1762 French Huguenot Jean Calas, who was wrongly convicted of killing his son, dies after being tortured by authorities; the event inspires Voltaire to begin campaign for religious tolerance and legal reform
1783 USS Alliance, under Captain Barry, fights and wins the final naval battle of the American Revolutionary War off Cape Canaveral
1874 Purdue University (Indiana) admits its 1st student
1876 First telephone call: Alexander Graham Bell says, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you" to his assistant Thomas Watson
1910 Republic of China officially abolishes slavery
1945 Deadliest air raid of World War II sets Tokyo on fire after nighttime B-29 bombings; more than 100,000 people die, mostly civilians
1945 George S. Patton's 3rd U.S. Army makes contact with General Courtney Hodge's 1st U.S. Army
1951 FBI director J. Edgar Hoover declines post of baseball commissioner
1963 MLB infielder Pete Rose debuts with Cincinnati at spring training in Tampa, Florida; hits in his first 2 at bats
1990 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site (really??? WTF)
2014 German Chancellor Angela Merkel warns Russia's Vladimir Putin that making Crimea part of Russia is illegal and in violation of Ukraine's constitution - (Thanx,toots how'd that work out?)
2020 Russian lower house of Parliament passes legislation to allow Vladimir Putin to hold office of President for life
2020 Three months into the COVID-19 epidemic Chinese President Xi Jinping finally travels to Wuhan, epicenter of the outbreak as the rate of daily new infections declines in China falls to 19 new cases and 17 deaths (sure they did,of course)