In 1685, composer George Frideric Handel was born in Germany.
In 1822, Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.
In 1836, the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.
In 1847, U.S. troops under General zachary Taylor defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico.
In 1848, John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, died of a stroke at age 80.
In 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office, an assassination plot having been foiled in Baltimore.
In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the union.
In 1905, the Rotary Club was founded.
In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.
In 1942, a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery in Ellwood, California.
In 1945, during World Warr II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi in a scene captured on film by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.
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"I've been in the music business for about 50 years. It's about time, don't you think?"
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Willie Dixon, the 73-year-old blues master, commenting after winning his first Grammy for his "Hidden Charms" album.
