Feb. 8, 1693 A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in the Virginia Colony.
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I, her cousin.
1837 The Senate selected the vice president of the United States, choosing Richard Mentor Johnson after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
1862 The Civil War Battle of Roanoke Island, N.C, ended in victory for Union forces led by Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside.
1904 The Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over Manchuria and Korea, began as Japanese forces attacked Port Arthur.
1910 The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
1942 During World War II, Japanese forces began invading Singapore, which fell a week later.
1952 Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed her accession to the British throne following the death of her father, King George VI.
1968 Three college students were killed in a confrontation with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, S.C., during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley.
1971 Nasdaq held its first trading day.
1989 An American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores, killing 144 people.
1992 The XVI Olympic Winter Games opened in Albertville, France.
Ten years ago The Winter Olympics opened in Salt Lake City with an emotional tribute to America's heroes, from the pioneers of the West to past Olympic champions to the thousands who died on Sept. 11.
Five years ago Model and actress Anna Nicole Smith died in Florida at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.
One year ago Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who'd helped ignite Egypt's uprising, appeared before protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square for the first time after being released from detention; he told them, "We won't give up."
Thought for today "Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; an argument an exchange of ignorance." — Robert Quillen, American journalist (1887-1948)
The Associated Press
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