Personal Rule: King Charles I of England dissolved Parliament and began 11 years of ruling alone (1629)

Alexander Graham Bell: made the first telephone call: "Watson, come here; I want you" (1876)

rings of Uranus: were discovered (1977)

syzygy: all the planets were on the same side of the Sun (1982)

Amistad case: the US Supreme Court ruled that the mutineers had been taken into slavery illegally and should be freed (1841)

See It Now: TV newsmagazine aired an episode critical of the communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy; it contributed to the senator's eventual downfall (1954)

Barbie: foot-high fashion doll — full name: Barbie Millicent Roberts — was launched at the New York Toy Fair; a billion have now been sold (1959)

New York Times v. Sullivan: the US Supreme Court protected the press from libel suits by public figures unless there was actual malice (1964)

Gnadenhutten massacre: nearly 100 Native American converts to Christianity were murdered by militiamen during the American Revolution in revenge for raids carried out by other Native Americans (1782)

New York Stock Exchange: the world's largest stock exchange by dollar volume received its constitution and its name (1817)

FBI: 9 men from the US Secret Service were moved to the Justice Department, forming the Bureau of Investigation — later to become the FBI (1909)

cloture: the US Senate voted in a method of bringing endless debates — filibusters — to an end (1917)

Nelson Pillar: Dublin's granite column topped with a statue of Lord Nelson, the British hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, was destroyed by an IRA bomb (1966)

Daniel Webster: orator delivered his Seventh of March speech defending the Compromise of 1850 (1850)

telephone: transmitter/receiver of sound was patented by Alexander Graham Bell (1876)

fair use: the US Supreme Court ruled in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music that parodies are not copyright infringements (1994)

Toronto: Canada's largest city, and one of the most livable cities in the world, was incorporated (1834)

the Alamo: fort was overrun by Mexican troops during the Texas revolution; all inside were killed (1836)

Dred Scott case (1857): US Supreme Court ruled that slaves were not citizens; the decision was overturned a decade later by the 14th amendment

Stars and Bars: first of several Confederate flags was adopted (1861)