1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle at age 44 after being convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot
1627 Gunpowder is used in a mining operation instead of mechanical tools in present-day Slovakia, reportedly the first time explosives had been used in mining
1855 The Smithsonian Institution Building 'The Castle' first opens to the public on the Mall in Washington D.C.
1861 Confederate States of America organizes in Montgomery, Alabama (US Civil War)
1896 Western Conference forms to be first Western college football season, later renamed Big 10 Conference
1910 The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce
1915 "The Birth of a Nation" the first 12-reel film in America, directed by D. W. Griffith, starring Lillian Gish and Mae Marsh, premieres at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles
1918 "Stars & Stripes,", weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published
1923 Coal mine explosion at Dawson, New Mexico kills 120
1930 "Happy Days Are Here Again" by Benny Mereoff hits #1
1931 Gas explosion Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000
1936 First-ever NFL Draft: Jay Berwanger from the University of Chicago is first pick by Philadelphia Eagles
1936 German alpine skier Christi Cranz wins the inaugural Olympic women’s combined gold medal at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Games ahead of teammate Käthe Grasegger
1945 Paul Brown agrees to coach the new American football expansion team in Cleveland, which would later be named the Cleveland Browns after their coach
1948 Canada beats Switzerland 3-0, to regain the Olympic ice hockey title at the St. Moritz Winter Games; forward Walter Halder top scores with 29 points in Canada’s 5th Olympic title
1960 Boston Celtics center Bill Russell was the first NBA player to record 50 or more rebounds in a single game
1963 AFL's Dallas Texans become KC Chiefs
1965 President Johnson deploys 1st US combat troops to South Vietnam, with 3500 marines sent to protect key US airbase near Da Nang
1969 Last edition of American magazine "Saturday Evening Post"
1971 Royal Albert Hall cancels scheduled concert featuring Frank Zappa, due to concerns about indecent lyrics
1974 Three US astronauts return to Earth after a 85 days in the US space station, Skylab
1982 Los Angeles Dodgers trade 2B Davey Lopes to Oakland A's, breaking up MLB's longest-playing infield (Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey) after 8 1/2 seasons
1990 "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine
1996 NFL & Cleveland allows Art Modell to move his NFL franchise to Baltimore but he had to leave the Browns' name behind
2013 A massive blizzard begins in the US and Canada that resulted in 15 deaths, 5,300 cancelled flights, and loss of power for 900,000 people
