- 1841 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is born. He served on the US Supreme Court justice from 1902-1932.
- 1884 – Susan B. Anthony addresses the U.S. House Judiciary Committee arguing for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote.
- 1915 – Selma Fraiberg is born. She pursued groundbreaking studies of infant psychiatry and normal child development, and wrote The Magic Years, a classic translated into 10 languages.
- 1917 – February Revolution begins, leading to the end of czarist rule in Russia.
- 1917 – US Senate introduces the Cloture Rule, requiring a two-thirds majority to end debate, at the urging of Woodrow Wilson.
- 1930 – William Howard Taft, 27th US President (Republican: 1909-13) and Chief Justice, dies at 72.
- 1934 – Edwin Hubble photo shows as many galaxies as Milky Way has stars.
- 1945 – Phyllis Mae Daley, the first of four Black nurses to serve active duty in WWII, receives her commission as an ensign in the Navy Nurse Corps.
- 1945 – Lilia Ann Abron is born. An entrepreneur and chemical engineer, she was the country’s first Black woman to earn a PhD in chemical engineering.
- 1950 – The iconic VW bus goes into production.
- 1951 – Monica Helms is born. She became a transgender activist, author, veteran of the United States Navy and creator of the Trans Pride Flag.
- 1957 – Egypt opens the Suez Canal.
- 1958 – Author William Faulkner says US schools have degenerated and become babysitters.
- 1978 – The first-ever radio episode of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4.
- 1993 – MTV’s highest rated series premieres. The show? Beavis and Butt-Head.
- 1999 – The US Supreme Court upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh. The same day, Joe DiMaggio dies of lung cancer at age 84.
- 2014 – Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanishes with more than 200 people aboard.
- 2017 – Fearless Girl sculpture is revealed across from the Charging Bull statue on Wall Street.
