This Day in History

[xoxoxoBruce]

If mind your own bidness, then you won't be minding mine.

Unfortunately there are people making big bucks minding your bidness, so they won't stop... neither will the gumint.

I seem to remember my first PC as having about 500 MB of ram, and the old hands (who had one a year before me), put the fear of Bill Gates in me not to try to overfill or the blue screen of death would get me. Like being potty trained, or the monster under the bed, it stayed with me.

Now when I clear my cookies, which I do a half dozen times a day, there will be several hundred MB, and occasionally 8 or 9 hundred. Yeah some is the make things more better surfing the net, but a shitload of the in info gathering.

[Gravdigr]

Apologies for missing yesterday's installment.

Better late than never.


January 29

1790 – The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.

1834 – US President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

1845 – "The Raven" is published in The Evening Mirror in New York, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.

1850 – Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the U.S. Congress.

1861 – Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

1863 – The Bear River Massacre: A detachment of California Volunteers led by Colonel Patrick Edward Connor engage the Shoshone at Bear River, Washington Territory, killing hundreds of men, women, and children.

1886 – Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1916 – World War I: Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

1936 – The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

1963 – The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.

1967 – The "ultimate high" of the hippie era, the Mantra-Rock Dance, takes place in San Francisco and features Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.

1991 – Gulf War: The Battle of Khafji, the first major ground engagement of the war, as well as its deadliest, begins.

2002 – In his State of the Union address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

2005 – The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.

2009 – Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich is removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-U.S. president-elect Barack Obama.

Births

1754 – Moses Cleaveland; 1756 – Henry Lee III; 1761 – Albert Gallatin; 1843 – William McKinley; 1860 – Anton Chekhov; 1880 – W. C. Fields; 1901 – Allen B. DuMont; 1913 – Victor Mature; 1917 – John Raitt; 1918 – John Forsythe; 1923 – Paddy Chayefsky; 1936 – James Jamerson; 1937 – Bobby Scott; 1940 – Katharine Ross; 1945 – Tom Selleck; 1948 – Marc Singer; 1949 – Tommy Ramone; 1950 – Ann Jillian; 1954 – Terry Kinney; 1954 – Oprah Winfrey; 1960 – Greg Louganis; 1962 – Nicholas Turturro; 1968 – Edward Burns; 1970 – Heather Graham; 1970 – Paul Ryan; 1975 – Sara Gilbert; 1979 – Andrew Keegan; 1981 – Jonny Lang; 1982 – Adam Lambert

Deaths

661 – Ali; 757 – An Lushan; 1820 – George III; 1933 – Sara Teasdale; 1956 – H. L. Mencken; 1963 – Robert Frost; 1964 – Alan Ladd; 1977 – Freddie Prinze; 1980 – Jimmy Durante; 1992 – Willie Dixon; 2008 – Margaret Truman; 2009 – Hélio Gracie; 2015 – Rod McKuen

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January 30

516 BCE – The Second Temple of Jerusalem finishes construction.

1649 – King Charles I of England is beheaded.

1661 – Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed. See 1649, immediately above.

1703 – The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master.

1806 – The original Lower Trenton Bridge (also called the Trenton Makes the World Takes Bridge), which spans the Delaware River between Morrisville, Pennsylvania and Trenton, New Jersey, is opened.

1820 – Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.

1835 – In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself.

1847 – Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco, California.

1862 – The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.

1933 – Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1945 – World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with German refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, killing approximately 9,500 people.

1948 – Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.

1959 – MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.

1968 – Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies.

1969 – The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.

1973 - After recently changing their name from Wicked Lester, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Ace Frehley and Peter Criss made their first appearance as KISS at the Popcorn Club in Queens, New York.

1975 – The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary. See 1862, above.

1979 – A Varig Boeing 707-323C freighter, flown by the same commander as Flight 820, disappears over the Pacific Ocean 30 minutes after taking off from Tokyo.

1982 - American blues guitarist/singer Lightnin' Hopkins died of cancer aged 70.

1982 – Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner". [A PC virus disguised as an APPLE boot program?]

1988 - During a court case involving Holly Johnson and ZTT Records it was revealed that Frankie Goes To Hollywood had not played on their hits 'Relax' and 'Two Tribes'. The court was told that top session musicians were used to make the records.

1995 – Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease.

2003 – The Kingdom of Belgium officially recognizes same-sex marriages.

2016 - David Bowie left an estate valued at about $100m (£70m), according to his will which was filed in New York. Half would go to his widow, Iman, along with the home they shared in New York. The rest was shared between his son and daughter. Bowie's personal assistant, Corinne Schwab, was left $2m and another $1m went to a former nanny, Marion Skene.

Births

1882 – Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd POTUS); 1914 – John Ireland; 1915 – John Profumo (the Profumo affair); 1922 – Dick Martin; 1925 – Douglas Engelbart (invented the computer mouse); 1925 – Dorothy Malone (Written On The Wind, Peyton Place); 1930 – Gene Hackman; 1935 – Elsa Martinelli; 1937 – Jeanne Pruett♪ ♫; 1937 – Vanessa Redgrave; 1937 – Boris Spassky; 1941 – Dick Cheney (46th VPOTUS); 1942 – Marty Balin♪ ♫(Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship); 1947 – Steve Marriott(Humble Pie, Small Faces); 1951 – Phil Collins(Genesis); 1951 – Charles S. Dutton (Roc, Alien 3, Threshold); 1957 – Payne Stewart; 1959 – Jody Watley♪ ♫; 1974 – Christian Bale; 1980 – Wilmer Valderrama

Deaths

1836 – Betsy Ross; 1838 – Osceola; 1889 – Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria; 1934 – Frank Nelson Doubleday (founded Doubleday Publishing Company); 1948 – Mahatma Gandhi; 1948 – Orville Wright; 1951 – Ferdinand Porsche; 1958 – Ernst Heinkel (founded Heinkel Aircraft Company); 1980 – Professor Longhair♪ ♫; 1982 - Lightnin' Hopkins; 2006 – Coretta Scott King; 2007 – Sidney Sheldon; 2014 – The Mighty Hannibal♪ ♫

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January 31

314 – Pope Sylvester I succeeds Pope Miltiades. It is not known how Pope Tweety Bird fits into the chronology. You'd have to ask Pope Granny.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting against Parliament and King James.

1747 – The first VD clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. And there was much rejoicing.

1801 – John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.

1846 – After the Milwaukee Bridge War(<--Interesting read.), Juneautown and Kilbourntown unify as the City of Milwaukee.

1848 – John C. Frémont is court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.

1849 – Corn Laws are abolished in the United Kingdom pursuant to legislation in 1846.

1865 – American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, abolishing slavery and submits it to the states for ratification.

1865 – American Civil War: Confederate General Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief.

1915 – World War I: Germany is the first to make large-scale use of poison gas in warfare in the Battle of Bolimów against Russia.

1917 – World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.

1918 – A series of accidental collisions on a misty Scottish night leads to the loss of two Royal Navy submarines with over a hundred lives, and damage to another five British warships.

1929 – The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.

1930 – 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

1944 – World War II: During the Anzio campaign the 1st Ranger Battalion (Darby's Rangers) is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at the Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

1945 – US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.

1950 – United States President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1958 – The first successful American satellite detects the Van Allen radiation belt.

2001 – In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

2007 – Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.

2009 – In Kenya, at least 113 people are killed and over 200 injured following an oil spillage ignition in Molo.

2010 – Avatar becomes the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

2011 – A winter storm hits North America for the second time in the same month, causing $1.8 billion in damage across the United States and Canada and killing 24 people.

Births

1673 – Louis de Montfort; 1797 – Franz Schubert; 1872 – Zane Grey; 1892 – Eddie Cantor; 1902 – Tallulah Bankhead; 1914 – Jersey Joe Walcott; 1915 – Alan Lomax; 1919 – Jackie Robinson; 1920 – Stewart Udall; 1921 – Carol Channing; 1921 – Mario Lanza; 1922 – Joanne Dru; 1923 – Norman Mailer; 1929 – Jean Simmons; 1931 – Ernie Banks; 1934 – James Franciscus; 1937 – Suzanne Pleshette; 1938 – Beatrix of the Netherlands; 1941 – Dick Gephardt; 1944 – Charlie Musselwhite; 1947 – Nolan Ryan; 1951 – Harry Wayne Casey; 1956 – John Lydon; 1959 – Anthony LaPaglia; 1959 – Kelly Lynch; 1970 – Minnie Driver; 1973 – Portia de Rossi; 1977 – Kerry Washington; 1981 – Justin Timberlake

Deaths

1606 – Guy Fawkes; 1956 – A. A. Milne; 1974 – Samuel Goldwyn; 2016 – Terry Wogan

[xoxoxoBruce]

Pope Sylvester I succeeds Pope Miltiades.

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February 1

February is Black History Month in the U.S. and Canada, while the United Kingdom celebrates LGBT History Month.

Today is Nat'l Freedom Day in the U.S.

February is also Nat'l Bird Feeding Month in the U.S.

World Hijab Day is observed on this date. So get a hijab ya bum.

There are 333 days remaining in 2017.

There are 326 days until Christmas.


Events

1327 – Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.

1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the Union.

1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.

1942 – Voice of America (VOA), the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.

1953 – North Sea flood of 1953 was caused by a heavy storm which occurred overnight, 31 January-1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium and the U.K.

1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyễn Văn Lém by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyễn Ngọc Loan is filmed and photographed by Eddie Adams.

1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.

1979 – Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after nearly 15 years of exile.

1981 – The Underarm bowling incident of 1981 occurred when Trevor Chappell bowls underarm on the final delivery of a game between Australia and New Zealand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

1991 – A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.

1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal disaster case.

2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.

2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during the reentry of mission STS-107 into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

2004 – Hajj pilgrimage stampede: In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured.

2009 – The first cabinet of Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir was formed in Iceland, making her the country's first female prime minister and the world's first openly LGBT head of government.

2013 – The Shard, the tallest building in the European Union, is opened to the public.

Births

1894 – John Ford; 1901 – Frank Buckles (at his death (in 2011) he was the last surviving veteran of WW I); 1901 – Clark Gable; 1902 – Langston Hughes; 1904 – S.J. Perelman; 1909 – George Beverly Shea♪ ♫; 1923 – Ben Weider (well known in two areas: Bodybuilding and Napoleonic history); 1931 – Boris Yeltsin; 1934 – Bob Shane♪ ♫(The Kingston Trio); 1937 – Don Everly♪ ♫(Everly Bros); 1937 – Garrett Morris (President of the New York School for the Hard of Hearing); 1937 – Ray Sawyer♪ ♫(Dr. Hook); 1938 – Jimmy Carl Black(The Mothers Of Invention); 1938 – Sherman Hemsley(The Jeffersons, Amen); 1939 – Del McCoury♪ ♫(The Del McCoury Band); 1939 – Joe Sample; 1942 – Bibi Besch; 1942 – Terry Jones (Monty Python); 1947 – Jessica Savitch; 1948 – Rick James Bitch♪ ♫; 1950 – Mike Campbell(Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers); 1950 – Rich Williams(Kansas); 1951 – Sonny Landreth; 1954 – Chuck Dukowski(Black Flag); 1964 – Jani Lane♪ ♫(Warrant); 1964 – Linus Roache (Law & Order); 1965 – Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee); 1965 – Sherilyn Fenn; 1968 – Lisa Marie Presley; 1968 – Pauly Shore; 1969 – Andrew Breitbart; 1969 – Patrick Wilson(Weezer); 1971 – Michael C. Hall (Dexter); 1971 – Ron Welty(The Offspring); 1986 – Lauren Conrad; 1987 – Ronda Rousey; 1994 – Harry Styles♪ ♫(One Direction)

Deaths

1851 – Mary Shelley; 1940 – Philip Francis Nowlan (created Buck Rogers); 1966 – Hedda Hopper; 1966 – Buster Keaton; 1976 – Werner Heisenberg (physicist and namesake of 'Walter White's' alter ego in Breaking Bad); 1981 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. (of the McDonnell Douglas Corporation); 1988 – Heather O'Rourke ("They're heeeeere."); 2003 – crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia: Michael P. Anderson, David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, William C. McCool, Ilan Ramon; 2005 – John Vernon (The Outlaw Josey Wales); 2012 – Don Cornelius (host of Soul Train for 22 years); 2013 – Ed Koch; 2014 – Maximilian Schell

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February 2

Today most of the U.S. and Canadia celebrates Groundhog Day, but Alaska, Alaska just haaaad to be different. They will be celebrating Marmot Day.

World Wetlands Day is celebrated on this date, as well.


Events

1141 – The Battle of Lincoln, at which Stephen, King of England is defeated and captured by the allies of Empress Matilda. [I didn't know Stephen King was that old. Also, I thought he was from Maine.]

1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England, which is just down the road from Therefordshire.

1536 – Spaniard Pedro de Mendoza founds Buenos Aires, Argentina.

1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.

1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring Daniel Defoe's adventure book Robinson Crusoe.

1848 – Mexican–American War: The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed.

1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.

1899 – The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.

1913 – Grand Central Terminal is opened in New York City.

1922 – Ulysses by James Joyce is published.

1925 – Serum run to Nome: Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiration of the Iditarod race.

1935 – Leonarde Keeler administers polygraph tests to two murder suspects, the first time polygraph evidence was admitted in U.S. courts.

1943 – World War II: The Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end when Soviet troops accept the surrender of the last German troops in the city.

1959 - Buddy Holly, Richard Valens and The Big Bopper all appeared at the Surf Ballroom, Clear Lake, Iowa. This was all three acts' last ever gig, before being killed in a plane crash the following day.

1971 – Idi Amin replaces President Milton Obote as leader of Uganda.

1973 - Keith Emerson of Emerson Lake and Palmer injured his hands when his piano, rigged to explode as a stunt, detonated prematurely during a concert in San Francisco.

1979, Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious died of a heroin overdose in New York City. There had been a party to celebrate Vicious' release on $50,000 (£29,412) bail pending his trial for the murder of his former girlfriend, Nancy Spungen, the previous October. Party guests, said that Vicious had taken heroin at midnight. An autopsy confirmed that Vicious died from an accumulation of fluid in the lungs that was consistent with heroin overdose. A syringe, spoon and heroin residue were discovered near the body.

1980 – Reports surface that the FBI is targeting allegedly corrupt Congressmen in the Abscam operation.

1990 – Apartheid: F. W. de Klerk announces the unbanning of the African National Congress and promises to release Nelson Mandela.

1993 - Willie Nelson agreed to pay $9 million of the $16.7 million he owed the Internal Revenue Service. His accountants, Price Waterhouse, had not been paying Nelson's taxes for years.

2004 – Swiss tennis player Roger Federer becomes the No. 1 ranked men's singles player, a position he will hold for a record 237 weeks.

2004 - TV network CBS apologised for its broadcast of the American Super Bowl after Janet Jackson was left exposed when Justin Timberlake ripped her top. The pair had been performing a raunchy half-time duet when one of Jackson's breasts was exposed as Timberlake pulled at her top. CBS quickly cut away from the scene but was still flooded with calls from angry viewers about the half-time entertainment, produced by MTV. Timberlake insisted it had been an accident saying "I am sorry that anyone was offended by the wardrobe malfunction during the half-time performance of the Super Bowl."

Births

1803 – Albert Sidney Johnston (General in three (3) separate armies, The United States Army, The Confederate States Army, & The Army of The Republic of Texas); 1861 – Solomon R. Guggenheim; 1882 – James Joyce; 1895 – George Halas (owner/founder of THE Chicago Bears); 1897 – Howard Deering Johnson (founded Howard Johnson's); 1905 – Ayn Rand; 1923 – James Dickey (the writer, not the actor); 1925 – Elaine Stritch; 1927 – Stan Getz♪ ♫; 1932 – Robert Mandan (Soap); 1933 – M'el Dowd; 1937 – Tom Smothers (The Smothers Bros.); 1942 – Graham Nash♪ ♫(Crosby, Stills, & Nash); 1946 - Howard Bellamy♪ ♫(The Bellamy Bros); 1947 – Farrah Fawcett; 1949 – Brent Spiner ('Data' on Star Trek TNG); 1949 – Ross Valory(Journey, Frumious Bandersnatch and Steve Miller Band); 1952 – Rick Dufay♪ ♫(Aerosmith); 1954 – Christie Brinkley; 1966 – Robert DeLeo(Stone Temple Pilots, Hollywood Vampires); 1977 – Shakira♪ ♫

Deaths

1918 – John L. Sullivan; 1969 – Boris Karloff; 1979 – Sid Vicious(Sex Pistols); 1987 – Alistair MacLean; 1992 – Bert Parks (host of Miss America pageant for 24 years); 1995 – Donald Pleasence ("The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep"); 1996 – Gene Kelly♪ ♫; 1999 – David McComb♪ ♫(The Triffids, The Blackeyed Susans); 2004 – Bernard McEveety (director/producer Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Bonanza, The Virginian, The Big Valley,Young Maverick, How the West Was Won); 2005 – Max Schmeling); 2013 – Chris Kyle (wrote American Sniper (his autobiography)); 2014 – Philip Seymour Hoffman; 2016 – Bob Elliott (Bob & Ray, Chris Elliott's father)

[DanaC]

1461 – Wars of the Roses: The Battle of Mortimer's Cross is fought in Herefordshire, England, which is just down the road from Therefordshire.

*snort*

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February 3

Today is Four Chaplains Day in the U.S.


Events

1377 – More than 2,000 people of the Italian city of Cesena are killed by the Condottieri (papal armed forces) in the "Cesena Bloodbath".

1488 – Bartolomeu Dias of Portugal lands in Mossel Bay after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, becoming the first known European to travel so far south.

1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.

1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.

1809 – The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.

1834 – Wake Forest University is established.

1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to male citizens regardless of race.

1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

1943 – The SS Dorchester is sunk by a German U-boat. Only 230 of 902 men aboard survive. The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, dedicated by President Harry Truman, is one of many memorials established to commemorate the Four Chaplains story.

1945 – World War II: As part of Operation Thunderclap, 1,000 B-17s of the Eighth Air Force bomb Berlin, a raid which kills between 2,500 and 3,000 and dehouses another 120,000.

1959 – The Day The Music Died: Deaths of rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

1961 – The United States Air Forces begins Operation Looking Glass, and over the next 30 years, a "Doomsday Plane" is always in the air, with the capability of taking direct control of the United States' bombers and missiles in the event of the destruction of the SAC's command post.

1967 - Producer Joe Meek shot his landlady Violet Shenton and then shot himself at his flat in London.

1969 – In Cairo, Yasser Arafat is appointed Palestine Liberation Organization leader at the Palestinian National Congress.

1971 – New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn and survives to later testify against police corruption.

1972 – The first day of the seven-day 1972 Iran blizzard, which would kill at least 4,000 people, making it the deadliest snowstorm in history.

1984 – John Buster and the research team at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer, from one woman to another resulting in a live birth.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B is launched using Space Shuttle Challenger.

1995 – Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle as mission STS-63 gets underway from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

2004 - R. Kelly appeared in court and entered of plea of not guilty to 21 charges of child pornography. Kelly, who was free on bond, did not talk during the brief hearing. Outside the Cook County Criminal Courthouse fans voiced their support for the singer, proclaiming his innocence with placards and T-shirts. Kelly had been arrested in Florida after he was indicted by a grand jury in Chicago on 21 counts of child pornography, stemming from a videotape that allegedly shows the star performing sexual acts with a 14-year-old girl.

Births

1807 – Joseph E. Johnston; 1809 – Felix Mendelssohn; 1811 – Horace Greeley ("Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."); 1859 – Hugo Junkers (designed the Junkers J 1); 1874 – Gertrude Stein; 1894 – Norman Rockwell; 1904 – Pretty Boy Floyd; 1907 – James A. Michener; 1918 – Joey Bishop; 1920 – Henry Heimlich; 1925 – John Fiedler ('Lawyer Daggett' in True Grit); 1935 – Johnny "Guitar" Watson♪ ♫; 1938 – Victor Buono; 1939 – Michael Cimino; 1940 – Fran Tarkenton; 1943 – Blythe Danner; 1945 – Bob Griese; 1947 – Dave Davies♪ ♫(The Kinks); 1947 – Stephen McHattie; 1950 – Morgan Fairchild; 1956 – Nathan Lane; 1962 – Michele Greene; 1965 – Maura Tierney; 1969 – Beau Biden; 1969 – Retief Goosen; 1970 – Warwick Davis

Deaths

1468 – Johannes Gutenberg; 1883 – Richard Wagner; 1889 – Belle Starr; 1924 – Woodrow Wilson (28th POTUS); 1935 – Hugo Junkers; 1959 – The Day the Music Died, The Big Bopper, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens; 1961 – Anna May Wong; 1989 – John Cassavetes; 1991 – Nancy Kulp (Miss Hathaway on The Beverly Hillbillies); 1996 – Audrey Meadows (The Honeymooners); 2006 – Al Lewis ('Grandpa' on The Munsters); 2010 – Frances Reid (Days of Our Lives); 2012 – Ben Gazzara; 2012 – Zalman King

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February 4

Today Missouri and California celebrate Rosa Parks Day.

Today is also World Cancer Day, so...Fuck cancer.

This day marks the approximate mid-point of winter, in the Northern Hemisphere, and the approximate mid-point of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.


Events

1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.

1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master's death.

1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley.

1941 – The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain American troops.

1945 – World War II: The Yalta Conference between the "Big Three" (Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin) opens at the Livadia Palace in the Crimea.

1974 – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.

1977 – A Chicago Transit Authority elevated train rear-ends another and derails, killing 11 and injuring 180, the worst accident in the agency's history.

1992 – A coup d'état is led by Hugo Chávez against Venezuelan President Carlos Andrés Pérez.

1996 – Major snowstorm paralyzes Midwestern United States, Milwaukee, Wisconsin and ties all-time record low temperature at −26 °F (−32.2 °C).

1997 – En route to Lebanon, two Israeli Sikorsky CH-53 troop-transport helicopters collide in mid-air over northern Galilee, Israel killing 73.

1999 – Unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo is shot 41 times by four plainclothes New York City police officers on an unrelated stake-out, inflaming race relations in the city.

2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Births

1895 – Nigel Bruce ('Dr. Watson' in Sherlock Holmes movies); 1900 – Jacques Prévert; 1902 – Charles Lindbergh; 1906 – Clyde Tombaugh (discovered planet Pluto); 1912 – Byron Nelson; 1913 – Rosa Parks; 1915 – William Talman; 1918 – Ida Lupino; 1923 – Conrad Bain (Diff'rent Strokes); 1936 – David Brenner; 1940 – George A. Romero; 1941 – John Steel; 1947 – Dan Quayle (44th POTUS); 1948 – Alice Cooper; 1949 – Michael Beck; 1951 – Patrick Bergin; 1951 – Phil Ehart; 1959 – Lawrence Taylor; 1962 – Clint Black; 1970 – Gabrielle Anwar; 1973 – Oscar De La Hoya; 1975 – Natalie Imbruglia; 1977 – Gavin DeGraw

Deaths

211 – Septimius Severus; 1555 – John Rogers; 1894 – Adolphe Sax; 1975 – Louis Jordan; 1982 – Alex Harvey; 1983 – Karen Carpenter; 1987 – Liberace; 1992 – John Dehner; 2005 – Ossie Davis; 2006 – Betty Friedan; 2007 – Barbara McNair; 2016 – Dave Mirra; 2016 – Maurice White

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February 5

Today is Superbowl Sunday in the United States. The New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons will meet in Houston, Texas to decide the NFL Championship.

Today is also Nat'l Weatherpersons' Day in the U.S., but, I'd still look out the window.


Events

1597 – A group of early Japanese Christians are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

1778 – South Carolina becomes the second state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

1807 – HMS Blenheim (1761) and HMS Java disappear off the coast of Rodrigues.

1852 – The New Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia, one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, opens to the public.

1869 – The largest alluvial gold nugget in history, called the "Welcome Stranger", is found in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia.

1909 – Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

1913 – Greek military aviators, Michael Moutoussis and Aristeidis Moraitinis perform the first naval air mission in history, with a Farman MF.7 hydroplane.

1919 – Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and D. W. Griffith launch United Artists.

1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal.

1945 – World War II: General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila.

1958 – A hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb is lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

1994 – Byron De La Beckwith is convicted of the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.

Births

1840 – John Boyd Dunlop (tires); 1840 – Hiram Maxim; 1878 – André Citroën (Citroën cars); 1900 – Adlai Stevenson II; 1906 – John Carradine; 1914 – William S. Burroughs; 1919 – Red Buttons; 1919 – Tim Holt; 1934 – Hank Aaron; 1940 – H. R. Giger; 1941 – Stephen J. Cannell; 1941 – Cory Wells; 1942 – Roger Staubach; 1943 – Nolan Bushnell (founded Atari); 1943 – Michael Mann; 1944 – Al Kooper; 1946 – Charlotte Rampling; 1947 – Darrell Waltrip; 1948 – Christopher Guest; 1948 – Barbara Hershey; 1948 – Errol Morris; 1961 – Tim Meadows; 1962 – Jennifer Jason Leigh; 1964 – Laura Linney; 1964 – Duff McKagan; 1967 – Chris Parnell; 1969 – Bobby Brown; 1969 – Michael Sheen; 1971 – Sara Evans; 1986 – Reed Sorenson

Deaths

1881 – Thomas Carlyle; 1922 – Slavoljub Eduard Penkala (invented the Mechanical pencil); 1967 – Leon Leonwood Bean; 1991 – Dean Jagger; 1995 – Doug McClure; 1998 – Tim Kelly; 2008 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

[Gravdigr]

February 6

Today is observed as an (deep breath) International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation (phew, talk about a long day, sheesh).

California, Wisconsin, and 21 other U.S. states celebrate Ronald Reagan Day today.

Meanwhile, the Kiwis observe Waitangi Day, celebrating the founding of New Zealand.

Also, the Sapporo Snow Festival begins today, in Sapporo, Japan.


Events

1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland becomes King upon the death of his brother Charles II.

1778 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1819 – Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founds Singapore.

1820 – The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society depart New York to start a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.

1851 – The largest Australian bushfires in a populous region in recorded history take place in the state of Victoria.

1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.

1899 – Spanish–American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.

1918 – British women over the age of 30 get the right to vote.

1922 – The Washington Naval Treaty is signed in Washington, D.C., limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

1951 – The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derails near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. The accident kills 85 people and injures over 500 more. The wreck is one of the worst rail disasters in American history.

1952 – Elizabeth II becomes queen regnant of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya. ("For the first time in the history of the world, a young girl [she was 26] climbed into a tree one day a Princess and after having what she described as her most thrilling experience she climbed down from the tree next day a Queen — God bless her." ~Jim Corbett)

1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

1958 - George Harrison joined Liverpool group The Quarrymen.

1959 – Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments files the first patent for an integrated circuit.

1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor'easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.

1988 – Michael Jordan makes his signature slam dunk from the free throw line inspiring Air Jordan and the Jumpman logo.

1990 - Billy Idol suffered serious injuries when he failed to stop at a stop sign and crashed his Harley-Davidson into a car. Idol had been James Cameron's first choice for the role of the villainous T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day; the role was recast entirely as a result of the accident.

1996 – Willamette Valley Flood: Floods in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, United States, causes over US$500 million in property damage throughout the Pacific Northwest.

1998 – Washington National Airport is renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport.

1998 - American singer and guitarist Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys died, aged 51, after a long battle with lung cancer.

1998, Austrian singer Falco (Johann Holzel) was killed in a road accident after his car collided with a bus. He scored the 1986 UK & US No.1 single 'Rock Me Amadeus' making him the first-ever Austrian act to score a UK and US No.1 hit single.

2001 - Guitarist Don Felder was fired from The Eagles. He would later launch a $50 million law suit against drummer Don Henley and guitarist Glen Frey, alleging wrongful termination and breach of implied-in-fact contract. Henley and Frey then countersued Felder for breach of contract, alleging that Felder had written and attempted to sell the rights to a "tell-all" book. Both parties settled out-of-court for an undisclosed amount.

2011 - Irish guitarist and singer Gary Moore died in his sleep of a heart attack in his hotel room while on holiday in Estepona, Spain.

2012 – A 6.9 magnitude earthquake hits near the central Philippines off the coast of Negros Island causing at least 51 deaths and injuring 112 others.

2013 – A 8.0 magnitude earthquake hits the Solomon Islands killing 10 people and injuring 17 others.

2016 – A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hits southern Taiwan, killing at least 38 people and injuring over 530 more. [I'm making preparations to be somewhere flat with no buildings or cliffs in the future on this date. Helluva day for earthquakes.]

Births

1756 – Aaron Burr (3rd VPOTUS); 1833 – J. E. B. Stuart; 1895 – Babe Ruth; 1911 – Ronald Reagan(40th POTUS); 1912 – Eva Braun (Adolf's main squeeze); 1913 – Mary Leakey; 1914 – Thurl Ravenscroft (voice of Tony The Tiger "They'rrrrre Grrreat!", sang "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch"); 1917 – Zsa Zsa Gabor; 1922 – Patrick Macnee (The Avengers (1961)); 1931 – Rip Torn; 1932 – François Truffaut (director Fahrenheit 451); 1939 – Mike Farrell ('B.J. Hunnicutt' on M*A*S*H); 1940 – Tom Brokaw (talking head); 1941 – Dave Berry♪ ♫; 1943 – Fabian Forte♪ ♫; 1944 – Michael Tucker (L.A. Law); 1945 – Bob Marley♪ ♫; 1946 – Richie Hayward(Little Feat); 1946 – Kate McGarrigle♪ ♫; 1949 – Jim Sheridan (co-writer, director of My Left Foot); 1950 – Natalie Cole♪ ♫; 1957 – Kathy Najimy; 1957 – Robert Townsend; 1962 – Axl Rose (whiny-voiced asshole); 1964 – Gordon Downie♪ ♫(The Tragically Hip); 1966 – Rick Astley♪ ♫

Continued in next post

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

February 6
snip--
Also, the Sapporo Snow Festival begins today, in Sapporo, Japan.

--snip

Also in the Pacific Northwest, especially around the Salish Sea / Puget Sound.

gah.

[Gravdigr]

Continued from previous post

Deaths

1918 – Gustav Klimt; 1952 – George VI; 1958 – victims of the Munich air disaster: Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Walter Crickmer, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Frank Swift, Tommy Taylor; 1981 – Hugo Montenegro♪ ♫; 1990 – Jimmy Van Heusen; 1991 – Danny Thomas; 1993 – Arthur Ashe; 1994 – Joseph Cotten; 1998 - Carl Wilson♪ ♫(The Beach Boys); 1998 - Falco♪ ♫; 1999 – Jimmy Roberts♪ ♫; 2007 – Frankie Laine♪ ♫("He rode a blazing saddle, he wore a shining star, his job, to offer battle to bad men near and far"); 2009 – Philip Carey; 2009 – James Whitmore; 2011 – Gary Moore(Thin Lizzie)