On This Day in:

425 Theodosius effectively founds a university in Constantinople.

1531 German Protestants form the League of Schmalkalden to resist the power of the emperor.

1700 The Pacific Island of New Britain is discovered.

1814 Napoleon's Marshal Nicholas Oudinot is pushed back at Barsur-Aube by the Emperor's allied enemies shortly before his abdication.

1827 The first Mardi-Gras celebration is held in New Orleans.

1864 The first Union prisoners arrive at Andersonville Prison in Georgia.

1865 Confederate raider William Quantrill and his bushwackers attack Hickman, Kentucky, shooting women and children.

1905 The Japanese push Russians back in Manchuria and cross the Sha River.

1908 The forty-sixth star is added to the U.S. flag, signifying Oklahoma's admission to statehood.

1920 The U.S. rejects a Soviet peace offer as propaganda.

1925 Glacier Bay National Monument is dedicated in Alaska.

1933 The burning down of the Reichstag building in Berlin gives the Nazis the opportunity to suspend personal liberty with increased power.

1939 The Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes.

1942 British Commandos raid a German radar station at Bruneval on the French coast.

1953 F-84 Thunderjets raid North Korean base on Yalu River.

1963 The Soviet Union says that 10,000 troops will remain in Cuba.

1969 Thousands of students protest President Richard Nixon's arrival in Rome.

1973 U.S. Supreme Court rules that a Virginia pool club can't bar residents because of color.

1988 Debi Thomas becomes the first African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics.

1991 Coalition forces liberate Kuwait after seven months of occupation by the Iraqi army.

1916 – Mutual signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract.

1919 – In Arizona, the Grand Canyon was established as a National Park with an act of the U.S. Congress.

1929 – U.S. President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Grand Teton National Park.

1930 – New York City installed traffic lights.

1933 – A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.

1945 – In the U.S., a nationwide midnight curfew went into effect.

1952 – British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed an atomic bomb.

1957 – The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1979 – 'Flatbush' debuted on CBS-TV.

1986 – Corazon Aquino was inaugurated president of the Philippines. Long time President Ferdinand Marcos went into exile.

1987 – The Tower Commission rebuked U.S. President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 – The U.S.S.R. conducted its first nuclear weapons test after

a 19-month moratorium period.

1991 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that Iraqi troops were being withdrawn from Kuwait.

1993 – Six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb had been built by Islamic extremists.

1995 – Barings PLC collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. The company was Britain's oldest investment banking firm.

1998 – A Texas jury rejected an $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price drop after on-air comment about mad-cow disease.