Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1802

John Beckley becomes the first Librarian of Congress, appointed by President Thomas Jefferson. He reportedly was paid two dollars per day.

1845

Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

1850

Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1861

Kansas became the 34th state of the Union (or the 28th state if the secession of eight Southern states over the previous six weeks is taken into account).

1886

The first successful gasoline-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.

1891

Liliuokalani became Queen of Hawaii following the death of her brother King Kalakaua. She was the last monarch in Hawaiian history.

1900

The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.

1926

Violette Neatley Anderson became the first African-American woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1936

Baseball greats Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson are the first players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1950

Riots broke out in Johannesburg, South Africa, over the policy of Apartheid.

1958

Actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

1963

The first members of football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.

1979

Deng Xiaoping, deputy premier of China, met President Jimmy Carter, and together they signed historic accords reversing decades of U.S. opposition to the People's Republic of China.

1979

President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence of Patty Hearst.

1987

President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines put down a rebellion against her government in Manila forcing a group of heavily armed rebels occupying a television station to surrender.

1990

Former Exxon Valdez skipper Joseph Hazelwood went on trial in Anchorage, Alaska, on charges stemming from the nation's worst oil spill; Hazelwood later was acquitted of the major charges and convicted of a misdemeanor.

1995

The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in NFL history to win five Super Bowl titles, beating the San Diego Chargers, 49-26.

1996

French President Jacques Chirac says France will no longer test nuclear weapons after uproar over Pacific tests.

1998

A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. Fugitive Eric Rudolph has been charged with the bombing and three attacks in Atlanta.

1999

The Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.

1999

Attorney General Janet Reno rejected a special prosecutor investigation of Harold Ickes, saying there was clear and convincing evidence that the former White House aide did not intend to lie to a Senate committee looking into campaign finances.

1737

Thomas Paine, American revolutionary leader, political philosopher.

1843

William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States (1897-1901), was born in Niles, Ohio.

1874

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr., American industrialist.

1880

W. C. Fields, American comedian and actor.

1923

Paddy Chayefsky, American playwright.

1927

Edward Abbey, an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies.

1954

Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, media mogul.

1960

Steve Sax, former Major League Baseball player.

1820

Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that saw both the American and French revolutions.

1956

H. L. Mencken (born Henry Louis Mencken), a twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker.

1962

Fritz Kreisler, Austrian (later American) violinist and composer, one of the most famous violinists of his day.

1963

Robert Frost, American poet, died in Boston.

1977

Freddie Prinze (born Frederick Karl Pruetzel), American actor and stand-up comedian.

1980

Jimmy Durante, American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor.

2004

Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist and short-story writer.

2004

M. M. Kaye, British writer.

2008

Margaret Truman Daniel, former President Harry S. Truman's only child, who emerged late in life as a writer of popular Washington-based mystery novels, died at an assisted living facility in Chicago at age 83.