Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. – Proverbs 8:34

0076: Hadrian, 14th Roman Emperor

1712: Frederick II (the Great), King of Prussia.

1800: British social reformer Sir Edwin Chadwick

1818: Anglican clergyman John Mason Neale. He was one of the first to translate ancient Greek and Latin hymns into English. Neale thus rendered the hymns known today as "All Glory, Laud, and Honor," "Good Christian Men, Rejoice" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel."

1862: Author Edith (Jones) Wharton (The Age of Innocence)

1888: Ernst Heinrich Heinkel, built 1st rocket-powered aircraft.

1909: Actress Ann Todd The Human Factor, Scream of Fear, Madeleine, The Seventh Veil)

1913: Composer Norman Dello Joio (New York)

1915: TV game show producer Mark Goodson (Pop the Question, What’s My Line, I’ve Got a Secret, Family Feud, The Price is Right)

1917: Actor Ernest Borgnine (Marty, The Poseidon Adventure, The Dirty Dozen, McHale’s Navy)

1918: Evangelist Oral Roberts

1919: Leon Kirchner

1925: Prima ballerina Maria Tallchief

1936: Singer Jack (Scafone) Scott (My True Love, Goodbye Baby, What In the World’s Come Over You, Burning Bridges)

1936: Cajun musician Doug Kershaw (Louisiana Man, Diggy Liggy Lo)

1937: Singer songwriter Bobby Scott (Chain Gang, A Taste of Honey)

1939: Singer-songwriter Ray (Ragsdale) Stevens ( Everything Is Beautiful, Mr. Businessman; #1 novelty recording artist: Ahab, the Arab, Gitarzan, The Streak)

1941: Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond

1941: Singer Aaron Neville

1944: Minnesota Vikings corner back Bobby Lee Bryant

1944: Actress Julie Gregg (From Hell to Borneo, The Seekers)

1945: Singer Eric Stewart

1946: Actor Michael Ontkean

1947: Singer Warren Zevon (Werewolves of London, She Quit Me Man, Hasten Down the Wind, Poor, Poor Pitiful Me, Roland, the Headless Thompson Gunner, The Envoy)

1949: Comedian John Belushi (Second City improvisational troupe, original cast: Saturday Night LiveThe Blues Brothers)

1950: Country singer-songwriter Becky Hobbs

1951: Comedian Yakov Smirnoff

1960: Actress Nastassja Kinski (Terminal Velocity, The Hotel New Hampshire, Paris Texas, Exposed, Tess, For Your Love Only)

1963: Country musician Keech Rainwater (Lonestar)

1968: Olympic gold-medal gymnast Mary Lou Retton

1970: Rhythm-and-blues singer Pat "Sleepy" Brown (Society of Soul)

1979: Actress Tatyana Ali ("The Fresh Prince of Bel Air")
    
   

0041: Gaius Caesar (Caligula), Roman emperor from 37, was murdered. Caligula, or Little Boots, was a nickname he acquired as a child.

0097: Death of St. Timothy

0661: Murder of Ali by a Kharajite

0772: Death of Pope Stephen IV

0817: Death of Pope Stephen V

1076: The Synod of Worms took place at which German bishops renounced their allegiance to Pope Gregory, who in turn excommunicated Henry IV.

1376: Death of Richard, Earl of Arundel

1458: Matthias Corvinus elected King of Hungary

1521: Magellan discovers St. Paul's Island in the Pacific

1522: The town council of Wittenberg, Germany imposes an order regulating church finances and forms of worship

1656: 1st Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland

1848: Gold was discovered by James Wilson Marshall at his partner Johann August Sutter's sawmill on the South Fork of the American River, near Coloma, California. Initial press reports were largely ignored. Only when President Polk announced the news in December did the gold rush of '49 begin.

1875: Saint-Saens's "Danse Macabre" premiered in Paris.

1888: The typewriter ribbon was patented by Jacob L. Wortman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1899: Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel.

1895: Lord Randolph Churchill, British politician and influential leader of the Conservative Party, died.

1899: The rubber heel is patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.

1903: U.S. Secretary of State John Hay and British Ambassador Herbert create a joint commission to establish the Alaskan border.

1908: The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, a general in the British Army.

1911: U.S. Cavalry is sent to preserve the neutrality of the Rio Grande during the Mexican Civil War.

1916: U.S. Supreme Court finds the income tax is constitutional.

1922: Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa, patented the Eskimo Pie.

1922: Carl Nielsen's 5th Symphony was premiered in Copenhagen.

1927: British expeditionary force of 12,000 is sent to China to protect concessions at Shanghai.

1931: The League of Nations rebukes Poland for the mistreatment of a German minority in Upper Silesia.

1935: Krueger Cream Ale, the first beer to be sold in cans, went on sale in Richmond, Virginia.

1936: Benny Goodman and his orchestra recorded one of the all-time greats: "Stompin’ at the Savoy", on Victor Records.

1943: President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1946: The UN establishes the International Atomic Energy Commission. The Commission was established after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima in 1945.

1951: Indian leader Nehru assails the U.S. and demands the UN to name Peking as an aggressor in Korea.

1952: The British appoint Vincent Massey as the first Canadian to serve as Governor General of Canada.

1961: A U.S. B-52 bomber with two 24-megaton nuclear bombs crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina.

1965: Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.

1969: General Franco declared martial law in Spain following disturbances which led to nearly 300 arrests. It lasted until March 25.

1972: The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

1972: Japanese soldier Shoichi Yokoi was discovered on Guam, having spent 28 years hiding in the jungle thinking the war was still going on.

1973: ‘Little’ Donny Osmond, of the famed Osmond Brothers, received a gold record for his album, "Too Young."

1978: A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, Cosmos 954, plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada.

1980: A rebuff to the Soviets, the U.S. announces intentions to sell arms to China.

1982: A draft of Air Force history reports that the U.S. secretly sprayed herbicides on Laos during the Vietnam War. 1983: In Italy, 32 Red Brigade members were jailed for acts of terrorism, including the murder of Aldo Moro.

1986: The "Voyager Two" space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.

1987: Gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner and Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh (all were later released).

1987: About 20,000 civil rights demonstrators marched through predominantly white Forsyth County, Georgia, a week after a smaller march was disrupted by Ku Klux Klan members and supporters.

1988: The government of Haiti declared Leslie Manigat winner of that country's presidential election. (However, Manigat was overthrown by Haiti's military leader, Lieutenant General Henri Hamphy, the following June.)

1989: The Rev. Barbara C. Harris, 55, of Boston, was confirmed as the first female bishop in the 450-year history of the Anglican Church.

1989: Confessed serial killer Theodore Bundy was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.

1990: The House of Representatives voted, 390-to-25, to override President Bush's veto of legislation protecting Chinese students from deportation (however, Bush prevailed in a Senate vote the next day).

1991: Japan pledged $9 billion more to the Gulf War effort, which brought angry rejoinders from Iraq.

1993: Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the father of gospel music for adding rhythm to church hymns, died at age 93.

1993: Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 84.

1993: Keith Jarrett recorded most of the major Bach keyboard series for ECM New Series, including the entire "Well-Tempered Clavier", the "Goldberg Variations," and the "French Suites."

1994: President Clinton promoted William J. Perry, the Pentagon's number-two man, to the post of defense secretary.

1994: The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that protesters who block access to abortion clinics or in other ways conspire to stop women from having abortions may be sued under federal anti-racketeering statutes.

1994: A federal judge upheld a subpoena from the Senate Ethics Committee for the diaries of Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., who was facing allegations of sexual harassment and other possible misconduct.

1995: A U.S. airman and his 10-year-old son given up for dead in snow-covered mountains in Turkey were found alive after living on snow for nine days.1995: New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman delivered the Republican response to President Clinton's State of the Union address, becoming the first governor and the first woman to give such a reply.

1995: President Clinton appealed for common ground as he delivered his second State of the Union address, this time before a Republican-led Congress.

1995: The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1996: Chechen rebels released 42 hostages seized in a raid in southern Russia after a two-week ordeal in which dozens of separatist fighters and many Russian soldiers were killed.

1996: The Warsaw military prosecutor launched a formal probe into allegations Prime Minister Jozef Oleksy had spied for Moscow.

1996: The fat substitute Olestra was approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

1997: The White House released guest lists showing that in the year and a-half before his re-election, President Clinton invited more than 400 of his party's top financial supporters to coffee klatches for informal chats about his policies.

1997: Publix Super Markets, accused of relegating women to dead-end, low-paying jobs, agreed to pay $81.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.

1998: Pope John Paul the Second, delivering blunt political messages during his visit to Cuba, called for the release of "prisoners of conscience" and respect for freedom of expression, initiative and association.

1998: President Clinton, in his weekly radio address, unveiled a proposal to root out Medicare fraud.

1999: Olympic leaders recommended the expulsions of six International Olympic Committee members in an unprecedented response to the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the games.

1999: House prosecutors interviewed Monica Lewinsky, a move that triggered fresh partisan convulsions in President Clinton's impeachment trial.