A good name is better than a good ointment, And the day of one's death is better than the day of one's birth.


ECC 7:1

0259: Martyrdom of St. Montanus and St.Lucius

0303: Publication of the first Roman edict for the persecution of Christians

0858: St Nicholas I begins his reign as Catholic Pope.

1389: Capture of Albert of Mecklenberg, King of Sweden

1429: Joan of Arc arrives at Chinon

1446: Drawing of the earliest known Lottery, in Bruges, Belgium

1450: End of the Ambrosian Republic (2nd Commune) of Florence

1509: A Papal Bull is issued against duels

1510: Pope Julian II lifts the excommunication against Venice

1525: Death of Richard de la Pole, pretender to the Throne of England

1525: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, defeats Francis I, King of France, and captures him

1527: Schleitheim Confession

1530: Reconciliation of Charles V and Pope Clement VII; Last Imperial Coronation of a Holy Roman Emperor

1538: Peace of Grosswardein

1552: The privleges of the Hanse in England are abolished

1577: Murder of Eric XIV, deposed King of Sweden

1582: Pope Gregory the 13th issued a papal bull outlining his calendar reforms. (The Gregorian Calendar is the calendar in general use today.)

1704: Boston News-Letter, 1st successful newspaper in US, established

1792: "La Marseillaise" composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle

1800 :Library of Congress establishes with $5,000 allocation.

1803: In its "Marbury versus Madison" decision, the US Supreme Court ruled that it was the final interpreter of constitutional issues.

1813: Off Guiana, the American sloop Hornet sinks the British sloop Peacock.

1818: Frederic Chopin made his debut as a pianist. He was seven years old. The little boy was elaborately dressed up, and after the recital someone asked the kid what he thought impressed the audience the most. You know how literal children are. Chopin replied, "My collar."

1821: Mexico declared its independence from Spain. 1835: Siwinowe Kesibwi (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the United States.

1833: Patent granted for 1st soda fountain.

1835: "Siwinowe Kesibwi" (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the United States.

1836: Some 3,000 Mexicans launch an assault on the Alamo, with its 182 Texan defenders. Thirteen days of glory at the Alamo.

1839: William S. Otis of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, received a patent for the steam shovel.

1857: The first shipment of perforated postage stamps was received by the U.S. government.

1863: Arizona was organized as a territory.

1866: The Capitol in Washington, D.C., displayed an American flag made entirely of American bunting.

1868: The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate.

1868: The first parade to feature floats celebrated Mardis Gras in Mobile, Alabama.

1888: Eastman Kodak forms .

1895: The Cuban War of Independence begins.

1897: 1st reporter, William Price, assigned to White House

1903: The United States signed an agreement acquiring a naval station at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

1905: Russian Minister of Agriculture, Alexi Yermolov offers the Czar a new constitution.

1908: Japan officially agrees to restrict immigration to the U.S.

1912: Italy bombs Beirut in the first act of war against the Ottoman Empire.

1914: Civil War soldier Joshua Chamberlain dies.

1915: Massacre of Armenians by Turks (Armenian Martyrs Day)

1916: Easter rebellion of Irish against British occupation begin

1916: Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" opened in New York.

1920: A group of Germans organized the National Socialist party, forerunner of the Nazi party later led by Adolf Hitler.

1921: Herbert Hoover becomes Secretary of Commerce.

1924: Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller broke the world's record in the 100-meter event at Miami Beach, Florida. The new record: 57 2/5 seconds.

1925: A "thermit" was used for the first time to break a 250,000-ton ice jam that had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, New York.

1928: In its first show to feature a Black artist, the New Gallery of New York exhibits works of Archibald Motley.

1938: The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made in Arlington, New Jersey.

1939: Hungary signs an anti-Communist pact with Italy, Germany and Japan.

1940: Frances Langford recorded one of the classic songs of all time – and one that would become a Walt Disney trademark. "When You Wish Upon a Star" was recorded on Decca Records during a session in Los Angeles.

1942: The Voice of America went on the air for the first time.

1942: The U.S. government halted the delivery of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use. The Feds needed to make more weapons available for war production.

1945: Egyptian Premier Ahmed Maher Pasha is killed in Parliament after reading a decree

1945: U.S. servicemen liberated the Philippine capital, Manila, from the control of the Japanese empire in World War II.

1946: Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

1947: Franz von Papen is sentenced to eight years in a labor camp for war crimes. Pompous scion of an old aristocratic family, he became chancellor of Germany in 1932.

1952: The French evacuate Hoabinh in Vietnam in order to mass for the Tonkin Delta drive.

1953: Winston Churchill knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

1955: The Cole Porter musical "Silk Stockings" opened at the Imperial Theater on Broadway.

1959: Khrushchev rejects the Western plan for the Big Four meeting on Germany.

1961: JFK accepts "sole responsibility" following Bay of Pigs

1962: New York police seize $20 million worth of heroin.

1967: Vladimir Komarov cosmonaut is 1st to die in space, aboard Soyuz 1

1972: Hanoi negotiators walks out of the peace talks in Paris to protest U.S. air raids on North Vietnam.

1974: Bud Abbott dies at 78

1980: US miltary operation to save 52 hostages in Iran, fails, 8 die.

1980: The U.S. hockey team defeated Finland, 4-2, to clinch the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, New York.

1981: Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.

1983: A congressional commission released a report condemning the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, calling it a "grave injustice."

1983: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1,100 level for the first time, ending the day at 1,121.81.

1985: Soviet President Konstantin U. Chernenko, looking frail, was shown on Soviet television casting a ballot in a Moscow polling place in his first public appearance since the previous December.

1985: Yul Brynner reprised his role "The King and I" setting an all-time box office record for weekly receipts. The show earned $520,920.

1986: The U.S. Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional an Indianapolis ordinance that allowed women injured by someone who had seen or read pornographic material to sue the maker or seller of that material.

1987: Fawn Hall, former personal secretary to fired National Security Council aide Oliver L. North, posed for news photographers outside her attorney's office, calling the attention "a little overwhelming."

1988: In a ruling that expanded legal protections for parody and satire, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award that the Rev. Jerry Falwell had won against Hustler magazine and publisher Larry Flynt.

1989: A state funeral was held in Japan for Emperor Hirohito, who had died the month before at age 87.

1989: A cargo door blew off a United Air Lines Boeing 747-100 flying near Hawaii; the explosive release of pressure pulled nine passengers out to their deaths.

1990: West & East Germany agree to merge currency & economies on July 1st

1990: Magazine publisher Malcolm Forbes died in Far Hills, New Jersey, at age 70.

1990: Fifties balladeer Johnnie Ray died in Los Angeles at age 63.

1991: General Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition army, sends in ground forces to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqis. 

1992: "Man of La Mancha" with Sheena Easton opens at Marquis theater

1992: Secretary of State James A. Baker III told a House subcommittee that Israel should stop building settlements in the occupied territories, or forfeit $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.

1992: A fourth round of Mideast peace talks began in Washington.

1993: Mariss Jansons, music director of the Oslo Philharmonic, guest conducted the Chicago Symphony.

1993: Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney announced he was stepping down.

1993: At the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Eric Clapton won six trophies, including album of the year for "Unplugged" and record and song of the year for "Tears in Heaven."

1994: Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders labeled smoking an "adolescent addiction," and accused the tobacco industry of trying to convince teen-agers that cigarettes will make them sexy and successful.

1994: Entertainer Dinah Shore died in Beverly Hills, California, at age 76.

1994: Syria granted exit visas to all 1,000 Syrian Jews still living in the country, allowing them to travel abroad if they wished.

1995: Under pressure from farm-state Republicans, House leaders abandoned a campaign promise to disband the food stamp program.

1996: Steve Forbes wins the Delaware primary.

1996: Cuba downs two small American planes that it claims were violating Cuban airspace.

1997: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright met in Beijing with Chinese officials, telling them to improve their country's record on human rights, or face condemnation by the United States and its allies.

1997: The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.

1998: Henny Youngman, a tireless comic who quipped "Take my wife - please" and countless other one-liners during a career that spanned seven decades, died in New York City at age 91.

1998: The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a ruling that allows federal regulators to recalculate the reimbursements teaching hospitals that treat Medicare patients can receive for graduate medical programs.

1998: Mary Vincent relived a 20-year-old nightmare as she testified in a Florida courtroom against the man who raped her and hacked off her arms when she was a California teen-ager. She was called by the prosecution in the penalty phase of Lawrence Singleton's murder trial to testify about his past conduct. Singleton, 70, was convicted of first degree murder for the 1997 stabbing death of Tampa prostitute Roxanne Hayes in his home.

1998: Heavy metal drummer Tommy Lee was arrested and charged with hitting his wife, former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson Lee, during an argument in their Malibu, California home and was being held in lieu of $1 million bail.

1999: The Senate voted overwhelmingly to give the nation's military the biggest benefits increase since the early 1980s.

1999: Lauryn Hill won a record five Grammys, including album of the year and best new artist, on the strength of her solo debut album, "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill."

2000: The state of Texas executed Betty Lou Beets, 62, by injection for murdering her fifth husband after Gov. George W. Bush refused to intervene. 

2000: Pope John Paul II arrived in Egypt on a pilgrimage to retrace some of the most epic passages from the Bible.  

2000: The U.N. Security Council approved a U.S.-drafted plan to send an observer force into Congo to monitor a fragile cease-fire.