27 BC – The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.
1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.
1547 – Ivan IV the Terrible (17) crowns himself first tsar of Moscow.
1556 – Charles V, Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain, renounced his claim to Spain.
1605 – The first edition of “El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha” (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid.
1793 -French King Louis XVI sentenced to death by the National Convention during the French Revolution.
1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Act, a bill sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio, established the Civil Service Commission in the United States.
1913 – British House of Commons accepts Home Rule for Ireland (but the Great War gets in the way of it happening).
1920 – 1st assembly of the League of Nations is held in Paris.
1991 – The Persian Gulf War, triggered by Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait in August 1990, began on this day in 1991 with a U.S.-led air offensive against Iraq that continued until a cease-fire was declared on February 28.
1992 – The civil war in El Salvador ended as the government and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front signed the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City.
2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first woman to be elected head of state of an African country, was sworn in as president of Liberia.
Births & Deaths: 2017 – American astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last person to walk on the Moon (1972), died at age 82.
Sport: 1933 – Cricket’s Bodyline Tour: Australian batsman Bert Oldfield’s skull fractured by delivery bowled by Englishman Harold Larwood during the third test in Adelaide.
Music:1938 – 1st jazz concert held at Carnegie Hall (Benny Goodman).
1963 – Los Angeles night club and music venue The Whiskey A-Go-Go opens (inducted into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2006).
TV & Film:1936 – Screen Actors Guild incorporates with King Vidor as president.
1973 – The last episode of Bonanza aired on NBC as the popular western series ended after 14 seasons.
Via Britannica / On This Day
