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• In 1812, Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a re-districting law favoring his Democratic-Republican Party - giving rise to the term "gerrymandering."
• In 1858, a French girl, Bernadette Soubirous (soo-bee-ROO'), reported the first of 18 visions of a lady dressed in white in a grotto near Lourdes. (The Catholic Church later accepted that the visions were of the Virgin Mary.)
• In 1862, the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson began in Tennessee. (Union forces led by Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant captured the fort five days later.)
• In 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed, with Italy recognizing the independence and sovereignty of Vatican City.
• In 1937, a six-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union.
• In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement during World War II.
• In 1960, "Tonight Show" host Jack Paar walked off the program in a censorship dispute with NBC. (Despite his very public resignation, Paar returned to the Tonight Show less than a month later.)
• In 1972, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. and Life magazine canceled plans to publish what had turned out to be a fake autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.
• In 1975, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party.
• In 1979, followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-MAY'-nee) seized power in Iran.
• In 1990, South African black activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.
• In 1993, President Bill Clinton announced his choice of Miami prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation's first female attorney general, after two earlier candidates stumbled because they'd hired illegal aliens.
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• Ten years ago: Addressing a historic rift within NATO, Secretary of State Colin Powell told a congressional hearing that the future of the military alliance was at risk if it failed to confront the crisis with Iraq. The al-Jazeera Arab satellite station broadcast what was believed to be a new audio statement from Osama bin Laden urging Iraqis to carry out suicide attacks on Americans.
• Five years ago: The Defense Department charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (HAH'-leed shayk moh-HAH'-med) and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. (Charges against one were later dropped; the trial of the other five has yet to take place.) Ya

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