On This Day in History

Ilse Koch, wife of Karl-Otto Koch, the Nazi commander of the Buchenwald and Majdanek concentration camps, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a West German court.

The Derveni papyrus (fragment pictured), the oldest surviving manuscript in Europe, was discovered in Macedonia in northern Greece.

The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the American football championship game now known as Super Bowl I.

The Republic of Biafra surrendered following a failed attempt at secession from Nigeria, ending the Nigerian Civil War.

American serial killer Dennis Rader, also known as the "BTK killer", murdered his first four victims.

Portugal and the nationalist factions UNITA, the MPLA and the FNLA signed the Alvor Agreement, ending the Angolan War of Independence.

The American serial police-procedural television show Hill Street Blues aired its pilot episode, "Hill Street Station".

The Victoria Cross for Australia was instituted, making Australia the first Commonwealth realm with a separate Victoria Cross award in its honours system.

US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of Canada geese during its climb out from New York City and made an emergency landing in the Hudson River (featured).