12 BC – The Roman Emperor Augustus is named Pontifex Maximus, incorporating the position into that of the emperor.
1521 – Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Guam.
1820 – 1` is signed into law by President James Monroe. The compromise allows Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state, brings Maine into the Union as a free state, and makes the rest of the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase territory slavery-free.
1869 – Dmitri Mendeleev presents the first periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society.
In 1869 Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleev started the development of the periodic table, arranging chemical elements by atomic mass. He predicted the discovery of other elements, and left spaces open in his periodic table for them.
1943 – Norman Rockwell published Freedom from Want in The Saturday Evening Post with a matching essay by Carlos Bulosan as part of the Four Freedoms series.
1945 – World War II: Cologne is captured by American troops.
1953 – Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
1967 – Cold War: Joseph Stalin’s daughter Svetlana Alliluyeva defects to the United States.
1970 – An explosion at the Weather Underground safe house in Greenwich Village kills three.
1975 – For the first time the Zapruder film of the assassination of John F. Kennedy is shown in motion to a national TV audience
1992 – The Michelangelo computer virus begins to affect computers.
“The Michelangelo virus is a computer virus first discovered on 4 February 1991 in Australia. The virus was designed to infect DOS systems, but did not engage the operating system or make any OS calls. Michelangelo, like all boot sector viruses, basically operated at the BIOS level.” wikipedia
Births
1475 – Michelangelo Italian painter and sculptor (d. 1564)
1619 – Cyrano de Bergerac, French author and playwright (d. 1655)
1812 – Aaron Lufkin Dennison, American businessman, co-founded the Waltham Watch Company (d. 1895)
1906 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (d. 1959)
1923 – Ed McMahon, American comedian, game show host, and announcer (d. 2009)
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| Wes Montgomery |
1923 – Wes Montgomery, American guitarist and songwriter (d. 1968)
1927 – Gordon Cooper, American engineer, pilot, and astronaut (d. 2004)
1947 – Rob Reiner, American actor, director, producer, and activist
Deaths
190 – Prince of Hongnong (poisoned by Dong Zhuo) (b. 176)
1836 – Deaths at the Battle of the Alamo:
James Bonham, American lawyer and soldier (b. 1807)
James Bowie, American colonel (b. 1796)
Davy Crockett, American soldier and politician (b. 1786)
William B. Travis, American lieutenant colonel and lawyer (b. 1809)
1888 – Louisa May Alcott, American novelist and poet (b. 1832)
1900 – Gottlieb Daimler, German engineer and businessman, co-founded Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (b. 1834)
1932 – John Philip Sousa, American conductor and composer (b. 1854)
1973 – Pearl S. Buck, American novelist, essayist, short story writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1892)
1984 – Henry Wilcoxon, Dominican-American actor and producer (b. 1905)
1986 – Georgia O’Keeffe, American painter (b. 1887)
2007 – Ernest Gallo, American businessman, co-founded E & J Gallo Winery (b. 1909)
2016 – Nancy Reagan, American actress, 42nd First Lady of the United States (b. 1921)
Various internet sources and searches are used in the making of this document