A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

1567                       Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is murdered in his sick-bed

in a house in Edinburgh when the house blows up.

1799                       The USS Constellation captures the French frigate Insurgente off the West Indies.

1825                       The House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as the sixth U.S. President.

1861                       Jefferson F. Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1864                       Union General George Armstrong Custer marries Elizabeth Bacon in their hometown of

Monroe, MI.

1904                       Japanese troops land near Seoul, Korea, after disabling two Russian cruisers.

1909                       France agrees to recognize German economic interests in Morocco in exchange for

political supremacy.

1916                       Conscription begins in Great Britain as the Military Service Act becomes effective.

1922                       The U.S. Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission.

1942                       Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir Stafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India.

1943                       The Red Army takes back Kursk 15 months after it fell to the Germans.

1943                       Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its

remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal. [From MHQ—The

Quarterly Journal of Military History]

1946                       Stalin announces the new five-year plan for the Soviet Union, calling for production

boosts of 50 percent.

1951                       Actress Greta Garbo gets U.S. citizenship.

1953                       The French destroy six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.

1964                       The U.S. embassy in Moscow is stoned by Chinese and Vietnamese students.

1978                       Canada expels 11 Soviets in a spying case.

1994                       Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa.

Born on February 9

1773                       William Henry Harrison, ninth U.S. President and the first to die in office.

1814                       Samuel Tilden, philanthropist.

1819                       Lydia E. Pinkham, patent-medicine maker and entrepeneur.

1846                       William Maybach, German engineer; he designed the first Mercedes automobile.

1871                       Howard T. Ricketts, pathologist.

1874                       Amy Lowell, poet.

1880                       James Stephens, Irish writer (The Charwoman’s Daughter, The Crock of Gold).

1909                       Dean Rusk, Secretary of State under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.

1923                       Brendan Behan, Irish playwright and poet (The Hostage, The Quare Fellow).

1944                       Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize-winning author (The Color Purple).

Source: History Net