1793 – Prussia & Russia sign partition treaty, dividing Poland.

1793 – Louis XVI of France is executed by the guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for high treason.

1827 – Freedom Journal, 1st Black paper, begins publishing

1846 – 1st edition of Charles Dickens’ “Daily News”

1952 – Nehru’s Congress party wins general election in India

1970 – PanAm Boeing 747 1st flight NY-London

1972 – Assam’s North East Frontier Agency becomes Arunachal Pradesh

1972 – Manipur, Meghalaya & Tripura become separate states of Indian union

1976 – Supersonic Concorde, 1st commercial flights, by Britain & France

1979 – Neptune becomes outermost planet (Pluto moves closer)

2004 – NASA’s MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.