1990 | Jean-Bertrand Aristide becomes Haiti's first president to be elected by the people. |
1989 | Movie bad guy Lee Van Cleef (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly) dies at age 64. |
1980 | Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders dies in Shelbyville, Kentucky, at age 90. |
1963 | Kenya is admitted to the United Nations. |
1960 | 134 people are killed when a TWA plane and a United DC-8 collide in mid-air over New York City. |
1953 | The Delaware Water Gap Bridge, linking New Jersey with Pennsylvania, opens to traffic. |
1946 | Thailand is admitted to the United Nations. |
1944 | The Battle of the Bulge begins as Germany launches a surprise counter-attack against Allied forces in Belgium, during WWII. |
1922 | Florence E. Allen becomes the first woman justice of a state supreme court (Ohio). |
1916 | Gregory Rasputin, a monk with considerable influence over the Russian court, is murdered by noblemen. |
1870 | The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is lit for the first time. |
1852 | The Evening Star newspaper begins publication in Washington, DC. |
1838 | The Boers defeat the Zulus in South Africa. |
1835 | The Wall Street area of New York City is destroyed by fire. |
1809 | Napoleon Bonaparte and the Empress Josephine are divorced by an act of the French Senate. |
1773 | The Boston Tea Party occurs when American colonists board a British ship and dump overboard more than 300 chests of tea to protest high taxes. |
1653 | Oliver Cromwell is named lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland. |