1973 Watergate G. Gordan Liddy and James McCord are convicted of breaking into and wiretapping the Democratic Party headquarters.

1973 KISS The glitter-rock group gives their first public performance - at New York's Coventry Club.

1972 Sunday Bloody Sunday Twenty-six unarmed protestors and bystanders are shot by the British Army in Northern Ireland during a civil rights march, 14 of whom died. The incident was the basis for the U2 song Sunday Bloody Sunday (1983).

1969 The Beatles The Fab Four give their last public performance - atop the roof of their Apple headquarters in London. The gig ended when an accountant from the nearby Royal Bank of Scotland called the police to stop the noise.

1968 Vietnam War - Tet Offensive North Vietnamese troops attack Saigon.

1964 First U.S. spacecraft to strike the moon Ranger 6 is launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, striking the moon on February 2. Unfortunately, its camera equipment failed to operate.

1957 Ronald Reagan The future president guest hosts This Is Your Life.

1933 Adolf Hitler The Nazi leader takes office as Chancellor of Germany.

1933 The Lone Ranger First radio broadcast of the famous program.

1862 First Union ironclad warship The Monitor is launched in New York. It sank in a storm off the coast of North Carolina the following December.

1835 First assassination attempt on a U.S. president Richard Lawrence tries to shoot Pres. Andrew Jackson, but his gun misfires. He was found to be insane.

1798 First brawl on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives During an argument, Matthew Lyon (Vermont) spits in the face of Roger Griswold (Connecticut). The resulting resolution to expel Lyon failed.

1988 Monica Berg famous birth. Her twin sister, Diana, was delivered December 23, 1987 - the longest recorded time between births of twins.

1968 Philip de Borbon Spanish prince, heir to the throne.

1941 Dick Cheney (Richard Bruce Cheney), 46th U.S. Vice-President (2001-).

1937 Vanessa Redgrave British Oscar-Emmy-winning actress. Film: Julia (1977, Oscar).

1934 Tammy Grimes American Tony-winning actress. Stage: The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960, Tony) and Private Lives (1970, Tony).

1931 Stewart B. McKinney d. 1987 American politician. He was the first U.S. congressman to die from AIDS.

1930 Sandy Amoros d. 1992 (Edmundo Isasi Amoros), Cuban-born baseball player. He made one of the greatest catches of World Series history (1955).

1930 Gene Hackman American Oscar-winning actor. Film: The French Connection (1971, Oscar), Superman (1978), and Unforgiven (1992, Oscar).

1928 Ruth Brown American jazz singer. She was Atlantic Records' best-selling artist for the 1950s. Music: Teardrops From My Eyes (1950, #1) and (Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean (1953, #1).

1928 Harold Prince American Tony-winning director, producer. Stage: West Side Story (1957), Fiddler On the Roof (1964, Tony), Cabaret (1966, Tony), Evita (1978, Tony), and The Phantom of the Opera.

1925 Douglas Engelbart American computer scientist.  Inventor of the computer mouse (1967).

1925 Dorothy Malone (Dorothy Maloney), American Oscar-winning actress. Film: Written in the Wind (1956, Oscar). TV: Peyton Place (Constance MacKenzie Carson).

1922 Dick Martin American Emmy-winning comedian. TV: Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (Emmy).

1914 John Ireland Canadian-born actor. Film: My Darling Clementine (1946) and All the King's Men (1949).

1914 David Wayne (David McMeekan), American actor. TV: Dallas (Digger Barnes).

1894 Boris III d. 1943 King of Bulgaria (1918-43). In 1935 he established a virtual dictatorship.

1882 Franklin D. Roosevelt d. 1945 32nd U.S. President (1933-45). He died in office, making Vice-Pres. Harry S Truman president.

1866 Frank Gelett Burgess d. 1951 American author, humorist, illustrator. He wrote the famous quatrain: "I never Saw a Purple Cow, I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I rather see than be one." He also coined the word "blurb," to describe to the material on book jacket that praises the book.

2006 Coretta Scott King b. 1927 civil rights activist, wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.

1994 Pierre François Boulle b. 1912 French author. Writings: Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Planet of the Apes (1963).

1993 Taikichiro Mori b. 1904 Japanese businessman, world's richest man at the time of his death. His wealth was estimated at $13 billion.

1991 John Bardeen b. 1908 American Nobel-winning physicist, co-inventor of the transistor.

1989 Pegeen Fitzgerald b. 1910 American radio personality. She and her husband Ed hosted their radio program for 42 years.

1958 Ernst Heinkel b. 1888 German aircraft designer/manufacturer. He designed the first rocket airplane powered solely by liquid fuel.

1948 Orville Wright b. 1871 American aviator. He and his brother Wilbur are credited with building and flying the first manned heavier-than-air flying machine (1903).

1948 Mahatma Gandhi b. 1869 (Mohandas Karamchand), Indian political, spiritual, and civil rights leader. He gained world honor for his advocacy of nonviolence.

1934 Frank Nelson Doubleday b. 1862 American publisher.

1888 Edward Lear b. 1812 English artist, author. Writings: Book of Nonsense (1846), which was responsible for popularizing limericks.

1838 Osceola b. 1804 Seminole war-leader. Opposed to the removal of Seminoles from Florida, he was a principal leader of the Second Seminole War (1835-42). He died while imprisoned in South Carolina.

1836 Betsy Ross b. 1752 (Elizabeth Griscom Ross), American flag maker. She is credited with creating the first stars-and-stripes flag for the U.S.

1730 Peter II b. 1715 Czar of Russia (1727-30), grandson of Peter the Great. He died on of small pox on his intended wedding day.

1649 Charles I b. 1600 King of England (1625-49). He was convicted of treason by Parliament and beheaded.

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