0421 - Flavius Constantine becomes emperor Constantine III of West Roman Empire 1526 - Heavy storm strikes Dutch coast, many die 1587 - Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1560-87), beheaded at 44 [NS=Feb 18] 1600 - Vatican convicts scholar Giordano Bruno to death 1601 - Earl Robert Devereux of Essex armies draws into London 1622 - King James I disbands the English parliament 1672 - Isaac Newton reads 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London 1690 - French & Indian troops set Schenectady settlement New York on fire 1690 - Lord Halifax resigns as Lord Privy Seal 1693 - William & Mary college is 2nd college chartered in US 1725 - Peter I "the Great" Romanov, czar of Russia (1682-1725), dies at 52 1740 - Clement XII, [Lorenzo Corsini], blind Pope (1730-40), dies at 87 1743 - Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 AUs of Earth 1744 - French/Spanish fleet leaves Toulon 1802 - Simon Willard patents banjo clock 1807 - Napoleon defeats Russians in battle of Eylau 1809 - Franz I of Austria declares war on France 1837 - 1st VP chosen by Senate, Richard Johnson (Van Buren admin) 1861 - Confederate States of America organizes in Montgomery, Alabama 1862 - Battle of Roanoke Island North Carolina, Federals gain control of Pamlico Sound 1865 - 1st black major in US army, Martin Robinson Delany 1883 - Louis Waterman begins experiments to invents fountain pen 1887 - Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing, Minnesota became the 1st US ski club 1887 - Dawes Act passed (indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship) 1889 - Flood ravages Dutch coast 1894 - Enforcement Act repealed, making it easier to disenfranchise blacks 1896 - Western Conference forms of Midwestern University, later renamed Big 10 Conference 1898 - John Ames Sherman patents 1st envelope folding & gumming mach (Massachusetts) 1904 - Russo-Japanese War begins 1905 - Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people 1909 - France & Germany sign treaty about Morocco 1910 - Boy Scouts of America incorporated & chartered (William D Boyce-Chic) 1911 - US helps overthrow President Miguel Devila of Honduras 1912 - 1st eastbound US transcontinental flight lands in Jacksonville, Florida 1914 - General Zamon becomes president of Haiti 1916 - French cruiser "Admiral Charner" torpedoed off Syrian coast, kills 374 1916 - NL votes down Charlie Ebbets proposal to limit 25� seats 1918 - "Stars & Stripes," weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published 1920 - Swiss men vote against women's suffrage 1922 - Radio arrives at the White House 1923 - Coal mine explosion at Dawson, New Mexico kills 120 1923 - German NSDAP Volkischer Beobachter newspaper becomes a daily 1924 - 1st coast-to-coast radio hookup: General John Joseph Carty speech in Chicago 1925 - Marcus Garvey enters federal prison in Atlanta 1926 - German Reichstag decides to apply for League of Nations membership 1926 - Walt Disney Studios forms 1927 - Belgian-Swiss treaty signed 1928 - 1st transatlantic TV image received, Hartsdale, NY 1928 - Scottish inventor J Blaird demonstrates color-TV 1930 - "Happy Days Are Here Again" by Benny Mereoff hits #1 1931 - Gas explosion Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000 1933 - 1st flight of all-metal Boeing 247 1934 - Export-Import Bank organizes in Washington, DC 1934 - Gaston Doumergue forms new French government 1935 - 1st NFL draft; Jay Berwanger of U Chicago is 1st pick (by Eagles) He never plays in NFL 1936 - 1st NFL draft, Eagles select Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger 1936 - 1st ski jumping tournament, Red Wing, Minnesota 1936 - 1st successful Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot, Conacher vs Rangers 1936 - Pandit Jawaharlal follows Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party 1940 - Lodtz, 1st large ghetto established by Nazis in Poland 1941 - Japanese armored barges cross Strait of Johore to attack Singapore 1942 - Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort 1943 - Red Army recaptures Kursk 1944 - 1st black reporter accredited to White House, Harry McAlpin 1944 - U-762 sunk off Ireland 1945 - Allied air attack on Goch/Kleef/Kalkar/Reichswald 1946 - Premier Salazar of Portugal forbids opposition parties 1947 - Jan van der Hoorn wins 8th Dutch 11-cities skating race (10:51) 1948 - 5th Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland 1949 - Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty sentenced to life in prison 1952 - "RCA Victor Show Starring Dennis Day," debuts on NBC TV 1953 - Betty Jameson wins LPGA Serbin Golf Open 1955 - Malenkov resigns as USSR premier, Bulganin replaces him 1956 - Mine disaster in Quaregnon Belgium, 8 die 1957 - SF Public Library's bookmobile initiated in front of City Hall 1958 - Edgar Whitehead succeeds Garfield Todd as premier of South Rhodesia 1958 - French planes bomb Sakiet Tunisia, 75 die 1960 - Boston Celtic Bill Russell becomes 1st NBAer with 50 rebounds (51) 1960 - Congress opens hearings looking into payola 1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1963 - 1st transmission of Clandestine Voice of Iraqi People (Communist) 1963 - AFL's Dallas Texans become KC Chiefs 1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1964 - Rep Martha Griffiths address gets civil rights protection for women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act 1965 - Eastern DC-7B crashes into Atlantic off Jones Beach NJ, kills 84 1965 - Supremes release "Stop In the Name of Love" 1967 - Longest losing streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (10 games) 1967 - Peter (Asher) & Gordon (Waller) discontinue their singing partnership 1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1968 - Officers kill 3 students demonstrating in SC State (Orangeburg) 1969 - Last edition of Saturday Evening Post 1969 - Meteorite weighing over 1 ton falls in Chihuahua, M�xico 1971 - Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in NY, to become WWF wrestling champ 1971 - South Vietnamese troops invade Laos 1972 - Josh Gibson & Buck Leonard selected to Hall of Fame 1973 - Senate names 7 members to investigate Watergate scandal 1974 - "Good Times," debuts on CBS TV 1974 - Ringo releases "You're 16" 1974 - Skylab 4's astronauts land 1974 - Soap opera "Secret Storm" ends a 20 year run 1975 - 1800 Unification church couples' wed in Korea 1975 - Caps only got one shot in a period against Islanders 1976 - Hua Guofeng becomes premier of China PR 1976 - Jan Stephens wins LPGA Sarah Coventry Naples Golf Classic 1976 - Largest crowd at Cleveland Coliseum (Cavs vs Wash-21,130) 1977 - Earthquake in SF, at 5.0, strongest since 1966 1977 - Hustler publisher Larry Flynt sentenced due to 1978 - Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes PM of Kuwait 1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1981 - Sally Little wins LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic 1981 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Elaine Zayak 1981 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Hamilton 1982 - Dodgers trade Davey Lopes to A's breaking up the longest-playing infield (Cey-Russell-Lopes-Garvey) 1983 - 35th NHL All-Star Game: Campbell beat Wales 9-3 at NY Islander 1983 - Baseball orders Mickey Mantle to sever ties with Claridge Casino 1983 - Eric Peters sets transatlantic sailboat record (E-W)-46 days 1983 - Wayne Gretzky sets NHL all star record of 4 goals in 1 period 1983 - Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance 1984 - 14th Winter Olympic games opens in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia 1984 - 1st time 8 people in space 1984 - A's take Yankees pitcher Tim Belcher as Type A free agent compensation 1984 - Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of 3 to Salyut 7 1985 - Bruce Morris, Marshall Univ, makes a 92' 5�" basketball shot 1985 - Michael Gross swims world record 800m freestyle (7:38.75) 1985 - Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung returns to South-Korea 1986 - 5' 7" Spud Webb of Atlanta Hawks wins NBA Slam Dunk Competition 1986 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Brian Boitano 1987 - 37th NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 154-149 (OT) at Seattle 1987 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic 1988 - NASA launches DOD-2 1989 - 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles 1989 - Jockey Chris Antley begins record of 64 consecutive winning days 1989 - US Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain, 145 die 1990 - "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine 1991 - Roger Clemens signs record $5,380,250 per year Red Sox contract 1992 - "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred peaks at #1 1992 - 16th Winter Olympic games opens in Albertville, France 1992 - Ulysses spacecraft passes Jupiter 1993 - Suchoi-24 crashes into Tupolev passenger flight, 134 die 1993 - GM sues NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" program had rigged 2 car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM pickups were prone to fires 1994 - Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car 1994 - Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee charge with possession of loaded firearm 1995 - 6.4 earthquake at Trujillo, Colombia (46+ killed) 1996 - NFL & Cleveland allows Art Modell to move his NFL franchise to Balt but he had to leave the Browns' name behind 1998 - 1st female ice hockey game in Olympic history Finland beats Sweden 6-0 1998 - 48th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 135-114 at NYC 1998 - NHL stops season until Feb 24th to accomodate the Olympics
