Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1610

Astronomer Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons, naming them Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

1782

First commercial American bank, the Bank of North America, opened in Philadelphia.

1785

French aeronaut Jean Pierre Blanchard and American physician John Jeffries of Boston are the first to successfully cross the English Channel in a gas balloon.

1789

The first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first President.

1830

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company began rail service.

1894

One of the earliest motion picture experiments took place at the Thomas Edison studio in West Orange, N.J., as comedian Fred Ott was filmed sneezing.

1913

The process to obtain gasoline from crude oil is patented by William M. Burton of Chicago.

1927

Commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.

1942

The World War II siege of Bataan began.

1953

President Harry Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.

1955

American singer Marian Anderson is the first African American to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House.

1959

The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.

1972

Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the Supreme Court.

1975

OPEC decided to raise crude oil prices by 10%, which began a tidal wave of world economic inflation.

1976

A British naval frigate is involved in a collision with an Icelandic gunboat in the Atlantic. British defense officials said the collision represented a "deliberate attack" on the British warship without regard for life.

1979

Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government and its ruler, Pol Pot.

1980

Indians vote Indira Gandhi back into power - less than three years after rejecting her "emergency dictatorship".

1990

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public for the first time in its history amid safety fears.

1996

One of the biggest blizzards in U.S. history paralyzed the East. More than 100 deaths were later blamed on the severe weather.

1998

Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signed an affidavit denying she had an affair with President Clinton.

1999

For the second time in history, an impeached American president went on trial before the Senate. Bill Clinton was ultimately acquitted of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2000

The 17th Karmapa, a 14-year-old Tibetan Buddhist leader, fled Chinese-ruled Tibet for India, becoming the most significant defector since his predecessor, the current Dalai Lama, in 1959.

1745

Jacques Étienne Montgolfier, French aviator.

1800

The 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, was born in Summerhill, N.Y.

1830

Albert Bierstadt, American painter.

1873

Adolph Zukor, American entrepreneur of Paramount Pictures movie empire.

1912

Charles Addams, American cartoonist, creator of the Addams Family.

1922

Jean Pierre Rampal, French flutist.

1989

Emperor Michinomiya Hirohito of Japan died at age 87; he was succeeded by Crown Prince Akihito.