1789 – 1st Congress meets and declares constitution in effect (9 senators, 13 reps)
1861 – Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated as the 16th President.
1909 – US prohibits interstate transportation of game birds.
1918 – Army mess cook Private Albert Gitchell of Fort Riley, Kansas becomes the first documented military case of Spanish flu; start of worldwide pandemic killing 50-100 million (some sources cite date as March 11)
1924 – “Happy Birthday To You” published by Claydon Sunny.
1933 – Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated as 32nd President, pledges to pull US out of the Depression, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”
1944 – 1st US bombing of Berlin.
1954 – Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, announces the first successful kidney transplant.
1957 – The S&P 500 stock market index is introduced, replacing the S&P 90.
1961 – 8th ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament: Wake Forest beats Duke, 96-81.
1968 – 3rd Academy of Country Music Awards: Glen Campbell and Lynn Anderson win.
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. announces plans for Poor People’s Campaign.
1977 – 1st GRAY 1 supercomputer shipped to Los Alamos Laboratories, New Mexico.
1983 – U.S. Public Health Service publishes its guidelines for blood donors and AIDS.
1990 – US 65th manned space mission STS 36 (Atlantis 6) returns from space.
1993 – 1st ESPY Awards: Michael Jordan, Monica Seles win.
2005 – United Nations warns that about 90 million Africans could be infected by HIV in the future without further action against the spread of the disease.
2012 – Vladimir Putin wins Russian presidential election amid allegations of voter fraud.
2020 – Michael Bloomberg drops out of Democratic presidential race after a disappointing showing during Super Tuesday.