1825 – First US engineering college opens, Rensselaer Polytechnic in Troy, New York.
1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
1915 – Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (New York to San Francisco).
1919 – The Hotel Pennsylvania, at the time the world’s largest, opens in Manhattan.
1924 – First Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France.
1937 – First broadcast of “Guiding Light” on NBC radio.
1945 – Grand Rapids, Michigan, becomes the first US city to fluoridate its water.
1945 – New York Yankees sold by Ruppert estate to construction magnate Del Webb and partners Dan Topping and Larry MacPhail for $2.8 million.
1955 – Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock accurate to within one second over 300 years.
1959 – First transcontinental commercial jet flight (American Airlines) from Los Angeles to New York for $301.
1960 – Wilt Chamberlain scores 58 points, the most by an NBA rookie, as the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons 127-117 at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
1961 – First live, nationally televised presidential news conference with John F. Kennedy.
1969 – United States-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris.
1978 – Major League Baseball’s San Diego Padres trade pitcher Dave Tomlin and $125,000 to the Texas Rangers for Gaylord Perry. Perry won the 1978 Cy Young Award.
1987 – Super Bowl XXI, Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA: New York Giants beat Denver Broncos 39-20. Giants quarterback Phil Simms was chosen Most Valuable Player.
1993 – Sears announces it is closing its catalog sales department after 97 years.
1998 – Musical “Grease” closes at Eugene O’Neill Theater in New York City after 1,503 performances.
2004 – NASA’s Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on the surface of Mars.
2019 – Longest United States government shutdown ends after 35 days when President Donald Trump agrees to three weeks of negotiations on border security by a House-Senate conference committee.
2023 – America and Germany announce decision to send 45 battle tanks (US 31, Germany 14) to Ukraine to fight Russia invasion.
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