There were some booms and banks on this date in history. The USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor in 1898, sparking the Spanish American War -though the specific cause of the explosion is still debated. President-Elect FDR escaped an assassination attempt in 1933 in Miami. And in 2013 a meteor exploded over Russia injuring 1500 people as a shock wave blew out windows and shook buildings

There were some advances on this date: In 1879 President Hayes signed a bill allowing female lawyers to argue cases before the US Supreme Court. In 1923 Greece becomes the last European nation to adopt the Gregorian calendar. In technical matters, in 1946 ENIAC the first computer was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, And in 1972 sound recordings were granted federal copyright protection for the first time.

Births on this date included: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564), English philosopher Jeremy Bentham(1748, founder of utilitarianism), American suffragette Susan B Anthony (1820), and polar explorer Ernest Shackelton (1874).

On this date we bid farewell to Civil War general Lew Wallace, more known for his novel Ben Hur (1905). We lost the melodious voice of Nat King Cole in 1965 and actress and singer Ethel Merman in 1984. We lost journalist – Howard K Smith in 2002 and MASH actor McLean Stevenson in 1996. And we lost Lauren Owen and the entire US Figure Skating team on the way to the World Championships in 1961.