On this date
In 1861, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as provisional president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1930, photographic evidence of Pluto (now designated a “dwarf planet”) was discovered by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
In 1943, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, wife of the Chinese leader, addressed members of the Senate and then the House, becoming the first Chinese national to address both houses of the U.S. Congress.
In 1994, at the Winter Olympic Games in Norway, U.S. speedskater Dan Jansen, from Greenfield, won a gold medal, breaking the world record in the 1,000 meters.
In 1997, astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery completed their tune-up of the Hubble Space Telescope after 33 hours of spacewalking; the Hubble was then released using the shuttle’s crane.
In 2001, veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia. (Hanssen later pleaded guilty to espionage and attempted espionage and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)
In 2001, auto racing star Dale Earnhardt Sr. died in a crash at the Daytona 500; he was 49.
Ten years ago: In Austin, Texas, software engineer A. Joseph Stack III crashed his plane into a building containing IRS offices, killing one person besides himself.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama, at a White House summit on countering violent extremism, said Muslims in the U.S. and around the world had a responsibility to fight a misconception that terrorist groups were speaking for them.
One year ago: New York City officials said that the city’s existing human rights law protected against hairdo discrimination, allowing New Yorkers to maintain hairstyles “closely associated with their racial, ethnic or cultural identities.”