On this date

1853 — The United States and Mexico signed a treaty under which the U.S. agreed to buy some 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico for $10 million in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase. 1905 — The Franz Lehar operetta “The Merry Widow” premiered in Vienna. 1916 — Grigory Rasputin, the so-called “Mad Monk” who wielded considerable influence with Czar Nicholas II, was killed by a group of Russian noblemen in St. Petersburg. 1936 — The United Auto Workers union staged its first “sitdown” strike at the General Motors Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint, Michigan. (The strike lasted until Feb. 11, 1937.) 1942 — A near-riot of bobby-soxers greeted the opening of Frank Sinatra’s singing engagement at the Paramount Theater in New York’s Times Square. 1947 — King Michael I of Romania agreed to abdicate, but charged he was being forced off the throne by Communists. 1952 — A statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest and a statue honoring the women of the Confederacy were moved from Broad Street to the base of Myrtle Hill Cemetery. 1954 — Olympic gold medal runner Malvin G. Whitfield became the first black recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award for amateur athletes. 1965 — Ferdinand Marcos was inaugurated for his first term as president of the Philippines. 1989 — A Northwest Airlines DC-10, which had been the target of a telephoned threat, flew safely from Paris to Detroit with 22 passengers amid extra-tight security. 1997 — A deadly massacre in Algeria’s insurgency began in four mountain villages as armed men killed women and children in an attack that lasted from dusk until dawn the following morning; up to 412 deaths were reported. 1999 — Former Beatle George Harrison fought off a knife-wielding intruder who’d broken into his mansion west of London and stabbed him in the chest. (The attacker was later acquitted of attempted murder by reason of insanity.)