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Events

• Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvard– 1639
• Halley’s Comet reached perihelion– 1759
• The planet Uranus was discovered by English astronomer Sir William Herschel– 1781
• First political cartoon depicting “Uncle Sam” published– 1852
• Confederate Congress agreed on the recruitment of slaves into the army (U.S. Civil War)– 1865
• Chester Greenwood patented earmuffs– 1877
• Eadweard Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope, an early movie projector, debuted in London– 1882
• Tennessee banned teaching evolution– 1925
• The discovery of Pluto, the ninth planet, was officially announced on this date, which was Percival Lowell’s birthday. Lowell was founder of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto on February 18, 1930. (Much later, Pluto’s planet designation changed!)– 1930
• Hitler took formal possession of Vienna (WWII)– 1938
• The Viet Minh began a successful siege of the French-held Dien Bien Phu in Vietnam– 1954
• Oil discovered in Prudhoe Bay in Alaska– 1968
• U.S. Apollo 9 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after a 10-day flight testing the lunar module– 1969
• The Common Market officially inaugurated the new European Monetary System– 1979
• Irving King Jordan, Jr., became the first deaf president of Gallaudet University– 1988
• Solar flare caused power grid failure of Hydro-Quebec in Canada– 1989
• Moscow’s newspaper, Pravda, announced that it was suspending publication– 1992
• UFOs seen over Arizona, Nevada, and Sonora, Mexico– 1997
• For 15 minutes, Luciano Pavarotti took in bravos after the night’s performance of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. It was his final night of staged opera; the end of a career that began 43 years earlier. It was the biggest farewell ovation at the Met since soprano Leonie Rysanek said goodbye in January 1996.– 2004
• Twenty-five year old Dallas Seavey became the youngest winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race– 2012
• Roman Catholic cardinals elected the church’s first South American leader, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He took the name Pope Francis I.– 2013