Today:
1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, was executed at Fotheringhay Castle after being implicated in a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England.
1693 – The College of William & Mary was granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II, making it the second-oldest institution of higher education in the United States.
1725 – Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia, died, and was succeeded by his wife, Catherine I.
1837 – Richard Johnson became the first (and so far only) vice president of the United States elected by the Senate under the provisions of the Twelfth Amendment.
1865 – Delaware rejected the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which abolished slavery (although it would later ratify it in 1901).
1879 – Sandford Fleming proposed worldwide standard time zones at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
1910 – The Boy Scouts of America was founded by William D. Boyce in Washington, D.C.
1922 – President Warren G. Harding introduced the first radio installed in the White House.
1971 – The NASDAQ stock market began operations as the world’s first electronic stock exchange.
2013 – A massive blizzard hit the northeastern United States and Canada, causing widespread power outages and travel disruptions.