1644: Princess Henrietta of England

1895: Stan Laurel, comedian (Laurel and Hardy)

19??: Kent Humphrey (MidSouth)

19??: Brent Bourgeois

19??: Sandra Stephens

1902: American scientist Barbara McClintock. Regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of genetics. Her discovery during the 1940s and '50s of mobile genetic elements won her the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1983.

1903: Helen Traubel, opera singer

1917: Katharine Graham, former newspaper publisher ("Washington Post")

1920: John Howard Griffin, photographer, author of Black Like Me

1924: Jazz Saxiphonists Lucky Thompson

1937: Author Erich Segal

1938: Author Joyce Carol Oates

1939: Country singer Billy "Crash" Craddock

1941: Songwriter Lamont Dozier

1942: Rhythm-and-blues singer Eddie Levert

1946: Actress Joan Van Ark

1950: Rhythm-and-blues singer James Smith (The Stylistics)

1951: Boxer Roberto Durant

1952: Pop singer Gino Vannelli

1955: Actress Laurie Metcalf

1967: Model-actress Jenny Shimizu

1971: Tupac Shakur

1973: Actor Eddie Cibrian ("Third Watch")        
         

1246: Death of St. Lutgard

1373: Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of Alliance (world's oldest) signed, London

1456: The 25 year old judgement of heresy against Jeanne d'Arc annulled

1464: Death of Rogier Vander Weyden

1483: Imprisonment of the Two Princes in the Tower (England)

1497: The body of Juan Borgia is recovered from the Tiber river

1567: Mary Queen of Scots thrown into Lochleven Castle prison.

1602: Bartholomew Gosnold gives up his colonization efforts in New England

1641: Death of John Suckling

1710: George Frederick Handel was hired to be Kappellmeister at Hanover. He barely started work before he took a leave of absence, and then another, to nurture a career in England. His employer, the Elector of Hanover, followed him to London when he inherited the British crown.

1775: The Battle of Bunker Hill (actually it was Breed's Hill).

1858: "A house divided against itself cannot stand. " Abraham Lincoln, Senate candidate, made this statement in a speech in Springfield, Illinois. Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved.

1879: Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore" debuts at the Bowery Theatre New York City.

1883: First baseball "Ladies' Day" (NY Gothams vs Cleveland Spiders).

1897: The U. S. government signed a treaty of annexation with Hawaii.

1903: First Highlander (Yankee) shut-out victory 1-0 over the White Sox.

1903: The Ford Motor Company is started.

1904: James Joyce met his future wife, Nora, for the second time and fell in love. He later chose the date as the single-day setting for his novel, "Ulysses".

1917: The first Congress of Soviets was convened in Russia.

1933: The U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation created (FDIC).

1933: National Industrial Recovery Act becomes law (later struck down).

1937: Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races" opens in LA.

1941: First US federally owned airport opened Washington, D.C.

1947: First network news - Dumont's "News from Washington".

1947: Pravda denounces the Marshall Plan.

1949: Gas turbine-electric locomotive demonstrated, Erie, PA.

1953: Despite Johnny Mize 2000th hit Yanks lose ending 18 game win streak.

1955: Pope Pius the 12th excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron -- a ban that was lifted eight years later

1961: Rudolf Nureyev, Soviet ballet dancer, defects to the West.

1963: Levi Eshkol replaces David Ben-Gurion as Israeli prime minister.

1963: Valentina V. Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space aboard Vostok 6.

1970: Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, New Jersey, became the first black to win a mayoral election in a major Northeast city.

1976: US ambassador to Lebanon kidnapped and killed.

1977: Werner von Braun dies at 65 from smoking.

1977: Ron Guidry's first complete game 7-0 over the Royals.

1977: Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev was named president, becoming the first person to hold both posts simultaneously.

1978: Tom Seaver no hits St Louis Cards.

1978: President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.

1982: Britain requests Argentina arrange for return of prisoners.

1986: South African blacks marked the 10th anniversary of the Soweto uprising with a one-day strike. 11 blacks were killed in the resulting violence.

1987: Subway gunman Bernhard Goetz acquitted on all but gun possession
charges after shooting four youths who tried to rob him.

1989: Hungarians paid homage to former premier Imre Nagy and four associates who were executed for leading the anti-Soviet revolt of 1956.

1990: A crowd in the Netherlands welcomed African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, who thanked them for staunch Dutch support for the anti-apartheid movement.

1991: The 7th International Conference on "AIDS" opened in Florence, Italy, with pleas from African and Asian countries for more help and criticism directed at the United States for its refusal to allow visits by foreigners infected with AIDS.

1992: President Bush and Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin capped the first day of their Washington summit by announcing their countries had agreed to slash their long-range nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.

1992: Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was indicted on felony charges in the Iran-Contra affair (he was later pardoned by President Bush).

1993: An all Leonard Bernstein program began by the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Leonard Slatkin. The program included "Fanfare for Bima," "Simple Song" from "Mass," "Opening Prayer" from "Jubilee Games," and the dance music "Fancy Free,".

1993: The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to give Haiti's military rulers one week to restore exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, or face an embargo on oil and weapons.

1994: Former President Jimmy Carter, on a private visit to North Korea, reported the Communist nation's leaders were eager to resume talks with the United States on resolving disputes about Pyongyang's nuclear program and improving relations.

1995: Bosnian government forces aided by Bosnian Croats unleashed a major offensive in hopes of breaking the Serb stranglehold on Sarajevo.

1995: Salt Lake City, Utah, was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.

1995: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 4,500 for the first time, ending the day at 4,510.79.

1996: Russian voters went to the polls in their first independent presidential election; the result was a runoff between President Boris Yeltsin (the eventual winner) and Communist challenger Gennady Zyuganov.

1996: The Chicago Bulls won the NBA championship, beating the Seattle SuperSonics in game six, 87-to-75.

1996: Sportscaster Mel Allen died in Greenwich, Connecticut, at age 83.

1998: Massachusetts' highest court cleared the way for Louise Woodward to return home to England, upholding a judge's ruling that freed the au pair convicted of killing a baby.

1998: The Detroit Red Wings took home the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year after completing a sweep of the Washington Capitals with a 4-to-1 victory in game four. 

1999: Vice President Al Gore announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1999: Kathleen Ann Soliah, a fugitive member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, was captured in St. Paul, Minn., where she was living as Sara Jane Olson.

1999: Thabo Mbeki took the oath as president of South Africa, succeeding Nelson Mandela.

2000: Federal regulators approved the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corporation, creating the nation's largest local phone company. 

2000: Raynard Johnson, 17, was found hanging from a tree in Marion County, Mississippi; investigators later ruled it a suicide, not a lynching. 

2000: Empress dowager Nagako, widow of Japan's Emperor Hirohito, died in Tokyo at age 97.