- 1871 – Justina Laurena Carter Ford is born. Shortly after earning her medical degree from Hering Medical School in Chicago, Ford became the first African American woman to obtain a medical license in Colorado. However, since all the hospitals in Denver denied her privileges, she opened her own practice.
- 1877 – Rosa Ponselle is born. She was a soprano who debuted with Enrico Caruso in 1918, sang with Baltimore Civic Opera after 1950 and mentored Beverly Sill.
- 1901 Queen Victoria dies after a 63-year reign.
- 1905 – Bloody Sunday Massacre in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a group of workers marched to the tsar’s winter palace and imperial forces gunned them down.
- 1906 – Willa Brown is born. She became the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license in the United States (1938) – 17 years after Bessie Coleman earned hers in France.
- 1938 – Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” premieres
- 1946 – President Harry Truman signs a directive creating the Central Intelligence Group, the predecessor to today’s CIA.
- 1953 – Arthur Miller’s play “Crucible” premieres
- 1970 – First commercial Boeing 747 flight goes from New York City to London in 6 ½ hours.
- 1973 – Former U.S. President Lyndon Johnson dies at age 64.
- 1973 – The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Roe v. Wade.
- 1984 – Apple’s iconic “1984” commercial airs during Super Bowl XVIII.
- 1987 – Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer calls a press conference, then shoots and kills himself on live TV. That’s messed up.
- 1997 – The United States Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the first female Secretary of State.
- 1998 – Ted Kaczynski pleads guilty to a 17-year stretch of package bombings.
- 2005 – Donald Trump marries Melania Knauss.
- 2008 – Heath Ledger dies of an accidental overdose.
- 2016 – Winter storm strands 500 motorists for 24 hours on the New Jersey Turnpike.
