On this date...

William Windom, Former US Senator from MN

In 1776, Washington convenes a Council of War at headquarters; John Adams and James Warren attend. Washington lays out his conviction that a bold stroke against the ministerial army in Boston must come before spring reinforcements. The council answers unanimously: Attempt it as soon as circumstances favor.

In 1777, Vermont declared independence from New York.

In 1847, John C. Frémont was appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

In 1861, the Crittenden Compromise, the last chance to keep North and South united, died in the U.S. Senate.

In 1865, Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman decreed that 400,000 acres of land in the South would be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former slaves. (The order, later revoked by President Andrew Johnson, inspired the expression, “40 acres and a mule.”)

In 1870, Virginia became 8th state readmitted to the US after the Civil War.

In 1871, Jefferson Long of Georgia was sworn in as 2nd black congressman.

In 1879, the Windom Resolution by Minnesota Senator William Windom encouraged black migration out of the South, helping trigger the "Exodus of 1879". 6,000 southern blacks flee Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas for Kansas.

In 1883, the Pendleton Civil Service Act, a bill sponsored by Senator George H. Pendleton of Ohio, established the Civil Service Commission in the United States.

In 1896, Henry F. Kallenberg, an instructor of physical education at the University of Iowa, welcomed Amos Alonzo Stagg, athletic director at the recently founded University of Chicago, to Iowa City for an experimental game in a new sport. The contest, refereed by Kallenberg, was the first unofficial college basketball game played with five players on each side. The University of Chicago won by a score of 15 to 12.

In 1897, American scholar John Dewey's essay "My Pedagogic Creed" appeared in School Journal.

In 1900, the United States Senate accepted the Anglo-German treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounced its claims to the Samoan islands

In 1908, Pinnacles National Monument, California established.

In 1917, the "Zimmermann Telegram" was sent from Germany to Mexico, offering the promise of Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico being given to Mexico in return for joining World War I if the US entered on the Allied side; British intelligence intercepted the communication and partially deciphered it by the next day. Its release in March shifts the US public opinion in favor of war against Germany.

In 1919, the 18th Amendment was ratified, banning alcohol in the US.

In 1920, Prohibition began as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect.

In 1936, Albert Fish was executed at Sing Sing prison in New York. The “Moon Maniac” was one of America’s most notorious and disturbed killers. Authorities believe that Fish killed as many as 10 children and then ate their remains.

In 1938, swing jazz music had its high-brow coming-out party at Carnegie Hall, with a concert featuring big band sensation Benny Goodman.

In 1944, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied invasion force in London.

In 1964, the musical "Hello, Dolly!" starring Carol Channing opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.

In 1970, St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood filed a $1 million antitrust lawsuit against Major League Baseball and MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, arguing for the right to free agency.

In 1973, the last episode of Bonanza aired on NBC as the popular western series ended after 14 seasons.

In 1978, NASA announced the members of its newest class of astronauts, which, for the first time in history, included six women. Sally Ride (pictured), Kathryn Sullivan, Rhea Seddon, Shannon Lucid, Anna Fisher, and Judy Resnick were chosen from more than 1,500 applications, and they had enviable skills and specialties. In 1983, Ride became the first American woman to travel into space.

In 1989, three days of rioting began in Miami when a police officer fatally shot Clement Lloyd, a Black motorcyclist, causing a crash that also claimed the life of Lloyd’s passenger, Allan Blanchard. (The officer, William Lozano, was convicted of manslaughter but was acquitted in a retrial.)

In 1991, Operation Desert Storm of the Persian Gulf War began.

In 1997, comedian and TV star Bill Cosby’s 27-year-old son Ennis Cosby was murdered after he stopped to fix a flat tire along California’s Interstate 405 in Los Angeles.

In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia and its crew of seven blasted off from Cape Canaveral. (The shuttle broke up during its return descent on Feb. 1, killing everyone on board.)

In 2004, Pop star Michael Jackson pleaded innocent to child molestation charges in Santa Maria, Calif. (Charges were later re-filed and Jackson was acquitted.)

In 2007, then Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., launched his successful bid for the White House.