1865 – Congress passes the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America (passes 121-24)
1865 – General Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies during US Civil War
1933 – Adolf Hitler promises parliamentary democracy
1943 – Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrenders to Soviet troops at Stalingrad
1944 – Operation-Overlord (D-Day) postponed until June
1946 – Yugoslavia adopts new constitution, becomes a federal republic
1950 – US President Harry Truman publicly announces support for the development of a hydrogen bomb
1985 – South African President P. W. Botha offers to free Nelson Mandela if he denounces violence
1990 – 1st McDonalds in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow
1995 – President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.
2000 – Alaska Airlines flight 261 MD-83, experiencing horizontal stabilizer problems, crashes in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Point Mugu, California, killing all 88 persons aboard.
2000 – A fight between Ray Lewis and his companions and another group of people results in the stabbing deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar, resulting in the indictment of Lewis 11 days on murder and aggravated-assault charges
2001 – In the Netherlands a Scottish court convicts a Libyan and acquits another for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which crashed into Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
2017 – Romanian government passes emergency decree to release prisoners and decriminalise corruption charges, triggering huge protests in Bucharest
2017 – US President Donald Trump fires Attorney General Sally Yates after she instructs Justice Department officials not to defend Trump’s travel ban
2018 – Trump administration formally suspends the Clean Water Act
2019 – New government in Lebanon finally formed by Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri nine months after elections
2019 – At least 20 newborns and children have died in last two months of the cold, trying to get to the Al-Ho Syrian refugee camp according to WHO
2020– United Kingdom formally withdraws from the European Union (Brexit)
Film & TV:
1949 – 1st daytime soap on TV “These Are My Children” (NBC in Chicago)
Music:
1679 – Jean-Baptiste Lully’s opera “Bellerophon” premieres at the Palais-Royal in Paris
2012 – Leonard Cohen releases his album “Old Ideas”, becomes No.1 in 10 countries
Sport:
2015 – 17 year old Lydia Ko of New Zealand becomes the youngest golfer in men’s or women’s golf history to be ranked No. 1 in the world
