Events, Births and Deaths Happening on this Date

1825

The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1861

The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America elected Jefferson Davis president and Alexander H. Stephens vice president.

1870

The U.S. Weather Bureau was established.

1893

Giuseppe Verdi's last opera, "Falstaff," was first performed, in Milan, Italy.

1942

The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II.

1942

Daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.

1943

The World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an American victory over Japanese forces.

1950

In a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R Wis., charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.

1964

The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

1971

The Apollo 14 spacecraft returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon.

1999

The Senate began closed-door deliberations in President Clinton's impeachment trial, even though members from both parties acknowledged that the two-thirds margin for conviction could not be attained.

2000

Boeing Co. engineers and technical workers began a 40-day strike.

1773

William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was born in Charles City County, Va.

1984

Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov died at age 69, less than 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev. He was succeeded by Konstantin U. Chernenko.

1995

Former Sen. J. William Fulbright died in Washington at age 89.