2015 Ukrainian forces leave the city of Debaltseve after rebels continue fighting in spite of a negotiated ceasefire; the rebels claim that the city, which connects the rebel-held corridor between Donetsk and Luhansk, was not included in the agreement 2014 Jimmy Fallon officially replaces Jay Leno in his first broadcast as host of 'The Tonight Show' 2014 American ice dancing pair Charlie White and Meryl Davis win the Olympic gold medal - the first gold won by the U.S. in this sport 2013 In Bolivar, Venezuela, the country's government opens a granite processing plant, estimating it will provide 25% of the nation's granite requirements 2013 In racing, Danica Patrick becomes the first woman at the Daytona 500 and the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to win pole position 2012 Between 60 to 70 artifacts of the ancient Olympic games are stolen by thieves who broke into the Archaeological Museum of Olympia in Greece 2012 The Dow Jones Industrial Average achieves its highest level at closing since May 2008 2011 A large, rare, Andy Warhol self-portrait in red and white sells for $10.79 million pounds at Christie's auction house in London, England 2011 Aretha Franklin, singer and the 'Queen of Soul', announces she has overcome medical ailments and plans to return to the stage 2010 The declaration of Victor Yanukovych as President of Ukraine is suspended by the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine 2008 Taliban suicide bombing kills 80 in Kandahar, Afghanistan 2008 Kosovo declares independence from Serbia 1998 Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet convicted of capital murder 1998 Larry Wayne Harris and Bill Levitt arrested for possession of anthrax 1997 Carl Sagan Public Memorial at Pasadena California 1997 Weekly Standard shows evidence Larry Flint sex abused his daughter 1996 1st full ODI for the Netherlands, vs. New Zealand, cricket World Cup Nolan Clarke makes ODI debut for Netherlands at age 47 1995 11th Soap Opera Digest Awards 1995 Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the LIRR in NY 1995 Tiger manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due to baseball strike 1995 Federal judge allows lawsuit claiming U.S. tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive and manipulated its levels to keep customers hooked 1993 Haitian ferry boat capsize in storm, 800-2,000 die 1993 Mark Foster swims world record 50m free style (21.60 sec) 1991 U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Todd Eldredge 1989 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole" 1989 Former baseball player and manager Leo Durocher injured in a car crash 1989 Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya form common market 1989 Orel Hershiser, Dodger pitcher signs record $7.9M-3 year contract 1989 U.S.S.R. performs nuclear test at Semipalitinsk, Eastern Kazakhstan U.S.S.R. 1989 Whitesnake's rocker David Coverdale weds actress Tawny Kitaen 1988 Lebanese terrorists kidnap United Nations truce observer Lieutenant Colonel William Higgins 1988 U.S. Lt. Col Wm Higgins kidnapped by Lebanese terrorists and later killed 1987 Don Mattingly wins highest salary arbitration ($1,975,000 per year) 1987 Michelle Renee Royer, 21, Texas, crowned 36th Miss USA 1986 1st Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles 1986 Howard Stern radio show returns to New York City morning radio on WXRK 92.3 FM 1986 Johnson and Johnson announces it no longer sell capsule drugs 1986 Libyan bombers attack N'djamena Airport in Chad 1985 1st class postage rises from 20 cents to 22 cents 1985 1st day/night game at the MCG, Australia vs. England 1985 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon) 1985 Hein Vergeer becomes world champion skater 1985 Laffit Pincay, Jr. is third to ride 6,000th winners at Santa Anita 1983 Bob Bourne fails on 8th Islander penalty shot 1983 Netherlands adopts constitution 1983 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1982 Commencement of Sri Lanka's 1st Test Cricket match, vs. England 1981 Chrysler Corp reports largest corporate losses in U.S. history 1980 Buddy Baker wins Daytona 500 (177.6 MPH/285.8 kph) 1980 Dot Germain wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic 1979 China invades Vietnam 1979 Eric Heiden equals skating world record 1000m (1:14.99) 1976 "Rockabye Hamlet" opens at Minskoff Theater New York City for 7 performances 1976 Macau adopts constitution (Organic Law of Macau) 1976 New Zealand scores their 1st innings win in Test Cricket, vs. India 1976 Richard Hadlee takes 7-23 vs. India, his 1st match-winning spell 1974 49 die in stampede for seats at soccer match, Cairo, Egypt 1974 Carol Mann wins LPGA Naples Lely Golf Classic 1973 Rodney Redmond scores 107 on debut vs. Pakistan, his only Test Cricket 1972 British Parliament votes to join European Common Market 1972 President Nixon leaves Washington D.C. for China 1971 England regains cricket Ashes with a 2-0 series win 1970 Jeffrey McDonald slices up his wife and daughter 1970 Joni Mitchell's final concert at Royal Albert Hall 1970 Robert Marasco's "Child's Play," premieres in New York City 1969 Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash record an album (never released) 1969 Golda Meir sworn in as Israel's 1st female prime minister 1968 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Springfield Massachusetts, opens 1967 Beatles release "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields" 1967 Kosmos 140 (Soyuz Test) launches into Earth orbit 1966 French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit 1965 U.S. Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures 1965 U.S. - Japan baseball relations suspended over Masanori Murakami dispute 1964 101st member elected to baseball's hall of fame (Luke Appling) 1964 U.S. House of Representatives accept Law on the civil rights 1964 U.S. Supreme Court rules - 1 man 1 vote (Westberry vs. Sanders) 1964 WMEM TV channel 10 in Presque Isle, ME (PBS) begins broadcasting 1963 Toru Terasawa runs world record marathon 2:15:15.8 1962 Beach Boys introduced a new musical style with their hit "Surfin" 1962 Storm in Hamburg, kills 265 1962 Wilt Chamberlain of NBA Philadelphia Warriors scores 67 points vs St. Louis 1959 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg 1958 Comic strip "BC" 1st appears 1958 WETV (now WPBA) TV channel 30 in Atlanta, Georgia (PBS) begins broadcasting 1957 Fire in Warreton Mo, kills 72 1957 Mary Lena Faulk wins LPGA St. Petersburg Golf Open 1957 Suez Canal reopens 1956 Ice Dance Championship at Garmisch won by Pamela Weight/P Thomas GRB 1956 Ice Pairs Championship at Garmisch won by Schwarz and Oppelt of AUT 1956 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by Carol Heiss USA 1956 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Garmisch won by H A Jenkins USA 1955 Ice Dance Championship at Vienna Austria won by J Westwood/Demmy GRB 1955 Ice Pairs Championship at Vienna won by Frances Dafoe and Bowden of CAN 1955 KTVF TV channel 11 in Fairbanks, AK (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting 1955 Ladies Figure Skating Championship in Vienna won by Tenley Albright U.S. 1955 Mike Souchak sets PGA 72-hole record of 257 1953 Baseball star/pilot Ted Williams uninjured as plane shot down in Korea 1953 DSB soccer team forms in Eindhoven 1950 31 die in a train crash in Rockville Center, New York 1949 Chaim Weitzman elected 1st president of Israel 1949 Ice Pairs Championship at Paris won by Andrea Kekesy/Ede Kiraly of HUN 1949 Ladies Figure Skating Champions in Paris won by Alena Vrzanova of CZE 1949 Men's Figure Skating Championship in Paris won by Richard Button USA 1949 Richard Button retains world figure skating championship in Paris 1947 Dutch RC bishops publish manifest against "godless communism" 1947 Voice of America begins broadcasting to U.S.S.R. 1946 Humanistic Covenant forms in Amsterdam 1944 Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins; U.S. victory on Feb 22 1944 U.S. begins night bombing of Truk 1943 Hitler visits Field Marshal von Mansteins hq in Zaporozje 1943 Dutch churches protest at Seyss-Inquart against persecution of Jews 1943 General-major Bradley flies to Washington D.C. 1943 New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio, enlists into the U.S. army 1941 Joe Louis KOs Gus Dorazio in 2 for heavyweight boxing title 1940 Bradman scores 135 in a non-Shield match for SA vs. West Australia 1940 British destroyers board German Altmark off Norway 1939 Katwijk soccer team forms 1938 1st public experimental demonstration of Baird color TV in London 1936 "Phantom" cartoon strip by Lee Falk debuts 1936 -58 degrees F (-50 degrees C), McIntosh, South Dakota (state record) 1936 SN Behrmann's "End of Summer," premieres in New York City 1934 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College, Penn) 1933 1st issue of Newsweek magazine published 1933 Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead in the comic Blondie 1933 Marinus van der Lubbe arrives in Glindow, at Potsdam 1933 U.S. Senate accept Blaine Act: ending prohibition 1932 Irving Berlin's musical "Face the Music," premieres in New York City 1931 1st telecast of a sporting event in Japan (baseball) 1931 Hockey's Hershey Bears (now with AHL) 1st game 1930 French government of Tardieu falls 1926 Avalanche buries 75 in Sap Gulch Bingham Utah, 40 die 1926 Tennis star Suzanne Lenglen beats Helen Wills in their only match 1924 Johnny Weissmuller sets 100-yard freestyle record (52.4 seconds) 1923 British egyptologist Howard Carter finds sarcophagus of Tutankhamun 1923 Ottawa Senator Cy Denneny becomes NHL's all time scorer (143 goals) 1921 Arthur Honegger's "Pastorale D'ete," premieres 1916 Romberg/Hanley/Atteridge/Smith' musical premieres in New York City 1915 Edward Stone, 1st U.S. combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded 1913 1st minimum wage law in U.S. takes effect in Oregon 1913 New York Armory Show introduces Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp to U.S. public 1911 1st hydroplane flight to and from a ship (Glenn Curtiss, San Diego) 1906 Theodore Roosevelt's daughter Alice marries in the White House 1905 Frances Willard becomes 1st women honored in National Statuary Hall 1904 Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly," premieres in Milan 1897 National Organization of Mothers forms (Parent Teacher Association) 1896 London Country Councils' Muzzling Order becomes effective 1885 Bismarck gives Carl Peters' firm management of East-Africa 1883 A. Ashwell patents free-toilet in London 1882 1st Test Cricket match played at Sydney Cricket Ground 1880 Tsar Alexander II of Russia survives an assassination attempt 1878 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones 1876 Sardines 1st canned by Julius Wolff-Eastport, Maine 1870 Esther Morris appointed 1st female judge 1870 Mississippi becomes 9th state readmitted to U.S. after Civil War 1867 1st ship passes through Suez Canal 1867 Gyula Andressy becomes premier of Hungary 1865 Battle of Charleston South Carolina 1865 Columbia South Carolina burns down during Civil War 1864 Confederate sub "HL Hunley" sinks Union ship "Housatonic" 1859 Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres in Napoli 1854 British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa) 1848 Toscane gets liberal Constitution 1841 Dutch ex-king Willem I marries Henriette d'Oultremont de Wegimont 1836 HMS Beagle and Charles Darwin leave Tasmania 1818 Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents "draisine" (early bicycle) 1817 Baltimore is the 1st U.S. city lit by gas 1801 House breaks electoral college tie, chooses Jefferson President over Burr 1795 Thomas Seddal harvests 8.3-kg potato from his garden Chester, England 1791 Messier catalogs M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra) 1776 1st volume of Gibbon's "Decline and Fall of Roman Empire" published 1772 1st partition of Poland-Russia and Prussia, joined later by Austria 1714 Parliament of Paris accepts Pope Clemens XI's "Unigenitus" degree 1691 Thomas Neale granted British patent for American postal service 1676 Kings Charles II and Louis XIV sign secret treaty 1670 France and Bavaria sign military assistance treaty 1634 William Prynne tried in Star Chamber for publishing "Histrio-masti" 1621 Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony 1598 Boris Godunov chosen tsar of Russia 1568 Holy Roman Emperor agrees to pay tribute to the Sultan for peace 1370 Battle at Rudau: Germany beats Lithuania
