BIRTHS

Isaac Rice (1850-1915), a German-born American player, who financed many chess tournaments and known for his Rice Gambit.
Fritz Carl Englund (1871-1933), a Swedish chess player, known for the Englund Counterattack and the Englund Gambit.
Florencio Campomanes (1927-03.05.2010), a Filipino Master who became the 5th FIDE President.
Lewis Ncube (1958), a Zambian chess player who became FIDE Continental President of Africa in 2014.
Predrag Ostojic (1938-05.7.1996), a Yugoslav Grandmaster and Yugoslav Champion in 1968 and 1971.
James Tardjan (1952), an American Grandmaster who won American a team gold medal at the 1976 Olympiad.
Sporodon Skembris (1958), a Greek grandmaster and coach who was Greek champion in 1981, 1984, 1989 and 1993.
Michail Gurevich (1959), a Belgian Grandmaster who won four different national championships: Ukraine, Soviet Union, Belgium, and Turkey.
Deimante Daulyte (1989), a Lithuanian International Master and Woman Grandmaster who won the women’s Lithuanian Championship in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2012 and 2013.
Monika Mueller-Seps (1986), a Swiss Woman Grandmaster

CHESS EVENTS

1996 Zs. Polgar HUN became the new Women’s World Champion. She defeated Xie Jun CHN 8½-4½.

WORLD EVENTS 

1371 Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.
1746 French troops conquer Brussels.
1821 Spain sells (east) Florida to United States for $5 million.
1848 – The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
1856 The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.
1882 The Serbian kingdom is refounded.
1900 Hawaii became a US territory.
1907 1st cabs with taxi meters begin operating in London.
1942 World War II: President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defenses collapse.
1948 Communist coup in Czechoslovakia.
1971 Lt Gen Hafiz al-Assad becomes President of Syria
1972 Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani becomes Emir & Prime Minister of Qatar
2014 President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine is impeached by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine by a vote of 328–0, fulfilling a major goal of the Euromaidan rebellion.
2014 Matteo Renzi becomes Prime Minister of Italy.2014 Marit Bjørgen of Norway becomes the most successful female Winter Olympian with 10 medals.

(Source: Wikipedia-Onthisday)

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