Today:
1595 – William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is believed to have been performed for the first time.
1676 – Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia after the death of his father, Tsar Alexis.
1814 – France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne during the Napoleonic Wars.
1834 – President Andrew Jackson orders the first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute in the United States.
1845 – Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem The Raven is published for the first time in the New York Evening Mirror.
1856 – Queen Victoria establishes the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration in the British honors system.
1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th state of the United States.
1886 – Karl Benz patents the Benz Patent-Motorwagen, widely considered the world’s first automobile.
1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
2002 – In his State of the Union address, U.S. President George W. Bush describes North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as the “Axis of Evil.”