Person report

★20 Feb 1816
Italian composer Gioachino Rossini's opera buffa The Barber of Seville was hissed at by the audience during its debut at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

★21 Feb 1828
The inaugural issue of the Cherokee Phoenix, the first newspaper in a Native American language, was published.

★02 Mar 1836
Texas Revolution: At a convention of delegates in Washington-on-the-Brazos, the Mexican state of Texas adopted a declaration of independence, establishing the Republic of Texas.

★21 Jun 1851
Germen chess master Adolf Anderssen defeated Lionel Kieseritzky in the Immortal Game, using bold sacrificial play.

★22 Aug 1851
The yacht America won the Cup of One Hundred Sovereigns race, later renamed the America's Cup, near the Isle of Wight, England.

★21 Aug 1858
The first of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, candidates for an Illinois seat in the United States Senate, was held in Ottawa.

★06 Feb 1862
Union forces earned one of their first important victories in the American Civil War at the Battle of Fort Henry in western Tennessee.

★29 Jul 1862
American Civil War: Confederate spy Belle Boyd was arrested by Union troops after her lover turned her in.

★12 Jun 1864
Union General Ulysses S. Grant pulled his troops out of the Battle of Cold Harbor in Hanover County, Virginia, ending one of the bloodiest, most lopsided battles in the American Civil War.

★07 Mar 1871
José Paranhos, Viscount of Rio Branco, became Prime Minister of the Empire of Brazil, starting a four-year rule, the longest in the state's history.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.