Events1327 - Teenaged
Edward III is
crowned King of
England, but the country is ruled by his mother
Queen Isabella and her lover
Roger Mortimer. 1411 -
Peace of Toruń 1411 signed in
Toruń,
Poland1662 - The
Chinese general
Koxinga seizes the island of
Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
1713 - The Kalabalik or Tumult in
Bendery results from the
Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King
Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the
steamboat.
1790 - In
New York City the
Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
1793 -
French Revolutionary Wars:
France declares war on the
United Kingdom and the
Netherlands.
1796 - The capital of
Upper Canada is moved from
Newark to
York.
1814 -
Mayon Volcano, in the
Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of
Mayon Volcano.
1856 -
Auburn University is chartered as the
East Alabama Male College.
1861 -
American Civil War:
Texas secedes from the
United States.
1862 -
Julia Ward Howe's "
Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the
Atlantic Monthly.
1880 - The first edition of theatrical
newspaper The Stage is published.
1884 - Edition one of the
Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1893 -
Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first
motion picture studio, the
Black Maria (
West Orange, New Jersey).
1896 - The opera
La bohème premieres (
Turin).
1897 -
Shinhan Bank (former
CHB), oldest
bank in South Korea, opened in
Seoul.
1908 - King
Carlos I of Portugal and his son,
Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco,
Lisbon.
1913 -
New York City's
Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest
train station.
1918 -
Russia adopts the
Gregorian Calendar.
1920 - The
Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
1924 -
United Kingdom recognizes
USSR.
1929 - Frenchman Charles Rigoulet is the first
weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.
1943 -
World War II:
Vidkun Quisling is appointed
Premier of Norway by the
Nazi occupiers.
1946 -
Trygve Lie of
Norway is picked to be the first
United Nations Secretary General.
1957 -
Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the
Wankel engine was running at the
NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in
Germany1958 - Merger of
Egypt and
Syria to form the
United Arab Republic, which lasted until
1961.
1960 - Four black students stage a
sit-in at a lunch counter in
Greensboro, North Carolina.
1965 -
Churchill River,
Newfoundland - Hamilton River in Labrador renamed Churchill River in honour of
Winston Churchill.
1968 -
Vietnam War:
Viet Cong officer
Nguyen Van Lem is executed by
Nguyen Ngoc Loan a
South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed by
Eddie Adams and helped sway public opinion
against the war. 1968 - Official
unification of the three military services of
Canada, the
Royal Canadian Navy, the
Canadian Army and the
Royal Canadian Air Force, into the
Canadian Forces. 1968 - Merger of the historic
New York Central Railroad and
Pennsylvania Railroad to form ill-fated
Penn Central Transportation.
1969 - Saturday mail delivery in
Canada eliminated.
1972 -
Kuala Lumpur became a city by a royal charter granted by the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong of
Malaysia.
1974 -
Joelma Building fire - a fire in a 25-story office building kills 189 and injures 293 in
Sao Paulo,
Brazil.1974 -
Kuala Lumpur declared a
Federal Territory.
1978 - Director
Roman Polanski skips
bail and flees to
France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979 - Convicted bank robber
Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by
President Jimmy Carter. 1979 -
Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into
Tehran,
Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1981 -
Trevor Chappell bowls his infamous
"Underarm Ball" to
Brian McKechnie to prevent
New Zealand scoring a 6, and tying the
ODI, on the last ball of the third match in the final of the
Benson & Hedges World Series Cup. It directly led to the banning of underarm bowling by the
International Cricket Council as not within the spirit of the game.
1982 -
Senegal and
Gambia form a loose confederation known as
Senegambia.1982 -
David Letterman begins an 11-year run as the host of the
NBC program
Late Night with David Letterman.
1989 - The
Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the
City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
1992 - The Chief Judicial Magistrate of
Bhopal court declares
Warren Anderson, ex-
CEO of
Union Carbide, a fugitive under
Indian law for failing to appear in the
Bhopal Disaster case.
1994 - In
Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding's ex-husband
Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater
Nancy Kerrigan.
1996 - The
Communications Decency Act is passed by the
U.S. Congress.
2003 -
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
2004 - 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the
Hajj pilgrimage in
Saudi Arabia.
2005 -
Nepal King
Gyanendra exercises
Coup d'état to capture the democracy becoming
Chairman of the Councils of ministers.2005 -
Canada introduces the
Civil Marriage Act, making Canada the fourth country to sanction
same-sex marriage.
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1. Februar