- 1773 – William Henry Harrison is born. Harrison went on to serve as the ninth U.S. president for a brief 32 days in 1841, the shortest term ever served. Harrison is also credited with the record for the longest inaugural address in history. Delivered on a bitterly cold March morning, it clocked in at one hour and 45 minutes. He contracted pneumonia after his inaugural speech and died in April.
- 1825 – The Presidential election is decided in the US House, as no candidate received the majority of electoral votes. John Quincy Adams came out on top.
- 1874 – American poet Amy Lowell is born.
- 1942 – Daylight Savings Time is instituted during World War II. It was repealed in 1945, then standardized again in 1966.
- 1944 – Alice Walker is born. In 1983, she became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her book, “The Color Purple.”
- 1950 – Senator McCarthy says there are over 200 communists in the State Department.
- 1960 – Joanne Woodward earns the very first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
- 1964 – The Beatles appear on the Ed Sullivan show
- 1971 – Leroy “Satchel” Paige becomes the first Negro League veteran to be nominated for the Baseball Hall of Fame.
- 1995 – Bernard Harris becomes the first Black astronaut to take a space walk.
