This Day in History

On Feb. 9, 1964, the Beatles made their first live American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," broadcast from New York on CBS. The quartet played five songs, including "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand," to a crowd of screaming teenagers in person and more than 70 million viewers across the country.

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In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

In 1943, the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.

In 1950, in a speech to the Women's Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.

In 1971, a magnitude 6.6 earthquake in California's San Fernando Valley claimed 65 lives.

In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin Chernenko (chehr-NYEN'-koh), who would only be in power for 13 months before his own death in office.

In 1986, Halley's Comet made its closest pass by Earth since 1910. (The comet's next appearance will be in 2061).

In 2009, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs, telling ESPN he'd used banned substances while with the Texas Rangers for three years.

In 2020, "Parasite," a film from South Korea, won the Academy Award for Best Picture, becoming the first non-English language film to do so.

In 2021, the Senate moved ahead with a second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, rejecting arguments that the chamber could not proceed because Trump was no longer in office.

Today's birthdays: Artist Gerhard Richter is 93. Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee is 85. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 83. Actor Joe Pesci is 82. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is 82. Author Alice Walker is 81. Actor Mia Farrow is 80. Actor Judith Light is 76. Golf Hall of Famer Sandy Lyle is 67. Writer-producer David Simon (TV: "The Wire") is 65. Country singer Travis Tritt is 62. Baseball Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero is 50. Actor Charlie Day is 49. Actor Zhang Ziyi is 46. Actor Tom Hiddleston is 44. Actor Michael B. Jordan is 38. Actor Rose Leslie is 38. NFL running back Saquon Barkley is 28.