2015 GM issues a recall of over 81,000 vehicles due to potential power steering problems; 2006 and 2007 models of the Pontiac G6, Chevrolet Malibu, and Malibu Maxx are affected 2014 The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, now the world's largest solar energy plant, opens in the Mojave Desert; the $2.2 billion plant, owned by Google, NRG Energy, and BrightSource energy, spans five square miles and can provide power to 140,000 homes 2014 Italy's Prime Minister, Enrico Letta resigns following friction within his own Democratic party 2013 Bankrupt carrier, American Airlines and U.S. Airways merge, forming the world's largest air carrier, to trade under the name, American Airlines 2013 U.S. Senate Republicans filibuster the nomination of Chuck Hagel as U.S. Secretary of Defense, demanding answers to questions about President Obama and Benghazi 2012 A new statue of Kim Jong-il, North Korea's late leader is unveiled in the capital of Pyongyang 2012 Love letters written between poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning are published online by Wellesley College and Baylor University 2011 Palestinian Authority cabinet members resign and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad will select new ministers at the request of President Mahmoud Abbas 2011 China reports its trade surplus for January is $6.5 billion; the figure is less than expected 2010 Viktor Yanukovych is declared the official winner of Ukraine's presidential election 2001 Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft becomes first vehicle to land on an asteroid (433 Eros) 1995 Roseanne weds bodyguard Ben Thomas 1995 Wellington 2-498d and 4-475 beat Canterbury 496 and 2-476d 1994 Alexander Golubev skates Olympic record 500m (36.33) 1994 Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (51) weds Deborah Koons 1993 Fire in Linxi department store in Tangshan China, kills 79 1992 Andre Cason runs world record 6 m indoor (6.41 sec) 1992 Cease fire in Somalia begins 1992 Kieren John Perkins swims world record 800m freestyle (7:46.60) 1992 Merlene Ottey runs world record 60m indoor (6.96 sec) 1991 "Mule Bone" opens at Ethel Barrymore Theater New York City for 67 performances 1991 NL Cy Young winner Doug Drabek wins record $3 mil salary arbitration 1990 Alan Ayckbourn's "Man of the Moment," premieres in London 1990 Perrier recalls 160 million bottles of sparkling water after traces of benzene, a carcinogen, are found in some 1990 Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system 1989 African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam 1989 Boxer Mike Tyson divorces actress Robin Givens 1989 Khomeini orders Moslems to murder "Satanic Verses" novelist Rushdie 1989 Robin Givens is granted a divorce from Mike Tyson in Dom Rep 1989 Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 mill damages for Bhopol disaster 1989 World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens 1988 49th PGA Seniors Golf Championship: Gary Player 1988 Alfredo Stroessner re-elected president of Paraguay 1988 Bobby Allison at 50 becomes oldest driver to win Daytona 500 1988 General hospital star Jackie Zeman marries Glenn Gorden 1988 Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic 1987 53,745 largest NBA crowd to date-Philadelphia at Detroit 1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut 1984 Singer Elton John marries Renate Blauel in Sydney, Australia 1982 "Night of 100 Stars" takes place at New York's Radio City Music Hall 1982 Hollis Stacy wins LPGA S&H Golf Classic 1980 "West Side Story" opens at Minskoff Theater New York City for 341 performances 1980 13th Winter Olympic games open in Lake Placid, New York 1980 U.S. launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares 1979 "Whoopee!" opens at ANTA Theater New York City for 204 performances 1978 1st "micro on a chip" patented by Texas Instruments 1978 In girls' High School basketball, Chicago Latin beats Harvard St. George 1976 U.S. performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site 1975 Bomb explodes at annex of Amsterdam metro station 1972 John and Yoko co-host "Mike Douglas Show" for entire week 1972 Luna 20 (Russia) launched to orbit and soft landing on Moon 1971 Movie "Ben Hur" 1st shown on television 1971 Richard Nixon installs secret taping system in White House 1970 "Gantry" closes at George Abbott Theater New York City after 1 performance 1968 Pennsylvania Railroad/New York City Central merge into Penn Central 1968 WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, North Carolina (IND) begins broadcasting 1967 Aretha Franklin records "Respect" 1967 Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up 1966 Australia introduces 1st decimal currency postage stamps 1966 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points 1966 Writers Andrei Sinjavski and Joeij Daniel found guilty 1963 U.S. launches communications satellite Syncom 1 1962 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV 1961 Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley California 1961 Louise Suggs wins LPGA Royal Poinciana Golf Invitational 1960 Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St. Petersburg Golf Open 1960 Marshal Ayub Khan elected president of Pakistan 1959 $3.6 million heroin seizure in New York City 1958 Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan forms 1957 Georgia Senate unanimously approves Senator Leon Butts' bill barring blacks from playing baseball with whites 1956 20th Congress of CPSU opens in Moscow 1956 Indonesia withdraws from Netherlands Indonesian Union 1956 Verhoeven/Nauta/De King/Wijnhout win Dutch 11 city skate 1955 WFLA (now WXFL) TV channel 8 in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Florida (NBC) begins 1954 Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St. Petersburg Golf Open 1954 Senator John Kennedy appears on "Meet the Press" 1954 WTOC TV channel 11 in Savannah, Georgia (CBS) begins broadcasting 1952 6th Olympic winter games open at Oslo, Norway 1952 Comedian Joey Adams marries gossip columnist Cindy Heller 1951 Sugar Ray Robinson defeats Jake LaMotta and takes middleweight title 1950 Moroney scores cricket twin centuries for Australia at Johannesburg 1950 U.S.S.R. and China sign peace treaty 1949 1st session of Knesset (Jerusalem Israel) 1949 Dutch Drees government presents plan for the building of 30,000 houses 1946 Bank of England nationalized 1945 8th Air Force bombs Dresden 1945 Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joins UN 1944 Anti-Japanese revolt on Java 1944 Carl Wick publishes "Salmon Trolling for Commercial and Sport Fishing 1943 German offensive through de Faid-pass Tunisia 1943 Soviets recapture Rostov 1942 Japanese parachutists land near oil center Palembang Sumatra 1942 Rotterdam's Maas tunnel opens 1941 1,000,000th vehicle traverses the New York Midtown Tunnel 1941 Carson McCuller's "Reflections in a Golden Eye" published 1941 Cebrie Park in the Bronx renamed Halsey Street 1941 German Africa Corps lands in Tripoli, Libya 1940 British merchant vessel fleet is armed 1939 Victor Fleming replaces George Cukor as director of 'Gone With the Wind' 1936 U.S. Female Figure Skating championship won by Maribel Vinson 1936 U.S. Male Figure Skating championship won by Robin Lee 1934 NHL Ace Bailey Benefit Game: Toronto beats All-Stars 7-3 in Toronto 1932 South Africa all out for 36 in 1st innings vs. Australia (Ironmonger 5-6) 1931 Bradman scores 152 Australia vs. WI, 154 minutes, 13 fours 2 fives 1931 Spanish Government of General Damasco Berenguer falls 1929 St. Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed 1925 State of emergency crisis in Bayern ends, NSDAP re-allowed 1924 IBM Corporation founded by Thomas Watson 1921 Canadian 5 cent nickel coin is authorized 1921 Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing "Ulysses," NY 1920 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago 1919 United Parcel Service forms 1918 H Atteridge and S Rombergs musical "Sinbad," premieres in New York City 1918 U.S.S.R. adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar (originally Feb 1) 1914 High Council of Labor forms in Hague Netherlands 1912 1st U.S. submarines with diesel engines commissioned, Groton, Connecticut 1912 Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state 1907 1st U.S. fox hound association forms in New York City 1903 U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor forms 1900 Date of events in movie "Picnic at Hanging Rock" 1899 U.S. Congress begins using voting machines 1896 George Lohmann takes a hat-trick vs. South Africa, 8-7 for inning 1896 South Africa all out for 30 vs. England - their lowest ever 1896 Stanley Cup: Winnipeg Victorias beat Montreal Victorias, 2-0 1896 Theodor Herzl publishes "Der Judenstaat" 1895 Oscar Wilde's "Importance of Being Earnest," opens in London 1894 Venus is both a morning star and evening star 1890 1st NSW vs. South Australia 1st-class cricket game 1889 1st train load of fruit (oranges) leaves Los Angeles for east 1887 Cubs sell Mike King Kelly to Boston for record $10,000 1883 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions 1879 Chilean troops occupy Antofagasta 1876 A G Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents Supreme Court eventually rules Bell rightful inventor 1872 1st state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California) 1867 Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Co. issues 1st policy 1867 Morehouse College organizes (Augusta Georgia) 1862 Galena, 1st U.S. iron-clad warship for service at sea, launched, Connecticut 1859 Oregon admitted as 33rd state 1848 James K. Polk became 1st President photographed in office by Matthew Brady 1803 Apple parer patented by Moses Coats, Downington, Pennsylvania 1794 1st U.S. textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Philadelphia 1778 "Stars and Stripes" arrives in foreign port for 1st time (France) 1766 Dutch governor Falck signs Treaty of Batticaloa with rebels 1746 Henry Pelham appointed English premier 1711 Handels opera Rinaldo, premieres 1689 English parliament places Mary Stuart/Prince Willem III on the throne 1670 Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna 1630 Dutch fleet of 69 ships reaches Pernambuco Brazil 1613 King James I's daughter Elizabeth marries Frederik 1610 Polish king Sigismund III, Forges Dimitri #2 and Romanov family sign covenant against czar Vasili Shushki 1556 Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared a heretic 1540 Emperor Charles V enters Ghent without resistance, executes rebels 1130 Jewish Cardinal Pietro Pierleone elected as anti-pope Anacletus II 1076 Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Henry IV 1014 Pope Benedict VIII crowns Henry II, Roman German emperor 842 Charles II and Louis the German sign treaty
