1797 – Henry Steinway, piano maker, is born.
1798 – The first serious fist fight occurs in Congress.
1804 – New Jersey becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery.
1869 – Charges of treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped.
1898 – The U.S. battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor, killing 268 sailors and bring hordes of western cowboys and gunfighters rushing to enlist in the Spanish-American War.
1940 – Hitler orders that all British merchant ships will be considered warships.
1950 – Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung sign a mutual defense treaty in Moscow.
