In 1764 the city of St. Louis, Missouri was founded.
In 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine exploded in Havana harbor, killing 260 crewmen and leading to a U.S. declaration of war against Spain.
In 1933, U.S. President-elect Franklin Roosevelt narrowly escaped assassination in Miami when a fanatic fired several bullets at him, fatally wounding
Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak in the attack.
In 1942, the British bastion of Singapore surrendered to the Japanese army.
In 1965, Canada adopted a new national flag featuring a maple leaf emblem.
In 1982, the oil-drilling rig Ocean Ranger capsized and sank in a storm off Newfoundland. All 84 people aboard were lost.
In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush attended a drug summit in Colombia with the presidents of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia.
Also in 1990, Washington Mayor Marion Barry was indicted on eight counts of perjury and drug possession.
In 1991, 100 people were killed when a tractor-trailer hauling dynamite overturned and exploded in Thailand.
In 1997, Tara Lipinski, 14, defeated defending women’s champion Michelle Kwan to become the youngest U.S. figure skating champion.
In 2002, discovery of a human skull in a wooded area near a crematory in Georgia led investigators to remains of more than 300 bodies that were to have
been cremated but instead were stacked in sheds and in the woods.
In 2003, millions of people demonstrated against war in cities around the world, including New York, San Francisco, London, Paris and Berlin.
In 2004, two fires in eastern China killed a reported 90 people.
In 2005, a U.S. appeals court in Washington ruled that journalists have no First Amendment privilege to protect confidential sources.
In 2006, a U.S. House of Representatives report sharply criticized government response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster for what it called “mistakes,
misjudgments, lapses and absurdities.”
In 2008, Steve Fossett, the 63-year-old millionaire commodities trader turned record-breaking aviator, was declared legally dead, five months after he
vanished while flying in Nevada.
In 2009, Venezuelan voters abolished presidential term limits, which had restricted a president to two six-year terms. The new constitutional provision
will permit Hugo Chavez to seek re-election in 2012.
