1834 – Wake Forest University is established in North Carolina.
1863 – Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the “Territorial Enterprise”
1882 – Circus owner P.T. Barnum buys his world-famous elephant Jumbo.
1913 – 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, federal income tax, ratified.
1917 – US liner Housatonic is sunk by German submarine, on the same day that US President Woodrow Wilson breaks off diplomatic relations with Germany.
1931 – Arkansas legislature passes a motion to pray for soul of journalist H.L. Mencken, after he calls the state the “apex of moronia”
1941 – US Supreme Court upheld Federal Wage & Hour law, sets minimum wages & maximum hours.
1951 – “Victor Borge Show” debuts on NBC TV.
1953 – J Fred Muggs, a chimpanzee, becomes a regular on NBC’s Today Show.
1959 – “The Day the Music Died” plane crash kills musicians Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson and pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa.
1962 – US President John F. Kennedy bans all trade with Cuba except for food and drugs.
1966 – 1st operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 launched US.
1971 – OPEC mandates “total embargo” against any company that rejects 55 percent tax rate.
1979 – “YMCA” by Village People peaks at #2 on pop singles chart.
1986 – US President Ronald Reagan announces formation of commission of enquiry on Challenger Accident.
1992 – Maximum NY State unemployment benefits raised to $300 per week.
1993 – Federal trial of 4 police officers charged with civil rights violations in videotaped beating of Rodney King begins in Los Angeles, California.
1994 – President Bill Clinton lifts US trade embargo against Vietnam.
1998 – Mary Kay LeTourneau, 36, former teacher, violates probation with 14 year-old father of her baby.
2008 – Super Bowl XLII, University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, AZ: New York Giants beat New England Patriots, 17-14; MVP: Eli Manning, New York, QB.
2020 – First Democratic caucus in Iowa won narrowly by Pete Buttigieg (most delegates) and Bernie Sanders (most votes) after lengthy delays and irregularities in reporting the results.
Author: Sonny Jones
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