The United States and Cuba reestablished diplomatic relations that had been suspended for more than 50 years. [Take our quiz about the U.S. and Cuba.]

North Korean ruler Kim Jong Il died; he was succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong-Un.

Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after being harassed by municipal officials, giving rise to Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and helping inspire the Arab Spring; he died from his injuries the following month. [Test your knowledge of plots and revolutions.]

The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was signed by the leaders of Mexico, Canada, and the United States. It was replaced by the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement in 2020.

The secretary of the U.S. Air Force announced the end of Project Blue Book, a controversial program that had investigated UFOs since 1952. The decision followed a report by the University of Colorado that found no evidence any investigated UFO had been a threat to national security or was proof of extraterrestrial existence. [What do we really know about UFOs?]

Jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Sy Oliver, one of the leading music arrangers of the 1930s and ’40s, was born in Battle Creek, Michigan. [How much do you know about musicians?]

Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful sustained flights in an airplane—Orville first, gliding 120 feet (36.6 metres) through the air in 12 seconds—at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

The first issue of Vogue was published. Initially a weekly high-society journal, it became a prominent American fashion magazine, with Diana Vreeland and Anna Wintour among its most notable and influential editors. [Test your knowledge of fashion.]

With Napoleon’s decree of Milan, all neutral countries and allies of France were forbidden to trade with Britain. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about Napoleon.]

French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes and King Louis XVI decided to recognize the United States as an independent country, making France one of the first countries to do so. The recognition became official on February 6, 1778, when the two countries signed a treaty of alliance that involved France financially and militarily in the American Revolution.

Deborah Sampson, who assumed a man’s identity in order to join the 4th Massachusetts Regiment and fight in the American Revolution, was born in Plympton, Massachusetts. She was also one of the first women to lecture professionally in the United States. [Take our quiz about notable women in history.]

Nzinga, a Mbundu queen, died in Matamba. Today she is considered the “mother of the nation” in Angola. [Discover the stories of seven other women warriors.]

Pope Paul III excommunicated King Henry VIII over his divorce of Catherine of Aragon and remarriage with Anne Boleyn. [Who were Henry VIII’s six wives?]