The day is yours, and yours also the night;
you established the sun and moon.   NIV


– Psalm 74:16 

0591: Death of St. Sulpicius

0904: Sergius III crowned pope - beginning of the "Pornocracy"

1118: Death of Pope Paschal II

1327: Coronation of Edward III of England

1527: Venice prohibits printing any book without prior permission of gov't

1535: Emigration of Huguenots from France

1579: Union of Utrecht

1584: Assassination of William the Silent

1635: The Academie Francaise, one of the most famous literary societies in Europe, was founded.

1728: "The Beggar's Opera" premiered in London. John Gay composed it and John Rich produced it.

1730: Peter II, czar of Russia (1727-30), died of smallpox on the day set for his wedding.

1820: Britain's King George the Third died insane at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that saw both the American and French revolutions.

1843: The 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was born in Niles, Ohio.

1845: Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York "Evening Mirror."

1850: Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery which included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1853: Napoleon III married Eugenie de Montijo at the Tuileries Palace in Paris.

1861: Kansas became the 34th state of the Union as a free or non-slavery state at a time when Southern states were seceding from the Union.

1888: Edward Lear, English landscape painter and writer of nonsense verse, died.

1891: Hawaii proclaimed as its queen Liliuokalani, renowned for her song "Aloha Oe."

1896: The U.S. physician Emile Grubbe became the first to use radiation treatment for breast cancer.

1899: Alfred Sisley, the English painter and one of the creators of French Impressionism, died.

1900: The American 1900: Eight baseball teams were organized as the American League. They were Buffalo, Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.

1905: Warsaw is in chaos as mobs and troops loot the Polish capital.

1909: German Reichstag members admit that workers are blacklisted for activism.

1918: The Supreme Allied Council meets at Versailles.

1923: Twenty Germans are killed in the first fighting in Ruhr.

1926: The Soviets order compulsory military training in colleges.

1931: Officers of the Bank of the U.S. go on trial.

1931: Winston Churchill resigns as Stanley Baldwin’s aide.

1932: George Gershwin's little-known second Rhapsody premiered in Boston.

1936: The first members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

1939: Irish poet-dramatist William Butler Yeats died in Menton, France.

1942: German and Italian troops take Benghazi.

1944: The world’s greatest warship, the Missouri, is launched.

1950: Riots break out in Johannesburg over Apartheid.

1956: Editor-essayist H.L. Mencken died in Baltimore.

1958: Actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

1961: The Associated Press names Wilma Rudolph the female athlete of the year for 1960.

1962: Warner Brothers Records signed Peter Paul and Mary.

1963: The first members of football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.

1963: Poet Robert Frost died in Boston.

1964: The Ninth Winter Olympics begin in Innsbruck.

1967: Pope Paul VI and Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny conferred at the Vatican in the first meeting in history between a Roman Catholic pontiff and the head of a Communist state.

1967: Thirty-seven civilians are killed by a U.S. helicopter attack in Vietnam.

1978: Sweden becomes the first nation to curb aerosol sprays to halt the destruction of the ozone layer. (Later studies prove inconclusive as to the possible effects of CFC's to the ozone)

1979: President Carter commutes the sentence of Patty Hearst.

1979: President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.

1979: Emerson, Lake and Palmer disbanded after 10 years together. They would eventually reunite.

1980: Jimmy Durante, the U.S. comedian, actor and singer, died.

1984: President Reagan announces that he will run for a second term.

1984: The Soviets issue a formal complaint against alleged U.S. arms treaty violations.

1985: The White House confirmed reports that Robert Latta of Denver had breached security and roamed the executive mansion on the day of President Reagan's second inaugural.

1987: The State Department barred deposed Philippines President Ferdinand E. Marcos from returning to his homeland from Honolulu amid reports he was preparing to rally supporters trying to topple the Aquino government.

1988: Amid broad efforts toward peace in Central America, Pope John Paul II gave Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega a wary Vatican reception.

1988: A Boston-bound Amtrak train derailed in Chester, Pennsylvania, injuring 25 people.

1989: West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl's Christian Democratic Union suffered a major setback in West Berlin municipal elections.

1990: Former "Exxon Valdez" skipper Joseph Hazelwood went on trial in Anchorage, Alaska, on charges stemming from the nation's worst oil spill. (Hazelwood was acquitted of the major charges, and convicted of a misdemeanor.)

1991: In South Africa, the Africa National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party agreed to end their rivalry.

1991: The United States and Soviet Union announced they would agree to a ceasefire in the Gulf War if Iraq made a unequivocal commitment to withdraw from Kuwait.

1991: In his State of the Union address, President Bush assured Americans that the war against Iraq would be won and that the recession at home would end in short order. (Extraordinary security measures were in effect for the first wartime State of the Union address since the Vietnam era.) 

1992: Blues legend Willie Dixon died at the age of 76.

1992: Russian President Boris Yeltsin unveiled an ambitious plan to cut nuclear weapons spending and said his republic's weapons would no longer be aimed at any US targets.

1992: A multinational Middle East peace conference ended in Moscow with participants sounding upbeat. President Bush presented a one-point-52 trillion-dollar budget plan.

1993: President Clinton told reporters he was ordering the drafting of a formal directive by July 15th to end the longstanding ban on homosexuals in the US military.

1994: In South Africa, Nelson Mandela kicked off his party's campaign for the country's first multiracial elections.

1994: Japan's Parliament approved watershed measures to stem political corruption.

1994: Longtime ASCAP president and song lyricist Stanley Adams died at the age of 86.

1995: The San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers, 49- 26, in Super Bowl XXIX to become the first team to win five Super Bowls.

1996: A Navy F-14 fighter jet crashed in Nashville, Tennessee, demolishing three houses and killing five people.

1996: Fire destroyed Italy's opera house La Fenice

1996: France announced that it would stop open air nuclear testing.

1996: The Eagles and country superstar Garth Brooks were triple winners at the 23rd annual American Music Awards. Brooks was named artist of the year but politely left the trophy on the podium...saying the other nominees deserved the award more — especially Hootie and the Blowfish.

1996: French President Jacques Chirac ordered an early end to underground nuclear tests in the South Pacific. Fire destroyed Italy's opera house La Fenice. 

1997: Threatened with lawsuits across the country, America Online agreed to give refunds to customers who weren't able to log on because of the overwhelming demand created by AOL's flat $19.95-a-month rate

1998: A bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing Robert Sanderson, an off-duty police officer working as a security guard, and critically injuring Emily Lyons, a nurse. (Authorities are searching for a suspect, Eric Rudolph, in the North Carolina wilderness.)

1998: A top tobacco company executive admitted under oath to Congress for the first time that cigarettes are dangerous. The testimony by RJR Nabisco chairman and CEO Steven Goldstone came at a hearing where industry leaders pushed Congress to enact a $368.5 billion deal giving them partial immunity from future lawsuits.

1998: Thick fog in parts of western Europe caused two major road accidents involving some 200 cars. Six people died and several were injured in a 100-vehicle pile-up on the E17 highway in western Belgium, close to the French border, where the fog had reduced visibility to less than 30 yards. Another 100 cars crashed into each other when a truck plowed through the central barrier of the A73 highway between Venlo and Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

1999: Attorney General Janet Reno rejected a special prosecutor investigation of former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes.

1999: The Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two of President Clinton's advisers, summoning them for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.

 2000: Delegates meeting in Montreal reached an international agreement on the trade of genetically modified food and other products. 

2000: Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott, architects of San Francisco's Super Bowl dynasty, were among five individuals elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.