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Events

1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

1777 - Battle of Princeton. American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis.

1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.

1823 - Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.

1825 - Rensselaer School, the first engineering college in the U.S. is opened in Troy, New York. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

1833 - Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

1834 - The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.

1848 - Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.

1852 - First Chinese arrive in Hawaii.

1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

 
 

1868 - The Japanese Meiji dynasty is restored and the Shogunate is abolished.

1871 - Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine.

1888 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.

1888 - Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw.

1899 - The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times.

1920 - Curse of the Bambino: The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a sum of $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000.

1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia.

1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1932 - Martial law declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.

1938 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

1938 - Woman in White is first broadcast on the NBC Red network. The program remains on the radio for the next 10 years.

1947 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.

 
 

1951 - Dragnet is first broadcast on NBC-TV.

1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

1957 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed.

1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.

1961 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.

1961 - The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho leaks radiation, killing three workers.

1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

1966 - The first Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California.

1973 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner.

1983 - Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys makes the longest run from scrimmage in NFL history.

CiTV launches on ITV1 in the UK.

1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1988 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.

1990 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.

1991 - Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal.

1991 - Gulf War: The British government announces the expulsion of 75 Iraqis from the country.

1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).

1993 - In an AFC Wild Card game, the Buffalo Bills comeback from a 35-3 defecit against the Houston Oilers and win the game in overtime 41-38, the largest comeback in NFL history.

1994 - An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkhutsk, Russia killing 125 including 1 on the ground.

1997 - China announces it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.

1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launches.

1999 - Israel detains, later to expel, 14 members of Concerned Christians.

2000 - The last "Peanuts" comic strip is created by Charles Schulz.

2003 - Ohio State University becomes the first NCAA Division I Football team to complete a season 14-0 by winning the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl over the University of Miami 31-24, and is crowned BCS National Champion.

2004 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 aboard.

 

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