The swiss mathematician Bernouilli had challenged his colleagues to solve it within six months. Newton not only solved the problem before going to bed that same night, but in doing so, invented a new branch of mathematics called the calculus of variations.
1697 - Georg Mohr dies (b. 1640). Danish mathematician.
1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz signed.

1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records.

1714 - Jean-Baptiste Pigalle was born (d. 1785). French sculptor.

1715 - Claude-Adrien Helvetius was born. French philosopher.

1716 - George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville was born (d. 1785). British soldier and politician.

1721 - Pierre-Daniel Huet dies (b. 8 Feb 1630). French scholar, antiquary, scientist, and bishop whose incisive skepticism, particularly as embodied in his cogent attacks on René Descartes, greatly influenced contemporary philosophers.

1722 - Alexander Carlyle was born (d. 1805). Scottish church leader.

1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.

1744 - Ludwig Andreas Graf Khevenhüller dies (b. 1683). Austrian field marshal.

1748 - England, Netherlands, Austria & Sardinia sign anti-French treaty .

1750 - Albert Schultens dies (b. 1686). Dutch philologist.

1763 - Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte was born (d. 1841). Napoleonic general and king Charles XIV of Sweden-Norway.

1781 - Achim von Arnim was born (d. 1831). German poet.

1785 - Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey.

1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sail into Sydney Harbour to establish the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Celebrated as Australia Day.

1795 - Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach dies (b. 1732). German composer.

1799 - Gabriel Christie dies (b. 1722). British general.

1802 - The U.S. Congress passes an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol; eventually this becomes the Library of Congress.

1808 - Rum Rebellion, the only successful (but temporary) armed takeover of the government in Australia.

1810 - Joseph Rogers Brown was born (d. 23 Jul 1876). American inventor and manufacturer who made numerous advances in the field of fine measurement and machine-tool production.

1812 - Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, 1st Count of Linhares, Portugal, dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 4 Aug 1745 ). Portuguese diplomat and politician.

1813 - Juan Pablo Duarte was born (d. 1876). Founding father of the Dominican Republic

1823 - Edward Jenner dies (b. 17 May 1749). English surgeon and discoverer of vaccination for smallpox.

1824 - Théodore Géricault dies (b. 1791). French painter.

1825 - Se constituye la provincia de Costa Rica, dentro de la República Federal de las Provincias Unidas de Centroamérica.

1826 - Julia Dent Grant was born (d. 1902). First Lady of the United States.

1826 - Louis Favre was born (d. 1879). Engineer Gotthard tunnel.

1827 - O Perú anuncia o fim de sua união com a Colômbia e declara a sua independência.

1831 - Heinrich Anton de Bary was born (d. 19 Jan. 1888). German botanist, a founder of modern mycology and plant pathology for his research into the roles of fungi and other agents in causing plant diseases.

1831 - Mary Mapes Dodged was born (d. 1907). Writer.

1832 - George Shiras Jr. was born (d. 1924). U. S. Supreme Court justice.

1832 - Rufus Henry Gilbert was born (d. 10 Jul. 1885). U.S. surgeon and inventor who played a major role in the development of rapid transit in New York City.

1837 - Michigan became the 26th state in the United States.

1838 - Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States

1838 - É fundado, no Rio de Janeiro, o Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro.

1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China had ceded.

1842 - François Coppée was born (d. 1908). French poet and novelist.

1848 - Justo Sierra Méndez was born. Mexican writer, diplomat and politician.

1852 - Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza (Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà) was born (d. 1905). Explorer.

1855 - Point No Point Treaty signed in Washington Territory.

1855 - Gérard de Nerval dies (b. 1808). French writer.

1856 - First Battle of Seattle (1856). Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.

1857 - the 12th Dalai Lama was born (d. 1875).

1861 - Louisiana becomes 6th state to secede.

1861 - American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863 - American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.

1863 - American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1868 - Juventino Rosas was born (d. 1894). Mexican composer.

1869 - Duncan Gordon Boyes dies (b. 1846). English recipient of the Victoria Cross.

1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1870 - Victor, 3rd duc de Broglie dies (b. 1785). French statesman and diplomat.

1871 - The Rugby Football Union was founded in London, by 20 clubs.

1873 - Laudelino Freire was born in Lagarto, Sergipe (d. 1937). Brazilian philologist, politician and professor.

1875 - George F. Green of Kalamazoo, Michigan patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.

1878 - António Maria de Fontes Pereira de Melo assume o cargo de primeiro-ministro de Portugal, pela 2ª. vez (ver Lista de Primeiros-Ministros de Portugal).

1878 - Nascimento em Cortes, Leiria, do poeta português Afonso Lopes Vieira. Interessou-se também pelo cinema tendo realizado um pequeno filme com crianças (O Afilhado de Santo António) e encarregou-se dos diálogos de Camões e Inês de Castro, de Leitão de Barros, e do Amor de Perdição, de António Lopes Ribeiro.

1878 - Dave Nourse was born (d. 1948). South African cricketer.

1878 - Ernst Heinrich Weber dies (b. 24 Jun 1795). German anatomist and physiologist.

1880 - Douglas MacArthur was born (d. 1964). American general, who commanded the Southwest Pacific Theatre in World War II, administered postwar Japan during the Allied occupation that followed, and led United Nations forces during the first nine months of the Korean War.

1884 - Edward Sapir was born (d. 4 Feb. 1939). American linguist and anthroplogist, one of the foremost of his time, who is most widely known for his contributions to the study of North American Indian languages.

1884 - Roy Chapman Andrews was born (d. 11 Mar. 1960). American naturalist, explorer, and author, who spent his entire career at the American Museum of Natural History.

1885 - Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquer Khartoum.

1885 - Edward Davy dies (b. 16 Jun. 1806). English inventor, who devised the electromagnetic repeater for relaying telegraphic signals and invented an electrochemical telegraph (1838).

1885 - Charles George Gordon dies (b. 1833). British general.

1886 - Karl Benz patents 1st auto powered by an internal combustion engine.

1886 - David Rice Atchison dies (b. 1807). American politician.

1887 - Tem início a construção da Torre Eiffel, em Paris, no local onde se realizará a Exposição Universal de Paris.

1887 - Battle of Dogali: Abyssinian troops defeat Italians.

1887 - François Faber was born (d. 1915). Luxembourgish cyclist.

1887 - Marc Mitscher was born (d. 1947). American Navy Admiral.

1891 - Frank Costello was born (d. 1973). Italian-born gangster.

1891 - Wilder Penfield was born (d. 1976). American-born Canadian neurosurgeon.

1891 - Nikolaus August Otto dies (b. 14 Jun. 1832). German inventor who developed the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, which offered the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source.

1892 - Bessie Coleman was born (d. 1926). American pioneer aviator.

1892 - Zara Cully was born (d. 1978). American actress.

1893 - Giuseppe Genco Russo was born (d. 1976). Sicilian mafioso.

1893 - Abner Doubleday dies (b. 1819). Credited inventor of baseball.

1895 - Arthur Cayley dies (b. 16 Aug 1821). English mathematician who played a leading role in founding the modern British school of pure mathematics.

1900 - Karl Ristenpart was born (d. 1967). German conductor.

1901 - Stuart Symington was born (d. 1988). American politician.

1902 - Menno ter Braak was born (d. 1940). Dutch author and polemicist.

1904 - Ancel Keys was born (d. 20 Nov 2004). American nutritionist and epidemiololgist who was the first to identify the role of saturated fats in causing heart disease.

1904 - Seán MacBride was born (d. 1988). Irish statesman, Nobel Prize Laureate.

1904 - Whitaker Wright dies (b. 1846). English mining tycoon.

1905 - Charles Lane was born (d. 2007). American actor.

1905 - Bernhard Minetti was born. German actor.

1905 - Maria von Trapp was born (d. 1987). Austrian-born singer.

1905 - The Cullinan Diamond (Worl's largest diamond) is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.

1907 - The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III is officially introduced into British Military Service, and remains the oldest military rifle still in official use.

1907 - Hans Selye was born (d. 16 Oct 1982). Austrian-born Canadian endocrinologist known for his studies of the effects of stress on the human body.

1908 - Jill Esmond was born (d. 1990). English actress.

1908 - Stéphane Grappelli was born (d. 1997). French jazz violinist.

1909 - Alexander King was born (d. 28 Feb. 2007). Scottish chemist who pioneered in environmental awareness, warning of the dangers to the environment from extensive industrial development.

1910 - Jean Image was born (d. 1989). Hungarian-born French animator.

1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane at North Island, San Diego, California.

1911 - Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.

1911 - Herman Max Gluckman was born (d. 13 Apr 1975). South African social anthropologist who pioneered the study of traditional African legal systems. Author of Custom and Conflict in Africa (1955).

1911 - Polykarp Kusch was born (d. 20 Mar 1993). German-born American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1955 for his accurate determination thet the magnetic moment of the electron is greater than its theoretical value.

1911 - Norbert Schultze was born (d. 2002). German composer and songwriter.

1913 - Hélio Feijó was born in Recife, Pernambuco (d. 9 Sep. 1991). Brazilian painter, architect and poet.

1913 - Jimmy Van Heusen was born (d. 1990). American songwriter.

1914 - Vatican puts Belgian Nobel winner Maeterlinck's works in their index.

1914 - Princess Hadice Hayriye Ayshe Dürrühsehvar was born (d. 2006).

1915 - William Hopper was born (d. 1970). American actor.

1917 - Antônio Callado was born (d. 1997). Brazilian journalist and writer.

1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu was born (d. 1989). Romanian President (1967-90) .

1918 - Philip José Farmer was born. American science fiction writer.

1918 - Ewald Hering dies (b. 4 Aug. 1834). German physiologist and psychologist whose chief work concerned the physiology of colour perception.

1919 - Bill Nicholson was born (d. 2004). English footballer and manager for Tottenham Hotspur.

1919 - Valentino Mazzola was born (d. 1949). Italian footballer.

1920 - Former Ford Motor Co. executive Henry Leland launches The Lincoln Motor Co., which he'd later sell to his former employer.

1921 - Akio Morita was born (d. 1999). Japanese businessman, co-founder of Sony.

1921 - Eddie Barclay was born (d. 2005). French producer (Barclay Records).

1922 - Michael Bentine was born (d. 1996). British comedian.

1923 - Anne Jeffreys was born. American actress (I Married an Angel, Dick Tracy [1945], Boys’ Night Out, General Hospital [soap], Clifford).

1924 - St.Petersburg is renamed Leningrad.

1924 - Alice Babs was born. Swedish singer.

1924 - Annette Strauss was born (d. 1998). American philanthropist, former mayor of Dallas, Texas.

1924 - Rauf Denktash was born. Cypriot politician.

1925 - Claude Ryan was born (d. 2004). Quebec newspaper editor.

1925 - Joan Leslie was born in Detroit, American actress (High Sierra, Yankee Doodle Dandy).

1925 - Paul Newman was born. American actor (Hud, Hombre, Hustler).

1925 - Sir James Mackenzie dies (b. 12 Apr 1853) Scottish cardiologist, pioneer in the study of cardiac arrhythmias. In 1892, he built a machine for detecting and recording physiological activity, such as pulse rate and blood pressure, since known as a polygraph, and later used as a lie detector.

1926 - Francis R. "Joe" Boyd was born (d. 12 Jan 2004). American geologist whose studies on the origins of volcanic rocks contributed to the understanding of the formation of the Earth.

1926 - Farman Fatehpuri was born. Pakistani scholar, writer and linguist.

1926 - John Flannagan was born. 2nd president of St. Ambrose University.

1927 - Bob Nieman was born (d. 1985). American baseball player (d. 1985).

1927 - José Azcona del Hoyo was born (d. 2005). President of Honduras.

1927 - Bob Nieman was born (d. 1985). American baseball player.

1928 - Roger Vadim (Roger Vladimir Plemiannikov) was born (d. 11. Feb. 2000). French film director (And God Created Women, Barbarella).

1928 - George H. Ross was born. American attorney and TV reality show star (The Apprentice).

1929 - Gordon Solie was born. American wrestling commentator.

1929 - Jules Feiffer was born. American cartoonist and writer.

1930 - The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence).

1931 - Graça Aranha dies in Rio de Janeiro (b. 1868). Brazilian writer.

1931 - Mary Murphy was born. American film actress.

1932 - the US Patent Office recieved a patent application for the cyclotron by Ernest Orlando Lawrence. By 1939, this atom-smashing instrument won the Nobel Prize for its inventor.

1932 - British submarine M-2 sinks in Channel (60 dead).

1932 - Coxsone Dodd was born. Jamaican record producer.

1932 - William Wrigley Jr. dies (b. 30 Sep. 1861). American manufacturer whose Wrigley's chewing gum company became the largest producer and distributor of chewing gum in the world.

1933 - Ercole Baldini was born. Italian cyclist.

1933 - Alva Belmont dies (b. 1853). American socialite.

1934 - The Apollo Theatre opens in Harlem, New York City.

1934 - German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.

1934 - Roger Landry was born. Quebec businessman and newspaper publisher (La Presse).

1935 - Bob Uecker was born. American baseball player, broadcaster, and actor.

1935 - Paula Rego was born in Lisbon. Portuguese painter.

1936 - Sal Buscema was born. American comic book artist.

1937 - Joseph Saidu Momoh was born (d. 2003). Sierra Leone political leader.

1939 - Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.

1939 - Albert Sauver dies (b. 21 Jun 1863). Belgian-born American metallurgist whose microscopic and photomicroscopic studies of metal structures make him one of the founders of physical metallurgy.

1940 - Nazis forbid Polish Jews to travel on trains.

1941 - Henry Jaglom was born. English director.

1941 - Scott Glenn was born. American actor (Apocalypse Now, The Right Stuff, Silverado, The Hunt for Red October, The Silence of the Lambs).

1942 - World War II: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

1942 - Souad Hosni was born (d. 2001). Egyptian actress.

1942 - Felix Hausdorff dies (b. 1868). German mathematician.

1943 - Jean Knight was born. American singer.

1943 - César Gutiérrez was born (d. 2005). Venezuelan basketball player.

1943 - Austin "Jack" Warner was born. Trinidadian FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President.

1943 - Harry H. Laughlin dies (b. 1880). American eugenicist.

1943 - Nikolai Vavilov dies (b. 25 Nov 1887). Russian botanist.

1944 - Angela Davis was born. American feminist and civil rights activist, teacher.

1945 - Jacqueline du Pré was born (†19 Oct 1987). British cellist.

1946 - Gene Siskel was born (d. 1999). Film critic.

1946 - Félix Gouin becomes Prime Minister of France.

1946 - Adriaan van Maanen dies (b. 1884). Dutch-American astronomer.

1947 - Michel Sardou was born. French singer.

1947 - Patrick Dewaere was born (d. 1982). French actor.

1947 - Grace Moore dies (b. 1898). American soprano.

1947 - Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Westrobothnia dies in air crash (b. 1906).

1947 - KLM Dakota crashes near Copenhagen, 22 die.

1949 - A Suíça reconhece o estabelecimento do Estado de Israel.

1949 - David Strathairn was born in San Francisco, California. American actor.

1949 - Jonathan Carroll was born. American author.

1949 - Victor Fleming dies at 65. Film director (Wizard of Oz, Gone With Wind).

1950 - India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president. The Indian constitution takes effect, making the Republic of India the most populous democracy in the world.

1950 - Janet Lupo was born. The biggest breasted Playmate (Miss November 1975).

1950 - Jörg Haider was born (d. 2008). Austrian far-right politician.

1951 - Elizabeth Taylor divorced her first husband, Nicky Hilton, on the grounds of mental cruelty. It was less than a year after their highly publicized wedding.

1952 - Egypt is placed under martial law in response to wide-spread riots against the British.

1952 - Black Saturday in Egypt: riots burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.

1952 - Khorloogiyn Choybalsan dies (b.1895). Leader of Mongolia.

1953 - Film actress, dancer, and sex symbol Rita Hayworth divorced Prince Aly Khan in Reno, Nevada on this date.

1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen was born. Prime Minister of Denmark.

1953 - Lucinda Williams was born. American singer.

1953 - Athanase David dies (b. 1882). French Canadian lawyer, politician and businessman

1954 - Kim Hughes was born. Australian cricketer.

1955 - Eddie Van Halen was born. Dutch musician.

1956 - Winter Olympic Games open in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.

1957 - Eddie Van Halen was born. Grammy Award-winning musician, guitar, singer, [Van Halen].

1957 - José Linhares dies (b. 1886). President of Brazil (1945-1946).

1958 - Japanese ferry Nankai Maru capsized off southern Awaji Island, Japan, 167 killed.

1958 - Anita Baker was born. American singer (Sweet Love, Rhytm of Love. Giving You the Best That I Got).

1958 - Ellen DeGeneres was born. Actress, comedienne.

1958 - Salvador Sánchez was born. Mexican boxer.

1960 - Charlie Gillingham was born. American musician (Counting Crows).

1960 - Road Warrior Hawk was born (d. 2003). American profissional wrestler.

1961 - John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.

1961 - Wayne Gretzky was born. Canadian ice hockey player, coach, and team owner Wayne Gretzky. He holds the NHL record for points (2,857), goals (894), and assists (1,963) and is considered by many the game's greatest player of all time.

1961 - Stan Nichols dies (b. 1900). English cricketer.

1962 - Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles.

1962 - Oscar Ruggeri was born. Argentine footballer.

1962 - Lucky Luciano dies (b. 1897). American mobster.

1963 - Andrew Ridgeley was born. English musician.

1963 - José Mourinho was born in Setúbal. Portuguese football manager. Considered the best manager of the World in 2005 and 2010. Winner of Uefa Cup in 1992 and Uefa Champions League in 1993 for FC Porto and 2009 for Internazionale.

1963 - James May was born. British writer.

1963 - Riddell Akua was born. Nauruan politician.

1964 - Paul Johansson was born. American actor.

1964 – Chico César was born. Brazilian singer and composer.

1965 - Colombia win the World Championship of Baseball.

1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.

1965 - Natalia Yurchenko was born. Soviet gymnast.

1965 - Thomas Östros was born. Swedish politician.

1966 - The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach in Adelaide, South Australia.

1967 - Pradip Somasundaran was born. Indian playback singer.

1968 - Israeli submarine Dakar crashes in Mediterranean Sea, 69 die.

1968 - Ravi Teja was born. Tollywood film actor.

1968 - Merrill C. Meigs dies (b. 1883). American newspaper publisher, aviation promoter.

1968 - Yvor Winters dies (b. 1900). American poet.

1969 - Michael O'Hearn was born. American bodybuilder.

1970 - Folk rock duo Simon and Garfunkel release classic album Bridge Over Troubled Water.

1970 - Kirk Franklin was born. American singer.

1970 - Tracy Middendorf was born. American actress.

1971 - Bryan Callen was born. American actor.

1971 - Dorian Gregory was born. American actor.

1972 - Mahalia Jackson dies (b. 1911). American American gospel music singer.

1973 - Mayu Shinjo was born. Japanese mangaka.

1973 - Edward G. Robinson dies (b. 1893). American actor.

1974 - Shannon Hale was born. American author.

1976 - The Concorde supersonic passenger jet airplane (SST) began commercial flights on the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

1976 - Frankie Rayder was born. American model.

1976 - Maggie Lawson was born. Australian musician.

1976 - Willie Adler was born. American guitar player.

1976 - João Branco Núncio dies in Golegã (b. 15 Fev 1901). Portuguese bullfighter horseman /Morre na Golegã, João Branco Núncio, cavaleiro tauromáquico português nascido em 15 de Fev 1901 em São Romão, Alcácer do Sal.

1977 - Vince Carter was born. American basketball player.

1977 - Justin Gimelstob was born. American tennis player.

1978 - The Great Blizzard of 1978, a rare severe blizzard with the lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the US, strikes the Ohio - Great Lakes region with heavy snow and winds up to 100 mph (161 km/h).

1978 - Mário Soares forms Portuguese government.

1978 - Corina Morariu was born. American tennis player.

1978 - Estéban Germán was born. Dominican baseball player.

1978 - Kelly Stables was born. American actress

1979 - Nelson Rockefeller dies (b. 1908). Governor of New York, Vice President of the United States.

1979 - Sara Rue was born. American actress.

1980 - 175,000 pay to hear Frank Sinatra sing in Rio de Janeiro.

1980 - Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.

1980 - Maximiliano Pellegrino was born in Córdoba. Argentinean footballer.

1981 - Juan Jose Haedo was born. Argentinian cyclist.

1982 - Mauno Koivisto elected President of Finland.

1983 - Lotus 1-2-3 is released.

1983 - Paul 'Bear' Bryant dies (b. 1913). American football coach.

1984 - Layla Kayleigh was born. British television personality.

1984 - Iain Turner was born. Scottish footballer.

1984 - Luo Xuejuan was born. Chinese swimmer.

1985 - 42th Golden Globes: Amadeus wins.

1986 -The National Resistance Army takes over the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

1986 - Super Bowl XX: The Chicago Bears defeat the New England Patriots, 46-10.

1986 - Halley's Comet is visible in the night sky as it passes in its 76-year orbit around the sun.

1986 - José Azcona toma posesión como presidente de la República de Honduras.

1986 - Shantelle Taylor was born. Canadian professional wrestler.

1986 - Gerald Green was born. American basketball player.

1986 - Matt Heafy was born. American musician (Trivium).

1986 - Shantelle Taylor was born. Canadian professional wrestler.

1987 - 14th American Music Award: Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie & Alabama.

1987 - Los reyes de España, Juan Carlos I y Sofía colocan la primera piedra de la Exposición Universal de Sevilla de 1992, en el recinto de la Isla de la Cartuja.

1987 - Vladimir Garin was born (d. 2003). Russian actor.

1988 - Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway. It would go on to become the longest-running Broadway show.

1988 - Mia Rose was born. British-Portuguese singer.

1989 - Emily Hughes was born. American figure skater.

1989 - Jin Yu Zhou was born. Chinese flutist.

1990 - Christopher Massey was born. American actor.

1990 - Bob Gerard dies (b. 1914). British racing driver.

1990 - Lewis Mumford dies (b. 19 Oct. 1895). American architectural critic, urban planner, and historian who analyzed the effects of technology and urbanization on human societies throughout history.

1991 - Rebels overrun the Somalian capital of Mogadishu.

1991 - Mohamed Siad Barre is removed in Somalia, ending centralized government.

1992 - The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills 37-24 in Super Bowl XXVI.

1992 - Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

1992 - José Ferrer dies (b. 1912). Puerto Rican actor and director (Cyrano de Bergerac).

1992 - Super Bowl XXVI: The Washington Redskins defeat the Buffalo Bills, 37-24.

1993 - Václav Havel elected President of the Czech Republic.

1993 - Cameron Bright was born. Canadian actor.

1993 - Jan Gies dies (b. 1905). Dutch resistance leader.

1993 - Jeanne Sauvé dies (b. 1922). Governor-General of Canada.

1994 - A man fires two blank shots at Charles, Prince of Wales in Sydney, Australia.

1994 - Frederico George dies. Portuguese painter and architect.

1995 - Mário Feliciano dies. Portuguese theater director.

1995 - Kyle Chavarria was born. American actress.

1996 - Whitewater scandal: Hillary Rodham Clinton testifies before a grand jury.

1996 - A Roménia foi o primeiro país do antigo Pacto de Varsóvia a aderir à OTAN (Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte).

1996 - Harold Brodkey dies (b, 1930). American author.

1996 - Dave Schultz dies killed by John Du Pont (b. 1959). American wrestler.

1997 - The Green Bay Packers defeat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, with a score of 35-21.

1997 - Jeane Dixon dies (b. 1904). American astrologer.

1998 - Lewinsky scandal: On American television, Pres Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky".

1998 - Compaq buys Digital Equipment Corporation. The purchase made Compaq the world's biggest seller of personal computers and allowed Compaq to enter the world of high-end computing, offering workstations and Internet services manufactured by Digital .

1998 - Shinichi Suzuki dies (b. 1898). Japanese music teacher.

2000 - Rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine plays in front of Wall Street, prompting an early closing of trading due to the crowds.

2000 - O Benfica perde com o Sporting por 1-3 para a Taça de Portugal, no Estádio da Luz, com golos de Acosta 2 e André Cruz para o Sporting e Uribe pelo Benfica.

2000 - Robert F. Vasa ordained Bishop of the Diocese of Baker.

2000 - Don Budge dies (b. 1915). American tennis player.

2000 - Kathleen Hale dies (b. 1898). British author.

2000 - A. E. van Vogt dies (b. 1912). Canadian-born author.

2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.

2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.

2001 - Al McGuire dies (b. 1928). American basketball coach.

2001 - Jessica Michalik dies (b. 1985). Australian victim of Big Day Out.

2002 - A post-mortem examination was due to take place on a former top executive of bankrupt US energy giant Enron who apparently committed suicide.

2003 - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win their first Super Bowl title by defeating the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl XXXVII.

2003 - World chess champion Garry Kimovich Kasparov [13 April 1963-], with White, defeats computer program Deep Junior (who has a human to physically move the pieces) in the first game of a match which will end in a draw with its 6th game on 07 February 2003 (28 Jan Game 2 — 30 Jan Game 3 — 02 Feb Game 4 — 05 Feb Game 5).

2003 - George Younger dies (b. 1931). 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician.

2003 - Lord Dacre (Hugh Trevor-Roper) dies (b. 1917). British historian.

2003 - Valeriy Brumel dies (b. 1942). Soviet athlete.

2004 - President Hamid Karzai signed the new constitution of Afghanistan.

2004 - A whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing Sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.

2004 - Fred Haas dies (b. 1916). American golfer.

2005 - O Benfica derrota o Sporting para a Taça de Portugal nos penalties (7-6) depois de 3-3 após prolongamento, num dos melhores jogos do ano. Tudo sobre o jogo aqui.

2005 - Glendale train crash: Two trains derail killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles.

2005 - Having been confirmed earlier in the day by a vote of 85-13 in the United States Senate, Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.

2005 - A helicopter crash in eastern Iraq kills 31 United States soldiers.

2005 - Luz de Luma, yes party! (blog) is created.

2006 - A large fire breaks out on Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa.

2006 - Western Union discontinues use of its telegram service.

2006 - Khan Abdul Wali Khan dies (b. 1917). Pakistani opposition leader and Pashtun nationalist.

2006 - Len Carlson dies (b. 1937). Canadian actor.

2006 - Carol Lambrino dies (b. 1920). Son of Carol II of Romania and Zizi Lambrino.

2007 - Hans J. Wegner dies (b. 1914). Danish furniture designer.

2007 - Gump Worsley dies (b. 1929). Canadian ice hockey player.

2008 - Christian Brando dies (b. 1958). Actor and son of Marlon Brando.

2008 – Viktor Schreckengost dies (b. 1906). Leader of American 20th century design.

2009 – Suleman octuplets were born.