49BC --- Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and invaded Italy.

515BC --- The rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem was completed

1785 --- Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France. He succeeded Benjamin Franklin.

1876 --- Alexander Graham Bell sent the first clear telephone message -- into a nearby room -- to his assistant, Mr. Watson. “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,” were the first words spoken into the invention that Bell had created.

1910 --- Slavery was abolished in China

1937 --- An audience of 21,000 jitterbuggers jammed the Paramount Theatre in New York City to see a young clarinetist whom they would crown, ‘King of Swing’ on this night. The popular musician was Benny Goodman.

1941 --- The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that their players would wear batting helmets during the 1941 baseball season. General Manager Larry MacPhail (he started the Dodger dynasty in the thirties) predicted that all baseball players would soon be wearing the new devices. He was right.

1949 --- Nazi wartime broadcaster Mildred E. Gillars, also known as "Axis Sally," was convicted in Washington, DC. Gillars was convicted of treason and served 12 years in prison.

1965 --- Walter Matthau and Art Carney opened in The Odd Couple, one of Neil Simon’s greatest theatrical triumphs. It would also become a hit on television, with Tony Randall playing the tidy Felix Ungar and Jack Klugman as slovenly sportswriter, Oscar Madison. The play opened at the Plymouth Theatre in New York City.

1969 --- James Earl Ray pled guilty in Memphis, TN, to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray later repudiated the guilty plea and maintained his innocence until his death in April of 1998.

1979 --- The Godfather of Soul James Brown took the stage at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. He sang "Your Cheatin’ Heart" and "Tennessee Waltz," then cut loose with "Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag" and four other screamers. The applause was reported as "polite."

1991 --- A Vincent van Gogh painting, "Still Life with Flowers," sold for $1.43-million in Chicago. It had hung for 36 years in the living room of a suburban Milwaukee couple who thought it was a copy.

1996 --- The International Museum of Cartoon Art opened in Boca Raton, Florida, housing 160-thousand cartoons by more than 1,000 artists. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, who donated a million dollars to the museum, was on hand for the dedication.

1998 --- The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) announced that food stamps were issued to nearly 26,000 dead people in 1995-1996; food stamps valued at $8.5 million were issued to 25,881 deceased people during that period. Who says you can’t take it with you?

2000 --- Chrissie Hynde and two other people were arrested in New York City after slashing leather goods at Gap store as part of a protest organized by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

2002 --- Ravindra Nath Halder of Calcutta, India, got a call to come in for an interview for a government job he had applied for 34 years earlier. The 52-year-old grandfather said he was too old for the state job, but he's glad to know his application was finally considered.