February 1
It’s G.I. Joe Day and Robinson Crusoe Day and Working Naked Day
FEBRUARY IS…
American Heart Month
An Affair to Remember Month
Black History Month
Canned Food Month
Creative Romance Month
Great American Pie Month
National Cherry Month
National Childrens Dental Health Month
National Grapefruit Month
National Weddings Month
ON THIS DAY…
1327 Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
1587 The Colony of Roanoke Island is established by the landing of Sir Walter Raleigh. This Colony would become known as the “Lost Colony”
1713 The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan’s order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
1790 In New York City, the Supreme Court of the United States attempts to convene for the first time.
1793 French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
1796 The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
1835 Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.
1861 American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
1865 President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
1884 The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1893 Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
1896 The opera La bohème receives its premiere in Turin.
1918 Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
1920 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begins operations.
1924 The United Kingdom recognizes the USSR.
1942 World War II: U.S. Navy conducts Marshalls-Gilberts raids, the first offensive action by the United States against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater.
1946 Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
1957 Felix Wankel’s first working prototype DKM 54 of the Wankel engine runs at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany
1958 Egypt and Syria merge to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
1958 The United States Army launches Explorer 1.
1960 Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1968 Canada’s three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
1978 Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979 Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence is commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
1979 The Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1996 The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
1998 Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne became the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
2004 Janet Jackson’s breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to Federal Communications Commission censorship guidelines.
2009 Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is elected as the first female Prime Minister of Iceland, becoming the first openly gay head of state in the modern world.
BORN:
1841 William Davenport, American magician
1872 Andrew Kehoe, American mass murderer
1882 Louis Stephen St. Laurent, 12th Prime Minister of Canada
1887 Charles Nordhoff, English-born author
1894 John Ford, American director and producer
1898 Leila Denmark American pediatrician who co-developed the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine and supercentenarian.
1901 Clark Gable, American actor
1902 Langston Hughes American writer
1904 S. J. Perelman, American humorist
1908 George Pal, Hungarian-born director and producer
1918 Muriel Spark, Scottish author
1921 Peter Sallis, English actor
1928 Stuart Whitman, American actor
1931 Boris Yeltsin, 1st President of the Russian Federation
1937 Don Everly, American musician (Everly Brothers)
1937 Garrett Morris, American comedian
1938 Sherman Hemsley, American comedian and actor
1939 Fritjof Capra, Austrian physicist
1942 Terry Jones, Welsh actor and writer
1948 Rick James, American musician and composer
1948 Elisabeth Sladen, British actress
1954 Bill Mumy, American actor and musician
1956 Exene Cervenka, American musician
1964 Linus Roache, English actor
1965 Sherilyn Fenn, American actress
1965 Brandon Lee, American actor
1965 Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
1968 Lisa Marie Presley, American singer and actress
1968 Pauly Shore, American comedian
1971 Michael C. Hall, American actor
DIED:
1328 King Charles IV of France
1691 Pope Alexander VIII
1850 Edward Baker Lincoln, son of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln
1851 Mary Shelley, English author
1922 William Desmond Taylor, American silent film actor and director; his murder remains unsolved.
1940 Philip Francis Nowlan, science fiction writer, creator of Buck Rogers character
1958 Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate
1963 Fleetwood Lindley, the last living person to see Abraham Lincoln’s face
1966 Hedda Hopper, American film actress and gossip columnist
1966 Buster Keaton, American actor
1988 Heather O’Rourke, American actress
1997 Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist
2003 Crew of the STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster):
* Michael P. Anderson
* David Brown
* Kalpana Chawla
* Laurel Clark
* Rick D. Husband
* Willie McCool
* Ilan Ramon
2005 John Vernon, Canadian actor