EVENTS
- 1894 – First playoff game for Hockey’s Stanley Cup.
- 1945 – The Arab League is founded. The organization was founded to promote political, economic, and cultural collaboration amongst its member states, which include 21 African, Asian, and Middle Eastern countries, from Mauritania in the west to Oman in the east.
- 1960 – The laser is invented.
- 1963 – The Beatles release their first album; Please, Please, Me.
- 1972 – The Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Senate and then sent to the states for ratification. The ERA, as it became known, prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender, stating, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex,” and that “the Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.” Although 22 of the required 38 states quickly ratified the Amendment, opposition arose over concerns that women would be subject to the draft and combat duty, along with other legal concerns. The ERA eventually failed (by 3 states) to achieve ratification despite an extension of the deadline to June 1982.
ERA March - 1993 – Intel ships the first Pentium chips.
- 1995 – Cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns after setting a record for 438 days in space.
- 1997 – Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest female figure skating world champion. The American athlete won the 1997 World Figure Skating Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland at the age of 14 years and 10 months.
BIRTHDAYS
- 1459 – Maximilian I (Holy Roman Emperor)
- 1599 – Anthony van Dyck (Dutch painter)
- 1908 – Louis L’Amour (Author of westerns)
- 1923 – Marcel Marceau (Famous mime)
- 1930 – Stephen Sondheim (American composer, songwriter)
- 1931 – William Shatner (Actor Captain Kirk on Star Trek)
- 1936 – Ron Carey (American union leader)
- 1948 – Andrew Lloyd Weber (Composer of Cats and Phantom of the Opera)
Andrew Lloyd Weber - 1952 – Bob Costas (Sports Anchor)
- 1959 – Matthew Modine (Actor)
- 1972 – Elvis Stajko (Figure Skater)
- 1976 – Reese Witherspoon (Actress)
DEATHS
- 1820 – Stephen Decatur (American navy officer)
- 1832 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German writer, scientist)
- 2001 – William Hanna (American animator, director, producer, actor, co-founded Hanna-Barbera)
William Hanna - 2009 – Jade Goody (English nurse, author)
- 2009 – Abismo Negro (Mexican wrestler)
