On this day

1690 - The first paper money in America was issued by the colony of Massachusetts.

1730 - The first stock exchange quotations were published, in the Daily Advertiser, London.

1821 - The birth of Elizabeth Blackwell, in Bristol, who became the first woman doctor in the US where her parents emigrated.

1945 - The Allies used over 1,000 planes on daylight bombing raids on Berlin.

1954 - The Queen visited Australia, she was the first reigning monarch to do so.

1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.

1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption. Many believe the incident proves that NYPD officers tried to kill him.

1994 - The space shuttle Discovery blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time.

(03-02-2011 13:25 )skully Wrote:  ~~~~
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1959 – A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, and pilot Roger Peterson and the incident becomes known as The Day the Music Died.
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1783 - Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America.

1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.

1911 - Rolls Royce commissioned their famous figurehead The Spirit of Ecstasy by Charles Sykes. He used Lord Montague's mistress, Eleanor Thornton, as his model.

1913 - Louis Perlman of New York City received a patent for his demountable tire-carrying rims, which we now call wheels.

1920 - The legend that was Norman Wisdom, was born on this day.

1936 – Radium becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

1945 - President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began the wartime Yalta Conference meeting.

1962 - The first colour supplement in Britain was published by The Sunday Times.

1967 – Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral's Launch Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.

1968 - The world's largest hovercraft, weighing 165 tonnes, was launched at Cowes on the Isle of Wight.

1997 - British Home Secretary Michael Howard ruled that Moors murderer Myra Hindley should never be released from prison.

1997 - A civil jury in Santa Monica, California, found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman.

2002 – Cancer Research UK, the world's largest independent cancer research charity, is founded.

2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social network is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

1811 - The Regency Act was passed in Britain, allowing Prince George of Wales to rule because his father, King George III, was considered insane. He later became George IV.

1852 – The Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.

1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the Welcome Stranger, was found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis performed the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.

1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D.W. Griffith launch United Artists.

1953 - The Walt Disney film, Peter Pan, opened in New York City.

1954 - Britain opened its first atomic power station, at Harwell.

1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1993 - In the Antarctic, British explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dr Michael Stroud broke the record for longest unsupported polar march.

2003 - Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council with U.S. plans to invade Iraq.

2004 – Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35 cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England. Twenty-one bodies are recovered.

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2003 - Colin Powell addresses the UN Security Council with U.S. plans to invade Iraq.
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1665 - The birth of Queen Anne, the last Stuart ruler and second daughter of James II. Her desire for national unity later led to the union of the English and Scottish parliaments in 1707.

1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.

1804 - The world's first locomotive, which was converted from a steam hammer power source and developed by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, ran on a line near Merthyr Tydfil, Wales.

1918 - The Representation of the People Act passed by the British Parliament received the Royal Assent, granting the vote to women over 30. Their first opportunity to use it would come at the General Election on 14th December 1918.

1952 - Elizabeth II acceded to the British throne upon the death of her father, King George VI. The coronation took place June 2, 1953.

1959 - The United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral.

1995 - The National Trust for Scotland banned foxhunting on any of its land.

1301 - Edward Caernarvon (later King Edward II) became the first Prince of Wales.

1497 – The bonfire of the vanities occurs in which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn thousands of objects like cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.

1886 - While building a cottage for a prospector in the Transvaal, South Africa, an Englishman, George Walker, found a clear streak of gold. It became the richest gold reef in the world.

1935 – The classic board game Monopoly is invented.

1947 - The main group of the Dead Sea Scrolls, dating to about 150 BC-AD 68, was found in caves by the Jordan River.

1964 - The Beatles began their first American tour, arriving at New York's Kennedy International Airport.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

1992 - The European Union was established upon the signing of the Maastricht Treaty of European Union.

2005 - Britain's Ellen MacArthur became the fastest person to sail solo around the world.

1971 - swiss women are able to vote in elections and also stand for parliament after a national referendum.

1587 - After 19 years imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1836 - The first London railway train ran from Spa Road to Deptford. There were fears that the great speed of 16 miles an hour would break passengers' necks.

1855 – The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Footprints

1924 - The first execution by lethal gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

1960 – Queen Elizabeth II issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name Mountbatten-Windsor.

1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth.

1983 - Shergar, the Aga Khan's Derby winner, was kidnapped from a stable in County Kildare, Ireland. The kidnappers demanded a ransom of £2 million, which was never paid. The horse was never seen again.

1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.

1849 – The New Roman Republic is established - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Repub..._century).

1913 – A group of meteors are visible across the eastern seaboard of North and South America. This lead astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

1964 - The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing to an audience of 73 million viewers.

1969 – The First test flight of the Boeing 747 took place.

1994 - Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.