This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

February 5

Today is Superbowl Sunday in the United States. The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons will meet in Houston, Texas to decide the NFL Championship.

Today is also Nat'l Weatherpersons' Day in the U.S., but, I'd still look out the window.


Events

1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1807 – HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Java disappear off the coast of Rodrigues.

1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.

1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.

1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.

1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.

1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Births

1840 – John Boyd Dunlop (tires); 1840 – Hiram Maxim; 1878 – André Citroën (Citroën cars); 1900 – Adlai Stevenson II; 1906 – John Carradine; 1914 – William S. Burroughs; 1919 – Red Buttons; 1919 – Tim Holt; 1934 – Hank Aaron; 1940 – H. R. Giger; 1941 – Stephen J. Cannell; 1941 – Cory Wells; 1942 – Roger Staubach; 1943 – Nolan Bushnell (founded Atari); 1943 – Michael Mann; 1944 – Al Kooper; 1946 – Charlotte Rampling; 1947 – Darrell Waltrip; 1948 – Christopher Guest; 1948 – Barbara Hershey; 1948 – Errol Morris; 1961 – Tim Meadows; 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh; 1964 – Laura Linney; 1964 – Duff McKagan; 1967 – Chris Parnell; 1969 – Bobby Brown; 1969 – Michael Sheen; 1971 – Sara Evans; 1986 – Reed Sorenson

Deaths

1881 – Thomas Carlyle; 1922 – Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (invented the Mechanical pencil); 1967 – Leon Leonwood Bean; 1991 – Dean Jagger; 1995 – Doug McClure; 1998 – Tim Kelly; 2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

[Gravdigr]

February 6

Today is observed as an (deep breath) International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (phew, talk about a long day, sheesh).

California, Wisconsin, and 21 other U.S. states celebrate Ronald Reagan Day today.

Meanwhile, the Kiwis observe Waitangi Day, celebrating the founding of New Zealand.

Also, the Sapporo Snow Festival begins today, in Sapporo, Japan.


Events

1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.

1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.

1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.

1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.

1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.

1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.

1918 – British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.

1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.

1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. ("For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl [she was 26] climbed into a tree one day a Princess and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen — God bless her." ~Jim Corbett)

1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

1958 - George Harrison joined Liverpool group The Quarrymen.

1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.

1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.

1990 - Billy Idol suffered serious injuries when he failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed his Harley-Davidson into a car. Idol had been James Cameron's first choice for the role of the villainous T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day; the role was recast entirely as a result of the accident.

1996 – Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.

1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.

1998 - American singer and guitarist Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys died, aged 51, after a long battle with lung cancer.

1998, Austrian singer Falco (Johann Holzel) was killed in a road accident after his car collided with a bus. He scored the 1986 UK & US No.1 single 'Rock Me Amadeus' making him the first-ever Austrian act to score a UK and US No.1 hit single.

2001 - Guitarist Don Felder was fired from The Eagles. He would later launch a $50 million law suit against drummer Don Henley and guitarist Glen Frey, alleging wrongful termination and breach of implied-in-fact contract. Henley and Frey then countersued Felder for breach of contract, alleging that Felder had written and attempted to sell the rights to a "tell-all" book. Both parties settled out-of-court for an undisclosed amount.

2011 - Irish guitarist and singer Gary Moore died in his sleep of a heart attack in his hotel room while on holiday in Estepona, Spain.

2012 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits near the central Philippines off the coast of Negros Island causing at least 51 deaths and injuring 112 others.

2013 – A 8.0 magnitude earthquake hits the Solomon Islands killing 10 people and injuring 17 others.

2016 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits southern Taiwan, killing at least 38 people and injuring over 530 more. [I'm making preparations to be somewhere flat with no buildings or cliffs in the future on this date. Helluva day for earthquakes.]

Births

1756 – Aaron Burr (3rd VPOTUS); 1833 – J. E. B. Stuart; 1895 – Babe Ruth; 1911 – Ronald Reagan(40th POTUS); 1912 – Eva Braun (Adolf's main squeeze); 1913 – Mary Leakey; 1914 – Thurl Ravenscroft (voice of Tony The Tiger "They'rrrrre Grrreat!", sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"); 1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor; 1922 – Patrick Macnee (The Avengers (1961)); 1931 – Rip Torn; 1932 – François Truffaut (director Fahrenheit 451); 1939 – Mike Farrell ('B.J. Hunnicutt' on M*A*S*H); 1940 – Tom Brokaw (talking head); 1941 – Dave Berry♪ ♫; 1943 – Fabian Forte♪ ♫; 1944 – Michael Tucker (L.A. Law); 1945 – Bob Marley♪ ♫; 1946 – Richie Hayward(Little Feat); 1946 – Kate McGarrigle♪ ♫; 1949 – Jim Sheridan (co-writer, director of My Left Foot); 1950 – Natalie Cole♪ ♫; 1957 – Kathy Najimy; 1957 – Robert Townsend; 1962 – Axl Rose (whiny-voiced asshole); 1964 – Gordon Downie♪ ♫(The Tragically Hip); 1966 – Rick Astley♪ ♫

Continued in next post

[Gravdigr]

Continued from previous post

Deaths

1918 – Gustav Klimt; 1952 – George VI; 1958 – victims of the Munich air disaster: Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Walter Crickmer, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Frank Swift, Tommy Taylor; 1981 – Hugo Montenegro♪ ♫; 1990 – Jimmy Van Heusen; 1991 – Danny Thomas; 1993 – Arthur Ashe; 1994 – Joseph Cotten; 1998 - Carl Wilson♪ ♫(The Beach Boys); 1998 - Falco♪ ♫; 1999 – Jimmy Roberts♪ ♫; 2007 – Frankie Laine♪ ♫("He rode a blazing saddle, he wore a shining star, his job, to offer battle to bad men near and far"); 2009 – Philip Carey; 2009 – James Whitmore; 2011 – Gary Moore(Thin Lizzie)

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

February 6
snip--
Also, the Sapporo Snow Festival begins today, in Sapporo, Japan.

--snip

Also in the Pacific Northwest, especially around the Salish Sea / Puget Sound.

gah.

[Gravdigr]

February 7

1497 – The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs, during which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.

1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.

1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'accuse.

1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

1904 – A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

1907 – The Mud March is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.

1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1979 - Stephen Stills became the first rock performer to record on digital equipment in Los Angeles' Record Plant Studio.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-41-B: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.

1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.

1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.

1994 - Blind Melon's lead singer Shannon Hoon was forced to leave the American Music Awards ceremony for his loud and disruptive behaviour. Hoon was later charged with battery, assault, resisting arrest, and destroying a police station phone.

1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.

2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.

2013 – Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.

Births

1804 – John Deere; 1812 – Charles Dickens; 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder (author Little House On The Prairie book series); 1873 – Thomas Andrews (designer of the RMS Titanic); 1885 – Sinclair Lewis (author Elmer Gantry); 1887 – Eubie Blake; 1906 – Puyi; 1906 – Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov (Antonov Aircraft Company); 1908 – Buster Crabbe; 1915 – Eddie Bracken; 1919 – Jock Mahoney; 1920 – Oscar Brand♪ ♫; 1922 – Hattie Jacques; 1932 – Gay Talese; 1934 – Earl King♪ ♫; 1946 – Sammy Johns (sang "Chevy Van", and that's alright with me); 1946 – Pete Postlethwaite; 1949 – Joe English(Wings); 1955 – Miguel Ferrer; 1956 – Mark St. John(KISS); 1960 – Robert Smigel (puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog); 1960 – James Spader; 1962 – Garth Brooks♪ ♫; 1962 – David Bryan(Bon Jovi); 1962 – Eddie Izzard; 1965 – Chris Rock; 1972 – Robyn Lively; 1975 – Wes Borland(Limp Bizkit); 1978 – Ashton Kutcher; 1985 – Tina Majorino (ther little girl with a map of Dry Land tattooed on her back 'Enola' in Waterworld); 1999 – Bea Miller♪ ♫

Deaths

1871 – Henry E. Steinway♪ ♫; 1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone (founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company); 1959 – Guitar Slim♪ ♫; 1979 – Josef Mengele; 1999 – King Hussein of Jordan; 2000 – Doug Henning; 2001 – Dale Evans; 2015 – Billy Casper

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

1904 – A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

This is the kind of thing that you read and you just kind of skim over it.

But can you imagine? Where do 1,500 families live while they rebuild? And how do you rebuild that many houses? How do you afford it if you are one of those families? Did they have insurance then?

How many families lived in those formaldehyde FEMA trailers after Katrina? Was it like that?

[xoxoxoBruce]

In less than 30 hours the fire lasted...

One reason for the fire's long duration involved the lack of national standards in firefighting equipment. Despite fire engines from nearby cities (such as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as well as units from New York City, Virginia, Wilmington, and Atlantic City) responding with horse-drawn pumpers, wagons and other related equipment (primitive by modern day standards, but only steam engines were motorized in that era) carried by the railroads on flat cars and box cars, many were unable to help since their hose couplings could not fit Baltimore's fire hydrants.

By railroad? Wow, clear the tracks. Philly, NYC, Wilmington, and Washington are on the main line but like Atlantic City, others would have to change tracks.

[Gravdigr]

February 8

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1693 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.

1865 – Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Slavery was outlawed in the United States, including Delaware, when the Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 6, 1865. Delaware ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on February 12, 1901, which was the ninety-second anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

1915 – D. W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.

1922 – United States President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio set in the White House.

1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.

1950 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.

1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.

1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

1973 - Max Yasgur died of a heart attack, aged 53. He was the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 - 18, 1969.

1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.

1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.

1986 – Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton.

1990 - Suffering from depression, American singer/songwriter Del Shannon died of self inflicted gunshot wounds.

1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.

1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.

2013 – A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada.

Births

1700 – Daniel Bernoulli; 1820 – William Tecumseh Sherman; 1828 – Jules Verne; 1906 – Chester Carlson (invented Xerography); 1914 – Bill Finger (co-created Batman); 1921 – Lana Turner; 1922 – Audrey Meadows; 1925 – Jack Lemmon; 1930 – Alejandro Rey; 1931 – James Dean; 1932 – John Williams♪ ♫; 1940 – Ted Koppel; 1941 – Nick Nolte; 1941 – Tom Rush♪ ♫; 1942 – Robert Klein; 1942 – Terry Melcher♪ ♫(record producer, only child of Doris Day); 1944 – Roger Lloyd-Pack; 1948 – Dan Seals♪ ♫(England Dan & John Ford Coley, younger brother of Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts); 1949 – Brooke Adams; 1950 – Cristina Ferrare; 1953 – Mary Steenburgen; 1955 – John Grisham; 1955 – Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart; 1960 – Stu Hamm; 1961 – Vince Neil♪ ♫(Motely Crue); 1968 – Gary Coleman ("Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"); 1969 – Mary McCormack (In Plain Sight); 1974 – Seth Green

Deaths

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots; 1725 – Peter the Great; 1936 – Charles Curtis (31st VPOTUS); 1956 – Connie Mack; 1960 – Giles Gilbert Scott (designed the Red telephone box & Liverpool Cathedral); 1973 - Max Yasgur♪ ♫(owned the farm where Woodstock was held); 1990 – Del Shannon♪ ♫; 1994 – Raymond Scott♪ ♫; 1999 – Iris Murdoch; 2007 – Anna Nicole Smith

[Gravdigr]

February 9

474 – Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The British Parliament declares Massachusetts [to be] in rebellion.

1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as the sixth President of the United States.

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Confederate Convention at Montgomery, Alabama.

1870 – US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.

1889 – US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.

1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.

1913 – A group of meteors is visible across much of the eastern seaboard of North and South America, leading astronomers to conclude the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth.

1941 – World War II: The Cathedral of San Lorenzo in Genoa, Italy is struck by a bomb, which fails to detonate.

1942 – Year-round Daylight Saving Time is re-instated in the United States as a wartime measure to help conserve energy resources.

1943 – World War II: Allied authorities declare Guadalcanal secure after Imperial Japan evacuates its remaining forces from the island, ending the Battle of Guadalcanal.

1950 – Second Red Scare: US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a "record-busting" audience of 73 million viewers across the USA.

1965 – The United States Marine Corps sends a MIM-23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops in-country without an official advisory or training mission.

1971 – Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be voted into the USA's Baseball Hall of Fame.

1986 – Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.

1991 – Voters in Lithuania vote for independence.

Births

1737 – Thomas Paine; 1773 – William Henry Harrison (9th POTUS); 1846 – Wilhelm Maybach (of the Mercedes tuning Maybachs); 1874 – Amy Lowell; 1901 – Brian Donlevy (Beau Geste); 1909 – Heather Angel (Hound of the Baskervilles); 1909 – Carmen Miranda♪ ♫; 1909 – Dean Rusk; 1914 – Ernest Tubb♪ ♫; 1922 – Kathryn Grayson (Showboat, Anchors Aweigh, Kiss Me Kate); 1928 – Frank Frazetta; 1928 – Roger Mudd; 1930 – Garner Ted Armstrong; 1941 – Sheila Kuehl ('Zelda' on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis); 1942 – Carole King♪ ♫; 1943 – Joe Pesci; 1945 – Mia Farrow; 1947 – Joe Ely♪ ♫; 1947 – Major Harris♪ ♫; 1949 – Judith Light (Who's the Boss?); 1953 – Ciarán Hinds; 1955 – Charles Shaughnessy (The Nanny); 1960 – Holly Johnson♪ ♫(Frankie Goes To Hollywood); 1963 – Travis Tritt♪ ♫; 1976 – Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia); 1981 – Tom Hiddleston; 1987 – Michael B. Jordan (Fantastic Four, Creed)

Deaths

1555 – John Hooper; 1881 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (The Brothers Karamazov, Crime & Punishment); 1969 – George "Gabby" Hayes; 1981 – Bill Haley♪ ♫; 1984 – Yuri Andropov; 1995 – David Wayne (The Tender Trap, The Andromeda Strain); 2005 – Robert Kearns (invented the windscreen wiper); 2007 – Ian Richardson (House of Cards (British series), Grey Poupon commercials); 2010 – Walter Frederick Morrison (invented the Frisbee); 2012 – Joe Moretti♪ ♫; 2015 – Ed Sabol (co-founded NFL Films)

[Gravdigr]

February 10

1258 – Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed.

1306 – In front of the high altar of Greyfriar's Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murders John Comyn sparking revolution in the Wars of Scottish Independence.

1567 – Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, is found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.

1763 – French and Indian War: The Treaty of Paris ends the war and France cedes Quebec to Great Britain.

1840 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom marries Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

1870 – The YWCA is founded in New York City.

1906 – The Royal Navy battleship HMS Dreadnought was launched, representing such a marked advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships.

1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days later.

1942 – The first gold record is presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo".

1943 – World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engages German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor.

1954 – United States President Dwight Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.

1962 – Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

1962 – Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for.

1996 – IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time.

2009 – The first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit took place when Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collided and destroyed each other.

Births

1775 – Charles Lamb; 1846 – Lord Charles Beresford; 1890 – Boris Pasternak; 1892 – Alan Hale, Sr.; 1893 – Jimmy Durante; 1898 – Bertolt Brecht; 1901 – Stella Adler; 1905 – Chick Webb; 1906 – Lon Chaney, Jr. (he was seen walking with the Queen, doin the werewolves of London); 1927 – Leontyne Price; 1929 – Jerry Goldsmith; 1930 – Robert Wagner; 1939 – Roberta Flack; 1944 – Peter Allen; 1950 – Mark Spitz; 1955 – Jim Cramer; 1955 – Greg Norman; 1959 – John Calipari; 1961 – George Stephanopoulos; 1962 – Cliff Burton(Metallica); 1964 – Glenn Beck; 1967 – Laura Dern; 1967 – Vince Gilligan; 1974 – Elizabeth Banks; 1982 – Justin Gatlin; 1991 – Emma Roberts; 1997 – Chloë Grace Moretz

Deaths

1837 – Alexander Pushkin; 1923 – Wilhelm Röntgen; 1957 – Laura Ingalls Wilder; 1966 – Billy Rose; 1992 – Alex Haley; 2000 – Jim Varney; 2005 – Arthur Miller; 2008 – Roy Scheider; 2010 – Charles Wilson; 2014 – Shirley Temple; 2015 - Slick W. Cat

[xoxoxoBruce]

Aha, that's why the Comet channel is running a Shirley Temple marathon.

[Gravdigr]

February 11

World Day of the Sick, a feast day of the Roman Catholic Church, is observed on this date.

Today is Inventors' Day, in the U.S.


Events

660 BC – According to tradition, Emperor Jimmu founded Japan and established his capital in Yamato.

55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome, clearing the way for Nero to become Emperor.

1790 – The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for the abolition of slavery.

1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public.

1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.

1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of "gerrymandering" for the first time.

1840 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.

1843 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy.

1858 – Bernadette Soubirous experiences her first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France.

1861 – American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.

1903 – Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.

1937 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers.

1938 – BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot".

1939 – A Lockheed P-38 Lightning flies from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.

1943 – World War II: General Dwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

1953 – U.S.President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

1971 – Eighty-seven countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, sign the Seabed Arms Control Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.

1973 – Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.

1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1981 – Around 100,000 US gallons (380 m3) of radioactive coolant leak into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear power plant in Tennessee, contaminating eight workers.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.

1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's World Heavyweight title, and cause the largest upset in sports history.

1992 - Mötley Crüe fired their singer Vince Neil when he turned up for rehearsals, claiming that he had lost his passion for the band and was now more involved with racing cars.

1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

1998 - The hand-written lyrics to Elton John's hit 'Candle in the Wind' written by Bernie Taupin were auctioned off at Christie's in LA for £278,512.

2001 – A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.

2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of president Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests.

2012 - Whitney Houston was found dead in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. Local police said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent." It was later ruled by the coroner to have been an "accidental drowning".

Births

1466 – Elizabeth of York; 1800 – Henry Fox Talbot; 1812 – Alexander H. Stephens (Vice President of the Confederate States of America); 1847 – Thomas Edison; 1909 – Max Baer; 1914 – Josh White♪ ♫; 1917 – Sidney Sheldon; 1919 – Eva Gabor; 1921 – Lloyd Bentsen ("Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."); 1925 – Virginia E. Johnson (Masters & Johnson); 1925 – Kim Stanley (the narrator of To Kill A Mockingbird, 'Pancho Barnes' in The Right Stuff); 1926 – Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun movies, Airplane! movies, Police Squad!); 1934 – Tina Louise ('Ginger' on Gilligan's Island); 1934 – Manuel Noriega; 1934 – John Surtees; 1935 – Gene Vincent; 1936 – Burt Reynolds; 1937 – Phillip Walker♪ ♫; 1939 – Gerry Goffin♪ ♫(co-wrote "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "The Loco-Motion", "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", "Saving All My Love for You", et al); 1941 – Sérgio Mendes; 1943 – Stan Szelest(The Band, Ronnie Hawkins, Lonnie Mack); 1953 – Jeb Bush; 1961 – Carey Lowell (Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Licence to Kill ); 1962 – Sheryl Crow♪ ♫; 1964 – Sarah Palin; 1964 – Ken Shamrock; 1969 – Jennifer Aniston; 1971 – Damian Lewis (Life, Homeland, Band of Brothers); 1974 – Isaiah Mustafa (The Man Your Man Could Smell Like); 1976 – Peter Hayes♪ ♫(Black Rebel Motorcycle Club); 1977 – Mike Shinoda♪ ♫(Linkin Park); 1979 – Brandy Norwood♪ ♫(Moesha); 1981 – Kelly Rowland♪ ♫(Destiny's Child); 1982 – Natalie Dormer(Game of Thrones, The Tudors); 1984 – Aubrey O'Day♪ ♫(Danity Kane)

Deaths

55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus; 1503 – Elizabeth of York; 1650 – René Descartes; 1868 – Léon Foucault (Foucault pendulum); 1959 – Marshall Teague; 1963 – Sylvia Plath; 1976 – Lee J. Cobb; 1985 – Henry Hathaway; 1986 – Frank Herbert; 1994 – Neil Bonnett; 1994 – Sorrell Booke ('Boss Hogg' on The Dukes of Hazzard); 1994 – William Conrad; 2006 – Peter Benchley (author Jaws, The Deep, The Island); 2008 – Frank Piasecki (pioneered tandem rotor helicopter designs, a la Chinook); 2010 – Alexander McQueen (fashion designer); 2012 – Whitney Houston♪ ♫; 2013 – Rick Huxley(Dave Clark Five); 2015 – Bob Simon; 2015 – Jerry Tarkanian (NCAA basketball coach famous for chewing a towel on the sidelines)

[Gravdigr]

On the upside, Whitney just made five years clean and sober.

[xoxoxoBruce]

World Day of The Sick? Perfect for all the sick fuckers around here.

[Gravdigr]

February 12

The U.S. state of Georgia celebrates the arrival of the first colonists to the thirteenth of the original Thirteen Colonies with Georgia Day.

Today is Darwin Day, celebrating the birth date of Charles Darwin and his contributions to science.

Today, is a legal public holiday in the U.S. celebrating the birth date of Abraham Lincoln.

Also observed today is National Freedom to Marry Day, ion the U.S., promoting and bringing awareness to same sex marriage.

Our friends and neighbors in Canadia mark this day as Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Day.

And, finally, the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted this date as Red Hand Day, drawing attention to the fates of child soldiers in war and armed conflict.


Events

1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.

1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.

1593 – Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwon Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.

1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).

1855 – Michigan State University is established.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

1915 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.

1924 – George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music", in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.

1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured German U-boats.

1947 – The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.

1963 – Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

1967 - 15 police officers raided Redlands, the West Sussex home of The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards during a weekend party. The police who were armed with a warrant issued under the dangerous drugs act took away various substances for forensic tests. George and Pattie Harrison had been at the house, but it was said that the police waited for them to leave before they raided the house in order not to bust the holder of an MBE.

1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.

1977 - Pink Floyd released their tenth studio album Animals in the US, where it reached No.3 in the charts. The album's cover image, a pig floating between two chimneys on Battersea Power Station, was conceived by bassist Roger Waters and realised by long-time design and photographic collaborators Hipgnosis.

1989 - Aretha Franklin lost a court case against Broadway producer Ashton Springer, who sued for $1 million (£0.58 million) when Aretha failed to turn up for rehearsals for the stage show Sing Mahalia Sing, blaming her fear of flying on the non appearance.

1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.

1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.

1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

2003 - Former Doors drummer John Densmore took out legal action against The Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger for breach of contract, trademark infringement and unfair competition. The band had reformed with Ex- Cult singer Ian Astbury and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Densmore said "It shouldn't be called The Doors if it's someone other than Jim Morrison singing."

2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.

2016 – Pope Francis met Patriarch Kirill at José Martí International Airport in Cuba, the first meeting between the pontiff of the Catholic Church and the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, together they signed the Havana Declaration.

Births

41 - Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus; 1663 – Cotton Mather; 1775 – Louisa Adams (6th FLOTUS); 1809 – Charles Darwin; 1809 – Abraham Lincoln (16th POTUS); 1876 – 13th Dalai Lama; 1877 – Louis Renault (founded Renault automobiles); 1893 – Omar Bradley; 1904 – Ted Mack; 1915 – Lorne Greene; 1919 – Forrest Tucker; 1923 – Franco Zeffirelli; 1926 – Joe Garagiola, Sr.; 1926 – Charles Van Doren (quiz show cheater); 1928 – Vincent Montana, Jr.(MFSB); 1930 – Arlen Specter; 1936 – Joe Don Baker; 1938 – Judy Blume; 1939 – Ray Manzarek(The Doors); 1942 – Ehud Barak; 1944 – Moe Bandy♪ ♫; 1945 – Maud Adams; 1948 – Ray Kurzweil; 1950 – Steve Hackett(Genesis); 1950 – Michael Ironside (B-movies); 1952 – Simon MacCorkindale; 1952 – Michael McDonald(Steely Dan, Doobie Bros); 1953 – Joanna Kerns; 1956 – Arsenio Hall; 1956 – Brian Robertson(Thin Lizzy, Motorhead); 1966 – Paul Crook♪ ♫(Meat Loaf, Anthrax, Sebastian Bach); 1968 – Josh Brolin; 1968 – Chynna Phillips♪ ♫; 1969 – Darren Aronofsky; 1974 – 'Prince' Naseem Hamed; 1980 – Christina Ricci; 1984 – Brad Keselowski

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