1338 Charles V of France (born) (died 1380)
1519 Vasco Núñez de Balboa (died), Spanish explorer (born 1475)
1525 The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz’s mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
1535 Following the Affair of the Placards, French Protestants are burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris
1610 Elizabeth Fones (born), English-American settler (died 1673)
1643 Abel Tasman becomes the first European to reach Tonga.
1735 Johann Gottfried Eckard (born), German pianist and composer (died 1809)
1738 Ethan Allen (born), American military leader (died 1789)
1749 The Verona Philharmonic Theatre is destroyed by fire. It is rebuilt in 1754.
1789 The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a sentimental novel written in epistolary form by William Hill Brown.
1793 After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France(born 1754) is executed by guillotine.
1809 Josiah Hornblower (died), American engineer and politician (born 1729)
1813 John C. Frémont (born), American army officer, explorer, and politician, 5th Territorial Governor of Arizona (died 1890)
1814 Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (died), French botanist and author (born 1737)
1824 Stonewall Jackson (born), American general (died 1863)
1827 Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin (born), Russian mathematician (died 1900)
1840 Jules Dumont d’Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
1861 American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
1864 The Tauranga Campaign begins during the Maori Wars.
1884 Roger Nash Baldwin (born), American author and activist, co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (died 1981)
1895 Cristóbal Balenciaga (born), Spanish fashion designer, founded Balenciaga (died 1972)
1899 Opel manufactures its first automobile.
1901 Elisha Gray (died), American engineer, co-founded Western Electric (born 1835)
1905 Christian Dior (born), French fashion designer, founded Christian Dior S.A. (died 1957)
1905 Karl Wallenda (born), German acrobat (died 1978)
1911 The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.
1915 Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
1922 Telly Savalas (born), American actor (died 1994)
1924 Benny Hill (born), English actor (died 1992)
1924 Vladimir Lenin (died), Russian politician and theorist (born 1870)
1925 Albania declares itself a republic.
1926 Camillo Golgi (died), Italian physician, Nobel Prize laureate (born 1843)
1926 Steve Reeves (born), American actor (died 2000)
1928 George Washington Goethals (died), American army officer and engineer (born 1858)
1938 Wolfman Jack (born), American radio host and actor (died 1995)
1940 Jack Nicklaus (born), American golfer
1941 Mike Medavoy (born), Chinese-American film producer, co-founded Orion Pictures
1941 Plácido Domingo (born), Spanish tenor and conductor
1941 Richie Havens (born), American singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 2013)
1942 Mac Davis (born), American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1947 Jill Eikenberry (born), American actress
1948 The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Quebec Flag Day.
1950 American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
1950 Billy Ocean (born), Trinidadian-English singer-songwriter
1950 George Orwell (died), Indian-English journalist and author (born 1903)
1951 Eric Holder (born), American jurist, 82nd United States Attorney General
1952 Cyril Hellier (born), American soprano
1952 Libbye Hellier (born), American soprano
1952 Louis Menand (born), American author and academic
1953 Paul Allen (born), American businessman, co-founded Microsoft
1954 The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.
1956 Geena Davis (born), American actress
1958 The last Fokker C.X in military service, the Finnish Air Force FK-111 target tower, crashes, killing the pilot and winch-operator.
1959 Cecil B. DeMille (died), American director (born 1881)
1960 Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.
1961 435 workers are buried alive when a mine in Coalbrook, Free State collapses.
1968 A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.
1968 Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
1971 The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.
1976 Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
1977 President of the United States Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated toCanada.
1981 Production of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.
1983 Lamar Williams (died), American musician, most known as the bassist for The Allman Brothers Band and Seal Level (born 1949)
1984 Jackie Wilson (died), American singer-songwriter (Billy Ward and His Dominoes) (born 1934)
1985 James Beard (died), American chef and author (born 1903)
1997 Colonel Tom Parker (died), Dutch-American talent manager (born 1909)
1998 Jack Lord (died), American actor (born 1920)
1999 War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.
2001 Byron De La Beckwith (died), American assassin of Medgar Evers (born 1921)
2002 Peggy Lee (died), American singer-songwriter and actress (born 1920)
2003 A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless.
2004 NASA’s MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
EO Smith
Latest posts by EO Smith (see all)
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