In South Africa, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is sworn in as the first Black president of South Africa. In his inaugural address, Mandela, who spent 27 years of his life as a political prisoner of the South African government, declared that “the time for the healing of the wounds …read more

1503 – Christopher Columbus discovered the Cayman Islands.

1676 – Bacon’s Rebellion, which pits frontiersmen against the government, began.

1768 – The imprisonment of the journalist John Wilkes as an outlaw provoked violence in London. Wilkes was returned to parliament as a member for Middlesex.

1773 – The English Parliament passed the Tea Act, which taxed all tea in the U.S. colonies.

1774 – Louis XVI ascended the throne of France.

1775 – Ethan Allen and Colonel Benedict Arnold led an attack on the British Fort Ticonderoga and captured it from the British.

1796 – Napoleon Bonaparte won a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.

1840 – Mormon leader Joseph Smith moved his band of followers to Illinois to escape the hostilities they had experienced in Missouri.

1857 – The Seepoys of India revolted against the British Army.

1865 – Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured by Union troops near Irvinville, GA.

1869 – Central Pacific and Union Pacific Rail Roads meet in Promontory, UT. A golden spike was driven in at the celebration of the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S.

1872 – Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated for the U.S. presidency.

1876 – Richard Wagner’s “Centennial Inaugural March” was heard for the first time at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, PA.

1898 – A vending machine law was enacted in Omaha, NE. It cost $5,000 for a permit.

1908 – The first Mother’s Day observance took place during a church service in Grafton, West Virginia.

1924 – J. Edgar Hoover was appointed head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1927 – The Hotel Statler in Boston, MA. became the first hotel to install radio headsets in each of its 1,300 rooms.

1928 – WGY-TV in Schenectady, NY, began regular television programming.

1930 – The Adler Planetarium opened to the public in Chicago, IL.

1933 – The Nazis staged massive public book burnings in Germany.

1940 – Germany invaded Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

1941 – England’s House of Commons was destroyed by a German air raid.

1941 – Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler’s deputy, parachuted into Scotland on what he claimed was a peace mission.

1942 – U.S. forces in the Philippines began to surrender to the Japanese.

1943 – U.S. troops invaded Attu in the Aleutian Islands to expel the Japanese.

1960 – The U.S.S. Triton completed the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip started on February 16.

1962 – Marvel Comics published the first issue of “The Incredible Hulk.”

1968 – Preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.

1969 – The National and American Football Leagues announced their plans to merge for the 1970-71 season.

1978 – Britain’s Princess Margaret and the Earl of Snowdon announced they were divorcing after 18 years of marriage.

1982 – Elliott Gould made his dramatic television debut after 30 movies in 17 years. He starred in “The Rules of Marriage” on CBS-TV.

1986 – Navy Lt. Commander Donnie Cochran became the first black pilot to fly with the Blue Angels team.

1994 – Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first black president.

1997 – An earthquake in northeastern Iran killed at least 2,400 people.

1999 – China broke off talks on human rights with the U.S. in response to NATO’s accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia.

1999 – The Cezanne painting “Still Life With Curtain, Pitcher and Bowl of Fruit” sold for 60.5 million.

2000 – 11,000 residents were evacuated in Los Alamos, NM, due to a fire that was blown into a canyon. The fire had been deliberately set to clear brush.

2001 – Boeing Co. announced that it would be moving its headquarters to Chicago, IL.

2001 – In Ghana, 121 people were killed in a stampede at a soccer game.

2002 – Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison with no chance for parole. Hanssen, an FBI agent, had sold U.S. secrets to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

2002 – Taiwan test fired a locally made Sky Bow II surface-to-air missile for the first time. They also fired three U.S.-made Hawk missiles.

2002 – Dr. Pepper announced that it would be introducing a new flavor, Red Fusion, for the first time in 117 years.

2011 – It was announced that Microsoft had closed a deal to purchase the internet phone service Skype for $8.5 billion.

2013 – In New York, NY, crane operators hoisted the final pieces of the spire atop One World Trade Center (formerly called the Freedom Tower).