
1673 – Postal service between New York and Boston inaugurated.
1908 – Katie Mulcahey is arrested for lighting a cigarette, violating the 1-day old “Sullivan Ordinance” banning women from smoking in public, and is fined $5. Appearing before the judge she stated “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you have. I never heard of this new law, and I don’t want to hear about it. No man shall dictate to me.”
1918 – Ukraine proclaimed a free republic after being a German-supported puppet state.
1931 – Jazz trumpeter Clyde McCoy records “Sugar Blues” for Columbia Records, sells over 14 million copies internationally.
1943 – Temperature rises 49 degrees in 2 minutes in Spearfish, South Dakota. Chinook winds resulted in the temperature changing from minus-4 degrees to 45 degrees.
1953 – NFL Draft: Harry Babcock from the University of Georgia is the first pick by San Francisco 49ers.
1959 – Buddy Holly makes his last recordings in his New York City apartment, alone with an acoustic guitar. He tapes five songs, including “Peggy Sue” and “Crying, Waiting, Hoping,” which were embellished, overdubbed, and released posthumously by Carol Records.
1964 – World’s largest cheese, weighing 34,663 pounds, manufactured in Wisconsin for New York’s World’s Fair.
1965 – The United States launches TIROS 9 weather satellite.
1969 – Roy Campanella and Stan Musial are elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
1970 – The first commercial Boeing 747 flight, made by Pan American World Airways, flies from New York City to London in 6½ hours.
1973 – In a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court legalizes most abortions in Roe v. Wade. Authoring the majority opinion Harry Blackmun states that the criminalization of abortion does not have “roots in the English common-law tradition.”
1982 – 75% of North America is covered by snow.
1984 – Super Bowl XVII, Tampa Stadium, Tampa, Florida: The Los Angeles Raiders beat the Washington Redskins 38-9. Most Valuable Player is Raiders running back Marcus Allen.
1990 – Will Clark, the reigning National League Most Valuable Player, signs a $15 million, four-year contract with the San Francisco Giants.
1997 – Space shuttle Atlantis successfully returns to Earth.
2002 – Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
2010 – Conan O’Brien’s last The Tonight Show episode after big controversy over the Tonight Show timeslot.
2017 – Jared Kushner is sworn in as Senior Advisor to President Donald Trump.
2021 – Lloyd Austin confirmed as defense secretary by the Senate and becomes the first black leader of the Pentagon.