Saturday, February 8, 2014

On This Day in History - February 8 Americans Secure Guadalcanal

Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history


Feb 8, 1943: Americans secure Guadalcanal

On this day in 1943, Japanese troops evacuate Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. The American victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon Islands.  

Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons, a group of 992 islands and atolls, 347 of which are inhabited, in the South Pacific Ocean. The Solomons, which are located northeast of Australia and have 87 indigenous languages, were discovered in 1568 by the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra (1541-95). In 1893, the British annexed Guadalcanal, along with the other central and southern Solomons. The Germans took control of the northern Solomons in 1885, but transferred these islands, except for Bougainville and Buka (which eventually went to the Australians) to the British in 1900.  

The Japanese invaded the Solomons in 1942 during World War II and began building a strategic airfield on Guadalcanal. On August 7 of that year, U.S. Marines landed on the island, signaling the Allies' first major offensive against Japanese-held positions in the Pacific. The Japanese responded quickly with sea and air attacks. A series of bloody battles ensued in the debilitating tropical heat as Marines sparred with Japanese troops on land, while in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal, the U.S. Navy fought six major engagements with the Japanese between August 24 and November 30. In mid-November 1942, the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo, Iowa, died together when the Japanese sunk their ship, the USS Juneau.  

Both sides suffered heavy losses of men, warships and planes in the battle for Guadalcanal. An estimated 1,600 U.S. troops were killed, over 4,000 were wounded and several thousand more died from disease. The Japanese lost 24,000 soldiers. On December 31, 1942, Emperor Hirohito told Japanese troops they could withdraw from the area; the Americans secured Guadalcanal about five weeks later.  

The Solomons gained their independence from Britain in 1978. In the late 1990s, fighting broke out between rival ethnic groups on Guadalcanal and continued until an Australian-led international peacekeeping mission restored order in 2003. Today, with a population of over half a million people, the Solomons are known as a scuba diver and fisherman's paradise.












Feb 8, 1924: First execution by lethal gas

The first execution by lethal gas in American history is carried out in Carson City, Nevada. The executed man was Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese gang who was convicted of murdering a rival gang member. Lethal gas was adopted by Nevada in 1921 as a more humane method of carrying out its death sentences, as opposed to the traditional techniques of execution by hanging, firing squad, or electrocution.  

During a lethal gas execution, the prisoner is sealed in an airtight chamber and either potassium cyanide or sodium cyanide is dropped into a pan of hydrochloric acid. This produces hydrocyanic gas, which destroys a human body's ability to process blood hemoglobin. The prisoner falls unconscious within seconds and chokes to death, unless he or she holds his or her breath, in which case the prisoner often suffers violent convulsions for up to a minute before dying.  

Lethal gas as a method of carrying out capital punishment was largely replaced by lethal injection in the late 20th century.



Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:

421 - Flavius Constantine becomes Co-Emperor as Emperor Constantius III of the Western Roman Empire with Honorius
1526 - Heavy storm strikes Dutch coast, many die
1575 - University Leiden founded, and given the motto "Praesidium Libertatis"
1600 - Vatican convicts scholar Giordano Bruno to death
1601 - Earl Robert Devereux of Essex armies draws into London
1622 - King James I disbands the English parliament
1672 - Isaac Newton reads 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London
1690 - French & Indian troops set Schenectady settlement NY on fire
1690 - Lord Halifax resigns as Lord Privy Seal
1693 - William & Mary college is chartered in the Dominion and Colony of Virginia (2nd in North America)
1726 - The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia.
1735 - 1st opera in US "Flora," opens in Charleston, SC
1743 - Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 AUs of Earth
1744 - French/Spanish fleet leaves Toulon
1750 - Minor earthquake in London
1775 - Leidse U 400th anniversary dinner
1776 - Wolfgang von Goethes' "Stella," premieres in Hamburg
1802 - Simon Willard patents banjo clock
1807 - Napoleon defeats Russians in battle of Eylau
Physicist & Mathematician Isaac NewtonPhysicist & Mathematician Isaac Newton 1809 - Franz I of Austria declares war on France
1837 - 1st VP chosen by Senate, Richard Johnson (Van Buren admin)
1849 - New Roman Republic established.
1855 - The Devil's Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.
1861 - Confederate States of America organizes in Montgomery, Ala
1862 - Battle of Roanoke Island NC, Federals gain control of Pamlico Sound
1862 - Opera "Lily of Killarney," premieres in London
1865 - 1st black major in US army, Martin Robinson Delany
1867 - The Ausgleich results in the establishment of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary.
1879 - Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the Royal Canadian Institute.
1883 - Louis Waterman begins experiments to invents fountain pen
1887 - Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing, Minn became the 1st US ski club
1887 - Under the Dawes Act indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship
1887 - The Dawes Act authorized the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.
1889 - Flood ravages Dutch coast
1894 - Enforcement Act repealed, making it easier to disenfranchise blacks
Composer Pyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyComposer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1895 - Tchaikovsky/Petipa's "Swan Lake," premieres in Petersburg
1896 - Georges Feydeaus' "Le Dindon," premieres in Paris
1896 - Western Conference forms of Midwestern U, later renamed Big 10 Conf
1898 - John Ames Sherman patents 1st envelope folding & gumming mach (Mass)
1904 - Russo-Japanese War begins
1905 - Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people
1908 - Wilhelmina '08 soccer team forms in Weert Neth
1909 - France & Germany sign treaty about Morocco
1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.
1911 - US helps overthrow Pres Miguel Devila of Honduras
1912 - 1st eastbound US transcontinental flight lands in Jacksonville, Fla
1914 - General Zamon becomes president of Haiti
1915 - "Birth of a Nation" opens at Clune's Auditorium in LA
1916 - French cruiser "Admiral Charner" torpedoed off Syrian coast, kills 374
1916 - NL votes down Charlie Ebbets proposal to limit 25 cent seats
1918 - "Stars & Stripes," weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published
1920 - Swiss men vote against women's suffrage
1922 - Radio arrives at the White House
1923 - Coal mine explosion at Dawson, New Mexico kills 120
1923 - German NSDAP Volkischer Beobachter newspaper becomes a daily
1924 - 1st coast-to-coast radio hookup: Gen John Joseph Carty speech in Chic
1925 - Kaufman & Berlin's "cocoanuts," premieres in NYC
1925 - Marcus Garvey enters federal prison in Atlanta
1926 - German Reichstag decides to apply for League of Nations membership
1926 - Sean O'Casey's "Plough & Stars" opens at Abbey Theater Dublin
Animator Walt DisneyAnimator Walt Disney 1926 - Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio becomes Walt Disney Studios
1927 - Belgian-Swiss treaty signed
1928 - 1st transatlantic TV image received, Hartsdale, NY
1928 - Scottish inventor J Blaird demonstrates color-TV
1929 - KOY-AM in Phoenix Arizona begins radio transmissions
1930 - "Happy Days Are Here Again" by Benny Mereoff hits #1
1931 - Gas explosion Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000
1933 - -23°F (-31°C), Seminole, Texas (state record)
1933 - 1st flight of all-metal Boeing 247
1934 - Export-Import Bank organizes in Washington, DC
1934 - Gaston Doumergue forms new French government
1935 - 1st NFL draft; Jay Berwanger of U Chicago is 1st pick (by Eagles) He never plays in NFL
1936 - 1st NFL draft, Eagles select Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger
1936 - 1st ski jumping tournament, Red Wing, Minn
1936 - 1st successful Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot, Conacher vs Rangers
1936 - Pandit Jawaharlal follows Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party
1937 - Maxwell Anderson's "Masque of Kings," premieres in NYC
1940 - Lewis & Hamilton's musical "Two for the Show," premieres in NYC
1940 - Lodtz, 1st large ghetto established by Nazis in Poland
1941 - Japanese armored barges cross Strait of Johore to attack Singapore
1941 - NSB'er Max Blokzijl begins nazi propaganda on Dutch radio
1942 - Stravinsky's "Danses Concertantes," premieres in Los Angeles
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1942 - Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort
1943 - Red Army recaptures Kursk
1944 - 1st black reporter accredited to White House, Harry McAlpin
1944 - U-762 sunk off Ireland
1945 - Allied air attack on Goch/Kleef/Kalkar/Reichswald
1946 - Béla Bartók's 3rd Concert for piano/orchestra premieres in Philadelphia, PA, US
1946 - Premier Salazar of Portugal forbids opposition parties
1947 - Jan van der Hoorn wins 8th Dutch 11-cities skating race (10:51)
1947 - KSD (now KSDK) TV channel 5 in St Louis, MO (NBC) begins broadcasting
1948 - 5th Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland
1949 - Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty sentenced to life in prison
1952 - "RCA Victor Show Starring Dennis Day," debuts on NBC TV
1952 - Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom
1953 - Betty Jameson wins LPGA Serbin Golf Open
1953 - WLVA (now WSET) TV channel 13 in Lynchburg-Roanoke, VA (ABC) begins
Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth IIQueen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II 1955 - Malenkov resigns as USSR premier, Bulganin replaces him
1955 - The Government of Sindh abolished Jagirdari system in the province. One million acres (4000 km²) of land thus acquired is to be distributed among the landless peasants.
1956 - Mine disaster in Quaregnon Belgium, 8 die
1957 - SF Public Library's bookmobile initiated in front of City Hall
1958 - Edgar Whitehead succeeds Garfield Todd as premier of South Rhodesia
1958 - French planes bomb Sakiet Tunisia, 75 die
1958 - KIRO TV channel 7 in Seattle, WA (CBS) begins broadcasting
1960 - Boston Celtic Bill Russell becomes 1st NBAer with 50 rebounds (51)
1960 - Congress opens hearings looking into payola
1960 - Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name "Mountbatten-Windsor".
1962 - KACB TV channel 3 in San Angelo, TX (NBC) begins broadcasting
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - 1st transmission of Clandestine Voice of Iraqi People (Communist)
1963 - AFL's Dallas Texans become KC Chiefs
1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1964 - Peter Shaffer's "Royal Hunt of the Sun," premieres in London
1964 - Rep Martha Griffiths address gets civil rights protection for women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act
1965 - Eastern DC-7B crashes into Atlantic off Jones Beach NJ, kills 84
1965 - Supremes release "Stop In the Name of Love"
1967 - Longest losing streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (10 games)
1967 - Peter (Asher) & Gordon (Waller) discontinue their singing partnership
1967 - Pirate Radio UKGM (England) closes down
Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth IIQueen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II 1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - Officers kill 3 students demonstrating in SC State (Orangeburg)
1969 - Last edition of Saturday Evening Post
1969 - Meteorite weighing over 1 ton falls in Chihuahua, Mexico
1971 - Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in NY, to become WWF wrestling champ
1971 - South Vietnamese troops invade Laos
1971 - The Nasdaq stock market index debuts.
1972 - Josh Gibson & Buck Leonard selected to Hall of Fame
1973 - Jean Kerrs "Finishing Touches," premieres in NYC
1973 - Mushtaq & Asif Iqbal make 350 stand for 4th wicket v NZ
1973 - Senate names 7 members to investigate Watergate scandal
1974 - "Good Times," debuts on CBS TV
1974 - Ringo releases "You're 16"
1974 - Skylab 4's astronauts land
1974 - Soap opera "Secret Storm" ends a 20 year run
1975 - 1800 Unification church couples' wed in Korea
1975 - Caps only got one shot in a period against Islanders
1976 - Hua Guofeng becomes premier of China PR
1976 - Jan Stephens wins LPGA Sarah Coventry Naples Golf Classic
1976 - Largest crowd at Cleveland Coliseum (Cavs vs Wash-21,130)
1977 - Earthquake in SF, at 5.0, strongest since 1966
Magazine Publisher Larry FlyntMagazine Publisher Larry Flynt 1977 - Hustler publisher Larry Flynt sentenced due to
1978 - Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes PM of Kuwait
1978 - Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1979 - Denis Sassou-Nguesso became the President of the Republic of the Congo for the first time.
1981 - "5 O'Clock Girl" closes at Helen Hayes Theater NYC after 12 perfs
1981 - "Brigadoon" closes at Majestic Theater NYC after 133 performances
1981 - Sally Little wins LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic
1981 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Elaine Zayak
1981 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Hamilton
1982 - Dodgers trade Davey Lopes to A's breaking up the longest-playing infield (Cey-Russell-Lopes-Garvey)
1983 - 35th NHL All-Star Game: Campbell beat Wales 9-3 at NY Islander
1983 - Baseball orders Mickey Mantle to sever ties with Claridge Casino
1983 - Eric Peters sets transatlantic sailboat record (E-W)-46 days
1983 - Tina Howe's "Painting Churches," premieres in NYC
NHL all-time top scorer Wayne GretzkyNHL all-time top scorer Wayne Gretzky 1983 - Wayne Gretzky sets NHL all star record of 4 goals in 1 period
1983 - Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance
1984 - 14th Winter Olympic games opens in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
1984 - 1st time 8 people in space
1984 - A's take Yankees pitcher Tim Belcher as Type A free agent compensation
1984 - Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of 3 to Salyut 7
1985 - 1st-class cricket debut of Jimmy Adams (age 17), Jamaica v Barbados
1985 - Bruce Morris, Marshall Univ, makes a 92' 5½" basketball shot
1985 - Michael Gross swims world record 800m freestyle (7:38.75)
1985 - Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung returns to South-Korea
1986 - 5' 7" Spud Webb of Atlanta Hawks wins NBA Slam Dunk Competition
1986 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Brian Boitano
1986 - 1984 Summer Olympics head of the LAPD bomb squad, Arleigh McCree, and his partner Officer Ronald Ball of the Firearms and explosives unit were killed while trying to dismantle two pipe bombs when they responded to a call. McCree was recognized as one of the top explosive experts in the world.
1987 - 37th NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 154-149 (OT) at Seattle
1987 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic
1988 - NASA launches DOD-2
1989 - 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles
1989 - Jockey Chris Antley begins record of 64 consecutive winning days
1989 - US Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain, 145 die
1990 - David Hares "Racing Demon," premieres in London
1990 - "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine
1991 - Roger Clemens signs record $5,380,250 per year Red Sox contract
1992 - "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred peaks at #1
1992 - 16th Winter Olympic games opens in Albertville, France
1992 - Ulysses spacecraft passes Jupiter
1993 - Suchoi-24 crashes into Tupolev passenger flight, 134 die
1993 - GM sues NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" program had rigged 2 car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM pickups were prone to fires
Actor Jack NicholsonActor Jack Nicholson 1994 - Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car
1994 - Kapil Dev sets world record for Test Cricket wickets with 432
1994 - Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee charge with possession of loaded firearm
1995 - 6.4 earthquake at Trujillo, Colombia (46+ killed)
1996 - NFL & Cleveland allows Art Modell to move his NFL franchise to Balt but he had to leave the Browns' name behind
1996 - The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.
1996 - The massive Internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" takes place.
1998 - 1st female ice hockey game in Olympic history Finland beats Sweden 6-0
1998 - 48th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 135-114 at NYC
1998 - NHL stops season until Feb 24th to accomodate the Olympics
2002 - XIX Winter Olympics opens in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
2004 - 46th Grammy Awards: Clocks, Evanescence wins
2004 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 55-52
2005 - Israel and Palestinians agree to cease-fire.
2006 - 48th Grammy Awards: Boulevard Of Broken Dreams, John Legend wins
2008 - Nebraska bans electric chair as sole execution method.
2009 - 51st Grammy Awards: Please Read The Letter, Adele wins
2009 - NFL Pro Bowl: NFC beats AFC 30-21
2013 - 16 people are killed and 27 are wounded by a market bombing in Kalaya, Pakistan
2013 - 100, 000 people march to demand justice for the atrocities of the Bangladesh Liberation War in Dhaka
2013 - 29 people are killed and 69 are injured in a series of Iraq bombings
2013 - A massive blizzard begins in the US and Canada that resulted in 15 deaths, 5,300 cancelled flights, and loss of power for 900,000 people



1693 - A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA.   1802 - Simon Willard patented the banjo clock.   1861 - The Confederate States of America was formed.   1861 - A Cheyenne delegation and some Arapaho leaders accepted a new settlement (Treaty of Fort Wise) with the U.S. Federal government. The deal ceded most of their land but secured a 600-square mile reservation and annuity payments.   1896 - The Western Conference was formed by representatives of Midwestern universities. The group changed its name to the Big 10 Conference.   1900 - In South Africa, British troops under Gen. Buller were beaten at Ladysmith. The British fled over the Tugela River.   1904 - The Russo-Japanese War began with Japan attacking Russian forces in Manchuria.   1910 - William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America.   1918 - "The Stars and Stripes" newspaper was published for the first time.   1922 - The White House began using radio after U.S. President Harding had it installed.   1927 - The original version of "Getting Gertie’s Garter" opened at the Hippodrome Theatre in New York City.   1936 - The first National Football League draft was held. Jay Berwanger was the first to be selected. He went to the Philadelphia Eagles.   1952 - Queen Elizabeth II ascended to the British throne. Her father, George VI, had died on February 6.   1963 - The Kennedy administration prohibited travel to Cuba and made financial and commercial transactions with Cuba illegal for U.S. citizens.   1963 - Lamar Hunt, owner of the American Football League franchise in Dallas, TX, moved the operation to Kansas City. The new team was named the Chiefs.   1969 - The last issue of the "Saturday Evening Post" was published. It was revived in 1971 as a quarterly publication and later a 6 times a year.   1971 - The Nasdaq stock-market index debuted.   1973 - U.S. Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal.   1974 - The three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after 84 days.   1978 - The U.S. Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time. The subject was the Panama Canal treaties.   1980 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced a plan to re-introduce draft registration.   1985 - "The Dukes of Hazzard" ended its 6-1/2 year run on CBS television.   1993 - General Motors sued NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that some GM pickups were prone to fires after certain types of crashes. The suit was settled the following day by NBC.   2002 - The exhibit "Places of Their Own" opened at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The works displayed were by Geogia O'Keeffe, Frida Kahlo and Emily Carr.





1587 Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded. 1693 College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., received its charter, becoming the second institution of higher learning in the United States. 1870 The National Weather Service was established under the U.S. Army Signal Corps. 1904 The Russo-Japanese war began when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in northeast China. 1915 D. W. Griffith's controversial epic, The Birth of a Nation premiered in Los Angeles. 1924 The gas chamber was used for the first time as a method of execution in the United States. Gangster Gee Jon was put to death at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City. 1960 The payola (pay for broadcast airplay) hearings opened in the U.S. House of Representatives. Dick Clark would testify in April. 1980 President Jimmy Carter revealed his plan to reinstate selective service draft registration.


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/feb08.htm


http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history

http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory

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