| On this date in: |
| 1570 | Pope Pius V excommunicated England's Queen Elizabeth I. |
| 1793 | George Washington convened the first Cabinet meeting on record - at his home. |
| 1836 | Inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver. |
| 1870 | Hiram Revels, a Mississippi Republican, was sworn in as the first black member of the U.S. Senate. |
| 1901 | United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan. |
| 1913 | The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect. |
| 1940 | A hockey game was televised for the first time, by New York City station W2XBS. (The New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 at Madison Square Garden.) |
| 1943 | Beatles guitarist George Harrison was born in Liverpool, England. |
| 1950 | "Your Show of Shows" debuted on NBC. |
| 1956 | Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev harshly criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow. |
| 1964 | Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali) became the world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach. |
| 1983 | Playwright Tennessee Williams was found dead at age 71. |
| 1986 | President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election. Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency.
 | Ferdinand Marcos |
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| 1990 | Nicaraguans voted in an election that led to victory for opponents of the ruling Sandinistas. |
| 1991 | An Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War. |
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| AP Photo/David Longstreath |
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| 1999 | A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African-American man. |
| 2000 | A jury in Albany, N.Y., acquitted four white New York City police officers of all charges in the shooting death of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo. |
| 2005 | Dennis Rader was arrested for the BTK serial killings that terrorized Wichita, Kan. (He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 life prison terms.) |
