On Feb. 25, 1836, inventor Samuel Colt patented his revolver.
In 1870 Hiram R. Revels (R-Miss.) became the first black to serve in the U.S. Senate.
In 1873 Enrico Caruso was born in Naples, Italy.
In 1913 Congress was given the authority to levy income taxes when the 16th Amendment went into effect.
In 1919 Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline.
In 1922 Henri Landru, known as "Bluebeard," was executed in France for murdering 10 of his sweethearts.
In 1964 Cassius Clay, who later changed his name to Muhammad Ali, became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston.
In 1983 playwright Tennessee Williams, 70, died in New York.
In 1986, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos left his Manila palace for exile in Hawaii, ending his 20-year rule in the wake of a tainted election.
In 1991, 28 Americans died when an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, during the Persian Gulf war.
In 1993 President Clinton ordered the military to mount an airdrop of food and supplies into Bosnia-Herzegovina for "strictly humanitarian purposes," representing the first unilateral U.S. military involvement in Yugoslavia's civil war.
In 1994 American-born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein opened fire with an automatic rifle inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he was beaten to death by Palestinian worshipers.