This Day in History

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January 26

Today our friends and Dwellers down under celebrate Australia Day.


Events

1531 – The Lisbon earthquake kills about thirty thousand people.

1564 – The Council of Trent establishes an official distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

1699 – For the first time, the Ottoman Empire permanently cedes territory to the Christian powers.

1700 – The Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.

1808 – Governor of New South Wales William Bligh (pictured) was deposed by the New South Wales Corps in the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history. Known as the Rum Rebellion.

1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.

1856 – First Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.

1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.

1863 – American Civil War: Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from the Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1870 – Reconstruction Era: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1905 – The world's largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats (0.621350 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.

1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1920 – Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer. Leyland also founded (or co-founded) Cadillac Motor Cars.

1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

1945 – World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action (at the age of 19) at the Colmar Pocket, for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor. Audie Murphy's Medal of Honor Citation.

1949 – The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).

1965 - During a Rolling Stones tour of Australia and New Zealand, guitarist Keith Richards had his shirt torn off after 50 fans invaded the stage during the gig at The Town Hall in Brisbane. And on Australia Day, too.

1980 - Prince made his TV debut on the US show American Bandstand. When interviewed after his performance the singer froze up and struggled to reply to the questions he was being asked.

1986 - Allen Collins, guitarist from Lynyrd Skynyrd, crashed his car, paralyzing him from the waist down and killing his girlfriend Debra Jean Watts. Collins had survived the plane crash in 1977 that killed two other band members. As part of his plea bargain for the 1986 accident, Collins addressed fans at every Skynyrd concert with an explanation of why he could not perform, citing the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as drugs and alcohol.

1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Liar.

2003 - Billy Joel was airlifted to a hospital after his car smashed into a tree in The Hamptons. The singer lost control of his Mercedes S500 and skidded for 100 yards before crashing.

2005 – Glendale train crash: Two trains derail killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles. The derailment is caused by an SUV parked on the tracks. The SUV owner was charged with, and convicted of, 11 counts of murder "with special circumstances". Ultimately, he was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole.

Births

1832 – George Shiras, Jr.; 1880 – Douglas MacArthur; 1891 – Frank Costello "The Prime Minister of the Underworld" (mob boss); 1905 – Charles Lane; 1905 – Maria von Trapp (of the The Sound of Music von Trapps); 1913 – Jimmy Van Heusen; 1918 – Nicolae Ceaușescu; 1921 – Eddie Barclay (founded Barclay Records); 1921 – Akio Morita (co-founded Sony); 1925 – Joan Leslie (Sergeant York); 1925 – Paul Newman; 1935 – Bob Uecker ("I must be in the front row."); 1941 – Scott Glenn; 1944 – Merrilee Rush♪ ♫; 1944 – Jerry Sandusky (kiddie fiddler); 1946 – Gene Siskel; 1949 – David Strathairn; 1951 – Christopher North(Ambrosia); 1953 – Lucinda Williams♪ ♫; 1955 – Eddie Van Halen(Van Halen, duh); 1958 – Anita Baker♪ ♫; 1961 – Wayne Gretzky "The Great One"; 1961 – Tom Keifer♪ ♫(Cindrella); 1963 – Andrew Ridgeley♪ ♫(Wham!); 1970 – Kirk Franklin♪ ♫

Deaths

1893 – Abner Doubleday; 1932 – William Wrigley, Jr. (the gum guy); 1948 – John Lomax♪ ♫; 1962 – Charles "Lucky" Luciano; 1973 – Edward G. Robinson; 1979 – Nelson Rockefeller (41st VPOTUS); 1983 – Bear Bryant; 1992 – José Ferrer; 1997 – Jeane Dixon; 2004 – Fred Haas; 2011 – Charlie Louvin♪ ♫(Louvin Bros); 2016 – Abe Vigoda (no, he really was dead this time)

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January 27

Today, our friends and Dwellers in Canadia celebrate Family Literacy Day.

Also, the liberation of the remaining inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp is commemorated by many countries on this date as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.


Events

98 – Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.

1302 – Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.

1825 – The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on what became known as the "Trail of Tears".

1880 – Thomas Edison receives the patent on the incandescent lamp.

1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

1943 – World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.

1944 – World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

1945 – World War II: The Red Army liberates the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.

1967 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The astronauts' rescue was prevented by the plug door hatch, which could not be opened against the higher internal pressure of the cabin.

1967 – The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

1970 - John Lennon wrote, recorded and mixed his new single 'Instant Karma!' all in one day. It ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded at London's Abbey Road Studios and arriving in stores only ten days later.

1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.

1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day. [Really Germany? It took you over 50 fucking years?]

2003 – The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.

2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.

2013 – Two hundred forty-two people die in a nightclub fire in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.

2015 - Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were given a song writing credit on Sam Smith's hit 'Stay With Me', because of the similarities to his 1989 track 'I Won't Back Down'. 'Stay With Me' had been nominated for three Grammys, including song of the year - which honors the writers of the track. Petty's publisher had contacted Smiths publisher who made an out of court settlement.

Births

1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; 1795 – Eli Whitney Blake (invented the Mortise lock); 1832 – Lewis Carroll (wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass); 1885 – Jerome Kern♪ ♫; 1900 – Hyman G. Rickover; 1901 – Art Rooney (founded the Pittsburgh Steelers); 1905 – Howard McNear (Mayberry's barber 'Floyd The Barber'); 1908 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr.; 1918 – Skitch Henderson; 1918 – Elmore James; 1919 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (created Alvin and the Chipmunks); 1921 – Donna Reed; 1930 – Bobby "Blue" Bland♪ ♫; 1936 – Troy Donahue; 1937 – Buddy Emmons♪ ♫(pedal steel guitarist); 1940 – James Cromwell ("That'll do, Pig. That'll do."); 1940 – Reynaldo Rey; 1942 – John Witherspoon; 1944 – Nick Mason(Pink Floyd); 1946 – Nedra Talley♪ ♫(The Ronettes); 1948 – Mikhail Baryshnikov; 1951 – Brian Downey(Thin Lizzy); 1951 – Seth Justman(The J. Geils Band, wrote "Centerfold"); 1952 – G. E. Smith(Hall & Oates, Bob Dylan's touring band, musical director SNL); 1955 – John Roberts (Chief Justice SCOTUS); 1956 – Mimi Rogers; 1957 – Janick Gers(Iron Maiden); 1957 – Frank Miller (comic book artist, graphic novelist); 1959 – Cris Collinsworth; 1959 – Keith Olbermann; 1964 – Bridget Fonda; 1965 – Alan Cumming; 1966 – Tamlyn Tomita (Four Rooms); 1968 – Mike Patton♪ ♫(Faith No More); 1969 – Patton Oswalt

Deaths

98– Nerva; 1596 – Francis Drake; 1851 – John James Audubon; 1901 – Giuseppe Verdi♪ ♫; 1910 – Thomas Crapper; 1922 – Nellie Bly; 1967 – Roger B. Chaffee, Gus Grissom, & Ed White; 1972 – Mahalia Jackson♪ ♫; 1989 – Thomas Sopwith; 1994 – Claude Akins (Movin' On, BJ & The Bear); 2004 – Jack Paar; 2006 – Gene McFadden♪ ♫(McFadden & Whitehead); 2009 – John Updike (wrote Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest, & Rabbit Remembered); 2010 – J. D. Salinger (author The Catcher in the Rye); 2011 – Charlie Callas; 2014 – Pete Seeger

[xoxoxoBruce]

Family Literacy Day? Those Canucks have some strange ideas.

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January 28

Today is Data Privacy Day. If mind your own bidness, then you won't be minding mine.


Events

814 – Charlemagne dies of pleurisy in Aachen as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son Louis the Pious as king of the Frankish Empire.

1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine-year-old son, Edward VI, becomes King.

1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Kitts.

1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann.

1813 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is first published in the UK.

1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.

1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).

1909 – United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish–American War.

1922 – Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.'s biggest snowfall, causes the city's greatest loss of life when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre collapses and kills 98 people.

1938 – The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph).

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first American television appearance.

1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

1964 – An unarmed United States Air Force T-39 Sabreliner on a training mission is shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.

1977 – The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumps 10 feet (3.0 m) of snow in one day in Upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas are most affected.

1980 – USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsizes, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.

1982 – US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.

1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Births

1457 – Henry VII of England; 1864 – Charles Williams Nash (Nash Motors); 1864 – Herbert Akroyd Stuart (invented the hot-bulb engine and Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine); 1887 – Arthur Rubinstein; 1890 – Robert Stroud <--Interesting read.(the real Bird Man of Alcatraz); 1912 – Jackson Pollock; 1936 – Alan Alda; 1940 – Carlo$ $lim; 1948 – Charles Taylor; 1951 – Billy Bass Nelson(Parliament-Funkadelic); 1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy; 1959 – Frank Darabont; 1959 – Dave Sharp♪ ♫(The Alarm); 1968 – Sarah McLachlan♪ ♫; 1969 – Mo Rocca; 1976 – Rick Ross♪ ♫; 1977 – Joey Fatone♪ ♫(NSYNC); 1980 – Nick Carter♪ ♫(Backstreet Boys); 1981 – Elijah Wood ('Frodo'); 1998 – Ariel Winter (Modern Family)

Deaths

814 – Charlemagne; 1547 – Henry VIII; 1939 – W. B. Yeats; 1986 - Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Dick Scobee, & Michael J. Smith; 1988 – Klaus Fuchs; 1996 – Jerry Siegel (co-created Superman); 2005 – Jim Capaldi♪ ♫(Traffic); 2009 – Billy Powell(Lynyrd Skynyrd); 2016 – Paul Kantner♪ ♫(Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship)

[xoxoxoBruce]

If mind your own bidness, then you won't be minding mine.

Unfortunately there are people making big bucks minding your bidness, so they won't stop... neither will the gumint.

I seem to remember my first PC as having about 500 MB of ram, and the old hands (who had one a year before me), put the fear of Bill Gates in me not to try to overfill or the blue screen of death would get me. Like being potty trained, or the monster under the bed, it stayed with me.

Now when I clear my cookies, which I do a half dozen times a day, there will be several hundred MB, and occasionally 8 or 9 hundred. Yeah some is the make things more better surfing the net, but a shitload of the in info gathering.

[Gravdigr]

Apologies for missing yesterday's installment.

Better late than never.


January 29

1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.

1834 – US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

1845 – "The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.

1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.

1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

1863 – The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women, and children.

1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.

1967 – The "ultimate high" of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.

1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.

2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.

2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

Births

1754 – Moses Cleaveland; 1756 – Henry Lee III; 1761 – Albert Gallatin; 1843 – William McKinley; 1860 – Anton Chekhov; 1880 – W. C. Fields; 1901 – Allen B. DuMont; 1913 – Victor Mature; 1917 – John Raitt; 1918 – John Forsythe; 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky; 1936 – James Jamerson; 1937 – Bobby Scott; 1940 – Katharine Ross; 1945 – Tom Selleck; 1948 – Marc Singer; 1949 – Tommy Ramone; 1950 – Ann Jillian; 1954 – Terry Kinney; 1954 – Oprah Winfrey; 1960 – Greg Louganis; 1962 – Nicholas Turturro; 1968 – Edward Burns; 1970 – Heather Graham; 1970 – Paul Ryan; 1975 – Sara Gilbert; 1979 – Andrew Keegan; 1981 – Jonny Lang; 1982 – Adam Lambert

Deaths

661 – Ali; 757 – An Lushan; 1820 – George III; 1933 – Sara Teasdale; 1956 – H. L. Mencken; 1963 – Robert Frost; 1964 – Alan Ladd; 1977 – Freddie Prinze; 1980 – Jimmy Durante; 1992 – Willie Dixon; 2008 – Margaret Truman; 2009 – Hélio Gracie; 2015 – Rod McKuen

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January 30

516 BCE – The Second Temple of Jerusalem finishes construction.

1649 – King Charles I of England is beheaded.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed. See 1649, immediately above.

1703 – The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.

1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.

1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.

1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.

1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.

1862 – The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.

1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people.

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.

1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.

1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.

1969 – The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

1973 - After recently changing their name from Wicked Lester, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss made their first appearance as KISS at the Popcorn Club in Queens, New York.

1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary. See 1862, above.

1979 – A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.

1982 - American blues guitarist/singer Lightnin' Hopkins died of cancer aged 70.

1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner". [A PC virus disguised as an APPLE boot program?]

1988 - During a court case involving Holly Johnson and ZTT Records it was revealed that Frankie Goes To Hollywood had not played on their hits 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes'. The court was told that top session musicians were used to make the records.

1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.

2003 – The Kingdom of Belgium officially recognizes same-sex marriages.

2016 - David Bowie left an estate valued at about $100m (£70m), according to his will which was filed in New York. Half would go to his widow, Iman, along with the home they shared in New York. The rest was shared between his son and daughter. Bowie's personal assistant, Corinne Schwab, was left $2m and another $1m went to a former nanny, Marion Skene.

Births

1882 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd POTUS); 1914 – John Ireland; 1915 – John Profumo (the Profumo affair); 1922 – Dick Martin; 1925 – Douglas Engelbart (invented the computer mouse); 1925 – Dorothy Malone (Written On The Wind, Peyton Place); 1930 – Gene Hackman; 1935 – Elsa Martinelli; 1937 – Jeanne Pruett♪ ♫; 1937 – Vanessa Redgrave; 1937 – Boris Spassky; 1941 – Dick Cheney (46th VPOTUS); 1942 – Marty Balin♪ ♫(Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship); 1947 – Steve Marriott(Humble Pie, Small Faces); 1951 – Phil Collins(Genesis); 1951 – Charles S. Dutton (Roc, Alien 3, Threshold); 1957 – Payne Stewart; 1959 – Jody Watley♪ ♫; 1974 – Christian Bale; 1980 – Wilmer Valderrama

Deaths

1836 – Betsy Ross; 1838 – Osceola; 1889 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria; 1934 – Frank Nelson Doubleday (founded Doubleday Publishing Company); 1948 – Mahatma Gandhi; 1948 – Orville Wright; 1951 – Ferdinand Porsche; 1958 – Ernst Heinkel (founded Heinkel Aircraft Company); 1980 – Professor Longhair♪ ♫; 1982 - Lightnin' Hopkins; 2006 – Coretta Scott King; 2007 – Sidney Sheldon; 2014 – The Mighty Hannibal♪ ♫

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January 31

314 – Pope Sylvester I succeeds Pope Miltiades. It is not known how Pope Tweety Bird fits into the chronology. You'd have to ask Pope Granny.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.

1747 – The first VD clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. And there was much rejoicing.

1801 – John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.

1846 – After the Milwaukee Bridge War(<--Interesting read.), Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify as the City of Milwaukee.

1848 – John C. Frémont is court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.

1849 – Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom pursuant to legislation in 1846.

1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification.

1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

1915 – World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.

1917 – World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.

1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.

1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.

1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

1944 – World War II: During the Anzio campaign the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at the Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

1950 – United States President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1958 – The first successful American satellite detects the Van Allen radiation belt.

2001 – In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.

2009 – In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed and over 200 injured following an oil spillage ignition in Molo.

2010 – Avatar becomes the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

2011 – A winter storm hits North America for the second time in the same month, causing $1.8 billion in damage across the United States and Canada and killing 24 people.

Births

1673 – Louis de Montfort; 1797 – Franz Schubert; 1872 – Zane Grey; 1892 – Eddie Cantor; 1902 – Tallulah Bankhead; 1914 – Jersey Joe Walcott; 1915 – Alan Lomax; 1919 – Jackie Robinson; 1920 – Stewart Udall; 1921 – Carol Channing; 1921 – Mario Lanza; 1922 – Joanne Dru; 1923 – Norman Mailer; 1929 – Jean Simmons; 1931 – Ernie Banks; 1934 – James Franciscus; 1937 – Suzanne Pleshette; 1938 – Beatrix of the Netherlands; 1941 – Dick Gephardt; 1944 – Charlie Musselwhite; 1947 – Nolan Ryan; 1951 – Harry Wayne Casey; 1956 – John Lydon; 1959 – Anthony LaPaglia; 1959 – Kelly Lynch; 1970 – Minnie Driver; 1973 – Portia de Rossi; 1977 – Kerry Washington; 1981 – Justin Timberlake

Deaths

1606 – Guy Fawkes; 1956 – A. A. Milne; 1974 – Samuel Goldwyn; 2016 – Terry Wogan

[xoxoxoBruce]

Pope Sylvester I succeeds Pope Miltiades.

[Gravdigr]

February 1

February is Black History Month in the U.S. and Canada, while the United Kingdom celebrates LGBT History Month.

Today is Nat'l Freedom Day in the U.S.

February is also Nat'l Bird Feeding Month in the U.S.

World Hijab Day is observed on this date. So get a hijab ya bum.

There are 333 days remaining in 2017.

There are 326 days until Christmas.


Events

1327 – Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.

1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the Union.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.

1942 – Voice of America (VOA), the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.

1953 – North Sea flood of 1953 was caused by a heavy storm which occurred overnight, 31 January-1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.K.

1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is filmed and photographed by Eddie Adams.

1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.

1979 – Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.

1981 – The Underarm bowling incident of 1981 occurred when Trevor Chappell bowls underarm on the final delivery of a game between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

1991 – A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.

1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal disaster case.

2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.

2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

2004 – Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured.

2009 – The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country's first female prime minister and the world's first openly LGBT head of government.

2013 – The Shard, the tallest building in the European Union, is opened to the public.

Births

1894 – John Ford; 1901 – Frank Buckles (at his death (in 2011) he was the last surviving veteran of WW I); 1901 – Clark Gable; 1902 – Langston Hughes; 1904 – S.J. Perelman; 1909 – George Beverly Shea♪ ♫; 1923 – Ben Weider (well known in two areas: Bodybuilding and Napoleonic history); 1931 – Boris Yeltsin; 1934 – Bob Shane♪ ♫(The Kingston Trio); 1937 – Don Everly♪ ♫(Everly Bros); 1937 – Garrett Morris (President of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing); 1937 – Ray Sawyer♪ ♫(Dr. Hook); 1938 – Jimmy Carl Black(The Mothers Of Invention); 1938 – Sherman Hemsley(The Jeffersons, Amen); 1939 – Del McCoury♪ ♫(The Del McCoury Band); 1939 – Joe Sample; 1942 – Bibi Besch; 1942 – Terry Jones (Monty Python); 1947 – Jessica Savitch; 1948 – Rick James Bitch♪ ♫; 1950 – Mike Campbell(Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers); 1950 – Rich Williams(Kansas); 1951 – Sonny Landreth; 1954 – Chuck Dukowski(Black Flag); 1964 – Jani Lane♪ ♫(Warrant); 1964 – Linus Roache (Law & Order); 1965 – Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee); 1965 – Sherilyn Fenn; 1968 – Lisa Marie Presley; 1968 – Pauly Shore; 1969 – Andrew Breitbart; 1969 – Patrick Wilson(Weezer); 1971 – Michael C. Hall (Dexter); 1971 – Ron Welty(The Offspring); 1986 – Lauren Conrad; 1987 – Ronda Rousey; 1994 – Harry Styles♪ ♫(One Direction)

Deaths

1851 – Mary Shelley; 1940 – Philip Francis Nowlan (created Buck Rogers); 1966 – Hedda Hopper; 1966 – Buster Keaton; 1976 – Werner Heisenberg (physicist and namesake of 'Walter White's' alter ego in Breaking Bad); 1981 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. (of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation); 1988 – Heather O'Rourke ("They're heeeeere."); 2003 – crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia: Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William C. McCool, Ilan Ramon; 2005 – John Vernon (The Outlaw Josey Wales); 2012 – Don Cornelius (host of Soul Train for 22 years); 2013 – Ed Koch; 2014 – Maximilian Schell

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February 2

Today most of the U.S. and Canadia celebrates Groundhog Day, but Alaska, Alaska just haaaad to be different. They will be celebrating Marmot Day.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated on this date, as well.


Events

1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda. [I didn't know Stephen King was that old. Also, I thought he was from Maine.]

1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England, which is just down the road from Therefordshire.

1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.

1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe's adventure book Robinson Crusoe.

1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.

1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.

1899 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.

1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.

1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.

1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiration of the Iditarod race.

1935 – Leonarde Keeler administers polygraph tests to two murder suspects, the first time polygraph evidence was admitted in U.S. courts.

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last German troops in the city.

1959 - Buddy Holly, Richard Valens and The Big Bopper all appeared at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa. This was all three acts' last ever gig, before being killed in a plane crash the following day.

1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

1973 - Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmer injured his hands when his piano, rigged to explode as a stunt, detonated prematurely during a concert in San Francisco.

1979, Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York City. There had been a party to celebrate Vicious' release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Party guests, said that Vicious had taken heroin at midnight. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon and heroin residue were discovered near the body.

1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.

1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.

1993 - Willie Nelson agreed to pay $9 million of the $16.7 million he owed the Internal Revenue Service. His accountants, Price Waterhouse, had not been paying Nelson's taxes for years.

2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.

2004 - TV network CBS apologised for its broadcast of the American Super Bowl after Janet Jackson was left exposed when Justin Timberlake ripped her top. The pair had been performing a raunchy half-time duet when one of Jackson's breasts was exposed as Timberlake pulled at her top. CBS quickly cut away from the scene but was still flooded with calls from angry viewers about the half-time entertainment, produced by MTV. Timberlake insisted it had been an accident saying "I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half-time performance of the Super Bowl."

Births

1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston (General in three (3) separate armies, The United States Army, The Confederate States Army, & The Army of The Republic of Texas); 1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim; 1882 – James Joyce; 1895 – George Halas (owner/founder of THE Chicago Bears); 1897 – Howard Deering Johnson (founded Howard Johnson's); 1905 – Ayn Rand; 1923 – James Dickey (the writer, not the actor); 1925 – Elaine Stritch; 1927 – Stan Getz♪ ♫; 1932 – Robert Mandan (Soap); 1933 – M'el Dowd; 1937 – Tom Smothers (The Smothers Bros.); 1942 – Graham Nash♪ ♫(Crosby, Stills, & Nash); 1946 - Howard Bellamy♪ ♫(The Bellamy Bros); 1947 – Farrah Fawcett; 1949 – Brent Spiner ('Data' on Star Trek TNG); 1949 – Ross Valory(Journey, Frumious Bandersnatch and Steve Miller Band); 1952 – Rick Dufay♪ ♫(Aerosmith); 1954 – Christie Brinkley; 1966 – Robert DeLeo(Stone Temple Pilots, Hollywood Vampires); 1977 – Shakira♪ ♫

Deaths

1918 – John L. Sullivan; 1969 – Boris Karloff; 1979 – Sid Vicious(Sex Pistols); 1987 – Alistair MacLean; 1992 – Bert Parks (host of Miss America pageant for 24 years); 1995 – Donald Pleasence ("The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep"); 1996 – Gene Kelly♪ ♫; 1999 – David McComb♪ ♫(The Triffids, The Blackeyed Susans); 2004 – Bernard McEveety (director/producer Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, The Big Valley,Young Maverick, How the West Was Won); 2005 – Max Schmeling); 2013 – Chris Kyle (wrote American Sniper (his autobiography)); 2014 – Philip Seymour Hoffman; 2016 – Bob Elliott (Bob & Ray, Chris Elliott's father)

[DanaC]

1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England, which is just down the road from Therefordshire.

*snort*

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February 3

Today is Four Chaplains Day in the U.S.


Events

1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are killed by the Condottieri (papal armed forces) in the "Cesena Bloodbath".

1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.

1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.

1809 – The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.

1834 – Wake Forest University is established.

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

1943 – The SS Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survive. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.

1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 and 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.

1959 – The Day The Music Died: Deaths of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.

1967 - Producer Joe Meek shot his landlady Violet Shenton and then shot himself at his flat in London.

1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.

1972 – The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.

1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.

1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

2004 - R. Kelly appeared in court and entered of plea of not guilty to 21 charges of child pornography. Kelly, who was free on bond, did not talk during the brief hearing. Outside the Cook County Criminal Courthouse fans voiced their support for the singer, proclaiming his innocence with placards and T-shirts. Kelly had been arrested in Florida after he was indicted by a grand jury in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography, stemming from a videotape that allegedly shows the star performing sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl.

Births

1807 – Joseph E. Johnston; 1809 – Felix Mendelssohn; 1811 – Horace Greeley ("Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."); 1859 – Hugo Junkers (designed the Junkers J 1); 1874 – Gertrude Stein; 1894 – Norman Rockwell; 1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd; 1907 – James A. Michener; 1918 – Joey Bishop; 1920 – Henry Heimlich; 1925 – John Fiedler ('Lawyer Daggett' in True Grit); 1935 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson♪ ♫; 1938 – Victor Buono; 1939 – Michael Cimino; 1940 – Fran Tarkenton; 1943 – Blythe Danner; 1945 – Bob Griese; 1947 – Dave Davies♪ ♫(The Kinks); 1947 – Stephen McHattie; 1950 – Morgan Fairchild; 1956 – Nathan Lane; 1962 – Michele Greene; 1965 – Maura Tierney; 1969 – Beau Biden; 1969 – Retief Goosen; 1970 – Warwick Davis

Deaths

1468 – Johannes Gutenberg; 1883 – Richard Wagner; 1889 – Belle Starr; 1924 – Woodrow Wilson (28th POTUS); 1935 – Hugo Junkers; 1959 – The Day the Music Died, The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens; 1961 – Anna May Wong; 1989 – John Cassavetes; 1991 – Nancy Kulp (Miss Hathaway on The Beverly Hillbillies); 1996 – Audrey Meadows (The Honeymooners); 2006 – Al Lewis ('Grandpa' on The Munsters); 2010 – Frances Reid (Days of Our Lives); 2012 – Ben Gazzara; 2012 – Zalman King

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February 4

Today Missouri and California celebrate Rosa Parks Day.

Today is also World Cancer Day, so...Fuck cancer.

This day marks the approximate mid-point of winter, in the Northern Hemisphere, and the approximate mid-point of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.


Events

1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.

1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.

1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.

1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

1945 – World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.

1974 – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.

1977 – A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history.

1992 – A coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

1996 – Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and ties all-time record low temperature at −26 °F (−32.2 °C).

1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.

1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.

2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Births

1895 – Nigel Bruce ('Dr. Watson' in Sherlock Holmes movies); 1900 – Jacques Prévert; 1902 – Charles Lindbergh; 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh (discovered planet Pluto); 1912 – Byron Nelson; 1913 – Rosa Parks; 1915 – William Talman; 1918 – Ida Lupino; 1923 – Conrad Bain (Diff'rent Strokes); 1936 – David Brenner; 1940 – George A. Romero; 1941 – John Steel; 1947 – Dan Quayle (44th POTUS); 1948 – Alice Cooper; 1949 – Michael Beck; 1951 – Patrick Bergin; 1951 – Phil Ehart; 1959 – Lawrence Taylor; 1962 – Clint Black; 1970 – Gabrielle Anwar; 1973 – Oscar De La Hoya; 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia; 1977 – Gavin DeGraw

Deaths

211 – Septimius Severus; 1555 – John Rogers; 1894 – Adolphe Sax; 1975 – Louis Jordan; 1982 – Alex Harvey; 1983 – Karen Carpenter; 1987 – Liberace; 1992 – John Dehner; 2005 – Ossie Davis; 2006 – Betty Friedan; 2007 – Barbara McNair; 2016 – Dave Mirra; 2016 – Maurice White