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Events

• 1327 – Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
• 1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
• 1662 – The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
• 1713 – The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
• 1790 – In New York City, the Supreme Court of the United States attempts to convene for the first time.
• 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
• 1796 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
• 1814 – Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of Mayon Volcano.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
• 1862 – Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic" is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly.
• 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
• 1884 – Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
• 1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
• 1896 – The opera La bohème premieres in Turin.
• 1897 – Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
• 1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
• 1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• 1920 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begins operations.
• 1924 – The United Kingdom recognizes the USSR.
• 1942 – World War II: Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
• 1943 – The German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad.
• 1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• 1957 – Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the Wankel engine was running at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany
• 1958 – Egypt and Syria merge to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
• 1958 – The United States Army launches Explorer 1.
• 1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 1965 – The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
• 1968 – Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
• 1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form the ill-fated Penn Central Transportation.
• 1972 – Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
• 1974 – A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
• 1974 – Kuala Lumpur is declared a Federal Territory.
• 1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
• 1979 – Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
• 1979 – The Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
• 1982 – Senegal and the Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
• 1989 – The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
• 1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
• 1993 – Gary Bettman becomes the NHL's first commissioner
• 1996 – The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
• 1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
• 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

• 2004 – 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
• 2004 – Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship guidelines.
• 2005 – Nepal King Gyanendra exercises a coup d'état to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
• 2005 – Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act, making Canada the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage.
• 2009 – Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the first openly gay head of state in the modern world.
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