43 BC | | Cicero, considered one of the greatest sons of Rome, is assassinated on the orders of Marcus Antonius. |
983 | | Otto III takes the throne after his father's death in Italy. A power struggle between magnates ensues. |
1787 | | Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States. |
1808 | | James Madison is elected president in succession of Thomas Jefferson. |
1861 | | USS Santiago de Cuba, under Commander Daniel B. Ridgely, halts the British schooner Eugenia Smith and captures J.W. Zacharie, a New Orleans merchant and Confederate purchasing agent. |
1862 | | Confederate forces surprise an equal number of Union troops at the Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. |
1863 | | Outlaw George Ives, an alleged member of an outlaw gang known as the "Innocents," robs and then kills Nick Thiebalt in the Ruby Valley of what would become Montana. |
1917 | | The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary with only one dissenting vote in Congress. |
1918 | | Spartacists call for a German revolution. |
1931 | | A report indicates that Nazis would ensure "Nordic dominance" by sterilizing certain races. |
1941 | | Japanese planes raid Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack. |
1942 | | The U.S. Navy launches USS New Jersey, the largest battleship ever built. |
1946 | | The president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, orders all striking miners back to work. |
1949 | | The A.F.L. and the C.I.O. organize a non-Communist international trade union. |
1970 | | Poland and West Germany sign a pact renouncing the use of force to settle disputes, recognizing the Oder-Neisse River as Poland's western frontier, and acknowledging the transfer to Poland of 40,000 square miles of former German territory. |
1972 | | The crew of Apollo 17, the last manned mission to the moon, lifts off at Cape Canaveral, Florida. |
1981 | | The Reagan Administration predicts a record deficit in 1982 of $109 billion. |
1988 | | An earthquake in Armenia kills an estimated 100,000 people. |
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