Also on this date
In 1612, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei observed the planet Neptune but mistook it for a star. (Neptune wasn't officially discovered until 1846 by Johann Gottfried Galle.)
In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down because of differences with President Andrew Jackson.
In 1895, the Lumiere brothers, Auguste and Louis, held the first public showing of their movies in Paris.
In 1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance.
In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was signed into law by President Richard Nixon.
In 1975, the “Hail Mary pass” entered the football lexicon as Dallas quarterback Roger Staubach tossed the ball to Drew Pearson for an improbable 50-yard touchdown with 24 seconds left to help the Cowboys come back to edge the Minnesota Vikings 17-14.
In 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American “test-tube” baby, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.
In 2015, a grand jury in Cleveland declined to indict a white rookie police officer in the killing of 12year-old Tamir Rice, a Black youngster who was shot while playing with what turned out to be a pellet gun.
Ten years ago: North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, escorted his father's hearse in an elaborate state funeral, bowing somberly and saluting in front of tens of thousands of citizens who wailed and stamped their feet in grief for Kim Jong Il.
Five years ago: Film star Debbie Reynolds, who lit up the screen in “Singin' in the Rain” and other Hollywood classics, died at age 84 a day after losing her daughter, Carrie Fisher, who was 60.
One year ago: A white Columbus, Ohio, police officer, Adam Coy, was fired after bodycam footage showed him fatally shooting Andre Hill — a Black man who was holding a cellphone — and failing to administer first aid for several minutes. (Coy is scheduled to face trial for murder in 2022.)