1991 - Lithuania held a plebiscite on independence from the USSR
"We don't think they'll do anything in this market."
[Capitol Records' chief Alan Livingston takes a gloomy view of the Beatles' US tour in 1964: on 9 February of that year, a record audience of 72 million Americans watched them on the Ed Sullivan Show.]
Feast day of St Apollonia, St Sabinus of Canossa, St Teilo, St Alto, St Ansbert, and St Nicephorus of Antioch.
| 1700 |
Daniel Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician |
| 1865 |
Mrs Patrick Campbell, English actress |
| 1885 |
Alban Berg, Austrian composer |
| 1891 |
Ronald Colman, English film actor |
| 1941 |
Carole King, US singer and songwriter |
| 1945 |
Mia Farrow, US film actress |
| 1555 |
John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester |
| 1811 |
Nevil Maskelyne, Astronomer Royal |
| 1881 |
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Russian novelist |
| 1977 |
Sergei Vladimirovich Ilyushin, Russian aircraft designer |
| 1981 |
Bill Haley, US rock musician |
| 1984 |
Yuri Andropov, Russian leader |
| 1994 |
Howard Temin, US virologist |
| 1995 |
William Fulbright, US Democratic politician |
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| 1801 |
The Holy Roman Empire came to an end with the signing of the Peace of Luneville between Austria and France. |
| 1830 |
Explorer Charles Sturt discovered the source of the Murray river in Australia. |
| 1872 |
Lieutenant Dawson's expedition in search of Dr Livingstone began. |
| 1921 |
In India, the central parliament established under the Government of India Act of 1919 was opened. |
| 1942 |
Soap rationing began in Britain. |
| 1949 |
US film actor Robert Mitchum was sentenced to two months in prison for smoking marijuana. |
| 1972 |
The British government declared a state of emergency due to the miners' strike, which was in its third month. |
| 1991 |
The republic of Lithuania held a plebiscite on independence which showed overwhelming support for secession from the USSR. |
| 1995 |
Prime Minister Major's cabinet approved public-sector pay increases for the 1995-96 fiscal year, limiting annual pay rises among most of Britain's 1.3 million civil servants to between 1.5% and 3.2%, while allowing the salaries of senior civil servants to increase by as much as 27%. |
| 1996 |
The IRA detonated an enormous bomb in London's Docklands, effectively bringing an end to the cease-fire and signalling the start of a new bombing campaign on mainland Britain. |