| On this date in: |
| 1610 | Astronomer Galileo Galilei sighted four of Jupiter's moons. |
| 1800 | Millard Fillmore, the 13th president of the United States, was born in Summerhill, N.Y. |
| 1927 | Commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London. |
| 1942 | The World War II siege of Bataan began. |
| 1953 | President Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb. |
| 1955 | Singer Marian Anderson made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, becoming the first black person to perform there as a member. |
| 1959 | The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba. |
| 1972 | Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the Supreme Court. |
| 1979 | Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government. |
| 1989 | Japanese Emperor Hirohito died at age 87. |
| 1996 | A major blizzard paralyzed the eastern United States, claiming more than 100 lives. |
 |
| AP Photo/Mark Wilson |
|
| 1997 | Newt Gingrich became the first Republican re-elected House speaker in 68 years. |
| 1999 | President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate. (He was later acquited on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.) |
| 2003 | Police announced they had found traces of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment and arrested six men. |
| 2005 | Conservative columnist Armstrong Williams was dropped by a major syndication service because he'd accepted a payment from the Bush administration to promote the No Child Left Behind law. |
| 2005 | Actor Brad Pitt and actress Jennifer Aniston announced they were separating after four years of marriage. |
| 2006 | American journalist Jill Carroll was abducted in Iraq and a translator was killed. (She was released unharmed after 82 days.) |
| 2006 | Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, facing corruption charges, stepped down as House majority leader. (He resigned from Congress in June 2006.) |
