In 1567, Mary, Queen of Scots, was imprisoned in Lochleven Castle in Scotland.
In 1858, in a speech in Springfield, Illinois, Senate candidate Abraham Lincoln said the slavery issue had to be resolved, declaring, "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
In 1896, 100 years ago, the Republican national convention opened in St. Louis.
In 1903, the Ford Motor Company was incorporated.
In 1933, the National Industrial Recovery Act became law. (It was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.)
In 1955, Pope Pius XII excommunicated Argentine President Juan Domingo Peron -- a ban that was lifted eight years later.
In 1961, Soviet ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected to the West while his troupe was in Paris.
In 1963, the world's first female space traveler, Valentina Tereshkova, was launched into orbit by the Soviet Union aboard "Vostok Six."
In 1970, Kenneth A. Gibson of Newark, New Jersey, became the first black to win a mayoral election in a major Northeast city.
In 1976, riots broke out in the black South African township of Soweto.
In 1978, President Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Panama Canal treaties.
In 1986, millions of blacks in South Africa marked the 10th anniversary of the Soweto uprising by staying away from work for the day.
In 1991, the seventh International Conference on AIDS opened in Florence, Italy, with pleas from African and Asian countries for more help and criticism directed at the United States for its refusal to allow visits by international people infected with the AIDS virus.
In 1995, Bosnian government forces aided by Bosnian Croats unleashed a major offensive in hopes of breaking the Serb stranglehold on Sarajevo. Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 4500 level for the first time, ending the day at 4510.79.