1873 – E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter.

1872 – Yellowstone National Park is established as the world's first national park.

1692 – Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne and Tituba are brought before local magistrates in Salem Village, Massachusetts, beginning what would become known as the Salem witch trials.

1998 – First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace.

1993 – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents raid the Branch Davidian church in Waco, Texas with a warrant to arrest the group's leader David Koresh. Four BATF agents and five Davidians die in the initial raid, starting a 51-day standoff.

1953 – James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April's Nature (pub. April 2).

1939 – The erroneous word "dord" is discovered in the Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition, prompting an investigation.

1525 – The Aztec king Cuauhtémoc is executed by Hernán Cortés's forces.

 Red_Dragon wrote: 

There were many civilizations way before the Sumerians, but that is funny.

3991 BC - Sumerians Look On In Confusion As God Creates World

 

1928 - Antoine "Fats" Domino Jr. born in New Orleans.

1913 - Jim Backus (L) is born.
 

2011 – Final Launch of Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103).

2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years.

1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers a US$3 million bounty for the death of The Satanic Verses author Salman Rushdie.

1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles, one of the largest documented UFO sightings in history; the event lasted into the early hours of February 25, 1942.

1920 – The Nazi Party is founded.

1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.

1896 – The Tootsie Roll is invented.

1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.