What Happened On This Day In History?

1801

The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.

1861

In Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five marchers were killed.

1922

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.

1933

Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, caught fire. The Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

1939

The Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.

1960

The U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviet Union 3-2 at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.

1972

President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued the Shanghai Communique at the conclusion of Nixon's historic visit to China.

1982

Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period.

1986

The U.S. Senate approved telecasts of its debates on a trial basis.

1991

President Bush declared that "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated," and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight.

1997

Divorce became legal in Ireland.

1998

With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first born son.

1807

Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.