http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Feb 2, 1887: First Groundhog Day
On this day in 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.
Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas Day, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal--the hedgehog--as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State.
Groundhogs, also called woodchucks and whose scientific name is Marmota monax, typically weigh 12 to 15 pounds and live six to eight years. They eat vegetables and fruits, whistle when they're frightened or looking for a mate and can climb trees and swim. They go into hibernation in the late fall; during this time, their body temperatures drop significantly, their heartbeats slow from 80 to five beats per minute and they can lose 30 percent of their body fat. In February, male groundhogs emerge from their burrows to look for a mate (not to predict the weather) before going underground again. They come out of hibernation for good in March.
In 1887, a newspaper editor belonging to a group of groundhog hunters from Punxsutawney called the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club declared that Phil, the Punxsutawney groundhog, was America's only true weather-forecasting groundhog. The line of groundhogs that have since been known as Phil might be America's most famous groundhogs, but other towns across North America now have their own weather-predicting rodents, from Birmingham Bill to Staten Island Chuck to Shubenacadie Sam in Canada.
In 1993, the movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray popularized the usage of "groundhog day" to mean something that is repeated over and over. Today, tens of thousands of people converge on Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney each February 2 to witness Phil's prediction. The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club hosts a three-day celebration featuring entertainment and activities.
Feb 2, 1943: Germans surrender at Stalingrad
On this day, the last of the German forces fighting at Stalingrad surrender, despite Hitler's earlier declaration that "Surrender is out of the question. The troops will defend themselves to the last!"
The Battle of Stalingrad began in the summer of 1942, as German forces assaulted the city, a major industrial center and a potential strategic coup. But despite repeated attempts, the German 6th Army, under Friedrich von Paulus, and part of the 4th Panzer Army, under Ewald von Kleist, could not break past the adamantine defense by the Soviet 62nd Army, despite pushing the Soviets almost to the Volga River in mid-October and encircling Stalingrad.
Diminishing resources, partisan guerilla attacks, and the cruelty of the Russian winter began to take their toll on the Germans. On November 19, the Soviets made their move, launching a counteroffensive that began with a massive artillery bombardment of the German position. The Soviets then encircled the enemy, launching pincer movements from north and south simultaneously, even as the Germans encircled Stalingrad. The German position soon became untenable. Surrender was their only hope for survival. But Hitler wouldn't hear of it: "The 6th Army will hold its positions to the last man and the last round." Von Paulus held out until January 31, 1943, when he finally surrendered. Of more than 280,000 men under Paulus' command, half were already dead or dying, about 35,000 had been evacuated from the front, and the remaining 91,000 were hauled off to Soviet POW camps.
Pockets of German belligerence continued until February 2. Hitler berated Von Paulus for not committing suicide. Von Paulus, captured by the Soviets, repaid Hitler by selling out to the Soviets, joining the National Committee for Free Germany, and urging German troops to surrender on other battlegrounds in the USSR.
Feb 2, 1971: Idi Amin takes power in Uganda
One week after toppling the regime of Ugandan leader Milton Obote, Major General Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda and chief of the armed forces. Amin, head of the Ugandan army and air force since 1966, seized power while Obote was out of the country.
Ruling directly, Amin soon revealed himself as an extreme nationalist and tyrant. In 1972, he launched a genocidal program to purge Uganda of its Lango and Acholi ethnic groups. Later that year, he ordered all Asians to leave the country, and some 60,000 Indians and Pakistanis fled, thrusting Uganda into economic collapse. A Muslim, he reversed Uganda's friendly relations with Israel and sought closer ties with Libya and the Palestinians. In 1976, he made himself president for life and stepped up his suppression of various ethnic groups and political opponents in the military and elsewhere.
In 1978, Amin invaded Tanzania in an attempt to annex the Kagera region and divert attention from Uganda's internal problems. In 1979, Tanzania launched a successful counteroffensive with the assistance of the Uganda National Liberation Front, a coalition of various armed Ugandan exiles. Amin and his government fled the country, and Obote returned from exile to reassume the Ugandan presidency. Amin received asylum from Saudi Arabia. He is believed to have been responsible for the murder of as many as 300,000 Ugandans, though he never stood trial for his crimes.
Amin died on August 16, 2003, in Saudi Arabia.
Feb 2, 1781: Nathanael Greene finds fortification at Steele's Tavern
On this day in 1781, American General Nathanael Greene receives two bags of specie (coin as opposed to paper currency) from Elizabeth Maxwell Steele at her tavern in Salisbury, North Carolina--an incident later memorialized in a painting by Alonzo Chappel.
General Greene spent the night of February 1 until midnight awaiting the remaining militia from the previous day's encounter at Cowan's Ford in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. But the militia never arrived at the appointed meeting spot, David Carr's house on the road to the town of Salisbury, and General Greene soon learned of Brigadier General William Davidson's death at Cowan's Ford the previous day. He also learned that British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton's Dragoons had launched a surprise attack on Davidson's remaining forces gathered at Tarrant's (or Torrence's) Tavern six miles south of Carr's, killing between 10 and 50 men. The battle-weary militia took significant casualties before alighting on horseback.
Greene rode overnight and arrived at Steele's Tavern for breakfast on the morning of February 2. Once there, Greene told his physician, who was also at the tavern, that he was hungry and penniless. After overhearing their conversation, Mrs. Steele saw first to Greene's hunger with breakfast and then gave him the much-needed money to supply both him and his army.
With his mood boosted, Greene inscribed the back of Mrs. Steele's portrait of George III, O George, Hide thy face and mourn, before turning it to face the wall. The picture and inscription remain at the Thyatira Presbyterian Church Museum, in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Greene's circumstances improved greatly while in Salisbury. First, he garnered Mrs. Steele's aid. Second, he discovered a collection of more than 1,700 Continental arms stashed away for the militia. In writing Baron von Steuben the following day, Greene happily observed that the Patriot's distribution of publick stores is enough to ruin a nation.
Feb 2, 1979: Sid Vicious dies of a drug overdose in New York City
To the New York City Police Department and Medical Examiner's Office, he was John Simon Ritchie, a 22-year-old Englishman under indictment for murder but now dead of a heroin overdose in a Greenwich Village apartment. To the rest of the world, he was Sid Vicious, former bassist for the notorious Sex Pistols and the living embodiment of everything punk rock stood for and against. His death, which likely came as a surprise to very few, came on this day in 1979.
Sid Vicious was the last member to join the Sex Pistols, taking over for fired bassist Glen Matlock in early 1977. What he famously did not bring to the table was musical ability. Vicious faked his way through early gigs with the band, reportedly with his amplifier occasionally unplugged on stage by his own band mates. What he didn't have to fake was the attitude. Sid Vicious was the perfect living embodiment of the punk esthetic, a street kid who really did walk around London with a swastika on his chest, a padlocked chain around his neck and a gigantic chip on his shoulder. As his good friend the critic and author Alan Jones put it, "Sid, on image alone, is what all punk rests on."
Seven months into his tenure as a Sex Pistol, Sid Vicious was introduced to a troubled American girl on the London punk scene named Nancy Spungen. Almost immediately, they began a relationship that led to both of their deaths. By all reports, they were very much in love, but their shared heroin addiction led to repeated instances of violence between them. Sid's addiction may have hastened the dissolution of the Sex Pistols midway through their first U.S. tour in January 1978, and it certainly contributed to the still mysterious events surrounding Nancy's death by stabbing on October 12 of that same year in the Chelsea Hotel room she shared with Vicious in New York City.
Freed on bail after his arrest for the Spungen murder, Sid landed himself back in jail in December 1978 for assaulting Patti Smith's brother in a bar with a broken bottle. After seven weeks of detention and detox in the Rikers Island jail, Vicious made bail again on February 1, 1979. Late that same night, at a party, he would put heroin into his system that the Medical Examiner would later estimate to have been 80% pure. Sid Vicious died in the early morning hours of February 2, 1979.
Feb 2, 1882: James Joyce is born
Novelist James Joyce is born this day in Dublin, Ireland, the eldest of 10 children. His father, a cheerful ne'er-do-well, will eventually go bankrupt.
Joyce attended Catholic school and University College in Dublin. A brilliant scholar, he learned Dano-Norwegian in order to read the plays of Henrik Ibsen in the original. In college, he began a lifetime of literary rebellion, self-publishing an essay rejected by the school's literary magazine adviser.
After graduation, Joyce moved to Paris. He planned to become a doctor to support himself while writing, but soon gave up his medical studies. He returned to Dublin to visit his mother's deathbed and remained to teach school and work odd jobs. On June 16, 1904, he met Nora Barnacle, a lively uneducated woman with whom he fell in love. He convinced Nora to return to Europe with him. The couple settled in Trieste, where they had two children, and then in Zurich. Joyce struggled with serious eye problems, undergoing 25 operations for various troubles between 1917 and 1930.
In 1914, he published The Dubliners. The following year, his novel Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man brought him fame and won him several wealthy patrons, including Edith Rockefeller.
In 1818, the American journal Little Review began to serialize Ulysses, Joyce's revolutionary stream-of-consciousness novel. However, the U.S. Post Office stopped the publication's distribution in December of that year on the grounds that the novel was obscene. Sylvia Beach, owner of the bookstore Shakespeare and Co. in Paris, published the novel herself in 1922, but it was banned in the United Kingdom and in the United States until 1933.
Joyce's last novel, Finnegan's Wake, was published in 1939, and Joyce died two years later.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
506 - King Alarik II of Visigoten delegates Lex Romania
Visigothorum out
962 - Pope John XII crowns German King Otto I the Great
Emperor
1032 - Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor becomes King of
Burgundy, succeeding Rudolf III
1119 - Guido di Borgogna elected Pope Callistus II
1141 - Battle at Lincoln: King Stephen captured
1461 - 2nd battle of St Alban's-Lancastrian defeat Yorkists
1536 - Pedro de Mendoza finds Argentine city of Buenos Aires
1542 - Portuguese under Christovão da Gama capture a
Moslem-occupied hillfort in northern Ethiopia in the Battle of Baçente.
1550 - English Edward Seymour duke of Somerset, freed
1633 - M Rossi's opera "Erminia sul Giordano,"
premieres in Rome
1637 - Zorilla's "El más Impropio Verdugo Para
Las," premieres in Madrid
1653 - New Amsterdam becomes a city (later renamed New York
City)
1709 - British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued after
being marooned on a desert island for 5 years, his story inspires
"Robinson Crusoe"
1714 - Nicholas Rowe's "tragedy of Jane Shore,"
premieres in London
1731 - George F Handel's opera "Poro," premieres
in London
1732 - King Frederik Willem I moves Lutherans towards
East-Prussia
1742 - British Walpole government resigns
1762 - Thomas Arnes opera "Artaxerxes," premieres
in London
1787 - Arthur St. Clair is elected the 9th President of the
President of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation.
Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich
Handel 1795 - Joseph Haydns 102nd Symphony in B, premieres
1798 - Federal St Theater, Boston, becomes 1st in US
destroyed by fire
1802 - 1st leopard exhibited in US, Boston (admission 25
cents)
1811 - Russian settlers establish Ft Ross trading post,
north of SF
1823 - Rossini's opera "Semiramide" premieres in
Venice
1829 - Madman Jonathan Martin sets York Cathedral afire,
does £60,000 damage
1843 - US & British settlers in Oregon Country choose
government committee
1848 - 1st ship load of Chinese arrive in SF
1848 - Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ends Mexican War; US
acquires Texas California, New Mexico & Arizona for $15 million
1852 - 1st British public men's toilet opens (Fleet St
London)
1852 - Alexandre Dumas Jr's "Le Dame aux
Camélias," premieres in Paris
1854 - Pope Pius IX encyclical "On persecution of
Armenians"
1863 - Samuel Clemens becomes Mark Twain for 1st time
1864 - -Oct 7th) Cruise of CSS Florida
1869 - James Oliver invents removable tempered steel plow
blade
1870 - Cardiff Giant (supposed petrified human) proved to be
gypsum
1876 - Baseball's National League forms with teams in
Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, St
Louis
1878 - Greece declares war on Turkey
1880 - SS Strathleven arrives in London with 1st Australian
frozen mutton
1882 - Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Conn
1887 - In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day
is observed.
1892 - Bottle cap with cork seal patented by William Painter
(Baltimore)
1892 - Johnny Briggs takes a hat-trick, England v Aust SCG
1892 - Longest boxing match under modern rules; 77 rounds in
Nameoki, Illinois between Harry Sharpe & Frank Crosby
1893 - 1st movie close-up (of a sneeze), Edison studio, West
Orange, NJ
1894 - US warship Kearsarge wrecked on Roncador Reef, near
Solomon Island
1899 - The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne
decides to locate Australia's capital (Canberra) between Sydney and Melbourne.
1900 - Gustave Charpentiers opera "Louise"
premieres in Paris
1901 - Female Army Nurse Corps established as a permanent
organization
1901 - Queen Victoria's funeral takes place.
1906 - Pope encyclical against separation of church &
state
1909 - Italian writer Marinetti publishes Futurist Manifest
in Paris
1912 - Frederick R Law, parachutes from Statue of Liberty
(stunt for Pathe)
Versatile Athlete Jim ThorpeVersatile Athlete Jim Thorpe
1913 - NY football Giants sign Jim Thorpe
1913 - NYC's Grand Central Terminal opens
1914 - James Royce Shannon's musical "Shameen Dhu,"
premieres in NYC
1919 - Monarchist riot in Portugal
1920 - Estonia declares its Independence from Russia (Dorpat
Peace)
1920 - France occupies (German) Memel territory
1920 - Tarto/Dorpat peace treaty: USSR recognizes Estonian
independence
1922 - It was 2:22:22 on 2/2/22
1922 - James Joyce's "Ulysses" published in Paris
(1,000 copies)
1923 - Ethyl gasoline 1st marketed, Dayton, Ohio
1923 - US signs friendship treaty with Central American
countries
1924 - International Ski Federation (FIS) forms
1925 - Belgian episcopacy rejects liberalism, communism
& socialism
1925 - Dogsleds reach Nome with emergency diphtheria serum
after 1000-km
1925 - NL holds Golden Jubilee Year meeting at same hotel
where NL began
Novelist & Poet James JoyceNovelist & Poet James Joyce
1926 - 3 men dance Charleston for 22 hours
1927 - Harry Tierney/Joseph McCarthy's "Rio Rita,"
premieres in NYC
1927 - Ziegfeld Theater (Loew's Ziegfeld) opens at 6th Ave
& 54th St NYC
1931 - 1st siyyum of Talmud celebrated by Daf Yomi students
1931 - 1st use of a rocket to deliver mail (Austria)
1932 - Al Capone sent to prison (Atlanta, Georgia)
1932 - Geneva disarmament conference begins with 60
countries
1932 - Grimmett takes 14 wickets v South Africa (7-116 &
7-83)
1932 - Reconstruction Finance Corp organized
1933 - 2 days after becoming chancellor, Adolf Hitler
dissolves Parliament
1933 - Hermann Goering bans communist
meetings/demonstrations in Germany
1933 - Ucicky's "Rotten Morning," premieres in
Berlin
1934 - Dutch RC Bishops warn against fascism/nazism
1935 - Lie detector 1st used in court (Portage Wisc)
1935 - Leonarde Keeler tests the first polygraph machine.
Singer/Actor Frank SinatraSinger/Actor Frank Sinatra 1940 -
Frank Sinatra's singing debut in Indianapolis (Tommy Dorsey Orch)
1942 - LA Times urges security measures against
Japanese-Americans
1942 - US auto factories switch from commercial to war
production
1943 - Battle of Stalingrad ends with final surrender of the
German army
1943 - Cubs return to original uniform after experimenting
with a vest
1943 - German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad, turning
point of WW II
1944 - 4th US marine division conquerors Roi, Marshall
Islands
1944 - Allied troops 1st set foot on Japanese territory
1944 - Baseball meets in NYC to discuss postwar action
1944 - Edward Chodorov's "Decision," premieres in
NYC
1945 - Escape attempt at Mauthausen concentration camp
1946 - "Nellie Bly" closes at Adelphi Theater NYC
after 16 performances
1946 - The Proclamation of Hungarian Republic is made.
1948 - President Harry Truman urges congress to adopt a
civil rights program
1949 - Golfing champ Ben Hogan seriously injured in an auto
accident
Nazi Politician Hermann GoeringNazi Politician Hermann
Goering 1950 - "Arms & the Girl" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for
134 performances
1950 - 1st broadcast of "What's My Line," on
CBS-TV
1951 - -35°F (-37°C), Greensburg, Indiana (state record
until 1994)
1951 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1954 - Bevo Francis, Rio Grande College, scores 113 pts in
basketball game
1954 - Pres Eisenhower reports detonation of 1st H-bomb
(done in 1952)
1954 - Snow falls on Gibraltar
1955 - 1st presidential news conference on network
TV-Eisenhower on ABC
1956 - Coasters sign with Atlantic Records
1957 - "Candide" closes at Martin Beck Theater NYC
after 73 performances
1957 - UN adopts a resolution calling for Israeli troops to
leave Egypt
1958 - Fay Crocker wins LPGA Havana Biltmore Golf Open
1958 - Syria joins Egypt in United Arab Republic
1958 - WRIK (now WLUZ) TV channel 7 in Ponce, PR (PTC)
begins broadcasting
1959 - Buddy Holly's last performance
Singer -songwriter Buddy HollySinger -songwriter Buddy Holly
1959 - Vince Lombardi signs a 5 year contract to coach Green Bay Packers
1960 - Michale Eufemia sinks 625 balls in pool match without
a miss
1961 - Prince Bernhard opens new RAI building in Amsterdam
1962 - 1st pole vault over 16' (4.88m) (John Uelses-16',
Melrose Games)
1962 - 8 of 9 planets align for 1st time in 400 years
1962 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern
Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
1963 - Helen Shapiro begins tour (Beatles are part of
undercard)
1964 - GI Joe, debuts as a popular American boy's toy
1964 - Sjoukje Dijkstra (Neth) wins Olympic gold for figure
skating
1964 - Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Keefe, Heinie Manush,
John Montgomery Ward, & Miller Huggins are selected to Hall of Fame
1965 - Joe Ortons "Loot," premieres in Brighton
1966 - Pakistan suggests a six-point agenda with Kashmir
dispute as number one item for the proposed Indo-Pak ministerial talks after
1965 war.
1967 - Bolivia adopts its constitution
1967 - Formation of American Basketball Association is
announced
1968 - Springer Publishers in West Berlin, bombed
1969 - KMST TV channel 46 in Monterey-Salinas, CA (CBS)
begins broadcasting
1969 - Stan Coveleski & Waite Hoyt are voted into
baseball Hall of Fame
1970 - Pete Maravich becomes 1st to score 3,000 college
basketball points
1971 - Idi Amin ousts Milton Obote to become dictator of
Uganda
1972 - Lefty Gomez, Ross Youngs & William Harridge
selected for Hall of Fame
Playwright Tom StoppardPlaywright Tom Stoppard 1972 - Tom
Stoppard's "Jumpers," premieres in London
1973 - "Midnight Special" rock music show debuts
on NBC-TV
1973 - James R Schlesinger, becomes 9th director of CIA
(until July)
1973 - Richath Helms, ends term as 8th director of CIA
1973 - Test Cricket debut of Richard John Hadlee, NZ v
Pakistan, Wellington
1974 - Barbra Striesand's 1st #1 hit, "The Way We
Were"
1974 - Pope Paul VI encyclical "To Honor Mary"
1974 - Smallest crowd at Cleveland Arena (Cavs vs Golden
State-1,641)
1974 - The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.
1975 - Army offensive against rebels in Eritrea Ethiopia
1975 - Donna Caponi Young wins LPGA Burdine's Golf
Invitational
1975 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Dorothy
Hamill
1975 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Gordon
McKellen Jr
1976 - "Honeymooners Second Honeymoon" airs on TV
1976 - "Rich Little Show," debuts on NBC-TV
1976 - Roger Connor, Fred Lindstrom & ump Cal Hubbard
elected to Hall of Fame
1977 - Burn up of Salyut 4 Space Station (USSR)
1977 - Radio Shack officially begins creating TRS-80
computer
1977 - Toronto's Ian Turnbull scores 5 goals, NHL REcord for
a defenseman
1980 - FBI releases details of Abscam, a sting operation
that targeted 31 elected & public officials for bribes for political favors
1982 - Government troops & Moslem-fundamentalists
battle in Hamah Syria
1982 - San Diego beats Miami 41-38 in OT after blowing a
24-0 lead
1982 - Hama Massacre: The government of Syria attacks the
town of Hama and kills thousands of people.
1983 - Chicago Absp Joseph L Bernardin is among 18 new
cardinals invested
264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 1983 - Pope
John Paul II names 18 new cardinals
1984 - 8th Soap Opera Digest Poll Awards
1984 - Lebanese army fight in Beirut
1985 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Brian
Boitano
1986 - "Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood" closes at
Ritz NYC after 13 perfs
1986 - Ayako Okamoto wins LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic
1986 - Dalai Lama meets Pope John Paul II in India
1986 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 28-24
1986 - Oscar Arias Sanchez elected president of Costa Rica
1987 - KC Royal pitcher Dennis Leonard (3X 20 game winner),
retires
1987 - Philippines adopts constitution
1988 - David Boon's 6th Test Cricket century, 184* v England
at Sydney
1989 - 0°F (-18°C) or below in 15 US states
1989 - FW de Klerk replaces Botha as South Africa's National
Party leader
1989 - NL announces Yanks' broadcaster Bill White will be
1st black president
Anti-apartheid activist and South African President Nelson
MandelaAnti-apartheid activist and South African President Nelson Mandela 1990 -
South Africa's Pres FW de Klerk promises to free Nelson Mandela & legalizes
ANC & 60 other political orgs
1991 - Aravinda De Silva scores 267 v NZ at Wellington
1991 - NH snaps its 32-game losing streak at home beating
Holy Cross, 72-56
1991 - US postage is raised from 25 cents to 29 cents
1991 - Sting scores his second UK No.1 album with 'The Soul
Cages'
1992 - Colleen Walker wins Oldsmobile LPGA Golf Classic
1992 - Danny Everett runs world record 400m indoor (45.02
sec)
1992 - David Boon's 13 Test Cricket century, 107 v India at
Perth
1992 - IRS & Willie Nelson settle on $9M tax bill (of
$16.7M)
1992 - Kieren Perkins swims world record 1500m freestyle
(14:32.40)
1992 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 21-15
1993 - Frito Lay pays court ordered $2,500,000 to Tom Wait
for using his song
1993 - Irina Privalova runs world record 50m indoor (6.05
sec)
1995 - "Moliere Comedies" opens at Criterion
Theater NYC for 56 performances
1995 - Henry Olonga no-balled for throwing in
Zimbabwe-Pakistan Test Cricket
Country Singer Willie NelsonCountry Singer Willie Nelson
1995 - US space shuttle Discovery launched
1996 - Ali Landry, 22, (Louisiana), crowned 45th Miss USA
1997 - "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus"
closes at Gershwin NYC
1997 - Mark O'Meara wins Pebble Beach National Golf Pro-am
1997 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 26-23 (OT)
1997 - Royal Caribbean Senior Golf Classic
1998 - Daniel Baldwin hospitalized in NYC for cocaine
overdose
1998 - Philippine DC-9 crashes apparently killing all 104 on
board
2003 - Jennifer Lopez starts a three week run at No.1 on the
US singles chart with 'All I Have'
2003 - Russian pop girl duo Tatu start a four-week run at
No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'All The Things She Said'
2003 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 45-23
2012 - Cold snap across Europe kills more than 100 people
(over 400 people by 08-02)
2012 - MV Rabaul Queen sinks off the coast of Papa New
Guinea with 246 people saved and 126 missing (100 of these estimated to be
trapped inside)
2012 - NHL player Sam Gagner becomes the first player to
scores eight points in one game for the Edmonton Oilers against the Chicago
Blackhawks since 1989
2013 - 23 people are killed and 8 are injured after
militants attacked an army base in the Lakki Marwat District, Pakistan
2013 - Shinzō Abe, Japan’s Prime Minister, vows to defend
the Senkaku Islands "at all costs"
2013 - 18 people are killed and 34 are injured after a bus
catches fire after falling down a ravine in Gansu province, China
1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain. 1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated. 1802 - The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA. 1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845. 1848 - The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA. 1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain. 1870 - The "Cardiff Giant" was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human. 1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (known as the National League) was formed in New York. The teams included were the Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays. 1878 - Greece declared war on Turkey. 1880 - The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia. 1887 - The beginning of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA. 1892 - William Painter patented the bottle cap. 1893 - The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison. 1897 - The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site. 1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day. 1935 - Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI. 1943 - During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd. 1945 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin. 1946 - The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made. 1946 - The Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Twenty Questions" for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later. 1949 - Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX. 1950 - "What's My Line" debuted on CBS television. 1962 - The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years. 1967 - The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA. 1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote. 1980 - The situation known as "Abscam" began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation. 1989 - The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation. 1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela. 1998 - U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years. 1999 - 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff. 1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998. 2004 - It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.
1536 The city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was founded by Spanish conquistador Pedro de Mendoza. 1709 Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, was rescued after four years alone on an island off the coast of Chile. 1848 The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed. In the treaty, Mexico ceded to the United States a huge portion of what is today the American West and Southwest, including California and New Mexico. 1870 The Cardiff Giant was revealed to be a hoax. 1876 The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs was formed. 1887 The first gathering at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsatawney, Pa. to wait for the groundhog's shadow occurred. 1922 James Joyce's Ulysses was published. 1943 Nazi troops surrendered in the World War II Battle of Stalingrad. 1971 Idi Amin became dictator of Uganda. 1980 The Abscam scandal was revealed. 1990 South African President F. W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela. 2003 Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel stepped down after 13 years.
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/feb02.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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