Events:

1912, Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

1917, The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

1929, Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.

1945, Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw. The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.

1946, The UN Security council holds its first session.

1949, The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first airs.

1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex."

1977, Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital Punishment in the United States.

1982, "Cold Sunday" - in the United States temperatures fell to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.

1989, Cleveland School massacre: Patrick Purdy opens fire with an assault rifle at the Cleveland Elementary School playground, killing five children and wounding 29 others and one teacher before taking his own life.

1996, The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.

1998, Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair on his website The Drudge Report.

2001, President Bill Clinton posthumously raises Meriwether Lewis' rank from Lieutenant to Captain.

2007, The Doomsday clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing.

2008, British Airways Flight 38 crash lands just short of London Heathrow Airport in England with no fatalities. It is the first airline accident that resulted in a Boeing 777 hull loss.

2010, Rioting begins between Muslim and Christian groups in Jos, Nigeria, which resulting in at least 200 deaths.

Births:

1903, Warren Hull

1905, Peggy Gilbert, Ray Cunningham

1908, Cus D'Amato

1911, George Joseph Stigler

1914, William Stafford

1916, Peter Frelinghuysen

1918, George M. Leader

1922, Robert De Niro, Sr., Nicholas Katzenbach, Betty White

1925, Robert Cormier, Edgar Ray Killen

1926, Newton N. Minow

1927, Tom Dooley, E. W. Swackhammer, Eartha Kitt

1928, Vidal Sassoon

1930, Eddie LeBaron

1931, James Earl Jones, L. Douglas Wilder, Don Zimmer

1932, Sheree North

1935, Ruth Ann Minner

1938, John Bellairs

1939, Maury Povich

1942, Muhammad Ali, Nancy Parsons

1943, Geoffrey Deuel, Chris Montez

1949, Andy Kaufman

1952, Darrell Porter, Larry Fortensky

1954, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

1957, Steve Harvey, Ann Nocenti

1960, John Crawford

1971, Kid Rock, Ann Wolfe

1974, Derrick Mason

Deaths:

2001, Gregory Corso

2002, Queenie Leonard

2003, Richard Crenna

2004, Harry Brecheen, Ray Stark, Noble Willingham

2005, Virginia Mayo, Albert Schatz

2006, Clarence Ray Allen

2007, Art Buchwald

2008, Bobby Fischer, Ernie Holmes, Allan Melvin

2010, Gaines Adams