This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

February 17

Today is Random Act Of Kindness Day, so do something nice for someone.


Events

364 – Roman Emperor Jovian dies after a reign of eight months. He is found dead in his tent at Tyana (Asia Minor) en route back to Constantinople in suspicious circumstances.

1621 – Myles Standish is appointed as first commander of the English Plymouth Colony in North America.

1801 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.

1819 – The United States House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the first time.

1863 – A group of citizens of Geneva, Switzerland founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the International Committee of the Red Cross.

1864 – American Civil War: The H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the USS Housatonic.

1865 – American Civil War: Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.

1904 – Madama Butterfly receives its première at La Scala in Milan.

1933 – Newsweek magazine is first published.

1944 – World War II: The Battle of Eniwetok begins: The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.

1959 – Project Vanguard: Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.

1965 – Project Ranger: The Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing.

1972 – Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model T.

1974 – Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.

1980 – First winter ascent of Mount Everest by Krzysztof Wielicki and Leszek Cichy.

1989 - David Coverdale married actress Tawny Kitaen (known for her provocative appearances in Whitesnake's music videos 'Here I Go Again, 'Is This Love' and 'Still of the Night'). The couple divorced in 1991.

1996 – In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.

Births

1844 – Aaron Montgomery Ward; 1877 – André Maginot (Maginot Line); 1910 – Marc Lawrence; 1914 – Arthur Kennedy; 1916 – Raf Vallone; 1924 – Margaret Truman (author, only child of Harry & Bess Truman); 1925 – Hal Holbrook; 1930 – Ruth Rendell; 1931 – Buddy Ryan; 1934 – Barry Humphries (played Dame Edna Everage); 1935 – Christina Pickles; 1936 – Jim Brown; 1937 – Mary Ann Mobley(Miss America 1959); 1940 – Gene Pitney♪ ♫; 1942 – Huey P. Newton (co-founded the Black Panther Party); 1950 – Rickey Medlocke(Blackfoot, Lynyrd Skynyrd); 1954 – Lou Ann Barton♪ ♫; 1954 – Rene Russo; 1956 – Richard Karn ('Al Borland' on Home Improvement); 1959 – Rowdy Gaines; 1962 – Lou Diamond Phillips; 1963 – Larry the Cable Guy ("Git r done!"); 1963 – Michael Jordan; 1965 – Michael Bay; 1970 – Dominic Purcell; 1971 – Denise Richards; 1972 – Billie Joe Armstrong♪ ♫(Green Day); 1972 – Taylor Hawkins(Foo Fighters, Alanis Morissette); 1974 – Jerry O'Connell; 1981 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3rd Rock From The Sun, Looper); 1981 – Paris Hilton (famous for being famous); 1989 – Chord Overstreet (Glee); 1991 – Ed Sheeran♪ ♫

Deaths

364 – Jovian; 1909 – Geronimo; 1961 – Nita Naldi; 1982 – Thelonious Monk; 1982 – Lee Strasberg; 1994 – Randy Shilts; 2005 – Dan O'Herlihy; 2006 – Bill Cowsill♪ ♫(The Cowsills); 2010 – Kathryn Grayson♪ ♫; 2012 – Michael Davis(MC5); 2013 – Mindy McCready♪ ♫; 2014 – Bob Casale(Devo)

[xoxoxoBruce]

1996 – In Philadelphia, world champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.

Spawning the expression, "only in Philadelphia".

[Gravdigr]

February 18

1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London.

1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March 1791, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.

1861 – In Montgomery, Alabama, Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as the provisional President of the Confederate States of America.

1878 – John Tunstall is murdered by outlaw Jesse Evans, sparking the Lincoln County War in Lincoln County, New Mexico.

1885 – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the United States.

1900 – Second Boer War: Imperial forces suffer their worst single-day loss of life on Bloody Sunday, the first day of the Battle of Paardeberg.

1911 – The first official flight with airmail takes place from Allahabad, United Provinces, British India (now India), when Henri Pequet, a 23-year-old pilot, delivers 6,500 letters to Naini, about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) away.

1930 – While studying photographs taken in January, Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto.

1930 – Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft. [Wonder how many times that has happened since?]

1954 – The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

1955 – Operation Teapot: Teapot test shot "Wasp" is successfully detonated at the Nevada Test Site with a yield of 1.2 kilotons. Wasp is the first of fourteen shots in the Teapot series.

1957 – Walter James Bolton becomes the last person legally executed in New Zealand.

1970 – The Chicago Seven are found not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

1972 – The California Supreme Court in the case of People v. Anderson, (6 Cal.3d 628) invalidates the state's death penalty and commutes the sentences of all death row inmates to life imprisonment.

1977 – The Space Shuttle Enterprise test vehicle is carried on its maiden "flight" on top of a Boeing 747.

1983 – Thirteen people die and one is seriously injured in the Wah Mee massacre in Seattle. It is said to be the largest robbery-motivated mass-murder in U.S. history.

1990 - Freddie Mercury made his final public appearance on stage when he joined the rest of Queen to collect the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music, held at the Dominion Theatre, London, England.

2001 – FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying for the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

2001 – Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt dies in an accident during the Daytona 500.

2004 – Up to 295 people, including nearly 200 rescue workers, die near Nishapur in Iran when a runaway freight train carrying sulfur, petrol and fertilizer catches fire and explodes.

2013 – Armed robbers steal a haul of diamonds worth $50 million during a raid at Brussels Airport in Belgium.

Births

1745 – Alessandro Volta (invented the battery, namesake of the volt); 1838 – Ernst Mach; 1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany; 1862 – Charles M. Schwab (co-founded Bethlehem Steel); 1890 – Edward Arnold; 1890 – Adolphe Menjou; 1892 – Wendell Willkie; 1898 – Enzo Ferrari; 1906 – Hans Asperger (namesake of Asperger's Syndrome); 1914 – Pee Wee King♪ ♫; 1919 – Jack Palance; 1920 – Bill Cullen (game show host); 1922 – Allan Melvin; 1925 – George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke, The Blue Knight, The Sons Of Katie Elder); 1929 – Len Deighton; 1931 – Johnny Hart (co-created The Wizard of Id); 1931 – Toni Morrison; 1933 – Yoko Ono; 1933 – Mary Ure; 1934 – Skip Battin♪ ♫(The Byrds, The New Riders of the Purple Sage, The Flying Burrito Brothers); 1939 – Bobby Hart (co-wrote and performed much of the Monkees' music); 1947 – Dennis DeYoung♪ ♫(Styx); 1948 – Keith Knudsen(The Doobie Bros); 1949 – Gary Ridgway (convicted serial killer The Green River Killer); 1950 – John Hughes; 1950 – Cybill Shepherd; 1952 – Juice Newton♪ ♫; 1953 – Robbie Bachman(Bachman-Turner Overdrive); 1954 – John Travolta; 1957 – Vanna White; 1960 – Greta Scacchi; 1964 – Matt Dillon; 1965 – Dr. Dre♪ ♫; 1968 – Molly Ringwald; 1974 – Jillian Michaels; 1977 – Sean Watkins♪ ♫(Nickel Creek); 1985 – Lee Boyd Malvo (Beltway Sniper attacks)

Deaths

1294 – Kublai Khan; 1405 – Timur; 1546 – Martin Luther; 1564 – Michelangelo; 1902 – Charles Lewis Tiffany; 1906 – John Batterson Stetson (Stetson Hats); 1933 – James J. 'Gentleman Jim' Corbett(Corbett defeated John L. Sullivan); 1964 – Joseph-Armand Bombardier (founded Bombardier Inc.); 1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer ("Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."); 1973 – Frank Costello "The Prime Minister of the Underworld"; 1977 – Andy Devine (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Stagecoach); 1981 – Jack Northrop (founded the Northrop Corporation which became Northrup-Grumman); 1998 – Harry Caray; 2006 – Bill Cowsill♪ ♫(The Cowsills); 2014 – Maria Franziska von Trapp

How damn many Cowsills and von Trapps are/were there, anyway? Can we have a week without one being born or dying?

[xoxoxoBruce]

1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective 4 March 1791, after that state had existed for 14 years as a de facto independent largely unrecognized state.

Vermont had their shit together, set up a democratic government, minted currency, told New York and Quebec to fuck off because Vermont would defend it's borders.

[Gravdigr]

February 19

1600 – The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina explodes in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America.

1674 – England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Westminster, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. A provision of the agreement transfers the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam to England, and it is renamed New York.

1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert.

1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government is officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transfers power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.

1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country.

1942 – World War II: Nearly 250 Japanese warplanes attack the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing 243 people.

1942 – World War II: United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.

1943 – World War II: Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia begins.

1945 – World War II: Battle of Iwo Jima: About 30,000 United States Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima.

1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford's Proclamation 4417.

1985 – William J. Schroeder becomes the first recipient of an artificial heart to leave the hospital.

2002 – NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

2012 – Forty-four people are killed in a prison brawl in Apodaca, Nuevo León, Mexico.

Births

1473 – Nicolaus Copernicus; 1911 – Merle Oberon; 1916 – Eddie Arcaro; 1924 – Lee Marvin; 1930 – John Frankenheimer; 1940 – Smokey Robinson♪ ♫(The Miracles); 1940 – Bobby Rogers♪ ♫(The Miracles); 1946 – Paul Dean(Loverboy); 1946 – Karen Silkwood (subject of movie Silkwood, played by Meryl Streep); 1948 – Mark Andes(Canned Heat, Spirit, Heart); 1948 – Tony Iommi(Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell); 1949 – Eddie Hardin(Spencer Davis Group); 1950 – Andy Powell♪ ♫(Wishbone Ash); 1952 – Amy Tan (author The Joy Luck Club); 1955 – Jeff Daniels (Escanaba in da Moonlight, Dumb And Dumber, Gods & Generals); 1956 – Kathleen Beller; 1957 – Falco♪ ♫; 1957 – Ray Winstone (Tracker); 1959 – Roger Goodell (clown); 1963 – Seal♪ ♫; 1965 – Jon Fishman(Phish); 1966 – Justine Bateman; 1967 – Benicio del Toro; 1972 – Sunset Thomas; 1975 – Daniel Adair(Nickelback); 1991 – Trevor Bayne; 1993 – Victoria Justice

Deaths

1916 – Ernst Mach; 1936 – Billy Mitchell; 1980 – Bon Scott♪ ♫(AC/DC); 1992 – Tojo Yamamoto; 1997 – Deng Xiaoping; 1998 – Grandpa Jones♪ ♫; 2001 – Stanley Kramer; 2003 – Johnny Paycheck; 2009 – Kelly Groucutt(ELO); 2016 – Umberto Eco; 2016 – Harper Lee

[xoxoxoBruce]

1976 – Executive Order 9066, which led to the relocation of Japanese Americans to internment camps, is rescinded by President Gerald Ford's Proclamation 4417.

He's responsible for losing all that slave labor and had to import Mexicans.

[Gravdigr]

February 20

Today the U.S. celebrates Presidents' Day.

The entirety of The Northern Hemisphere unites and comes together today as one people to celebrate Hoodie Hoo Day. So, hoodie hoo to you!

Today is also marked as a World Day of Social Justice. Dear Social Justice Warriors, Instead of celebrating this cause, how about you take the day off, and maybe cut the world just a little fucking slack, mmkay?


Events

1472 – Orkney and Shetland are pawned by Norway to Scotland in lieu of a dowry for Margaret of Denmark.

1547 – Edward VI of England is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey.

1685 – René-Robert Cavelier establishes Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay thus forming the basis for France's claim to Texas.

1792 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by United States President George Washington.

1816 – Rossini's opera The Barber of Seville premieres at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.

1872 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City.

1877 – Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake receives its premiere at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

1913 – King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra, Australia.

1931 – The Congress of the United States approves the construction of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge by the state of California.

1935 – Caroline Mikkelsen becomes the first woman to set foot on Antarctica.

1942 – Lieutenant Edward "Butch" O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

1943 – The Saturday Evening Post publishes the first of Norman Rockwell's Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.

1952 – Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League.

1956 – The United States Merchant Marine Academy becomes a permanent Service Academy.

1959 - 16 year old Jimi Hendrix made his stage debut when he played a show at the Temple De Hirsch Sinai synagogue in Seattle.

1962 – Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.

1965 – Ranger 8 crashes into the Moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program.

1971 – The United States Emergency Broadcast System is accidentally activated in an erroneous national alert.

1979 – An earthquake cracks Sinila volcanic crater in Dieng Plateau, releases poisonous hydrogen sulfide gas and kills 149 villagers in Indonesian province of Central Java.

1986 – The Soviet Union launches its Mir spacecraft. Remaining in orbit for 15 years, it is occupied for ten of those years.

2003 – During a Great White concert in West Warwick, Rhode Island, a pyrotechnics display sets the Station nightclub ablaze, killing 100 and injuring over 200 others.

2016 – Six people are killed and two injured in multiple shooting incidents in Kalamazoo County, Michigan.

Births

1902 – Ansel Adams; 1906 – Gale Gordon (Lucy's boss on The Lucy Show); 1921 – Buddy Rogers; 1924 – Gloria Vanderbilt; 1925 – Robert Altman; 1927 – Roy Cohn; 1927 – Sidney Poitier; 1929 – Amanda Blake (Long Branch Saloon owner 'Kitty Russell' on Gunsmoke); 1934 – Bobby Unser; 1937 – Roger Penske:drivng:; 1937 – Nancy Wilson♪ ♫; 1946 – J. Geils; 1942 – Mitch McConnell; 1946 – Sandy Duncan; 1946 – J. Geils♪ ♫(J. Geils Band); 1947 – Peter Strauss; 1949 – Ivana Trump; 1950 – Walter Becker♪ ♫(Steely Dan); 1951 – Edward Albert; 1951 – Gordon Brown; 1951 – Randy California♪ ♫; 1954 – Patty Hearst; 1963 – Charles Barkley; 1964 – French Stewart ('Harry' on 3rd Rock From The Sun); 1966 – Cindy Crawford; 1967 – Kurt Cobain; 1967 – Lili Taylor; 1984 – Trevor Noah; 1987 – Miles Teller (Whiplash); 1988 – Rihanna♪ ♫

Deaths

1893 – P. G. T. Beauregard; 1900 – Washakie; 1920 – Robert Peary; 1936 – Max Schreck (Nosferatu (1922)); 1966 – Chester W. Nimitz (America's last Fleet Admiral, namesake of the Nimitz-class of supercarrier); 1972 – Walter Winchell; 1992 – Dick York (Bewitched); 1993 – Ferruccio Lamborghini (yeah, that Lamborghini); 1999 – Gene Siskel; 2005 – Sandra Dee; 2005 – John Raitt♪ ♫(father of Bonnie Raitt); 2005 – Hunter S. Thompson; 2006 – Curt Gowdy; 2010 – Alexander Haig ("I am in control here.")

[xoxoxoBruce]

1942 – Lieutenant Edward "Butch" O'Hare becomes America's first World War II flying ace.

His daddy was one of Al Capone's lawyers.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

February 20

Today is also marked as a World Day of Social Justice. Dear Social Justice Warriors, Instead of celebrating this cause, how about you take the day off, and maybe cut the world just a little fucking slack, mmkay?

Do I detect a note of ever so slight weariness, good sir?

[Gravdigr]

February21

Today is International Mother Language Day, promoting awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. PFFT. You want linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism go to Wal-Mart.

Events

1613 – Mikhail I is unanimously elected Tsar by a national assembly, beginning the Romanov dynasty of Imperial Russia.

1804 – The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales.

1828 – Initial issue of the Cherokee Phoenix is the first periodical to use the Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah.

1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto.

1878 – The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument is dedicated.

1896 – An Englishman raised in Australia, Bob Fitzsimmons, fought an Irishman, Peter Maher, in an American promoted event which technically took place in Mexico, winning the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship in boxing.

1916 – World War I: In France, the Battle of Verdun begins.

1925 – The New Yorker publishes its first issue.

1947 – In New York City, Edwin Land demonstrates the first "instant camera", the Polaroid Land Camera, to a meeting of the Optical Society of America.

1948 – NASCAR is incorporated.

1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.

1965 – Malcolm X is assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom in New York City.

1971 – The Convention on Psychotropic Substances is signed at Vienna.

1972 – United States President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations.

1975 – Watergate scandal: Former United States Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman are sentenced to prison.

1995 – Steve Fossett lands in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada becoming the first person to make a solo flight across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon.

Births

1794 – Antonio López de Santa Anna; 1893 – Andrés Segovia; 1903 – Anaïs Nin; 1915 – Ann Sheridan; 1924 – Robert Mugabe; 1925 – Sam Peckinpah; 1927 – Erma Bombeck; 1933 – Nina Simone; 1934 – Rue McClanahan; 1943 – David Geffen; 1946 – Tyne Daly; 1946 – Alan Rickman; 1949 – Larry Drake; 1955 – Kelsey Grammer; 1958 – Mary Chapin Carpenter; 1961 – Christopher Atkins; 1963 – William Baldwin; 1964 – Mark Kelly, Scott Kelly; 1977 – Kevin Rose; 1979 – Jennifer Love Hewitt; 1986 – Charlotte Church; 1987 – Ellen Page; 1996 – Sophie Turner

Deaths

1965 – Malcolm X; 1974 – Tim Horton; 2008 – Ben Chapman (The Creature in The Creature From The Black Lagoon)

[xoxoxoBruce]

1958 – The CND symbol, aka peace symbol, commissioned by the Direct Action Committee in protest against the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, is designed and completed by Gerald Holtom.

I read the other day it was the combined semaphore signs for N and D, Nuclear Disarmament.

[Gravdigr]

February 22

Today is Robert Baden-Powell's birthday, and it is celebrated as Founder's Day/B.-P. Day by The World Organization of The Scout Movement.

Concurrently, The World Organizition of Girl Guides And Girl Scouts celebrates today as World Thinking Day.


Events

1371 – Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.

1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.

1797 – The last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.

1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.

1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded in State College, Pennsylvania (as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania).

1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.

1904 – The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.

1907 – Robert Baden-Powell made the first scouting camp in Brownsea, England.

1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.

1915 – World War I: The Imperial German Navy institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.

1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to deliver a radio address from the White House.

1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.

1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.

1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.

1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.

1995 – The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.

1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, Scottish scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.

2006 – At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.

Births

1732 – George Washington (1st POTUS); 1778 – Rembrandt Peale; 1810 – Frédéric Chopin; 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell (founded The Scout Association); 1889 – Olave Baden-Powell (founded the Girl Guides); 1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay; 1907 – Sheldon Leonard; 1907 – Robert Young; 1918 – Don Pardo; 1922 – Marshall Teague; 1929 – James Hong ("Seinfeld. Party of four."); 1932 – Ted Kennedy; 1933 – Ernie K-Doe♪ ♫; 1934 – Sparky Anderson; 1944 – Jonathan Demme; 1950 – Julius 'Dr. J' Erving; 1952 – Bill Frist; 1962 – Steve Irwin ("Crikey!"); 1963 – Vijay Singh; 1964 – Ed Boon (co-created Mortal Kombat); 1966 – Rachel Dratch; 1968 – Jeri Ryan; 1969 – Thomas Jane; 1973 – Scott Phillips(Creed); 1974 – James Blunt♪ ♫; 1975 – Drew Barrymore; 1986 – Rajon Rondo

Deaths

1890 – John Jacob A$tor III; 1985 – Efrem Zimbalist; 1987 – Andy Warhol; 1994 – Papa John Creach; 2002 – Chuck Jones; 2016 – Sonny James♪ ♫

[xoxoxoBruce]

1997 – In Roslin, Midlothian, Scottish scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.

A Scot and Dolly produce a lamb. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

[Gravdigr]

February 23

Today is Fat Thursday.

There are 47 days until Easter, 304 days until Christmas, and 311 days remaining in 2017.


Events

532 – Byzantine emperor Justinian I orders the building of a new Orthodox Christian basilica in Constantinople – the Hagia Sophia.

1455 – Traditional date for the publication of the Gutenberg Bible, the first Western book printed with movable type.

1739 – At York Castle, the outlaw Dick Turpin is identified by his former schoolteacher. Turpin had been using the name Richard Palmer.

1836 – Texas Revolution: The Siege of the Alamo (prelude to the Battle of the Alamo) begins in San Antonio, Texas.

1847 – Mexican–American War: Battle of Buena Vista: In Mexico, American troops under future president General Zachary Taylor defeat Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

1861 – President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington, D.C., after the thwarting of an alleged assassination plot in Baltimore, Maryland.

1870 – Reconstruction Era: Post-U.S. Civil War military control of Mississippi ends and it is readmitted to the Union.

1886 – Charles Martin Hall produced the first samples of man-made aluminum, after several years of intensive work. He was assisted in this project by his older sister, Julia Brainerd Hall.

1898 – Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing "J'accuse", a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

1903 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay (GitMo) to the United States "in perpetuity".

1905 – Chicago attorney Paul Harris and three other businessmen meet for lunch to form the Rotary Club, the world's first service club.

1917 – First demonstrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The beginning of the February Revolution (March 8th in the Gregorian calendar).

1927 – German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg writes a letter to fellow physicist Wolfgang Pauli, in which he describes his uncertainty principle for the first time.

1940 - Woody Guthrie wrote the lyrics to 'This Land Is Your Land' in his room at the Hanover House Hotel in New York City.

1941 – Plutonium is first produced and isolated by Dr. Glenn T. Seaborg.

1945 – World War II: During the Battle of Iwo Jima, a group of United States Marines and a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman reach the top of Mount Suribachi on the island and are photographed raising the American flag.

1945 – World War II: The German town of Pforzheim is annihilated in a raid by 379 British bombers.

1954 – The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.

1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army demands $4 million more to release kidnap victim Patty Hearst.

1980 – Iran hostage crisis: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini states that Iran's parliament will decide the fate of the American embassy hostages.

1983 – The United States Environmental Protection Agency announces its intent to buy out and evacuate the dioxin-contaminated community of Times Beach, Missouri.<--Interesting read.

1987 – Light from SN 1987A, a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, reaches the Earth.

1998 – In the United States, tornadoes in central Florida destroy or damage 2,600 structures and kill 42 people.

2002 - The Bee Gees made their last ever concert appearance when they appeared at the Love and Hope Ball, Miami Beach, Florida.

2007 – A train derails on an evening express service near Grayrigg, Cumbria, England, killing one person and injuring 88. This results in hundreds of points being checked over the UK after a few similar accidents.

2008 – A United States Air Force B-2 Spirit bomber crashes on Guam, marking the first operational loss of a B-2.

Births

1685 – George Frideric Handel; 1868 – W. E. B. Du Bois; 1915 – Paul Tibbets (pilot of the Enola Gay); 1932 – Majel Barrett ('Nurse Chapel' on Star Trek TOS, 'Lwaxana Troi' on Star Trek: TNG, Star Trek: DSN, ship's computer voices throughout); 1940 – Peter Fonda; 1944 – Johnny Winter; 1948 – Steve Priest(Sweet); 1951 – Ed "Too Tall" Jones; 1951 – Patricia Richardson (Home Improvement); 1952 – Brad Whitford(Aerosmith); 1955 – Howard Jones; 1958 – David Sylvian♪ ♫(Japan); 1962 – Michael Wilton(Queensrÿche); 1965 – Michael Dell (Dell Technologies); 1969 – Daymond John (Shark Tank, founded FUBU); 1994 – Dakota Fanning

Deaths

1821 – John Keats; 1848 – John Quincy Adams (6th POTUS); 1931 – Nellie Melba♪ ♫; 1944 – Leo Baekeland (Velox photographic paper, Bakelite); 1965 – Stan Laurel (Laurel & Hardy); 1995 – James Herriot (authored All Creatures Great And Small); 2003 – Howie Epstein(Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers)

[Gravdigr]

February 24

Carnival begins today.


Events

1607 – L'Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi, one of the first works recognized as an opera, receives its première performance.

1711 – The London première of Rinaldo by George Frideric Handel, the first Italian opera written for the London stage.

1803 – In Marbury v. Madison, the Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.

1831 – The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, the first removal treaty in accordance with the Indian Removal Act, is proclaimed. The Choctaws in Mississippi cede land east of the river in exchange for payment and land in the West.

1848 – King Louis-Philippe of France abdicates the throne.

1854 – A Penny Red with perforations was the first perforated postage stamp to be officially issued for distribution.

1863 – Arizona is organized as a United States territory.

1868 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.

1875 – The SS Gothenburg hits the Great Barrier Reef and sinks off the Australian east coast, killing approximately 100, including a number of high-profile civil servants and dignitaries.

1917 – World War I: The U.S. ambassador Walter Hines Page to the United Kingdom is given the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany pledges to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona to Mexico if Mexico declares war on the United States.

1920 – The Nazi Party is founded.

1942 – The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25.

1944 – Merrill's Marauders: The Marauders begin their 1,000-mile journey through Japanese occupied Burma.

1946 – Colonel Juan Perón, founder of the political movement that became known as Peronism, is elected to his first term as President of Argentina.

1968 – Vietnam War: The Tet Offensive is halted; South Vietnam recaptures Hué.

1984 – Tyrone Mitchell perpetrates the 49th Street Elementary School shooting in Los Angeles, killing two children and injuring 12 more.

1989 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issues a fatwa and offers a USD $3 million bounty for the death of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

1989 – United Airlines Flight 811 experienced an uncontrolled decompression after leaving Honolulu International Airport, Hawaii, killing nine passengers when their seats were sucked out of the plane.

1996 – Two civilian airplanes operated by the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue are shot down in international waters by the Cuban Air Force.

2008 – Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba and the Council of Ministers after 32 years. He remains as head of the Communist Party for another three years.

Births

1786 – Wilhelm Grimm, 1836 – Winslow Homer, 1874 – Honus Wagner, 1877 – Rudolph Ganz, 1885 – Chester W. Nimitz, 1890 – Marjorie Main, 1921 – Abe Vigoda, 1922 – Steven Hill, 1932 – John Vernon, 1938 – James Farentino, 1938 – Phil Knight, 1942 – Joe Lieberman, 1945 – Barry Bostwick, 1947 – Edward James Olmos, 1950 – George Thorogood, 1951 – Debra Jo Rupp, 1951 – Helen Shaver, 1955 – Steve Jobs, 1955 – Alain Prost, 1956 – Paula Zahn, 1958 – Sammy Kershaw, 1962 – Michelle Shocked, 1966 – Billy Zane, 1968 – Mitch Hedberg, 1977 – Floyd Mayweather, Jr.

Deaths

1815 – Robert Fulton, 1990 – Malcolm Forbes, 1990 – Johnnie Ray, 1991 – George Gobel, 1991 – Webb Pierce, 1994 – Dinah Shore, 1998 – Henny Youngman, 2004 – John Randolph, 2006 – Don Knotts, 2006 – Dennis Weaver, 2014 – Harold Ramis