[Amnorix]

February 9.

1621. Pope Gregory XV is elected, the last Pope to be elected by acclamation rather than ballot.

1775. British Parliament declares Massachusetts colony in rebellion.

1825. After none of the candidates receives a majority of the popular vote, the US House of Representatives selects John Quincy Adams as President. Future President Andrew Jackson, the other primary contender, is extremely annoyed to say the least.

1861. The Confederate convention in Montgomery, Alabama, selects Jefferson Davis of Mississippi as provisional President.

1895. A new game, originally called mintonette, is invented. It soon becomes better known as volleyball.

1900. The Davis Cup competition is established.

1950. An alcoholic, previously unknown and insignificant junior Senator from Wisconsin makes a speech on Lincoln Day in Wheeling, Nebraska before the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling. Waving some papers around, he claims that he has a "list" of 205 members of the State Department that are members of the Communist Party and are shaping national policy. The senator was Joseph McCarthy, and the escalation in anti-Communist paranoia that resulted became known as McCarthyism. The era in which this occurred is generally known as the Second Red Scare, though clearly the Second Red Scare began before McCarthy made his famous speech.

1960. Joanne Woodward receives the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1964. The Beatles perform for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show.

1965. The first US combat troops are sent to South Vietnam, beginning an episode in American history that would result in rioting, the near destruction of the Democratic Party, and the deaths of nearly 60,000 Americans (plus 300,000 US wounded).

1969. The first 747 test flight.