The earliest event that Wiki says happened on this day is “1294 – Saint Celestine V resigns the papacy after only five months; Celestine hoped to return to his previous life as an ascetic hermit” and the most recent is “2006 – The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, is announced as extinct.”
A few other things that also took place on this day are:
1636 – Three militia regiments are organized by the Massachusetts Bay Colony. This is now considered the founding of the US National Guard.
1981 – Martial law is declared in Poland in an effort to crack down on the Solidarity labor movement.
2003 – US military forces capture Saddam Hussein, who was hiding in a hole.
Happy birthday to Taylor Swift, Morris Day, Steve Buscemi, Steve Forbert, Jeff Baxter, Herman Cain, Dick Van Dyke, and George Shultz.