http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Feb 5, 1994: Beckwith convicted of killing Medgar Evers
On this day in 1994, white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is convicted in the murder of African-American civil rights leader Medgar Evers, over 30 years after the crime occurred. Evers was gunned down in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi, home on June 12, 1963, while his wife, Myrlie, and the couple's three small children were inside.
Medgar Wiley Evers was born July 2, 1925, near Decatur, Mississippi, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II. After fighting for his country, he returned home to experience discrimination in the racially divided South, with its separate public facilities and services for blacks and whites. Evers graduated from Alcorn College in 1952 and began organizing local chapters of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). In 1954, after being rejected for admission to then-segregated University of Mississippi Law School, he became part of an NAACP campaign to desegregate the school. Later that year, Evers was named the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi. He moved with his family to Jackson and worked to dismantle segregation, leading peaceful rallies, economic boycotts and voter registration drives around the state. In 1962, he helped James Meredith become the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, a watershed event in the civil rights movement. As a result of his work, Evers received numerous threats and several attempts were made on his life before he was murdered in 1963 at the age of 37.
Beckwith, a fertilizer salesman and Ku Klux Klan member widely believed to be the killer, was prosecuted for murder in 1964. However, two all-white (and all-male) juries deadlocked and refused to convict him. A second trial held in the same year resulted in a hung jury. The matter was dropped when it appeared that a conviction would be impossible. Myrlie Evers, who later became the first woman to chair the NAACP, refused to give up, pressing authorities to re-open the case. In 1989, documents came to light showing that jurors in the case were illegally screened.
Prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter worked with Myrlie Evers to force another prosecution of Beckwith. After four years of legal maneuvering, they were finally successful. At the third trial they produced a riflescope from the murder weapon with Beckwith's fingerprints, as well as new witnesses who testified that Beckwith had bragged about committing the crime. Justice was finally achieved when Beckwith was convicted and given a life sentence by a racially diverse jury in 1994. He died in prison in 2001 at the age of 80.
Feb 5, 1878: The "French Henry Ford" born
On this day in 1878, Andre Citroen, later referred to as the Henry Ford of France for developing his country's first mass-produced automobiles, is born in Paris. Citroen revolutionized the European auto industry by making vehicles that were affordable to average citizens.
Before entering the auto business, Citroen studied engineering and later operated a gear manufacturing company. During World War I, he ran a munitions factory where he successfully implemented mass-production technology. Following the war, Citroen, who was inspired by the assembly-line innovations at Henry Ford's American auto plants, converted his munitions factory into a facility to make low-cost vehicles. At the time, only the wealthy in Europe had been able to afford automobiles. Citroen's first car, the Type A, debuted in 1919. The four-door, 10-horsepower vehicle featured an electric starter, lights and a spare tire and was capable of speeds of 40 mph. The Type A was a success, due in part to Citroen's talent as an innovative marketer. He allowed potential customers to take his vehicles for a test drive—then a new concept—and also let people buy on credit. He put the Citroen name in lights on the Eiffel Tower, launched skywriting ads to promote his products and masterminded attention-getting expeditions to Africa and Asia using Citroen vehicles.
In 1934, Citroen launched the Traction Avant, the first mass-produced passenger car to feature front-wheel drive. The car proved enormously popular, and more than 750,000 were built during the 23-year production run. At the time of the Traction Avant's release, however, the Citroen company was on the verge of bankruptcy due to Andre Citroen's heavy investments in new concepts and technology, as well as his alleged gambling debts. In 1935, Citroen was taken over by its largest creditor, the Michelin Tire Company. Andre Citroen, who had been forced out of the business he founded, became ill and died on July 3, 1935. Citroen remained part of Michelin until the 1970s, when it was sold to the French automaker Peugeot. Today, Peugeot Citroen is one of Europe's leading auto manufacturers.
Feb 5, 1975: North Vietnamese begin preparations for offensive
North Vietnamese Gen. Van Tien Dung departs for South Vietnam to take command of communist forces in preparation for a new offensive. In December 1974, the North Vietnamese 7th Division and the newly formed 3rd Division attacked Phuoc Long Province, north of Saigon. This attack represented an escalation in the "cease-fire war" that started shortly after the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973.
The North Vietnamese wanted to see how Saigon and Washington would react to a major attack so close to Saigon. President Richard Nixon and his successor, Gerald Ford, had promised to come to the aid of South Vietnam if the North Vietnamese launched a major new offensive. With Nixon's Watergate resignation and Ford facing an increasingly hostile Congress, Hanoi was essentially conducting a "test" attack to see if the United States would honor its commitment to Saigon. The attack was much more successful than the North Vietnamese anticipated: the South Vietnamese soldiers fought poorly and the United States did nothing.
Emboldened by their success, the North Vietnamese decided to launch a major offensive against the South Vietnamese. "Campaign 275" began on March 1, 1975. The North Vietnamese forces quickly overran the South Vietnamese and the United States failed to provide the promised support. Saigon fell on April 30 and the South Vietnamese government officially surrendered.
Feb 5, 1917: Mexican constitution proclaimed
After seven years of revolution and civil upheaval, Mexican President Venustiano Carranza proclaims the modern Mexican constitution, which promises the restoration of lands to native peoples, the separation of church and state, and dramatic economic and educational reforms. The progressive political document, approved by an elected constitutional convention, combined revolutionary demands for land reform with advanced social theory. It would be decades, however, before most of the sweeping reforms promised by the constitution became reality. Carranza was deposed and killed in 1920, and lasting stability eluded Mexico until after World War II, when industrialism spurred by the war grew into a major part of the economy and Miguel Aleman became the first in an unbroken series of civilian presidents.
Feb 5, 1631: Roger Williams arrives in America
Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an important American religious leader, arrives in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. Williams, a Puritan, worked as a teacher before serving briefly as a colorful pastor at Plymouth and then at Salem. Within a few years of his arrival, he alarmed the Puritan oligarchy of Massachusetts by speaking out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land. In October 1635, he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court.
After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island. He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came. Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community "Providence."
Among those who found a haven in the religious and political refuge of the Rhode Island Colony were Anne Hutchinson,like Williams, exiled from Massachusetts for religious reasons; some of the first Jews to settle in North America; and the Quakers. In Providence, Roger Williams also founded the first Baptist church in America and edited the first dictionary of Native American languages.
Feb 5, 1941: Hitler to Mussolini: Fight harder!
On this day in 1941, Adolf Hitler scolds his Axis partner, Benito Mussolini, for his troops' retreat in the face of British advances in Libya, demanding that the Duce command his forces to resist.
Since 1912, Italy had occupied Libya because of purely economic "expansion" motives. In 1935, Mussolini began sending tens of thousands of Italians to Libya, mostly farmers and other rural workers, in part to relieve overpopulation concerns in Italy. So by the time of the outbreak of the Second World War, Italy had enjoyed a long-term presence in North Africa, and Mussolini began dreaming of expanding that presence--always with an eye toward the same territories that the old "Roman Empire" had counted among its conquests.
Also sitting in North Africa were British troops, which, under a 1936 treaty, were garrisoned in Egypt to protect the Suez Canal and Royal Navy bases at Alexandria and Port Said. Hitler had offered to aid Mussolini early on in his North African expansion, to send German troops to help fend off a British counterattack. But Mussolini had been rebuffed when he had offered Italian assistance during the Battle of Britain. He now insisted that as a matter of national pride, Italy would have to create a Mediterranean sphere of influence on its own--or risk becoming a "junior" partner of Germany's.
But despite expansion into parts of East Africa and Egypt, Mussolini's forces proved no match for the Brits in the long run. British troops pushed the Italians westward, inflicting extraordinary losses on the Axis forces in an attack at Beda Fomm. As Britain threatened to push the Italians out of Libya altogether and break through to Tunisia, Mussolini swallowed his pride and asked Hitler for assistance. Hitler reluctantly agreed (it would mean the first direct German-British encounter in the Mediterranean)--but only if Mussolini stopped the Italians' retreat and kept the British out of Tripoli, the Libyan capital. But the Italians continued to be overwhelmed; in three months, 20,000 men were wounded or killed and 130,000 were taken prisoner. Only with the arrival of German Gen. Erwin Rommel would the Italian resistance be strengthened against further British advances. Even with Germany's help, Italy was able to defend its North African territory only until early 1943.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
816 - Frankish emperor Louis grants archbishop Salzburg
immunity
1428 - King Alfonso V, orders Sicily's Jews to attend
conversion sermons
1488 - Roman catholic German emperor Maximilian I caught in
Belgium
1512 - French troops under Gaston de Foix rescues Bologna
1556 - Kings Henri I & Philip II sign Treaty of
Vaucelles
1572 - Beggars assault Oisterwijk Neth, drive nuns out
1576 - Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours
1597 - A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by
the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.
1631 - Rhode Island, founder, Roger Williams arrives in
Boston from England
1644 - 1st US livestock branding law passed, by Connecticut
1649 - Prince of Wales becomes king Charles II
1663 - Earthquake in Canada
1679 - German emperor Leopold I signs peace with France
1736 - Methodists John & Charles Wesley arrive in
Savannah, Georgia
1777 - Georgia becomes 1st US state to abolish both entail
& primogeniture
1778 - Articles of Confederation ratified by 1st state,
South Carolina
1782 - Spanish take Minorca (western Mediterranean) from
British
1783 - Earthquakes ravage Calabria, killing 30,000
1783 - Sweden recognizes US independence
1795 - Zealand, Netherlands, surrenders to French general
Michaud
1817 - 1st US gas co incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for
street lights)
1818 - Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte ascends to the thrones of
Sweden and Norway.
1825 - Hannah Lord Montague of NY creates 1st detachable
shirt collar
1831 - Jan van Speijk blows up his gunboat in Antwerp,
killing about 30
1846 - "Oregon Spectator" is 1st newspaper to be
published on the West Coast
1850 - Adding machine employing depressible keys patented,
New Paltz, NY
1855 - British government of Palmerston forms
1859 - Wallachia and Moldavia are united under Alexander
John Cuza as the United Principalities.
1861 - 1st moving picture peep show machine is patented by
Samuel Goodale
1861 - Kinematoscope patented by Coleman Sellers, Phila
1861 - Louisiana delegation except Mr Bouligny withdraws
from Congress
1864 - Federals occupy Jackson, Mississippi
1865 - Battle of Hatcher's Run, VA (Armstrong's Mill,
Dabney's Mill)
1870 - 1st motion picture shown to a theater audience,
Philadelphia
1879 - Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
1881 - Phoenix, Az incorporates
1885 - News of fall of Khartoum reaches London
Composer Giuseppe VerdiComposer Giuseppe Verdi 1887 -
Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello" premieres at La Scala in Italy
1887 - Snow falls on San Francisco
1893 - Alfred Naess skates world record 500m (49.4 sec)
1894 - Female suffrage organization in Amsterdam forms
1897 - Marcel Proust meets Jean Lorrain in a pistol duel
1900 - British troops under Gen Buller occupy Vaal Krantz,
Natal
1900 - The United States and the United Kingdom sign treaty
for Panama Canal
1901 - Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster)
patented by Ed Prescot
1901 - Pierpont Morgan forms US Steel Corp
1904 - American occupation of Cuba ends
1907 - Arnold Schoenberg's 1st string quartet premieres in
Vienna
1911 - Society of Dutch Composers forms in Amsterdam
1916 - Enrico Caruso recorded "O Solo Mio" for the
Victor Talking Machine Co
1917 - Congress overrides Wilson's veto, curtailing Asian
immigration
1917 - Morosco Theater opens at 217 W 45th St NYC
(demolished 1982)
1917 - Present Mexican constitution adopted
1918 - 1st US pilot to down an enemy airplane, Stephen W
Thompson
1918 - Separation of church & state begins in USSR
1919 - NL pres John Heydler dismisses charges that Hal Chase
bet against his team & threw games in collusion with gamblers
1921 - Yankees purchase 20 acres in Bronx for Yankee Stadium
1922 - Reader's Digest magazine 1st published
1923 - General mine strike against wage cuts in Saar
1923 - Mass arrests of socialists & communists in Italy
1924 - The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting
the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC
pips".
1927 - Buster Keaton's movie "The General"
released & bombed
1929 - Jimmy Hatlo's "They'll Do It Every Time"
cartoon debuts in SF
1930 - 5th Aliyah to Israel begins
1931 - Maxine Dunlap becomes 1st US women to earn a glider
pilot license
1933 - Marinus van der Lubbe passes Dutch/German boundary
1936 - National Wildlife Federation forms
Comedian/Actor/Filmaker Charlie
ChaplinComedian/Actor/Filmaker Charlie Chaplin 1937 - 1st Charlie Chaplin
talkie, "Modern Times," released
1937 - FDR proposes enlarging Supreme Court, "court
packing" plan failed
1938 - Hans Engnestangen skates world record 500m (41.8 sec)
1940 - Gen Winckelman replaces Gen Reijnders as Dutch
supreme commander
1940 - Glenn Miller & his Orchestra record "Tuxedo
Junction"
1941 - Dutch Premier De Geer returns from Lisbon to
Netherlands
1942 - "Woman of the Year," starring Hepburn &
Tracy opens at Radio City
1942 - Braves get Tommy Holmes from Yanks for Buddy Hassett
& Gene Moore
1943 - Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots nazi general
Seyffardt
1943 - Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, 1st
transmission
1944 - 358 RAF bombers attack Stettin
1945 - Big Racket becomes fastest race horse at 69t.6 kph
(440 yd/20.8 s)
1945 - British premier Churchill arrives in Yalta, the
Crimea
1945 - US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manilla
1946 - The Chondoist Chongu Party is founded in North Korea.
WW2 General Douglas MacArthurWW2 General Douglas MacArthur
1947 - Bolewet Beirut becomes president of Poland
1948 - "Nature of Things" science show premieres
on NBC prime time
1948 - Dick Button becomes 1st US figure skating Olympic
champion
1948 - Gretchen Fraser becomes 1st US woman Olympic slalom
champion
1949 - Huaso sets official world equestrian high-jump
record, 2.47 m, Chic
1953 - "Peter Pan" by Walt Disney opens at Roxy
Theater, NYC
1953 - 5th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Thomas Mitchell &
Helen Hayes wins
1954 - WCDC TV channel 19 in Adams, MA (ABC) begins
broadcasting
1956 - 7th Winter Olympic games close at Cortina d'Ampezzo,
Italy
1956 - Louise Suggs wins LPGA Havana Golf Open
1956 - NY Mayor Robert Wagner & Bkln Boro Pres Frank
Cashmore sponsor a bill to create a $30M Brooklyn Sports Center Authority to
build
1957 - Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd Piano Concert
1958 - Clifton R Wharton confirmed as 1st US black foreign
minister (Romania)
1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser nominated 1st president of United
Arab Republic
1958 - Test Cricket debut of Lance Gibbs, WI v Pakistan,
Port-of-Spain
1958 - Vanguard TV-3 back-up launches into Earth orbit;
reaches 6 km
1959 - "Redhead" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for
455 performances
1959 - Australia regain the Ashes with a 10 wicket victory
at Adelaide
1962 - French President de Gaulle calls for Algeria's
independence
1962 - Suit to bar Englewood NJ from "racial
segregated" schools, filed
1962 - Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn
within 16 degrees
1963 - Maarten Schmidt discovers enormous red shifts in
quasars
1963 - Soviet lunar probe failure
1965 - Beursschouwburg opens in Brussels
1966 - BBC opens a relay radio station on Ascension Island
1967 - "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" premieres
on CBS (later ABC, NBC)
1967 - Anastasio Somoza elected president of Nicaragua
1967 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Robert Penn
Warren
1968 - KDTV TV channel 39 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (IND)
begins broadcasting
1968 - Skater Kees Verkerk wins olympic gold in the 1500m
1968 - Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begins.
1969 - "Turn-On," debuts & cancelled by ABC
after flopping so badly
1969 - US population reaches 200 million
1969 - Vince Lombardi, becomes part owner, vp, gm & head
coach of Redskins
1970 - 1st Test Cricket ton of Barry Richards, 126, 164
balls, 20 fours 1 six
1970 - Test Cricket debut of John Traicos, South Africa v
Australia, Durban
1970 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1970 - WSCV TV channel 51 in Fort Lauderdale, FL (IND)
suspends broadcasting
1971 - Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near
Fra Mauro Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hrs
1972 - "Another Puff" by Jerry Reed peaks at #65
1972 - Bob Douglas is 1st black elected to Basketball Hall
of Fame
1972 - US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers
& baggage
1973 - Comic strip "Hagar The Horrible" debuted
1973 - Funeral for LC William Nolde, last US soldier killed
in Vietnam War
1973 - Juan Corona sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms
for 25 murders
1974 - British mine strike
1974 - Mats Wermelin, Sweden, scores all points in 272-0
basketball win
1974 - Maximum speed on Autobahn reduced to 100 kph
1974 - US Mariner 10 returns 1st close-up photos of Venus'
cloud structure
1974 - John Murtha becomes the first Vietnam War veteran
elected to the Congress of the United States.
1976 - Australia complete 5-1 series drubbing of West Indies
1976 - Last day of Test Cricket for Lance Gibbs & Ian
Redpath
1977 - "CB Savage" by Rod Hart peaks at #67
1977 - "Dis-Gorilla (part 1)" by Rick Dees peaks
at #56
1977 - "In The Mood" by Henhouse 5 Plus Too (Ray
Stevens) peaks at #40
1977 - "Turn Loose On My Leg" by Jim Stafford
peaks at #98
1977 - "Up Your Nose" by Gabriel Kaplan peaks at
#91
1977 - General Mills Adventure Theater premieres on CBS
radio
1977 - Sugar Ray Leonard beats Luis Vega in 6 rounds in his
1st pro fight
1977 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda
Fratianne
1977 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles
Tickner
1978 - Fred Newman makes 88 consecutive basketball free
throws blindfolded
1979 - Costliest single periodical ad, $3.2 million, Gulf +
Western in Time
1979 - Sears Radio Theater premieres on CBS
1980 - 32nd NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 6-3 at
Detroit
1980 - Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel
1981 - "Piaf" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for
165 performances
1981 - Largest Jell-O made (9,246 gallons of
watermelon-flavor) in Brisbane
1981 - Milt jury in NC convicts Robert Garwood of
collaborating with enemy
1982 - Chin A Sen ends term as president of Suriname
1982 - DEA announces seizure of 3,192 tons of marijuana, 495
people
1982 - British airline Laker Airways collapses owing 270M
pounds ($351M)
1982 - Suriname pres Chin A Sen resigns & flees to Neth
1983 - Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie brought to
trial
1984 - NZ beat England (82 & 93) by an innings in 3 days
1984 - Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic
1986 - Corazon Aquino & Ferdinand Marcos appear on
"Nightline"
1987 - Dow Jones avg closes above 2,200 for 1st time
1987 - Soyuz TM-2 launches
WWF Wrestler Hulk HoganWWF Wrestler Hulk Hogan 1988 - 1st
prime-time wrestling match in 30 yrs-Andre beats Hulk Hogan
1988 - Arizona House of Reps vote to impeach Republican Gov
Evan Mecham
1988 - Panamanian Gen Manuel Noriega indicted by US grand
jury for drugs
1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes 1st NBA player to score
38,000 points
1990 - Notre Dame becomes 1st team to sell its game to a
major network (NBC)
1991 - A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from
assisting in suicides
1991 - All American Bowl ends after 14 years
1991 - Big East Football conference forms
1991 - Joni Mitchell inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame
1991 - LA King Dave Taylor becomes 29th NHler to score 1000
points
1991 - Howard Stern kisses NY Giant Leonard Marshall's ass
over bet, Stern lost claiming the Giants would lose the Superbowl
1992 - Jury selection begins in the LA police beating Rodney
King case
1992 - Last day of Test Cricket cricket for Dilip Vengsarkar
1992 - Mike Whitney career-best 7-27 at WACA in Test Cricket
win v India
1993 - Grenade explodes in Sarajevo, killing 63 &
injuring 160
Victim of Police Violence Rodney KingVictim of Police
Violence Rodney King 1993 - R James Woolsey, becomes 16th director of CIA
1994 - "Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego,"
debuts on Fox TV
1994 - Medgar Evers' murderer Byron De La Beckwith sentenced
to life, in Jackson Miss, 30 years after the crime
1995 - Japan's Shinshinto Party wins local elections
1995 - NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 41-13
1995 - Sandra Volker swims female European record 50m
backstroke: 27.77
1997 - 3 Swiss banks create $70 million Holocaust fund
1997 - Brook Lee, Hawaii, crowned 46th Miss USA (en route to
Miss Universe)
1998 - Alberto Acciarito convicted of harassing his ex-wife
Ingrid Rossellini
1998 - Author Tom Clancy confirms he signed agreement to
purchase Minnesota Vikings for slightly more than $200 million, an NFL
franchise record
1998 - Nancy Kerrigan & Tonya Harding talk on FOX (Taped
Dec 22nd)
2004 - Twenty-three Chinese people drown when a group of 35
cockle-pickers are trapped by rising tides in Morecambe Bay, England.
Twenty-one bodies are recovered.
2004 - Rebels from the Revolutionary Artibonite Resistance
Front capture the city of Gonaïves, starting the 2004 Haiti rebellion.
2006 - Super Bowl XL: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Seattle
Seahawks, 21-10 at the Ford Field MVP: Hines Ward, Pittsburgh, WR
2008 - A major tornado outbreak across the Southern United
States leaves at least 58 dead, the most since the May 31, 1985 outbreak that
killed 88.
2009 - The United States Navy guided missile cruiser Port
Royal runs aground off Oahu, Hawaii, damaging the ship as well as a coral reef.
2012 - Super Bowl XLVI: New York Giants beat New England
Patriots, 21-17 at the Lucas Oil Stadium MVP: Eli Manning, New York, QB
2013 - UK House of Commons votes in favour of same-sex
marriage
2013 - The US Postal Service announces the cessation of
Saturday first-class mail delivery from August 2013
1782 - The Spanish captured Minorca from the British. 1783 - Sweden recognized the independence of the United States. 1846 - "The Oregon Spectator", based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast. 1861 - Samuel Goodale patented the moving picture peep show machine. 1885 - Congo State was established under Leopold II of Belgium, as a personal possession. 1881 - Phoenix, AZ, was incorporated. 1917 - Mexico's constitution was adopted. 1917 - The U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 (Asiatic Barred Zone Act) with an overwhelming majority. The action overrode President Woodrow Wilson's December 14, 1916 veto. 1924 - The BBC time signals, or "pips", from Greenwich Observatory were heard for the first time. They are broadcast every hour. 1931 - Maxine Dunlap became the first woman licensed as a glider pilot. 1937 - U.S. President Roosevelt proposed enlarging the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed. 1940 - "Amanda of Honeymoon Hill" debuted on radio. 1952 - In New York City, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians "don't walk." 1953 - The Walt Disney’s film "Peter Pan" opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City. Disney movies, music and books 1958 - Gamel Abdel Nasser was formally nominated to become the first president of the United Arab Republic. 1961 - The first issue of the "Sunday Telegraph" was published. 1962 - French President Charles De Gaulle called for Algeria's independence. 1972 - Bob Douglas became the first black man elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, MA. 1982 - Great Britain imposed economic sanctions against Poland and Russia in protest against martial law in Poland. 1987 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 2,200-point for the first time. The market closed at 2201.49. 1988 - A pair of indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama's military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking. 1994 - White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers. 1997 - Switzerland's "Big Three" banks announced they would create a $71 million fund for Holocaust victims and their families. 1997 - Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced a $10 billion merger with Dean Witter. 1999 - Mike Tyson was sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting two people after a car accident on August 31, 1998. Tyson was also fined $5,000, had to serve 2 years of probation, and had to perform 200 hours of community service upon release. 2001 - It was announced the Kelly Ripa would be Regis Philbin's cohost. The show was renamed to "Live! With Regis and Kelly." 2001 - Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced their separation. 2003 - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the U.N. concerning Iraq's material breach of U.N. Resolution 1441.
1811 After George III was declared insane, the Prince of Wales became Prince Regent of England, and later George IV. 1917 Congress passed the Immigration Act, which restricted Asian immigration, over President Wilson's veto. 1917 Mexico adopted its present constitution. 1937 FDR proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices—"packing" the court. 1994 Byron De La Beckwith was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Medgar Evers, 30 years after the crime in Jackson, Mississippi. 1997 Under international pressure, three of Switzerland's biggest banks created a fund worth 100 million Swiss francs for Holocaust victims and their families.
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/feb05.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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