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Feb 1, 2003: Columbia mission ends in disaster
On this day in 2003, the space shuttle Columbia breaks up while entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members on board.
The Columbia's 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly two years. Columbia finally launched on January 16, 2003, with a crew of seven. Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the shuttle's propellant tank and hit the edge of the shuttle's left wing.
Cameras focused on the launch sequence revealed the foam collision but engineers could not pinpoint the location and extent of the damage. Although similar incidents had occurred on three prior shuttle launches without causing critical damage, some engineers at the space agency believed that the damage to the wing could cause a catastrophic failure. Their concerns were not addressed in the two weeks that Columbia spent in orbit because NASA management believed that even if major damage had been caused, there was little that could be done to remedy the situation.
Columbia reentered the earth's atmosphere on the morning of February 1. It wasn't until 10 minutes later, at 8:53 a.m.--as the shuttle was 231,000 feet above the California coastline traveling at 23 times the speed of sound--that the first indications of trouble began. Because the heat-resistant tiles covering the left wing's leading edge had been damaged or were missing, wind and heat entered the wing and blew it apart.
The first debris began falling to the ground in west Texas near Lubbock at 8:58 a.m. One minute later, the last communication from the crew was heard, and at 9 a.m. the shuttle disintegrated over southeast Texas, near Dallas. Residents in the area heard a loud boom and saw streaks of smoke in the sky. Debris and the remains of the crew were found in more than 2,000 locations across East Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana. Making the tragedy even worse, two pilots aboard a search helicopter were killed in a crash while looking for debris. Strangely, worms that the crew had used in a study that were stored in a canister aboard the Columbia did survive.
In August 2003, an investigation board issued a report that revealed that it in fact would have been possible either for the Columbia crew to repair the damage to the wing or for the crew to be rescued from the shuttle. The Columbia could have stayed in orbit until February 15 and the already planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis could have been moved up as early as February 10, leaving a short window for repairing the wing or getting the crew off of the Columbia.
In the aftermath of the Columbia disaster, the space shuttle program was grounded until July 16, 2005, when the space shuttle Discovery was put into orbit.
Feb 1, 1884: Oxford Dictionary debuts
On this day in 1884, the first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation and history of over half a million words, past and present
Plans for the dictionary began in 1857 when members of London's Philological Society, who believed there were no up-to-date, error-free English dictionaries available, decided to produce one that would cover all vocabulary from the Anglo-Saxon period (1150 A.D.) to the present. Conceived of as a four-volume, 6,400-page work, it was estimated the project would take 10 years to finish. In fact, it took over 40 years until the 125th and final fascicle was published in April 1928 and the full dictionary was complete--at over 400,000 words and phrases in 10 volumes--and published under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles.
Unlike most English dictionaries, which only list present-day common meanings, the OED provides a detailed chronological history for every word and phrase, citing quotations from a wide range of sources, including classic literature and cookbooks. The OED is famous for its lengthy cross-references and etymologies. The verb "set" merits the OED's longest entry, at approximately 60,000 words and detailing over 430 uses.
No sooner was the OED finished than editors began updating it. A supplement, containing new entries and revisions, was published in 1933 and the original dictionary was reprinted in 12 volumes and officially renamed the Oxford English Dictionary. Between 1972 and 1986, an updated 4-volume supplement was published, with new terms from the continually evolving English language plus more words and phrases from North America, Australia, the Caribbean, New Zealand, South Africa and South Asia.
In 1984, Oxford University Press embarked on a five-year, multi-million-dollar project to create an electronic version of the dictionary. The effort required 120 people just to type the pages from the print edition and 50 proofreaders to check their work. In 1992, a CD-ROM version of the dictionary was released, making it much easier to search and retrieve information.
Today, the dictionary's second edition is available online to subscribers and is updated quarterly with over 1,000 new entries and revisions. At a whopping 20 volumes weighing over 137 pounds, it would reportedly take one person 120 years to type all 59 million words in the OED.
Feb 1, 1979: Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran
On February 1, 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran in triumph after 15 years of exile. The shah and his family had fled the country two weeks before, and jubilant Iranian revolutionaries were eager to establish a fundamentalist Islamic government under Khomeini's leadership.
Born around the turn of the century, Ruhollah Khomeini was the son of an Islamic religious scholar and in his youth memorized the Qur'an. He was a Shiite--the branch of Islam practiced by a majority of Iranians--and soon devoted himself to the formal study of Shia Islam in the city of Qom. A devout cleric, he rose steadily in the informal Shiite hierarchy and attracted many disciples.
In 1941, British and Soviet troops occupied Iran and installed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as the second modern shah of Iran. The new shah had close ties with the West, and in 1953 British and U.S. intelligence agents helped him overthrow a popular political rival. Mohammad Reza embraced many Western ideas and in 1963 launched his "White Revolution," a broad government program that called for the reduction of religious estates in the name of land redistribution, equal rights for women, and other modern reforms.
Khomeini, now known by the high Shiite title "ayatollah," was the first religious leader to openly condemn the shah's program of westernization. In fiery dispatches from his Faziye Seminary in Qom, Khomeini called for the overthrow of the shah and the establishment of an Islamic state. In 1963, Mohammad Reza imprisoned him, which led to riots, and on November 4, 1964, expelled him from Iran.
Khomeini settled in An Najaf, a Shiite holy city across the border in Iraq, and sent home recordings of his sermons that continued to incite his student followers. Breaking precedence with the Shiite tradition that discouraged clerical participation in government, he called for Shiite leaders to govern Iran.
In the 1970s, Mohammad Reza further enraged Islamic fundamentalists in Iran by holding an extravagant celebration of the 2,500th anniversary of the pre-Islamic Persian monarchy and replaced the Islamic calendar with a Persian calendar. As discontent grew, the shah became more repressive, and support for Khomeini grew. In 1978, massive anti-shah demonstrations broke out in Iran's major cities. Dissatisfied members of the lower and middle classes joined the radical students, and Khomeini called for the shah's immediate overthrow. In December, the army mutinied, and on January 16, 1979, the shah fled.
Khomeini arrived in Tehran in triumph on February 1, 1979, and was acclaimed as the leader of the Iranian Revolution. With religious fervor running high, he consolidated his authority and set out to transform Iran into a religious state. On November 4, 1979, the 15th anniversary of his exile, students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took the staff hostage. With Khomeini's approval, the radicals demanded the return of the shah to Iran and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. The shah died in Egypt of cancer in July 1980.
In December 1979, a new Iranian constitution was approved, naming Khomeini as Iran's political and religious leader for life. Under his rule, Iranian women were denied equal rights and required to wear a veil, Western culture was banned, and traditional Islamic law and its often-brutal punishments were reinstated. In suppressing opposition, Khomeini proved as ruthless as the shah, and thousands of political dissidents were executed during his decade of rule.
In 1980, Iraq invaded Iran's oil-producing province of Khuzestan. After initial advances, the Iraqi offense was repulsed. In 1982, Iraq voluntarily withdrew and sought a peace agreement, but Khomeini renewed fighting. Stalemates and the deaths of thousands of young Iranian conscripts in Iraq followed. In 1988, Khomeini finally agreed to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire.
After the Ayatollah Khomeini died on June 3, 1989, more than two million anguished mourners attended his funeral. Gradual democratization began in Iran in early the 1990s, culminating in a free election in 1997 in which the moderate reformist Mohammed Khatami was elected president.
Feb 1, 1943: Japanese begin evacuation of Guadalcanal
On this day, Japanese forces on Guadalcanal Island, defeated by Marines, start to withdraw after the Japanese emperor finally gives them permission.
On July 6, 1942, the Japanese landed on Guadalcanal Island, part of the Solomon Islands chain, and began constructing an airfield. In response, the U.S. launched Operation Watchtower, in which American troops landed on five islands within the Solomon chain, including Guadalcanal. The landings on Florida, Tulagi, Gavutu, and Tananbogo met with much initial opposition from the Japanese defenders, despite the fact that the landings took the Japanese by surprise because bad weather had grounded their scouting aircraft. "I have never heard or read of this kind of fighting," wrote one American major general on the scene. "These people refuse to surrender."
The Americans who landed on Guadalcanal had an easier time of it, at least initially. More than 11,000 Marines landed, but 24 hours passed before the Japanese manning the garrison knew what had happened. The U.S. forces quickly met their main objective of taking the airfield, and the outnumbered Japanese troops temporarily retreated. Japanese reinforcements were landed, though, and fierce hand-to-hand jungle fighting ensued. The Americans were at a particular disadvantage because they were assaulted from both sea and air, but when the U.S. Navy supplied reinforcement troops, the Americans gained the advantage. By February 1943, the Japanese retreated on secret orders of their emperor. In fact, the Japanese retreat was so stealthy that the Americans did not even know it had taken place until they stumbled upon abandoned positions, empty boats, and discarded supplies.
In total, the Japanese lost more than 25,000 men compared with a loss of 1,600 by the Americans. Each side lost 24 warships.
Feb 1, 1917: Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare
On this day in 1917, the lethal threat of the German U-boat submarine raises its head again, as Germany returns to the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare it had previously suspended in response to pressure from the United States and other neutral countries.
Unrestricted submarine warfare was first introduced in World War I in early 1915, when Germany declared the area around the British Isles a war zone, in which all merchant ships, including those from neutral countries, would be attacked by the German navy. A string of attacks on merchant ships followed, culminating in the sinking of the British ship Lusitania by a German U-boat on May 7, 1915. Although the Lusitania was a British ship and it was carrying a supply of munitions—Germany used these two facts to justify the attack—it was principally a passenger ship, and the 1,201 people who drowned in its sinking included 128 Americans. The incident prompted U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to send a strongly worded note to the German government demanding an end to German attacks against unarmed merchant ships. By September 1915, the German government had imposed such strict constraints on the operation of the nation's submarines that the German navy was persuaded to suspend U-boat warfare altogether.
German navy commanders, however, were ultimately not prepared to accept this degree of passivity, and continued to push for a more aggressive use of the submarine, convincing first the army and eventually the government, most importantly Kaiser Wilhelm, that the U-boat was an essential component of German war strategy. Planning to remain on the defensive on the Western Front in 1917, the supreme army command endorsed the navy's opinion that unrestricted U-boat warfare against the British at sea could result in a German victory by the fall of 1917. In a joint audience with the kaiser on January 8, 1917, army and naval leaders presented their arguments to Wilhelm, who supported them in spite of the opposition of the German chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, who was not at the meeting. Though he feared antagonizing the U.S., Bethmann Hollweg accepted the kaiser's decision, pressured as he was by the armed forces and the hungry and frustrated German public, which was angered by the continuing Allied naval blockade and which supported aggressive action towards Germany's enemies. On January 31, 1917, Bethmann Hollweg went before the German Reichstag government and made the announcement that unrestricted submarine warfare would resume the next day, February 1. The destructive designs of our opponents cannot be expressed more strongly. We have been challenged to fight to the end. We accept the challenge. We stake everything, and we shall be victorious.
Feb 1, 1861: Texas secedes from the Union
On this day in 1861, Texas becomes the seventh state to secede from the Union when a state convention votes 166 to 8 in favor of the measure.
The Texans who voted to leave the Union did so over the objections of their governor, Sam Houston. A staunch Unionist, Houston's election in 1859 as governor seemed to indicate that Texas did not share the rising secessionist sentiments of the other Southern states.
However, events swayed many Texans to the secessionist cause. John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in October 1859 had raised the specter of a major slave insurrection, and the ascendant Republican Party made many Texans uneasy about continuing in the Union. After Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in November 1860, pressure mounted on Houston to call a convention so that Texas could consider secession. He did so reluctantly in January 1861, and sat in silence on February 1 as the convention voted overwhelmingly in favor of secession. Houston grumbled that Texans were "stilling the voice of reason," and he predicted an "ignoble defeat" for the South. Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was replaced in March 1861 by his lieutenant governor.
Texas' move completed the first round of secession. Seven states--South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas--left the Union before Lincoln took office. Four more states--Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas-- waited until the formal start of the Civil War, with the April 1861 firing on Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, before deciding to leave the Union. The remaining slave states--Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri--never mustered the necessary majority for secession.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
772 - Adrian I begins his reign as Catholic Pope
1327 - Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but
the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1539 - Emperor Karel & King Francois I sign anti-English
treaty
1587 - English queen Elizabeth I signs Mary Stuarts death
sentence
1662 - Dutch garrison on Formosa surrenders for Chinese
pirates
1669 - French King Louis XIV limits freedom of religion
1709 - Alexander Selkirk [Robinson Crusoe] rescued from Juan
Fernandez
1713 - The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the
Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be
seized.
1717 - Henri d'Aguesseau's 1st appointment as chancellor of
France
1720 - Sweden & Prussia sign peace treaty
1732 - Parliament of Ratisborn accept Pragmatic Sanctions
1742 - Sardinia & Austria sign alliance
1783 - William Herschel announces star Lambda Herculis as
apex
1788 - 1st US steamboat patent issued, by Georgia to Briggs
& Longstreet
1789 - Chinese troops driven out of Vietnam capital Thang
Long
1790 - Supreme Court convenes for 1st time (NYC)
1793 - France declares war on England & Netherlands
1793 - Patent granted Ralph Hodgson, NY, for oiled silk
& linen
1796 - The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to
York.
The Sun King of France Louis XIVThe Sun King of France Louis
XIV 1809 - Dutch King Louis Napoleon accepts metric system
1810 - 1st insurance co managed by blacks (American
Insurance Co of Phila)
1810 - Seville, Spain surrenders to French
1810 - US Population: 7,239,881, Black population: 1,377,808
(19%)
1814 - Lord Byron's "Corsair" sells 10,000 copies
on day of publication
1814 - Volcano Mayon on Luzon Philippines erupts killing
1,200
1840 - Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, 1st in US,
incorporated
1846 - Theophile Gautier publishes "Hashish Club"
about his initiation
1856 - Auburn University is chartered as the East Alabama
Male College.
1860 - 1st rabbi to open House of Representatives, Morris
Raphall of NYC
1861 - Dike breaks in Gelderland Netherlands
1861 - American Civil War: Texas becomes the 7th state to
secede from the United States.
1862 - Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of
Republic"
1864 - -Feb 8th] Battle of Yazoo River, MS
1864 - 2nd German-Danish war begins
1864 - Austrian/Prussian troops occupy Sleeswijk/Holstein
1865 - 13th amendment approved (National Freedom Day)
1865 - General Sherman's march through South Carolina begins
1865 - JS Rock, 1st black lawyer to practice in Supreme Ct,
admitted to bar
1867 - Bricklayers start working 8-hour days
1871 - Jefferson Long of Georgia is 1st black to make an
official speech in House of Reps (opposing leniency to former Confederates)
1880 - The first edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage
is published.
1881 - US Assay Office in St Louis, Missouri authorized
1883 - French lt-col Gustave Borgnis-Desbordes reaches
Bamako on the Niger
1884 - 1st volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant,
published
1887 - Harvey Wilcox of Ks subdivides 120 acres he owned in
Southern California & starts selling it off as a real estate development
(Hollywood)
1892 - Mrs William Astor invites 400 guests to a grand ball
at her mansion thus beginning use of "400" to describe socially elite
1893 - Puccini's Opera "Manon Lescaut," premieres
in Turin
Inventor Thomas EdisonInventor Thomas Edison 1893 - Thomas
Edison complete's worlds 1st movie studio (West Orange NJ)
1896 - Giacomo Puccini's Opera "La Boheme,"
premieres in Turin
1897 - Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens
in Seoul.
1898 - 1st auto insurance policy in US issued, by Travelers
Insurance Co
1902 - China's empress Tzu-hsi forbids binding woman's feet
1902 - Hermann Sudermanns "Es lebe das Leben,"
premieres in Berlin
1905 - Hague soccer team ADO froms
1905 - Hungarian premier Tisza resigns
1906 - 1st federal penitentiary building completed,
Leavenworth, Kansas
1906 - English min of Frgn affairs Edward Grey's wife
Dorothy fatally injured
1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis
Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
1909 - US Assay Office in Salt Lake City, Utah opens
1910 - 1st British labour exchange opens
1910 - Dragoumis government forms in Greece
1914 - NY Giants & Chicago White Sox play an exhibition
baseball game in Egypt
Composer Giacomo PucciniComposer Giacomo Puccini 1914 -
Pennsylvania State Board of [motion picture] censors appointed
1914 - Tanganyika Railway opens
1917 - Admiral Tirpitz announces unlimited submarine war
1918 - Franz Lehars opera "Wo die Lerche singt,"
premieres in Budapest
1918 - Kern, Bolton & Wodehouse's musical premieres in
NYC
1918 - Russia adopts Gregorian calender (becomes Feb 14)
1919 - Dodgers trade Jake Daubert to Reds for Tommy Griffith
Daubert
1920 - 1st commercial armored car introduced (St Paul Minn)
1920 - Soccer team Quick Boys forms
1920 - Royal Canadian Mounted Police forms as Royal
Northwest Mounted Police merge with Dominion Police
1923 - Allied ultimatum on Lithuanian occupation of Memel
1923 - Fascists Voluntary Militia forms in Italy under
Benito Mussolini
1923 - Noel Coward's "Young Idea," premieres in
London
1924 - Amsterdam's Netherlands Press Museum opens
1924 - New British MacDonald government recognizes USSR
Italian Dictator Benito MussoliniItalian Dictator Benito
Mussolini 1924 - Soccer team VSV Tonido forms in Voorburg
1924 - Soviet Union formally recognized by Britain
1925 - 1st national conference of KPD's Rotfrontkämpferbund
in Berlin
1926 - Kirghiz Autonomous Region in RSFSR becomes Kirghiz
ASSR
1926 - Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record
$7 per sq inch
1929 - 1st clean & jerk of 400 lbs (182 kg), Charles
Rigoulet, 402½ lbs
1930 - Arnold Schönbergs opera, Von heute auf Morgen
premieres in Frankfurt
1932 - Bradman makes 299* vs South Africa, runs out partner
going for 300th
1933 - Colonial government arrests Anton de Kom in
Paramaribo Suriname
1933 - Dutch bishops forbid membership in non-catholic
unions
1933 - German Parliament disolves, Gen Ludendorf predicts
catastrophe
1934 - Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss dissolves all political
parties but his
1935 - 1st "March of Time" newsreel premieres at
the Capitol
1935 - James T Farrell finishes his "Studs
Lonigan" trilogy
1937 - Stapleton, Staten Island becomes a customs-free port
1940 - Russia begins new offensive against Finland
1941 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Jane
Vaughn
1941 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Eugene
Turner
1942 - 2nd Norwegian government of Quisling forms
1943 - German occupiers make Vidkun Quisling Norwegian
premier
1943 - Mussert forms pro Nazi shadow cabinet (Neth)
1944 - Supreme Soviet enlarges soviet republics' autonomy
1944 - US 7th Infantry/4th Marine Division lands on
Kwajalein/Roi/Namur
1945 - US Army arrives at Siegfriedlinie
1946 - Republic of Hungary proclaimed, Zolt n Tildy as
communist president
1946 - Trygve Lie, a Norwegian socialist, becomes 1st
Sec-Gen of UN
1947 - Aleide de Gasperi forms Italian government of
christian-dems & communists
1947 - Dmitri Shostakovitch named professor at conservatory
of Leningrad
1947 - NV United Dutch Fokker's Aircraft established
1948 - Federation Malaysia forms from 9 sultanates
1948 - Palestine Post building in Jerusalem bombed
1949 - 200" (5.08-m) Hale telescope 1st used [See June
3, 1948]
1949 - RCA releases 1st single record ever (45 rpm)
1950 - USSR demands condemnation of Emperor Hirohito for war
crimes
1950 - Urko Kekkonen elected president of Finland
1951 - -50°F (-46°C), Gavilan, New Mexico (state record)
1951 - 1st X-ray moving picture process demonstrated
1951 - 1st telecast of atomic explosion
1951 - Alfred Krupp & 28 other German war criminals
freed
1951 - UN condemns People's Republic of China as aggressor
in Korea
1951 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1952 - General strike against French colonial management in
Tunisia
1952 - SN Behrman's "Jane," premieres in NYC
1953 - "General Electric Theater" premieres on CBS
TV; Ronald Reagan later hosts
Broadcast Journalist Walter CronkiteBroadcast Journalist
Walter Cronkite 1953 - "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premieres
on CBS television
1953 - Dr A de Waal appointed as Neth 1st female asst sect
of state
1953 - Flooding in Netherlands, kills 1,835
1953 - WEEK TV channel 25 in Peoria, IL (NBC) begins
broadcasting
1954 - 1st TV soap opera "Secret Storm" premieres
1954 - Scapino Ballet Studio in Amsterdam destroyed by fire
1954 - Soccer team The County froms in Doetinchem
1955 - HC Hansen appointed premier of Denmark
1956 - Hague Daily Newspaper reveals war crimes of Hague
mayor Schokking
1956 - WSAV TV channel 3 in Savannah, GA (NBC) begins
broadcasting
1957 - 1st black pilot (PH Young) on a US scheduled
passenger airline
1957 - Gijsbert of Hall appointed mayor of Amsterdam
1957 - Felix Wankel's first working prototype DKM 54 of the
Wankel engine was running at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung
TX in Germany
1958 - 1st US satellite (Explorer I) launched
1958 - Egypt & Syria announce plans to merge into United
Arab Republic
1958 - WFTV TV channel 9 in Orlando, FL (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1959 - Swiss males vote against voting rights for women
1959 - Texas Instruments requests patent of IC (Integrated
Circuit)
1959 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Carol
Heiss
1959 - US male Figure Skating championship won by David
Jenkins
1959 - WVUE TV channel 8 in New Orleans, LA (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1959 - Wiffi Smith wins LPGA Havana Golf Tournament
1959 - Zack Wheat unanimously elected to baseball Hall of
Fame
1960 - 34th Australian Womens Tennis: Margaret Smith beats J
Lehane (75 62)
1960 - 4 students stage 1st civil rights sit-in, at
Greensboro NC Woolworth
1960 - 48th Australian Mens Tennis: Rod Laver beats N Fraser
(57 36 63 86 86)
1960 - Extreme right-wing rebels in Algiers surrender
1961 - 1st full-scale test of US Minuteman ICBM is
successful
1961 - British minister Enoch Powell makes medical insurance
more expensive
1961 - Mackay & Kline hang on for 100 mins for cricket
draw vs West Indies
1962 - "New Faces of '62" opens at Alvin Theater
NYC for 28 performances
1962 - NL releases its 1st 162-game schedule
1963 - Nyasaland (now Malawi) becomes self-governing under
Hastings Banda
1964 - "Stop the World, I Want to..." closes at
Shubert NYC after 556 perf
1964 - Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand," 1st #1
hit, stays #1 for 7 weeks
1964 - Indiana Governor Mathew Walsh tries to ban
"Louie Louie" for obscenity
1964 - Suriname River dammed
1965 - Dutch Queen Juliana opens Brienenoord Bridge in
Rotterdam
Clergyman and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King
Jr.Clergyman and Civil Rights Activist Martin Luther King Jr. 1965 - Martin
Luther King Jr & 700 demonstrators arrested in Selma Ala
1965 - Peter Jennings, 26, becomes anchor of ABC's nightly
news
1965 - NL adopts emergency team replacement plan to restock
any club struck by disaster
1967 - Severe brush fires in Tasmania destroy $11 million
& 60 lives
1967 - WCLP TV channel 18 in Chatsworth, GA (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1968 - Former VP Richard Nixon announces candidacy for
president
1968 - Vince Lombardi resigns as coach of Green Bay Packers
1968 - World trade conference Unctad 2 opens in New Delhi
1968 - Famous photo: Saigon police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan
executes a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to head
1969 - Jim Morrison arrested for exposing himself in concert
1969 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Janet
Lynn
1969 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Tim Wood
1969 - WPGH TV channel 53 in Pittsburgh, PA (IND) begins
broadcasting
1970 - Ford Frick, Earle Combs & Jesse Haines elected to
Hall of Fame
1970 - Stalled commuter train rammed by express in
Argentina, 139 die
37th US President Richard Nixon37th US President Richard
Nixon 1970 - WMAA TV channel 29 in Jackson, MS (PBS) begins broadcasting
1970 - West-Germany & USSR sign gas contract
1972 - 1st scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35)
introduced ($395)
1972 - Wings release "Give Ireland Back to the
Irish" in UK
1972 - Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter
granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
1973 - Monte Irvin elected to baseball Hall of Fame
1974 - "Good Times" (spinoff from
"Maude") premieres on CBS TV
1974 - Kuala Lumpur is declared a Federal Territory.
1975 - "Hoppy, Gene & Me" by Roy Rogers peaks
at #65
1975 - "Men on the Moon" closes at Little Theater
NYC after 5 performances
1975 - 1st successful Wash Cap penalty shot, Ken Lockett vs
Vancouver Canucks
1975 - Lorne Henning scores on 3rd Islander penalty shot
1975 - Otis Francis Tabler is 1st open homosexual to get
security clearance to work for the Defense Department
1976 - "Rich Man, Poor Man" mini-series premieres
on ABC TV
1976 - Judy Rankin wins LPGA Burdine's Golf Invitational
Goddess of Pop Cher
Goddess of Pop Cher 1976 - Sonny & Cher resume TV show, despite real-life
divorce
1976 - East Lansing police arrest Dodgers reliever Mike
Marshall for taking batting practice at Mich State U after he is warned not to
1977 - Heavy blizzard in New England claims 100 lives
1977 - Hillsdale High School defeats Person High School 2-0
in basketball
1978 - Harriet Tubman is 1st black woman honored on a US
postage stamp
1978 - Director Roman Polanski skips bail & fled to
France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old
girl
1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15
yrs in exile
1979 - Patricia Hearst is released from a SF prison for bank
robbery
1979 - USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk
USSR
1980 - Sears Radio Theater moves from CBS to Mutual
Broadcasting System
1980 - Soap opera "Love of Life" ends a 28 year
run
1981 - 11th AFC-NFC pro bowl, NFC wins 21-7
1981 - 31st NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 123-120 at
Cleveland
1981 - Duke Ellington-musical "Sophisticated
Ladies," premieres in NYC
1981 - Dutch Antilles census is 231,932
1981 - French government accord sends 60 Mirage fighter jets
to Iraq
1981 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 21-7
1981 - Sandra Palmer wins LPGA Whirlpool Golf Championship
of Deer Creek
1981 - Trevor Chappell bowls underarm to Brian McKechnie,
WSC Final MCG
1982 - "Late Night With David Letterman" debuts on
NBC-TV
1982 - Senegal & Gambia form loose confederation
(Senegambia)
1983 - USSR performs underground nuclear test
1984 - China & Netherlands regain diplomatic relations
1984 - Daniel Stern becomes NBA commissioner
1984 - Ravindara Mhatrem, Indian diplomat, kidnapped in
England (killed 0203)
1985 - -61°F (-52°C), Maybell, Colorado (state record)
1985 - -69°F (-56°C), Peter's Sink, Utah (state record)
1985 - Azharuddin scores 3rd Test century in 3rd Test
Cricket (122 v Eng)
1985 - Cards trade D Green, Jose Uribe, Dave LaPoint to
Giants for Jack Clark
1985 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Tiffany
Chin
Comedian David LettermanComedian David Letterman 1986 -
KHJ-AM in Los Angeles CA changes call letters to KRTH
1987 - 163 day strike against Deere & Co ends, workers
accept wage freeze
1987 - 38,873 NBA crowd watch Chicago at Detroit
1987 - Kathy Postlewait wins LPGA Mazda Golf Classic
1987 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 10-6
1989 - Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 at perihelion
1989 - Princess Diane of England visits NYC
1989 - The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and
Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
1991 - Afghanistan/Pakistan hit by earthquake, 1,200 die
1991 - Craig McDermott takes 8-97 v England at the WACA
1991 - President F W de Klerk, says he would repeal all apartheid
laws
1991 - US Air & Skywest Fairchild jet collide at LA
Airport killing 32
1992 - "Crazy He Calls Me" closes at Walter Kerr
Theater NYC after 7 perfs
1992 - Barry Bonds signs baseball's highest single year
contract ($4.7 mil)
1992 - Denis Potvin's #5 becomes 1st number retired by NY
Islanders
1993 - NY Judge Sol Wachtler indicted for harassing Joy
Silverman
1993 - Soyuz TM-16 lands
1994 - Irina Privalova runs world record 50m indoor (6.03
sec)
1994 - Large meteorite falls near Kusaie, Pacific Ocean
1995 - Amtrak NY-Tampa run ends
1995 - Amy van Dikes swims woman's world record 50 m
butterfly (26.73)
1995 - Andy & Grant Flower make 269 stand vs Pak,
brotherly record
1995 - Belgium's TV channel VT4 goes on the air
1996 - The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S.
Congress.
1998 - "Street Corner Symphony," closes at Brooks
Atkinson NYC after 79 perf
1998 - 86th Australian Mens Tennis: Petr Korda beats Marcelo
Rios (62 62 62)
1998 - Australian Mixed: J Gimelstob & V Williams beat
Suk & Sukova (62 61)
1998 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 29-24
1998 - Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first
female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry
into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
2004 - 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a
stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
Singer Janet JacksonSinger Janet Jackson 2004 - Janet
Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII,
resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship
guidelines.
2004 - Super Bowl XXXVIII: New England Patriots beat Carolina
Panthers, 32-29 at the Reliant Stadium MVP: Tom Brady, New England, QB
2005 - Nepal King Gyanendra exercises Coup d'état to capture
the democracy becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
2005 - Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act, making Canada
the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage.
2009 - Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is elected as the first female
Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the first openly gay Head of State in the
modern world.
2009 - Super Bowl XLIII: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Arizona
Cardinals, 27-23 at the Raymond James Stadium MVP: Santonio Holmes, Pittsburgh,
WR
2012 - At least 73 people are killed in the Egyptian
football riots in Port Said
2013 - The Nigerian Army bomb a Boko Haram camp, killing 18
people
2013 - 21 people are killed and 30 are wounded by a market
suicide bombing in Hangu, Pakistan
2013 - 26 people are killed after a fireworks truck explodes
and causes a highway to collapse in Henan, China
2013 - Zenit-3SL, a Ukranian-Russian carrier rocket, fails
40 seconds after liftoff and crashes into the Pacific Ocean
1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat. 1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City. 1793 - France declared war on Britain and Holland. 1793 - Ralph Hodgson patented oiled silk. 1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union. 1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly." 1867 - In the U.S., bricklayers start working 8-hour days. 1884 - The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published. 1893 - Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio in West Orange, NJ. 1896 - Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin. 1898 - The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT, issued the first automobile insurance policy. Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, paid $11.25 for the policy, which gave him $5,000 in liability coverage. 1900 - Eastman Kodak Co. introduced the $1 Brownie box camera. 1913 - Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world. 1919 - The first Miss America was crowned in New York City. 1920 - The first armored car was introduced. 1920 - Canada's Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873. 1921 - Carmen Fasanella registered as a taxicab owner and driver in Princeton, New Jersey. Fasanella retired November 2, 1989 after 68 years and 243 days of service. 1929 - Weightlifter Charles Rigoulet of France achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds. 1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle. 1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations. 1951 - The first telecast of an atomic explosion took place. 1951 - The first X-ray moving picture process was demonstrated. 1953 - CBS-TV debuted "Private Secretary." 1954 - CBS-TV showed "The Secret Storm" for the first time. 1957 - P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline. 1958 - The United Arab Republic was formed by a union of Egypt and Syria. It was broken 1961. 1960 - Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service. 1968 - During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph. 1976 - "Sonny and Cher" resumed on TV despite a real life divorce. 1979 - Patty Hearst was released from prison after serving 22 months of a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Her sentence had been commuted by U.S. President Carter. 1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile. 1987 - Terry Williams won the largest slot machine payoff, at the time, when won $4.9 million after getting four lucky 7s on a machine in Reno, NV. 1991 - A USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport. 35 people were killed. 1994 - Jeff Gillooly pled guilty in Portland, OR, for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding. 1996 - Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet. 1998 - Stuart Whitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against U.S. President Clinton. 2001 - Three Scottish judges found Abdel Basset al-Mergrahi guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. The court said that Megrahi was a member of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Amin Khalifa, who had been co-accused, was acquitted and freed. 2003 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.
1790 The Supreme Court of the United States convened for the first time, in New York City. 1862 Julia Ward Howe's poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in the Atlantic Monthly. 1884 The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary A–Ant, was published. 1946 A press conference announced the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was held at the University of Pennsylvania. 1960 Four black college students began a series of sit-ins at a white-only lunch counter in Woolworth’s, Greensboro, N.C. 1968 During the Vietnam War, a Viet Cong officer was executed with a pistol shot to the head by Saigon's police chief and the image captured in a famous news photograph. 1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after 15 years of exile. 2003 The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it tried to reenter the Earth's atmosphere after a sixteen-day mission in space. All seven members of the crew were lost. 2004 Janet Jackson's famous "wardrobe malfunction" occurred at Super Bowl XXXVIII. 2009 Johanna Sigurdardottir takes office as Iceland's first female prime minister.
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/feb01.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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