1735 – The first opera performed in America, known as either Flora or Hob in the Well, was presented in Charleston, SC.
1885 – Mark Twain published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
1908 – The U.S. Post Office issued postage stamps in coil form for the first time.
1929 – The Academy of Motion Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the first Academy Awards (later called the Oscars).
1930 – Astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ.
1953 – Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the I Love Lucy TV show through 1955. The deal was the richest contract in television.
1960 – The VIIIth Winter Olympic Games opened in Squaw Valley, California. A lack of snow had prompted organizers to hire Native Americans to do a snow dance, but a deluge of rain was the only result. Snow finally arrived just before the opening ceremonies, which had to be delayed to await the arrival of U.S. Vice-President Richard M. Nixon, who would declare the games open. The storm had held up his flight.
1972 – In the case of California v. Anderson, the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty “unnecessary to any legitimate goal of the state and [is] incompatible with the dignity of man and the judicial process.” With that 107 inmates were taken off death row, including Charles Manson, who had been convicted in the Tate – LaBianca murders, and Sirhan Sirhan, Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin.
Chief Writing Wolf 