February 17
Today is
Random Act Of Kindness Day, so do something nice for someone.
Events
364 Roman Emperor
Jovian dies after a reign of eight months. He is found dead in his tent at Tyana (Asia Minor) en route back to Constantinople in suspicious circumstances.
1621
Myles Standish is appointed as first commander of the English
Plymouth Colony in North America.
1801 An electoral tie between
Thomas Jefferson and
Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr, Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.
1819 The United States House of Representatives passes the
Missouri Compromise for the first time.
1863 A group of citizens of Geneva, Switzerland founded an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later became known as the
International Committee of the Red Cross.
1864 American Civil War: The
H. L. Hunley becomes the first submarine to
engage and sink a warship, the
USS Housatonic.
1865 American Civil War:
Columbia, South Carolina, is burned as Confederate forces flee from advancing Union forces.
1904
Madama Butterfly receives its premiθre at
La Scala in Milan.
1933
Newsweek magazine is first published.
1944 World War II: The
Battle of Eniwetok begins: The battle ends in an American victory on February 22.
1959 Project Vanguard:
Vanguard 2, the first weather satellite is launched to measure cloud-cover distribution.
1965 Project Ranger: The
Ranger 8 probe launches on its mission to photograph the
Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions. Mare Tranquillitatis or the "Sea of Tranquility" would become the site chosen for the
Apollo 11 lunar landing.
1972 Cumulative sales of the
Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the
Ford Model T.
1974
Robert K. Preston, a disgruntled U.S. Army private, buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
1980 First winter ascent of Mount Everest by
Krzysztof Wielicki and
Leszek Cichy.
1989 -
David Coverdale married actress
Tawny Kitaen (known for her provocative appearances in
Whitesnake's music videos '
Here I Go Again, '
Is This Love' and '
Still of the Night'). The couple divorced in 1991.
1996 In Philadelphia, world champion
Garry Kasparov beats the
Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match.
Births
1844 Aaron Montgomery Ward; 1877 Andrι Maginot (
Maginot Line); 1910
Marc Lawrence; 1914 Arthur Kennedy; 1916 Raf Vallone; 1924 Margaret Truman (author, only child of Harry & Bess Truman); 1925 Hal Holbrook; 1930 Ruth Rendell; 1931 Buddy Ryan; 1934 Barry Humphries (played Dame Edna Everage); 1935 Christina Pickles; 1936 Jim Brown; 1937 Mary Ann Mobley
(Miss America 1959); 1940 Gene Pitney♪ ♫; 1942 Huey P. Newton (co-founded the Black Panther Party); 1950 Rickey Medlocke
(Blackfoot, Lynyrd Skynyrd); 1954 Lou Ann Barton♪ ♫; 1954 Rene Russo; 1956 Richard Karn ('Al Borland' on
Home Improvement); 1959 Rowdy Gaines; 1962 Lou Diamond Phillips; 1963 Larry the Cable Guy ("Git r done!"); 1963 Michael Jordan; 1965 Michael Bay; 1970 Dominic Purcell; 1971 Denise Richards; 1972 Billie Joe Armstrong♪ ♫(Green Day); 1972 Taylor Hawkins
(Foo Fighters, Alanis Morissette); 1974 Jerry O'Connell; 1981 Joseph Gordon-Levitt (
3rd Rock From The Sun, Looper); 1981 Paris Hilton (famous for being famous); 1989 Chord Overstreet (
Glee); 1991 Ed Sheeran♪ ♫
Deaths
364 Jovian; 1909 Geronimo; 1961 Nita Naldi; 1982 Thelonious Monk
; 1982 Lee Strasberg; 1994 Randy Shilts; 2005 Dan O'Herlihy; 2006 Bill Cowsill♪ ♫(The Cowsills); 2010 Kathryn Grayson♪ ♫; 2012 Michael Davis
(MC5); 2013 Mindy McCready♪ ♫; 2014 Bob Casale
(Devo)