1469 – Italian philosopher/writer Niccolo Machiavelli was born
1568 – French forces in Florida slaughtered hundreds of Spanish.
1802 – Washington, DC, was incorporated as a city.
1855 – Macon B. Allen became the first African American to be admitted to the Bar inMassachusetts.
1859 – France declared war on Austria.
1888 – Thomas Edison organized the Edison Phonograph Works.
1898 – Fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel Golda Meir (Golda Mabovitch, Golda Meyerson) was born
1926 – U.S. Marines landed in Nicaragua and stayed until 1933.
1933 – The U.S. Mint was under the direction of a woman for the first time when Nellie Ross took the position.
1937 – Margaret Mitchell won a Pulitzer Prize for “Gone With The Wind.”
1944 – Wartime rationing of most grades of meats ended in the U.S.
1945 – Indian forces captured Rangoon, Burma, from the Japanese.
1952 – The first airplane landed at the geographic North Pole.
1986 – In NASA’s first post-Challenger launch, an unmanned Delta rocket lost power in its main engine shortly after liftoff. Safety officers destroyed it by remote control.
