2015 A federal U.S. judge orders a halt to an executive order issued by President Barack Obama that allows approximately 5 million illegal immigrants to remain in the country; Obama expects to overcome this hurdle to implement the order as planned 2014 '12 Years a Slave' and 'Gravity' dominate wins at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards ceremony; Chiwetel Ejiofor ('12 Years') and Cate Blanchett ('Blue Jasmine') receive leading actor and actress awards, respectively 2014 Eleven illegal gold miners are rescued from a collapsed shaft; the remaining men refuse to surface upon learning that the rescued men have been immediately arrested; over 200 miners may still remain in the shaft 2013 G20 finance ministers focus on the so-named "currency wars" during their meeting in Moscow, Russia 2013 A 6.2 earthquake occurs near the Philippine island of Mindanao, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries 2012 Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and the Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, dies at 43 of an acute asthma attack 2012 Australia's Qantas airlines announces its plan to cut 500 jobs 2011 Under pressure from conservationists and diplomats, Japan's whaling fleet leaves the Antarctic 2011 Lance Armstrong announces his official retirement from professional cycling 2010 The Queen Mary 2 makes her first port call in China at the Port of Shanghai, since her maiden voyage in 2004 1998 Tellabs Inc. acquires Coherent Communications Systems for $670 million 1997 At age 25, Jeff Gordon is youngest winner in Daytona 500 history 1997 GTE Suncoast Senior Golf Classic 1997 Paul Stankowski wins Hawaiian Golf Open 1997 Terry-Jo Myers wins LPGA Los Angeles Women's Championship 1996 Gary Kirsten scores 188* for South Africa vs. UAE at Rawalpindi 1994 6.5 earthquake strikes SE Sumatra, kills 200 1994 Johann Olav Koss skates world record 1500m (1:51.29) 1994 Premier Alfonso Bustamente ends government in Peru 1993 Sandra V"lker swims world record 50m backstroke (28.33 sec) 1992 Former silver Goodyear blimps are now painted yellow and blue 1992 Los Angeles Lakers retire Magic Johnson's #32 uniform 1991 Dutch PPR, Political Party Radicals, disbands 1991 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding 1989 Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and North Yemen form common market 1989 Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden separate after 16 years of marriage 1989 Orel Hershiser, Dodger pitcher signs $7.9M-3 year contract 1989 Roger Clemens, Red Sox pitcher signs $7.5M-3 year contract 1989 William Hayden becomes governor-general of Australia 1988 1st documented combat action by U.S. military advisors in El Salvador 1987 John Demjanjuk, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible" trial begins 1986 "Uptown... It's Hot!" closes at Lunt-Fontanne New York City after 24 performances 1986 French air force bombs Ouadi Doum airport in Chad 1986 Hein Vergeer becomes world champion skater 1986 Karlstad skates world record 10 km (14:12.14) 1986 Mario Soares (Socialist) elected Portugal's 1st civilian president 1985 Largest NBA crowd to date, 43,816, sees Philadelphia at Detroit 1985 Livingston Bramble defeats Ray "Boom Boom" Mancini to win WBA champ 1985 New Jersey Devils score their fastest hat trick in 42 seconds 1984 Bill Johnson becomes 1st American to win Olympic downhill skiing gold 1984 New Jersey Devils 1st OT goal, Jan Ludvig beats Hartford Whalers 6-5 1982 Agatha Barbara elected as 1st female president of Malta 1982 Assembled STS-3 vehicle moves from Vandenberg AFB to launch pad 1982 Lee Majors and Farrah Fawcett Majors divorce 1980 Continuous traffic jam extends 176 km north of Lyons, France 1980 Eric Heiden skates 5k in 7:02.29 (Olympic Record) 1979 George Harrison releases "Blow Away" 1979 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan U.S.S.R. 1978 1st Computer Bulletin Board System (Ward and Randy's CBBS, Chicago) 1977 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Sary Shagan U.S.S.R. 1975 Washington Capitals 1st NHL shutout, beating Kansas City Scouts 3-0 1973 WI vs. Australia at Kingston, 1st time since 1955 without Sobers 1972 1st NBA to score 30,000 points (Wilt Chamberlain in 940 games) 1972 German mass murderers "Three of Breda" freed 1972 Test Cricket debut of Lawrence Rowe WI vs. New Zealand Kingston, 214 and 100 1972 Wilt Chamberlain hit 30,000 point mark during a game with Phoenix Suns 1970 Joe Frazier TKOs Jimmy Ellis in 5 for heavyweight boxing title 1968 Country's 1st 911 phone system went into service in Haleyville, Ala 1968 Elvis Presley receives gold record for "How Great Thou Art" 1968 Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon and wives fly to India for transcendental meditation study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi 1967 Red Ruffing selected to Hall of Fame 1966 Bob Cowper makes 307 vs. England at the MCG, 727 minutes, 20 fours 1966 End of Wally Grout's Test Cricket career, 187 dismissals as Australia WK 1966 France performs underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria 1965 "Baker Street" opens at Broadway Theater New York City for 313 performances 1965 Pegasus 1 launched to detect micro-meteors 1964 "Foxy" opens at Ziegfeld Theater New York City for 72 performances 1964 Beatles' 2nd appearance on "Ed Sullivan Show" 1963 1st round-trip swim of Strait of Messina, Italy (Mary Revell of U.S.) 1963 Beatles top British rock charts with "Please, Please Me" 1963 C and A Building in Amsterdam burns down 1962 Darius Milhaud's 12th Symphony, premieres 1962 U.S. Open Tennis: Jimmy Bostwick defeats brother Pete to win 1961 1st all-solid-propellant rocket put in orbit, Wallops Island, Va 1961 China uses it's 1st nuclear reactor 1961 U.S. satellite Explorer 9 is launched 1960 U.S. nuclear submarine USS Triton set off on underwater round-world trip 1959 Fidel Castro named himself Cuba's premier after overthrowing Batista 1959 Leonard Spigelgass' "Majority of One," premieres in New York City 1958 Betsy Rawls wins LPGA St. Petersburg Golf Open 1956 Britain abolishes death penalty 1954 WNEM TV channel 5 in Bay City, MI (NBC) begins broadcasting 1952 Hall of Famer Honus Wagner, 77, retires; Pirates retire his #33 1952 Ian Craig makes NSW cricket debut aged 16 years 249 days (NSW record) 1951 New York City passes bill prohibiting racism in city-assisted housing 1951 SF City Hall dome fire 1950 Longest-running prime-time game show, "What's My Line" begins on CBS 1950 Writers fail to elect anyone to Baseball's Hall of Fame 1948 1st newsreel telecast, "20th Century Fox-Movietone News" shown on NBC 1948 Miranda, famous moon of Uranus, photographed for 1st time 1947 Morton Gould's 3rd Symphony, premieres 1946 "Duchess Misbehaves" closes at Adelphi Theater New York City after 5 performances 1946 1st commercially designed helicopter tested, Bridgeport Connecticut 1945 U.S. forces land on Corregidor, complete conquest on March 3 1945 Venezuela declares war on nazi-Germany 1943 -32 degrees F (-36 degrees C), Falls Village, Connecticut (state record) 1943 British premier Winston Churchill gets pneumonia 1943 Red army conquers Kharkov 1943 Withdrawing Africa Corps reaches Mareth-line in North-Africa 1943 Sign on Munich facade: "Out with Hitler! Long live freedom!" done by "White Rose" student group, caught on 2/18, beheaded on 2/22 1942 German submarines attack Aruba oil refinery 1940 British search plane finds German Altmark off Norway 1938 U.S. Federal Crop Insurance program authorized 1937 DuPont Corp patents nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers 1937 Jean Anouilh's "Le Voyageur Sans Baggage," premieres in Paris 1936 4th Winter Olympic games close at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany 1936 Spanish Frente Popular (People's Front) wins elections 1933 Catholic newspaper Germania warns against nazis/communists 1933 England regains the Ashes, thanks to bodyline tactics 1932 1st patent issued for a tree, to James Markham for a peach tree 1931 Extreme right wing Svinhufvud becomes president of Finland 1929 KID-AM in Idaho Falls, Idaho begins radio transmissions 1927 Noel Coward's "Marquise," premieres in London 1927 U.S. restores diplomatic relations with Turkey 1926 Suzanne Lenglen defeats Helen Wills in Tennis at Cannes France 1923 Allies accept Latvia's occupation of Memel territory 1923 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Theresa Weld Blanchard 1923 U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Sherwin Badger 1918 Lithuania declares independence from Russia and Germany (National Day) 1917 1st synagogue in 425 years opens in Madrid 1916 Russian troops conquer Erzurum Armenia 1915 Frank Home Run Baker, 28, announces retirement following a contract dispute with Connie Mack. He sits out 1915 season 1914 1st airplane flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco 1913 President Taft agrees not to intervene in Mexico 1912 VSV soccer team forms in Ijmuiden 1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service in New York City 1909 Serbia mobilizes against Austria-Hungary 1905 1st U.S. Esperanto club organizes in Boston 1903 -59 degrees F (-51 degrees C), Pokegama Dam, Minnesota (state record) 1900 1st Chinese daily newspaper in U.S. publishes (Chung Sai Yat Po-SF) 1900 Stanley Cup: Montreal Shamrocks beat Winnipeg Victorias, 3 games to 1 1899 Pelham Warner scores 132 on Test Cricket debut (England vs. South Africa Johannesburg) 1894 British troops occupy Ilorin, Gold Coast 1892 Opera "Werther," premieres in Vienna 1887 1st newspaper convention in Rochester, New York 1887 Eduard Douwes Dekker writes his last text (Lf8-c5) 1883 "Ladies Home Journal" begins publishing 1880 American Society of Mechanical Engineers forms (New York City) 1878 Silver dollar became U.S. legal tender 1868 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks forms (New York) 1862 Ft. Donelson captured by General Grant (1,400 confederates surrender) 1860 Dutch Rochussen/Van Bosse government resigns 1857 Gallaudet College (National Deaf Mute college) forms (Washington D.C.) 1854 Franz Liszts symphony "Orpheus," premieres 1846 Battle of Sobraon ends 1st Sikh War in India 1840 American Charles Wilkes discovers Shackleton Ice Shelf, Antarctica 1838 Kentucky passes law permitting women to attend school under conditions 1832 HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin reache St-Pauls, 1 degrees N, 29 degrees W 1824 Athenaeum founded 1804 Lt. Stephen Decatur raids Tripoli Harbor and burns Navy frigate "Philadelphia" after pirates seized it 1777 Messier adds M53 to his catalog (globular cluster in Coma Berenice) 1771 Messier presents his original list of 45 M-objects to French Academy 1760 Native American hostages killed in Ft. Prince George 1751 1st publication of Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard" 1742 Earl of Wilmington becomes British premier 1741 Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine, 2nd U.S. magazine begins publishing 1677 Earl of Shaftesbury arrested/confined in London Tower 1666 Netherlands and Brandenburg sign treaty 1659 1st known check (400 pounds) (on display at Westminster Abbey) 1655 Dutch Grand Pensionary advisor Johan de Witt marries Wendela Bicker 1641 English king Charles I accept Triennial Act 1559 Pope Paul IV calls for deposition of sovereigns supporting heresy 1512 Battle at Valeggio: French troops beat Venetianen 1486 Diet of Frankfort 600 Pope Gregory the Great decreea saying "God bless You" is the correct response to a sneeze 374 9th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet
