Today in History: Thursday, Feb. 9

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474 – Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire. 1555 – Bishop of Gloucester John Hooper is burned at the stake. 1621 – Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation. 1654 – The Capture of Fort Rocher takes place during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts in rebellion. 1788 – The Habsburg Empire joins the Russo-Turkish War in the Russian camp. 1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President of the United States. 1849 – New Roman Republic established 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama. 1870 – US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau. 1889 – US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency. 1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball. 1900 – The Davis Cup competition is established. 1904 – Russo-Japanese War: Battle of Port Arthur concludes. 1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth. 1920 – Under the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, international diplomacy recognizes Norwegian sovereignty over Arctic archipelago Svalbard, and designates it as demilitarized. 1922 – Brazil becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty. 1934 – The Balkan Entente is formed. 1941 – World War II: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy is struck by a bomb which fails to detonate. 1942 – World War II: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war. 1942 – Year-round Daylight saving time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources. 1943 – World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal. 1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Atlantic: HMS Venturer sinks U-864 off the coast of Fedje, Norway, in a rare instance of submarine-to-submarine combat. 1945 – World War II: A force of Allied aircraft unsuccessfully attacked a German destroyer in Førdefjorden, Norway. 1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists. 1951 – Korean War: Geochang massacre 1959 – The R-7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, USSR. 1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a "record-busting" audience of 73 million viewers across the USA. 1965 – The United States Marine Corps sends a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission. 1971 – The 6.5–6.7 Mw Sylmar earthquake hits the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing 64 and injuring 2,000. 1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame. 1971 – Apollo program: Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third manned Moon landing. 1975 – The Soyuz 17 Soviet spacecraft returns to Earth. 1986 – Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System. 1991 – Voters in Lithuania vote for independence. 1996 – The Provisional Irish Republican Army declares the end to its 18-month ceasefire and explodes a large bomb in London's Canary Wharf. 2016 – Two passenger trains collided in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria. Twelve people died, and 85 people were injured.