Today In History...

In 1265 England's Parliament met for the first time.

In 1801 John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.

In 1839 Chile defeated a confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.

In 1841 The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain.

In 1887 The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

In 1892 On this date, they played the first basketball game.

In 1936 Britain's King George V died and was succeeded by Edward VIII.

In 1929 Wayne Baxter won the first Academy Award for Best Actor in "Old Arizona."

In 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on January 20, instead of March 4, due to the 20th Amendment to the Constitution.

In 1942 Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin, calling for the extermination of Europe's Jewish population.

In 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office for an unprecedented fourth term.

In 1953 First live coast-to-coast inauguration address took place when Dwight D. Eisenhower took office as U.S. president.

In 1961 John F. Kennedy was inaugurated President and spoke the famous words, "Ask not what your country can do for you. Rather what you can do for your country."

In 1977 Jimmy Carter was sworn in as the 39th U.S. president.

In 1981 Iran released 52 American hostages held for 444 days, just minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

In 1983 A commission studying reform of the Social Security system recommended gradually raising the retirement age from 65 to 66.

In 1984 Johnny Weissmuller, who won five Olympic gold medals as a swimmer and went on to movie stardom as "Tarzan," died at age 79 in Acapulco, Mexico.

In 1985 The most severe cold wave in more than a century hit the East, and for the first time, a president (Reagan) took the oath of office indoors.

In 1986 The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a city's right to limit door-to-door soliciting during certain hours.

In 1987 Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages. (Freed in November 1991.)

In 1988 The Rockwell B-1 bomber was delivered to the U.S. Air Force.

In 1988 An Arizona House committee opened hearings on the possible impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham.

In 1989 George Bush was sworn in as the 41st U.S. president.

In 1990 The space shuttle Columbia returned from an 11-day mission.

In 1990 Actress, Barbara Stanwyck died at age 82 in Santa Monica, CA.

In 1992 A French Airbus A-320 crashed near Strasbourg, killing 87 people.

In 1992 A German court convicted two former East German border guards of the last killing at the Berlin Wall.

In 1993, Audrey Hepburn ("Breakfast At Tiffany's") died at age 63.

In 1993 Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd U.S. president, Al Gore, and vice president.

In 1996 hundreds of thousands of Palestinians voted in a festive first election, solidly endorsing Yasser Arafat and his peace policies.

In 1996 The space shuttle Endeavour landed after a 9-day mission that included the retrieval of a Japanese satellite.

In 1997 President Bill Clinton was sworn in for a second term.

In 1998 American researchers reported they have cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk.

In 1998 An Chilean judge agreed to hear a lawsuit accusing former dictator Augusto Pinochet of genocide.

In 2001 George Walker Bush became America's 43rd president.

In 2001 hundreds of thousands of protesting Filipinos forced President Joseph Estrada to step down; Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became the new President.

In 2001 Michelle Kwan won her fourth straight U.S. Figure Skating Championship title, while Timothy Goebel won his first men's title.

In 2002 Two Marines were killed five injured when a U.S. military helicopter crashed in Afghanistan.

In 2003 Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld dies at age 99 and Pollster Burns W. "Bud" Roper dies at age 77.

In 2004 Martha Stewart's stock-trading trial formally began in New York. (Stewart served 5-months in prison for lying about a stock sale.)

In 2009 Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th President of the U.S., becoming the U.S.' first African-American President.