Today In History

[minidog]

1741 - Benjamin Franklin published America’s second magazine, "The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle".

1804 - A raid was led by Lt. Stephen Decatur to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia. The ship had been taken by pirates.

1857 - The National Deaf Mute College was incorporated in Washington, DC. It was the first school in the world for advanced education of the deaf. The school was later renamed Gallaudet College.

1862 - During the U.S. Civil War, about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Fort Donelson, TN.

1868 - The Jolly Corks organization, in New York City, changed it name to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE).

1883 - "Ladies Home Journal" began publication.

1914 - The first airplane flight between Los Angeles and San Francisco took place.

1918 - Lithuania proclaimed its independence.

1923 - Howard Carter unsealed the burial chamber of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen. The next day he entered the chamber with several invited guests. He had originally found the tomb on November 4, 1922.

1932 - The first fruit tree patent was issued to James E. Markham for a peach tree which ripens later than other varieties.

1937 - Wallace H. Carothers received a patent for nylon. Carothers was a research chemist for Du Pont.

1938 - The U.S. Federal Crop Insurance program was authorized.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines.

1946 - The first commercially designed helicopter was tested in Connecticut.

1948 - NBC-TV began airing its first nightly newscast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre", which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.

1959 - Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba after the overthrow of President Fulgencio Batista.

1960 - The U.S.S. Triton began the first circumnavigation of the globe under water. The trip ended on May 10.

1962 - Jimmy Bostwick defeated his brother, Pete, to win the U.S. Open Court-Tennis championships for the third time.

1963 - Paul Anka married Marie-Ann DeZogheb in Paris.

1968 - In the U.S., the first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, AL.

1970 - Joe Frazier began his reign as the undefeated heavyweight world champion when he knocked out Jimmy Ellis in five rounds. He lost the title on January 22, 1973, when he lost for the first time in his professional career to George Foreman.

1972 - Wilt Chamberlain (Los Angeles Lakers) reached the 30,000-point mark in his NBA career during a game against the Phoenix Suns.

1977 - The Anglican archbishop of Uganda, Janani Luwum, was killed in automobile accident. Two other men were also killed.

1985 - "Kojak" returned to network television after an absence of seven years with the CBS-TV special, "Kojak: The Belarus File."

1987 - John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem. He was accused of being "Ivan the Terrible", a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp. He was convicted, but the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the ruling.

1989 - Investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, announced that a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was the reason that Pan Am Flight 103 was brought down the previous December. All 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground were killed.

1999 - A bomb exploded at the government headquarters in Uzbekistan. Gunfire followed the incident. The event apparently was an attempt on the life of President Islam Karimov.

1999 - Kurds seized embassies and held hostages across Europe following Turkey's arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.

1999 - Testimony began in the Jasper, TX, trial of John William King. He was charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Jr. King was later convicted and sentenced to death.

2002 - The operator of a crematory in Noble, GA, was arrested after dozens of corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around in the surrounding woods.

2005 - The Kyoto global warming pact went into effect in 140 nations.

2005 - The NHL announced the cancellation of the 2004-2005 season due to a labor dispute. It was the first time a major sports league in North America lost an entire season to a labor dispute.

Current Birthdays


John McEnroe turns 50 years old today

91 Patty Andrews
Singer (The Andrews Sisters)


63 Jeremy Bulloch
Actor


63 Pete Postlethwaite
Actor


58 William Katt
Actor


52 LeVar Burton
Actor


51 Ice-T
Actor, rapper ("Law and Order: Special Victims Unit")


51 Lisa Loring
Actress


48 Andy Taylor
Rock musician (Duran Duran)


44 Dave Lombardo
Rock musician (Slayer)


37 Jerome Bettis
Football player


37 Taylor Hawkins
Rock musician (Foo Fighters)


34 Sam Salter
R&B singer


32 Ahman Green
Football player


27 Lupe Fiasco
Rapper


16 Mike Weinberg
Actor

Historic Birthdays


Katharine Cornell

2/16/1893 - 6/9/1974
American stage actress

68 Frederick William
2/16/1620 - 5/9/1688
Elector of Brandenburg (1640-88)


73 Giambattista Bodoni
2/16/1740 - 11/29/1813
Italian printer who designed several typefaces


63 Henry Wilson
2/16/1812 - 11/22/1875
Vice President of the United States (1873-75)


64 Nikolay Semyonovich Leskov
2/16/1831 - 3/5/1895
Russian novelist and short-story writer


80 Henry Adams
2/16/1838 - 3/27/1918
American historian and author


89 Henry Martyn Leland
2/16/1843 - 3/26/1932
American engineer and manufacturer


85 Wilhelm Schmidt
2/16/1868 - 2/10/1954
German anthropologist and Roman Catholic priest


67 Robert Flaherty
2/16/1884 - 7/23/1951
American explorer and filmmaker


75 Edgar Bergen
2/16/1903 - 9/30/1978
American ventriloquist and comedian

 

[minidog]

1801 - The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson was elected president and Burr became vice president.

1817 - The first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD.

1865 - Columbia, SC, burned. The Confederates were evacuating and the Union Forces were moving in.

1876 - Julius Wolff was credited with being the first to can sardines.

1878 - In San Francisco, CA, the first large city telephone exchange opened. It had only 18 phones.

1897 - The National Congress of Mothers was organized in Washington, DC, by Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. It was the forerunner of the National PTA.

1913 - The Armory Show opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The full-scale exhibition was of contemporary paintings and was organized by the Association of Painters and Sculptors.

1924 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle. He did it with a time of 52-2/5 seconds in Miami, FL.

1933 - "Newsweek" was first published.

1933 - Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after Chic Young’s popular strip first debuted.

1934 - The first high school automobile driver’s education course was introduced in State College, PA.

1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. U.S. forces won the battle on February 22, 1944.

1947 - The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.

1964 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be approximately equal in population. (Westberry v. Sanders)

1965 - Comedienne Joan Rivers made her first guest appearances on "The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson" on NBC-TV.

1968 - The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opened in Springfield, MA.

1985 - U.S. Postage stamp prices were raised from 20 cents to 22 cents for first class mail.

1992 - In Milwaukee, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. In November of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison.

1995 - Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings. He was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison.

1996 - World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue" in Philadelphia, PA.

1997 - Pepperdine University announced that Kenneth Starr was leaving the Whitewater probe to take a full-time job at the school. Starr reversed the announcement four days later.

2005 - U.S. President George W. Bush named John Negroponte as the first national intelligence director

Current Birthdays


Paris Hilton turns 28 years old today.


84 Hal Holbrook
Actor


79 Ruth Rendell
Author


76 Bobby Lewis
Rock singer


75 Dame Edna
Comedian


74 Johnny Bush
Country singer


73 Jim Brown
Football Hall of Famer


70 Mary Ann Mobley
Actress


64 Brenda Fricker
Actress


55 Rene Russo
Actress


53 Richard Karn
Actor


47 Lou Diamond Phillips
Actor


46 Michael Jordan
Basketball player


46 Larry the Cable Guy
Actor, comedian ("Blue Collar TV")


44 Michael Bay
Director


42 Chante Moore
R&B singer


39 Timothy J. Mahoney
Rock musician (311)


39 Dominic Purcell
Actor ("Prison Break")


38 Denise Richards
Actress


37 Billie Joe Armstrong
Rock musician (Green Day)


35 Jerry O'Connell
Actor


35 Bryan White
Country singer


33 Kelly Carlson
Actress ("Nip/Tuck")


29 Jason Ritter
Actor ("Joan of Arcadia")


28 Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Actor ("3rd Rock From the Sun")


17 Meaghan Jette Martin
Actress ("Camp Rock")

Historic Birthdays


Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

2/17/1874 - 6/19/1956
American industrialist who built IBM

59 Arcangelo Corelli
2/17/1653 - 1/8/1713
Italian violinist and composer


34 Gustavo Adolfo Becquer
2/17/1836 - 12/22/1870
Spanish poet and author


70 A. Montgomery Ward
2/17/1843 - 12/7/1913
American mail-order merchant


76 Andrew B. Paterson
2/17/1864 - 2/5/1941
Australian poet, journalist and songwriter


54 Andre Maginot
2/17/1877 - 1/7/1932
French statesman for whom Maginot Line was named


85 H. L. Hunt
2/17/1889 - 11/29/1974
American oil tycoon


76 Hans J. Morgenthau
2/17/1904 - 7/19/1980
German-bn. American political scientist and historian


84 Red Barber
2/17/1908 - 10/22/1992
American baseball broadcaster


75 Arthur Kennedy
2/17/1914 - 1/5/1990
American character actor


47 Huey P. Newton
2/17/1942 - 8/22/1989
American activist who co-founded the Black Panthers

 

[minidog]

1564 - The artist Michelanglelo died in Rome.

1685 - Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas.

1735 - The first opera performed in America. The work was "Flora" (or "Hob in the Well") was presented in Charleston, SC.

1841 - The first continuous filibuster in the U.S. Senate began. It lasted until March 11th.

1861 - Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as the President of the Confederate States.

1885 - Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S. for the first time.

1900 - A San Francisco man claimed that X-rays had cured his cancer.

1913 - The famous French painting "Nude Descending a Staircase", by the French artist, Marcel Duchamp, was displayed at an "Armory Show" in New York City.

1930 - Elm Farm Ollie became the first cow to fly in an airplane.

1930 - The planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930.

1932 - Sonja Henie won her 6th world women’s figure skating title in Montreal, Canada.

1938 - "The Big Broadcast of 1938" was released.

1949 - "Yours Truly Johnny Dollar" debuted on CBS radio.

1952 - Greece and Turkey became members of NATO.

1953 - "Bwana Devil" opened. It was the first three-dimensional feature.

1953 - Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the "I Love Lucy" TV show through 1955.

1964 - "Any Wednesday" opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York City. The play established Gene Hackman as an actor.

1970 - The Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention.

1972 - The California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty.

1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise went on its maiden "flight" sitting on top of a Boeing 747.

1984 - Reed Larson (Detroit Red Wings) got two assists to become the highest scoring, American-born player in the history of the National Hockey League. Larson broke the record by scoring his 432nd point.

1987 - The executives of the Girl Scout movement decided to change the color of the scout uniform from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue.

1998 - In Russia, money shortages resulted in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons.

1998 - In Nevada, two white separatists were arrested and accused of plotting a bacterial attack on subways in New York City.

2000 - The U.S. Commerce Department reported a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999. It was the largest calender-year trade gap in U.S. history.

2001 - NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the Daytona 500 race.

2003 - In South Korea, at least 120 people were killed when a man lit a fire on a subway train.

Current Birthdays


John Travolta turns 55 years old today.


87 Helen Gurley Brown
Author, editor


84 George Kennedy
Actor


82 John Warner
Former U.S. senator, R-Va.


78 Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize-winning author


77 Milos Forman
Director


76 Yoko Ono
Artist and singer


68 Herman Santiago
Singer (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers)


68 Irma Thomas
Soul singer


62 Dennis DeYoung
Rock singer (Styx)


61 Sinead Cusack
Actress


59 John Hughes
Screenwriter, director


59 Cybill Shepherd
Actress


57 Randy Crawford
Singer


57 Juice Newton
Singer


56 Robbie Bachman
Rock musician (Bachman Turner Overdrive)


56 Larry Rust
Rock musician (Iron Butterfly)


52 Vanna White
Game show host ("Wheel of Fortune")


49 Greta Scacchi
Actress


45 Matt Dillon
Actor


44 Dr. Dre
Rapper


41 Molly Ringwald
Actress ("Pretty in Pink, "The Breakfast Club")


35 Yevgeny Kafelnikov
Tennis player


34 Sarah Brown
Actress


32 Sean Watkins
Bluegrass musician (Nickel Creek)


30 Tyrone Burton
Actor


29 Regina Spektor
Rock singer, musician


21 Shane Lyons
Actor


Historic Birthdays


Louis Comfort Tiffany

2/18/1848 - 1/17/1933
American painter, decorator and designer

42 Mary (Mary I) Tudor
2/18/1516 - 11/17/1558
English queen (1553-58)


82 Alessandro Volta
2/18/1745 - 3/5/1827
Italian physicist and inventor


65 James Biddle
2/18/1783 - 10/1/1848
American career naval officer


50 Ramakrishna
2/18/1836 - 8/16/1886
Hindu religious leader


63 Max Klinger
2/18/1857 - 7/5/1920
German painter, sculptor and engraver


77 Charles M. Schwab
2/18/1862 - 9/18/1939
American entrepreneur who pioneered Bethlehem Steel


52 Wendell Willkie
2/18/1892 - 10/8/1944
American Republican presidential candidate


25 George Gipp
2/18/1895 - 12/14/1920
American football player ("The Gipper")


90 Enzo Ferrari
2/18/1898 - 8/14/1988
Italian automobile manufacturer, designer and racing-car driver


85 Sir Arthur Bryant
2/18/1899 - 1/2/1985
English historian and biographer


84 Wallace Stegner
2/18/1909 - 4/13/1993
American author

 

[minidog]

1807 - Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. He was later tried and acquitted on charges of treason.

1846 - The Texas state government was formally installed in Austin.

1856 - The tintype camera was patented by Professor Hamilton L. Smith.

1864 - The Knights of Pythias was founded in Washington, DC. A dozen members formed what became Lodge No. 1.

1878 - Thomas Alva Edison patented a music player (the phonograph).

1881 - Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.

1922 - Ed Wynn became the first big-name, vaudeville talent to sign on as a radio talent.

1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.

1942 - The New York Yankees announced that they would admit 5,000 uniformed servicemen free to each of their home ball games during the coming season.

1942 - Approximately 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the Australian city of Darwin.

1945 - During World War II, about 30,000 U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima.

1949 - Bollingen Foundation and Yale University awarded the first Bollingen Prize in poetry ($5,000) to Ezra Pound.

1953 - The State of Georgia approved the first literature censorship board in the U.S. Newspapers were excluded from the new legislation.

1959 - Cyprus was granted its independence with the signing of an agreement with Britain, Turkey and Greece.

1963 - The Soviet Union informed U.S. President Kennedy it would withdraw "several thousand" of its troops in Cuba.

1985 - Mickey Mouse was welcomed to China as part of the 30th anniversary of Disneyland. The touring mouse played 30 cities in 30 days.

1985 - William Schroeder became the first artificial-heart patient to leave the confines of the hospital.

1985 - Cherry Coke was introduced by the Coca-Cola Company.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved a treaty outlawing genocide. The pact had been submitted 37 years earlier for ratification.

1986 - The Soviet Union launched the Mir space station.

1987 - A controversial, anti-smoking publice service announcement aired for the first time on television. Yul Brynner filmed the ad shortly before dying of lung cancer. Brynner made it clear in the ad that he would have died from cigarette smoking before ad aired.

1997 - Deng Xiaoping of China died at the age of 92. He was the last of China's major revolutionaries.

1999 - Dennis Franz received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

2001 - The museum at the Oklahoma City National Memorial Center was dedicated.

2002 - NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.


Current Birthdays


Jeff Daniels turns 54 years old today.

69 Carlin Glynn
Actress


69 Smokey Robinson
R&B singer, songwriter


69 Bobby Rogers
R&B singer (The Miracles)


66 Lou Christie
Singer


64 Michael Nader
Actor


61 Tony Iommi
Rock musician (Black Sabbath)


57 Amy Tan
Author


53 Dave Wakeling
Rock musician, singer (General Public, English Beat)


52 Lorianne Crook
Talk show host


52 Ray Winstone
Actor


50 Roger Goodell
NFL commissioner


49 Prince Andrew
Member of the British royal family


47 Hana Mandlikova
Tennis Hall of Famer


46 Seal
Rock singer


44 Jon Fishman
Rock musician (Phish)


43 Justine Bateman
Actress ("Family Ties")


42 Benicio Del Toro
Actor


34 Daniel Adair
Rock musician (Nickelback)


24 Haylie Duff
Singer, actress ("7th Heaven")


Historic Birthdays


Stan Kenton

2/19/1912 - 8/25/1979
American jazz bandleader, pianist and composer

70 Nicolaus Copernicus
2/19/1473 - 5/24/1543
Polish astronomer


61 David Garrick
2/19/1717 - 1/20/1779
English actor, producer, dramatist and comanager of the Drury Lane Theatre


62 Luigi Boccherini
2/19/1743 - 5/28/1805
Italian composer and cellist


73 Elie Ducommun
2/19/1833 - 12/7/1906
Swiss writer, editor and Nobel Peace Prize winner


82 Rudolf Stammler
2/19/1856 - 4/25/1938
German jurist and teacher


68 Svante Arrhenius
2/19/1859 - 10/2/1927
Swedish Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist


68 Merle Oberon
2/19/1911 - 11/23/1979
English/American film actress


81 Eddie Arcaro
2/19/1916 - 11/14/1997
American jockey


50 Carson McCullers
2/19/1917 - 9/29/1967
American author

 

[minidog]

1673 - The first recorded wine auction took place in London.

1725 - The first known Indian scalping by white men was reported in the New Hampshire colony.

1792 - U.S. President George Washington signed the Postal Service Act thereby creating the U.S. Post Office.

1809 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state.

1815 - The USS Constitution, under Captain Charles Stewart fought the British ships Cyane and Levant. The Constitution captures both, but lost the Levant after encountering a British squadron. The Constitution and the Cyane returned to New York safely on May 15, 1815. The Cyane was purchased and became the USS Cyane.

1839 - The U.S. Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

1872 - Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine that manufactured paper bags.

1872 - The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City.

1872 - Silas Noble and J.P. Cooley patented the toothpick manufacturing machine.

1873 - The University of California got its first Medical School.

1880 - The American Bell Company was incorporated.

1901 - The first territorial legislature of Hawaii convened.

1921 - The motion picture "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" was released starring Rudolph Valentino.

1931 - The U.S. Congress allowed California to build the Oakland Bay Bridge.

1933 - The U.S. House of Representatives completed congressional action on the amendment to repeal Prohibition.

1944 - "Big Week" began as U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers during World War II.

1952 - Emmett L. Ashford became the first black umpire in organized baseball. He was authorized to be a substitute in the Southwestern International League.

1952 - "The African Queen" opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City.

1958 - Racing jockey Eddie Arcaro got win number 4,000, as he rode the winner at Santa Anita race track in Southern California.

1962 - John Glenn made space history when he orbited the world three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes. He was the first American to orbit the Earth. He was aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

1965 - Ranger 8 crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of its surface.

1987 - After 11 years, David Hartman left ABC’s "Good Morning America."

1987 - A bomb exploded in a computer store in Salt Lake City, UT. The blast was blamed on the Unabomber.

1993 - Two ten-year-old boys were charged by police in Liverpool, England, in the abduction and death of a toddler. The two boys were later convicted.

1998 - American Tara Lipinski, at age 15, became the youngest gold medalist in winter Olympics history when she won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.

2001 - FBI Agent Robert Phillip Hanssen was arrested and charged with spying for the Russians for 15 years.

2002 - In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire raced through a train killing at least 370 people and injuring at least 65.

2003 - In West Warwick, RI, 99 people were killed when fire destroyed the nightclub The Station. The fire started with sparks from a pyrotechnic display being used by Great White. Ty Longley, guitarist for Great White, was one of the victims in the fire.

Current Birthdays


Gordon Brown turns 58 years old today.

85 Gloria Vanderbilt
Fashion designer


82 Sidney Poitier
Actor


73 Marj Dusay
Actress


72 Nancy Wilson
Jazz singer


68 Buffy Sainte-Marie
Folk singer


67 Mitch McConnell
U.S. senator, R-Ky.


67 Phil Esposito
Hockey Hall of Famer


66 Mike Leigh
Director


63 Brenda Blethyn
Actress


63 Sandy Duncan
Actress


63 J. Geils
Rock musician


62 Peter Strauss
Actor


59 Walter Becker
Rock musician (Steely Dan)


58 Kathie Baillie
Country singer


55 Anthony Stewart Head
Actor ("Buffy the Vampire Slayer")


55 Patricia Hearst
Newspaper heiress


52 Leland Martin
Country singer


51 James Wilby
Actor


50 Sebastian Steinberg
Rock musician


49 Joel Hodgson
Comedian ("Mystery Science Theater 3000")


46 Charles Barkley
Basketball Hall of Famer


46 Ian Brown
Rock musician (Stone Roses)


45 French Stewart
Actor ("3rd Rock from the Sun")


44 Ron Eldard
Actor


43 Cindy Crawford
Model


42 Andrew Shue
Actor ("Melrose Place")


42 Lili Taylor
Actress


34 Livan Hernandez
Baseball player


34 Brian Littrell
Singer (Backstreet Boys)


32 Stephon Marbury
Basketball player


31 Lauren Ambrose
Actress ("Six Feet Under")


31 Jay Hernandez
Actor


28 Majandra Delfino
Actress


28 Chris Thile
Bluegrass musician (Nickel Creek)


26 Justin Verlander
Baseball player


24 Jake Richardson
Actor


21 Rihanna
Singer

Historic Birthdays


Ansel Adams

2/20/1902 - 4/22/1984
American photographer

92 Mary Garden
2/20/1874 - 1/3/1967
Scottish-bn. American opera singer


60 Georges Bernanos
2/20/1888 - 7/5/1948
French novelist and polemical writer


53 Jimmy Yancey
2/20/1898 - 9/17/1951
American blues pianist


93 Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney
2/20/1899 - 12/13/1992
American businessman


81 Rene Dubos
2/20/1901 - 2/20/1982
French-born American microbiologist, environmentalist and author


73 Louis Kahn
2/20/1901 - 3/17/1974
American architect


76 Aleksey Kosygin
2/20/1904 - 12/18/1980
Russian statesman and premier of the Soviet Union (1964-80)


82 Konstantin Sergeyev
2/20/1910 - 4/1/1992
Russian ballet dancer, director, and choreographer

 

[minidog]

1804 - The first self-propelled locomotive on rails was demonstrated in Wales.

1842 - John J. Greenough patented the sewing machine.

1858 - The first electric burglar alarm was installed in Boston, MA.

1866 - Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from a dental school. The school was the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.

1874 - The Oakland Daily Tribune began publication.

1878 - The first telephone directories issued in the U.S. were distributed to residents in New Haven, CT. It was a single page of only fifty names.

1904 - The National Ski Association was formed in Ishpeming, MI.

1916 - During World War I, the Battle of Verdun began in France. The battle ended on December 18, 1916 with a French victory over Germany.

1925 - The first issue of "The New Yorker" was published.

1932 - William N. Goodwin patented the camera exposure meter.

1943 - "Free World Theatre" debuted on the Blue network (now ABC radio).

1945 - "The Lion and the Mouse" was first broadcast on "Brownstone Theatre."

1947 - Edwin Land demonstrated the Polaroid Land Camera to the Optical Society of America in New York City. It was the first camera to take, develop and print a picture on photo paper all in about 60 seconds. The photos were black and white. The camera went on sale the following year.

1950 - The first International Pancake Race was held in Liberal, Kansas.

1965 - Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City at the age of 39 by assassins identified as Black Muslims.

1968 - An agreement between baseball players and club owners increased the minimum salary for major league players to $10,000 a year.

1973 - Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan Airlines jet over the Sinai Desert. More than 100 people were killed.

1975 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.

1988 - In Baton Rouge, LA, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart confessed to his congregation that he was guilty of an unspecified sin. He announced that he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Swaggart had been linked to an admitted prostitute.

1989 - U.S. President Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."

1995 - Chicago stockbroker Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon. He landed in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.

1999 - India's Prime Minister Atal Bihair Vajpayee concluded two days of meeting with Pakistan's Prime Minister Mohammad Nowaz Sharif.

2000 - David Letterman returned to his Late Night show about five weeks after having an emergency quintuple heart bypass operation.

2003 - David Hasselhoff and his wife Pamela were injured in a motorcycle accident. The accident was caused by a strong gust of wind. Hasselhoff fractured his lower back and broke several ribs. His wife fractured her left ankle and right wrist.


Current Birthdays


Jack Coleman turns 51 years old today

76 Bob Rafelson
Director


74 Rue McClanahan
Actress ("The Golden Girls")


72 Gary Lockwood
Actor


70 Richard Beymer
Actor ("West Side Story")


69 Peter McEnery
Actor


66 David Geffen
Recording executive


63 Tyne Daly
Actress ("Cagney and Lacey")


63 Anthony Daniels
Actor (C-3PO in the "Star Wars" films)


63 Alan Rickman
Actor


63 Tricia Nixon Cox
Daughter of President Nixon


62 Olympia Snowe
U.S. senator, R-Maine


60 Jerry Harrison
Rock musician (Talking Heads)


56 Christine Ebersole
Actress


56 William Petersen
Actor ("C.S.I.")


54 Kelsey Grammer
Actor ("Frasier")


51 Mary Chapin Carpenter
Country singer


48 Christopher Atkins
Actor


48 Ranking Roger
Rock singer (General Public, English Beat)


46 William Baldwin
Actor


42 Michael Ward
Rock musician


40 Aunjanue Ellis
Actress ("Ray")


40 Corey Harris
Blues guitarist


39 Eric Heatherly
Country singer


39 Eric Wilson
Rock musician


36 Tad Kinchla
Rock musician (Blues Traveler)


30 Jennifer Love Hewitt
Actress ("Ghost Whisperer")


23 Charlotte Church
Singer


22 Ellen Page
Actress ("Juno")


20 Corbin Bleu
Actor ("High School Musical")



Historic Birthdays


Andres Segovia

2/21/1893 - 6/2/1987
Spanish guitarist

82 Friedrich Karl von Savigny
2/21/1779 - 10/25/1861
German jurist and legal scholar


82 Antonio Lopez Santa Anna
2/21/1794 - 6/21/1876
Mexican army officer, statesman and politician


89 John Henry Newman
2/21/1801 - 8/11/1890
Eng. Churchman


79 Pierre Laffitte
2/21/1823 - 1/4/1903
French philosopher


54 Leo Delibes
2/21/1836 - 1/16/1891
French opera and ballet composer


81 Constantin Brancusi
2/21/1876 - 3/16/1957
Romanian abstract sculptor


56 Harry Stack Sullivan
2/21/1892 - 1/14/1949
American psychiatrist and teacher


73 Anais Nin
2/21/1903 - 1/14/1977
French-bn. American author


73 Tom Yawkey
2/21/1903 - 7/9/1976
American sportsman and owner of the Boston Red Sox (1933-76)


66 W. H. Auden
2/21/1907 - 9/29/1973
English-bn. American poet and writer

 

[minidog]

1630 - Quadequine introduced popcorn to English colonists at their first Thanksgiving dinner.

1784 - "Empress of China", a U.S. merchant ship, left New York City for the Far East.

1819 - Spain ceded Florida to the United States.

1855 - The U.S. Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 for continuance of the work on the Washington Monument. The next morning the resolution was tabled and it would be 21 years before the Congress would vote on funds again. Work was continued by the Know-Nothing Party in charge of the project.

1859 - U.S. President Buchanan approved the Act of February 22, 1859, which incorporated the Washington National Monument Society "for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government."

1860 - Organized baseball’s first game was played in San Francisco, CA.

1865 - In the U.S., Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery.

1879 - In Utica, NY, Frank W. Woolworth opened his first 5 and 10-cent store.

1885 - The Washington Monument was officially dedicated in Washington, DC. It opened to the public in 1889.

1892 - "Lady Windermere's Fan", by Oscar Wilde, was first performed.

1920 - The first dog race track to use an imitation rabbit opened in Emeryville, CA.

1923 - The first successful chinchilla farm opened in Los Angeles, CA. It was the first farm of its kind in the U.S.

1924 - U.S. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.

1954 - ABC radio’s popular "Breakfast Club" program was simulcast on TV for the first time.

1969 - Barbara Jo Rubin became the first woman to win a U.S. thoroughbred horse race.

1973 - The U.S. and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.

1984 - The U.S. Census Bureau statistics showed that the state of Alaska was the fastest growing state of the decade with an increase in population of 19.2 percent.

1994 - The U.S. Justice Department charged Aldrich Ames and his wife with selling national secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames was later convicted to life in prison. Ames' wife received a 5-year prison term.

1997 - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and colleagues announced that an adult sheep had been successfully cloned. Dolly, the first cloned sheep to be born was born in July 1996.

2002 - In the Philippines, An MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashed into the ocean. All 10 men aboard were killed.

Current Birthdays


Edward M. Kennedy turns 77 years old today

91 Don Pardo
TV announcer ("Saturday Night Live")


81 Paul Dooley
Actor


79 Marni Nixon
Singer


75 Sparky Anderson
Hall of Fame baseball manager


65 Jonathan Demme
Director


61 John Ashton
Actor


59 Julius Erving
Basketball Hall of Famer


59 Miou-Miou
Actress


59 Julie Walters
Actress


58 Ellen Greene
Actress ("Pushing Daisies")


57 Bill Frist
Former Senate majority leader


54 David Axelrod
Senior White House adviser


50 Kyle MacLachlan
Actor ("Twin Peaks")


46 Vijay Singh
Golfer


44 Pat Lafontaine
Hockey Hall of Famer


43 Rachel Dratch
Actress, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")


41 Jeri Ryan
Actress ("Boston Public")


40 Thomas Jane
Actor


39 Tamara Mello
Actress ("She's All That")


38 Lea Salonga
Actress, singer


38 Jose Solano
Actor


37 Michael Chang
Tennis Hall of Famer


34 Drew Barrymore
Actress


34 Liza Huber
Actress ("Passions")


32 James Blunt
Singer


30 Tom Higgenson
Rock singer (Plain White T's)


19 Daniel E. Smith
Actor ("John Q.")

Historic Birthdays


Edna St. Vincent Millay

2/22/1892 - 10/19/1950
American poet and dramatist

58 Charles VII
2/22/1403 - 7/22/1461
King of France from 1422 to 1461


67 George Washington
2/22/1732 - 12/14/1799
American general and first president of U.S.


82 Rembrandt Peale
2/22/1778 - 10/3/1860
American painter, writer and portraitist


72 Arthur Schopenhauer
2/22/1788 - 9/21/1860
German philosopher


72 James Russell Lowell
2/22/1819 - 8/12/1891
American poet, critic, essayist and diplomat


73 August Bebel
2/22/1840 - 8/13/1913
German co-founder of the Social Democratic Party


77 Bill Klem
2/22/1874 - 9/16/1951
American National League baseball umpire


90 David Dubinsky
2/22/1892 - 9/17/1982
Russian-bn. American labor leader


83 Luis Bunuel
2/22/1900 - 7/29/1983
Spanish director and filmmaker


91 Sean O'Faolain
2/22/1900 - 4/20/1991
Irish short-story writer and teacher


80 Peter Hurd
2/22/1904 - 7/9/1984
American painter, printmaker and illustrator


73 Giulietta Masina
2/22/1921 - 3/23/1994
Italian motion-picture actress

 

[maildude]

Interesting stuff!!!:thumbsup:

 

[minidog]

1574 - France began the 5th holy war against the Huguenots.

1660 - Charles XI became the king of Sweden.

1792 - The Humane Society of Massachusetts was incorporated.

1813 - The first U.S. raw cotton-to-cloth mill was founded in Waltham, MA.

1820 - The Cato Street conspiracy was uncovered.

1821 - The Philadelphia College of Apothecaries established the first pharmacy college.

1822 - Boston was incorporated as a city.

1836 - In San Antonio, TX, the siege of the Alamo began.

1839 - In Boston, MA, William F. Harnden organized the first express service between Boston and New York City. It was the first express service in the U.S.

1847 - Santa Anna was defeated at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico by U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary.

1861 - U.S. President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take his office after an assassination attempt in Baltimore.

1861 - Texas became the 7th state to secede from the Union.

1870 - The state of Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

1874 - Walter Winfield patented a game called "sphairistike." More widely known as lawn tennis.

1875 - J. Palisa discovered asteroid #143 (aka Adria).

1883 - Alabama became the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.

1886 - Charles M. Hall completed his invention of aluminum.

1887 - The French/Italian Riviera was hit by an earthquake that killed about 2,000.

1896 - The Tootsie Roll was introduced by Leo Hirshfield.

1898 - In France, Emile Zola was imprisoned for his letter, "J'accuse," which accused the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus.

1900 - The Battle of Hart's Hill took place in South Africa between the Boers and the British army.

1904 - The U.S. acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.

1905 - The Rotary Club was founded in Chicago, IL, by Attorney Paul Harris and three others.

1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, the first radio contest was held.

1915 - Nevada began enforcing convenient divorce law.

1916 - The U.S. Congress authorizes the McKinley Memorial $1 gold coin.

1919 - The Fascist Party was formed in Italy by Benito Mussolini.

1927 - The Federal Radio Commission began assigning frequencies, hours of operation and power allocations for radio broadcasters. On July 1, 1934 the name was changed to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

1940 - Russian troops conquered Lasi Island.

1940 - Walt Disney's animated movie "Pinocchio" was released.

1945 - The 28th Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division of the U.S. Marines reached the top of Mount Surabachi. A photograph of these Marines raising the American flag was taken.

1954 - The first mass vaccination of children against polio began in Pittsburgh, PA.

1955 - The French government was formed by Edgar Faure.

1957 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the NFL operations did fall within coverage of antitrust laws.

1958 - Juan Fangio, 5-time world diving champion, was kidnapped by Cuban rebels.

1963 - The 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It prohibited poll taxes in federal elections.

1966 - The Bitar government in Syria was ended with a military coup.

1967 - Jim Ryun set a record in the half-mile run when ran it in 1:48.3.

1968 - Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) became the first player to score 25,000 career points in the NBA.

1970 - Guyana became a republic.

1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $4 million more for the release of Patty Hearst. Hearst had been kidnapped on February 4th.

1980 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini declared that Iran's new parliament would have to decide the fate of the hostages taken on November 4, 1979, at the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

1985 - The TV show "Gimme a Break" was broadcast live before a studio audience. It was the first TV sitcom to be seen live since the 1950s.

1991 - During the Persian Gulf War, ground forces crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or withdraw of Iraqi forces.

1993 - Gary Coleman won a $1,280,000 lawsuit against his parents.

1995 - The Dow Jones Industrial closed about 4,000 for the first time at 4,003.33.

1997 - It was announced by scientists in Scotland that they had succeeded in cloning an adult mammal. The animal was a lamb named "Dolly."

1997 - NBC-TV aired "Schindler's List." It was completely uncensored.

1997 - Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building. He killed one person and wounded six more before killing himself.

1998 - In central Florida, tornadoes killed 42 people and damaged and/or destroyed about 2,600 homes and businesses.

1999 - In Ankara, Turkey, Abdullah Ocalan was charged with treason. The prosecutors were seeking the death penalty for the Kurdish rebel leader.

1999 - White supremacict John William King was found guilty of kidnapping and murdering James Byrd Jr. Byrd was dragged behind a truck for two miles on a country road in Texas.

2000 - Robby Knieval made a successful motorcycle jump of 200 feet over an oncoming train.

2005 - The New York, NY, city medical examiner's office annouced that it had exhausted all efforts to identify the remains of the people killed at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, due to the limits of DNA technology. About 1,600 people had been identified leaving more than 1,100 unidentified.

Current Birthdays

75 Bob Willis
Country, gospel songwriter


69 Peter Fonda
Actor, director


66 Fred Biletnikoff
Football Hall of Famer


65 John Sandford
Author


65 Johnny Winter
Rock singer


64 Allan Boesak
South African activist


63 Rusty Young
Country musician (Poco)


58 Patricia Richardson
Actress ("Home Improvement")


57 Brad Whitford
Rock musician (Aerosmith)


55 Viktor Yushchenko
Ukrainian prime minister


55 Howard Jones
Rock singer


47 Michael Wilton
Rock musician (Queensryche)


45 Dusty Drake
Country singer


44 Kristin Davis
Actress ("Sex and the City")


41 Marc Price
Actor


39 Niecy Nash
Actress


38 Jeff Beres
Rock musician (Sister Hazel)


37 Steve Holy
Country singer


36 Lasse Johansson
Rock musician (The Cardigans)


26 Emily Blunt
Actress ("The Devil Wears Prada")

Historic Birthdays


W.E.B. DuBois

2/23/1868 - 8/27/1963
American sociologist who helped found the N.A.A.C.P.

70 Samuel Pepys
2/23/1633 - 5/26/1703
English diarist and naval administrator


74 George Frideric Handel
2/23/1685 - 4/14/1759
German-bn. English composer


87 George Frederick Watts
2/23/1817 - 7/1/1904
English painter and sculptor


68 Cesar Ritz
2/23/1850 - 10/26/1918
French founder of the Ritz hotel in Paris


90 Norman Lindsay
2/23/1879 - 11/29/1969
Australian artist and novelist


88 Karl Jaspers
2/23/1881 - 2/26/1969
German Existentialist philosopher


65 Victor Fleming
2/23/1883 - 1/6/1949
American motion-picture director


89 William Shirer
2/23/1904 - 12/28/1993
American journalist, historian and novelist


74 Allan MacLeod Cormack
2/23/1924 - 5/7/1998
South African-bn. Am. Nobel Prize-winning physicist

 

[Skyraider22]

History is always great.

 

[Facetious]

Feb. 23, 1945 - The Flag Raising at Iwo Jima

The Battle of Iwo Jima resulted in :
6,821 dead
19,189 wounded
21,703 dead
1,083 captured
27 Congressional Medals of Honor

:hatsoff:

Thanks for the daily reminders, Mini D. :hatsoff:

 

[minidog]

1803 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled itself to be the final interpreter of all constitutional issues.

1821 - Mexico declared independence from Spain.

1835 - "Siwinowe Kesibwi" (The Shawnee Sun) was issued as the first Indian language monthly publication in the U.S.

1839 - Mr. William S. Otis received a patent for the steam shovel.

1848 - The Communist Manifesto was published.

1857 - The Los Angeles Vinyard Society was organized.

1857 - The first shipment of perforated postage stamps was received by the U.S. Government.

1863 - Arizona was organized as a territory.

1866 - In Washington, DC, an American flag made entirely of American bunting was displayed for the first time.

1868 - The first parade to use floats occurred in New Orleans at Mardi Gras.

1868 - The U.S. House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson due to his attempt to dismiss Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. The U.S. Senate later acquitted Johnson.

1886 - Thomas Edison and Mina Miller were married.

1900 - New York City Mayor Van Wyck signed the contract to begin work on New York's first rapid transit tunnel. The tunnel would link Manhattan and Brooklyn. The ground breaking ceremony was on March 24, 1900.

1903 - In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an area was leased to the U.S. for a naval base.

1924 - Johnny ‘Tarzan’ Weissmuller broke the world’s record in the 100-meter swimming event. He did it in 57 2/5 seconds.

1925 - A thermit was used for the first time. It was used to break up a 250,000-ton ice jam that had clogged the St. Lawrence River near Waddington, NY.

1938 - The first nylon bristle toothbrush was made. It was the first time that nylon yarn had been used commercially.

1942 - The U.S. Government stopped shipments of all 12-gauge shotguns for sporting use for the wartime effort.

1942 - The Voice of America (VOA) aired for the first time.

1945 - During World War II, the Philippine capital of Manilla, was liberated by U.S. soldiers.

1946 - Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.

1956 - The city of Cleveland invoked a 1931 law that barred people under the age of 18 from dancing in public without an adult guardian.

1980 - NBC premiered the TV movie "Harper Valley P.T.A."

1981 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer.

1983 - The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the 1100 mark for the first time.

1983 - A U.S.congressional commission released a report that condemned the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

1987 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, of the Los Angeles Lakers, got his first three-point shot in the NBA.

1987 - An exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy.

1988 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a $200,000 award to Rev. Jerry Falwell that had been won against "Hustler" magazine. The ruling expanded legal protections for parody and satire.

1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini sentenced Salman Rushdie to death for his novel "The Satanic Verses". A bounty of one to three-million-dollars was also put on Rushidie's head.

1989 - A United Airlines 747 jet rips open in flight killing 9 people. The flight was from Honolulu to New Zealand.

1992 - "Wayne's World" opened in U.S. theaters.

1992 - Tracy Gold began working on the set of "Growing Pains" again. She had left the show due to anorexia.

1994 - In Los Angeles, Garrett Morris was shot during a robbery attempt. He eventually recovered from his injury.

1997 - The U.S. The Food and Drug Administration named six brands of birth control as safe and effective "morning-after" pills for preventing pregnancy.

1997 - Dick Enberg received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - In southeast China, a domestic airliner crashed killing all 64 passengers.

Current Birthdays


Edward James Olmos turns 62 years old today


88 Abe Vigoda
Actor ("Fish," "Barney Miller")


87 Steven Hill
Actor ("Law and Order")


78 Dominic Chianese
Actor, singer ("The Sopranos")


77 Michel Legrand
Composer


77 Zell Miller
Former Georgia governor and senator


71 James Farentino
Actor


67 Joseph Lieberman
U.S. senator, I-Conn.


64 Barry Bostwick
Actor ("Spin City")


62 Rupert Holmes
Singer, songwriter


59 George Thorogood
Rock singer, musician


58 Debra Jo Rupp
Actress ("That '70s Show")


58 Helen Shaver
Actress


57 Fred Dean
Fooball Hall of Famer


53 Eddie Murray
Baseball Hall of Famer


53 Paula Zahn
Broadcast journalist


51 Sammy Kershaw
Country singer


47 Michelle Shocked
Rock singer


45 Todd Field
Director ("In the Bedroom")


43 Billy Zane
Actor


39 Jeff Garcia
Football player


35 Mike Lowell
Baseball player


35 Simeon Rice
Football player


35 Bonnie Somerville
Actress


28 Lleyton Hewitt
Tennis player


26 Brandon Brown
R&B singer (Mista)


26 Matt McGinley
Rock musician (Gym Class Heroes)

Historic Birthdays


Chester W. Nimitz

2/24/1885 - 2/20/1966
American commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet-W.W.II

31 Giovanni Pico della Mirandola
2/24/1463 - 11/17/1494
Italian scholar and philosopher


70 Charles Le Brun
2/24/1619 - 2/12/1690
French painter, designer and decorator


42 Johann Clauberg
2/24/1622 - 1/31/1665
French philosopher and theologian


68 George Curtis
2/24/1824 - 8/31/1892
American author and editor


74 Winslow Homer
2/24/1836 - 9/29/1910
American painter


76 Arrigo Boito
2/24/1842 - 6/10/1918
Italian poet, composer, and librettist


82 John Henry Comstock
2/24/1849 - 3/20/1931
American educator and researcher


81 Honus Wagner
2/24/1874 - 12/6/1955
American professional baseball player


86 Mary Ellen Chase
2/24/1887 - 7/28/1973
American scholar and writer


57 Henri Frankfort
2/24/1897 - 7/16/1954
American archaeologist


84 Bennie Oosterbaan
2/24/1906 - 10/25/1990
American college football player and coach

 

[minidog]

1570 - England's Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated by Pope Pius V.

1751 - Edward Willet displayed the first trained monkey act in the U.S.

1793 - The department heads of the U.S. government met with U.S. President Washington for the first Cabinet meeting on U.S. record.

1836 - Samuel Colt received a patent for a "revolving gun".

1901 - The United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized a graduated income tax.

1919 - The state of Oregon became the first state to place a tax on gasoline. The tax was 1 cent per gallon.

1928 - The Federal Radio Commission issued the first U.S. television license to Charles Jenkins Laboratories in Washington, DC.

1930 - The bank check photographing device was patented.

1933 - The first aircraft carrier, Ranger, was launched.

1940 - The New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens played in the first hockey game to be televised in the U.S. The game was aired on W2WBS in New York with one camera in a fixed position. The Rangers beat the Canadiens 6-2.

1948 - Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia.

1950 - "Your Show of Shows" debuted on NBC.

1956 - Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow.

1972 - Germany gave a $5 million ransom to Arab terrorist who had hijacked a jumbo jet.

1986 - Phillippino President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule after a tainted election.

1999 - William King was sentenced to death for the racial murder of James Byrd Jr in Jasper, TX. Two other men charged were later convicted for thier involvement.

1999 - In Moscow, China's Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Russia's President Boris Yeltsin discussed trade and other issues.

2000 - In Albany, NY, a jury acquitted four New York City police officers of second-degree murder and lesser charges in the February 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo.

Current Birthdays


Rashida Jones turns 33 years old today.


90 Monte Irvin
Baseball Hall of Famer


82 Ralph Stanley
Country singer


81 Larry Gelbart
TV writer, producer ("M*A*S*H")


72 Tom Courtenay
Actor


72 Bob Schieffer
Broadcast journalist


71 Diane Baker
Actress


65 Karen Grassle
Actress ("Little House on the Prairie")


60 Jack Handey
Author, former TV writer ("Saturday Night Live")


59 Neil Jordan
Director


52 Dennis Diken
Rock musician (The Smithereens)


51 Jeff Fisher
Football coach


50 Mike Peters
Rock musician (The Alarm)


44 Carrot Top
Comedian


44 Veronica Webb
Actress


43 Alexis Denisof
Actor ("Angel")


43 Tea Leoni
Actress


41 Lesley Boone
Actress ("Ed")


38 Sean Astin
Actor ("Lord of the Rings" movies)


38 Daniel Powter
Singer


36 Julio Iglesias Jr.
Singer


36 Justin Jeffre
Singer


36 Richard Liles
Rock musician


36 Anson Mount
Actor


35 Shannon Stewart
Baseball player


34 Chelsea Handler
Comedian


23 Justin Berfield
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")


23 James Phelps
Actor ("Harry Potter" movies)


23 Oliver Phelps
Actor ("Harry Potter" movies)


22 Erik Haager
Rock musician (Carolina Liar)


Historic Birthdays


John Foster Dulles

2/25/1888 - 5/24/1959
American Secretary Of State (1953-59)

75 Johann Philipp Krieger
2/25/1649 - 2/7/1725
German composer


85 Carlo Goldoni
2/25/1707 - 2/6/1793
Italian dramatist


78 Pierre-Auguste Renoir
2/25/1841 - 12/3/1919
French painter


86 Benedetto Croce
2/25/1866 - 11/20/1952
Italian historian, humanist, and philosopher


48 Enrico Caruso
2/25/1873 - 8/2/1921
Italian operatic tenor


96 Vyacheslav M. Molotov
2/25/1890 - 11/8/1986
Russian statesman and foreign minister


75 Dame Myra Hess
2/25/1890 - 11/25/1965
English pianist


79 Marcel Paul Pagnol
2/25/1895 - 4/18/1974
French writer and film producer/director


76 Anthony Burgess
2/25/1917 - 11/22/1993
English novelist and critic


78 Barney Ewell
2/25/1918 - 4/4/1996
American Olympic sprinter

 

[minidog]

1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba. He then began his second conquest of France.

1848 - The second French Republic was proclaimed.

1863 - U.S. President Lincoln signed the National Currency Act.

1870 - In New York City, the first pneumatic-powered subway line was opened to the public.

1881 - S.S. Ceylon began his world-wide cruise, beginning in Liverpool, England.

1907 - The U.S. Congress raised their own pay to $7500.

1916 - Mutual signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract.

1919 - In Arizona, the Grand Canyon was established as a National Park with an act of the U.S. Congress.

1929 - U.S. President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Grand Teton National Park.

1930 - New York City installed traffic lights.

1933 - A ground-breaking ceremony was held at Crissy Field for the Golden Gate Bridge.

1945 - In the U.S., a nationwide midnight curfew went into effect.

1952 - British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed an atomic bomb.

1957 - The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award was established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

1979 - "Flatbush" debuted on CBS-TV.

1986 - Corazon Aquino was inaugurated president of the Phillipines. Long time President Ferdinand Marcos went into exile.

1987 - The Tower Commission rebuked U.S. President Reagan for failing to control his national security staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

1987 - The U.S.S.R. conducted its first nuclear weapons test after a 19-month moratorium period.

1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced on Baghdad Radio that Iraqi troops were being withdrawn from Kuwait.

1993 - Six people were killed and more than a thousand injured when a van exploded in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. The bomb had been built by Islamic extremists.

1995 - Barings PLC collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. The company was Britain's oldest investment banking firm.

1998 - A Texas jury rejected an $11 million lawsuit by Texas cattlemen who blamed Oprah Winfrey for price drop after on-air comment about mad-cow disease.

1998 - In Oregon, a health panel rules that taxpayers must help to pay for doctor-assisted suicides.

2002 - In Rome, Italy, a bomb exploded near the Interior Ministry. No injuries were reported.

Current Birthdays


Mark DeRosa turns 34 years old today.

81 Fats Domino
R&B singer


78 Robert Novak
Political columnist


66 Paul Cotton
Country musician (Poco)


66 Bill Duke
Actor, director


64 Mitch Ryder
Rock singer


59 Jonathan Cain
Rock musician (Journey)


56 Michael Bolton
Singer


51 Greg Germann
Actor ("Ally McBeal")


51 Tim Kaine
Governor of Virginia


48 John McDaniel
Bandleader


43 Jennifer Grant
Actress


41 Tim Commerford
Rock musician (Audioslave)


38 Erykah Badu
R&B singer


37 Rico Wade
R&B singer (Society of Soul)


36 Marshall Faulk
Football player


34 Kyle Norman
R&B singer (Jagged Edge)


30 Corinne Bailey Rae
R&B singer


29 Rodney Hayden
Country singer


16 Taylor Dooley
Actress

Historic Birthdays


John Harvey Kellogg

2/26/1852 - 12/14/1943
American physician who developed dry cereal

58 Wenceslas
2/26/1361 - 8/16/1419
German king (as Wenceslas IV, King of Bohemia)


56 Archibald Argyll
2/26/1629 - 6/30/1685
Scottish Protestant leader


83 Victor Hugo
2/26/1802 - 5/22/1885
French poet, novelist and dramatist


70 William F. Cody
2/26/1846 - 1/10/1917
American buffalo hunter and Indian scout


71 Honore Daumier
2/26/1808-2/10/1879
French caricaturist, painter and sculptor


64 Herbert H. Dow
2/26/1866 - 10/15/1930
American founder of Dow Chemical Co.


91 Rudolph Dirks
2/26/1877 - 4/20/1968
American cartoonist of "Katzenjammer Kids"


70 Francesco Borgongini-Duca
2/26/1884 - 10/4/1954
Italian Vatican cardinal


66 Sir Benegal Narsing Rau
2/26/1887 - 11/29/1953
Indian jurist


63 Grover Cleveland Alexander
2/26/1887 - 11/4/1950
American professional baseball player


89 Vercors (b. Jean Marcel Bruller)
2/26/1902 - 6/10/1991
French novelist and artist


53 Margaret Leighton
2/26/1922 - 1/13/1976
English stage and film actres

 

[minidog]

1700 - The Pacific Island of New Britain was discovered.

1801 - The city of Washington, DC. was placed under congressioal jurisdiction.

1827 - New Orleans held its first Mardi Gras celebration.

1861 - In Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland. Five protesting marchers were killed in the incident.

1867 - Dr. William G. Bonwill invented the dental mallet.

1883 - Oscar Hammerstein patented the first cigar-rolling machine.

1896 - The "Charlotte Observer" published a picture of an X-ray photograph made by Dr. H.L. Smith. The photograph showed a perfect picture of all the bones of a hand and a bullet that Smith had placed between the third and fourth fingers in the palm.

1900 - In South Africa, the British recieved an unconditional surrender from Boer Gen. Piet Cronje at Paardeberg.

1922 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the 19th Amendment that guaranteed women the right to vote.

1933 - The Reichstag, Germany's parliament building in Berlin, was set afire. The Nazis accused Communist for the fire.

1939 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.

1949 - Chaim Weizmann became the first Israeli president.

1951 - The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting U.S. Presidents to two terms.

1972 - The Shanghai Communique was issued by U.S. President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai.

1973 - The American Indian Movement occupied Wouned Knee in South Dakota.

1974 - "People" magazine was first issued by Time-Life (later known as Time-Warner).

1982 - Wayne B. Williams was found guilty of murdering two young black people. 28 bodies had been found in the Atlanta area over a period of 22 months.

1986 - The U.S. Senate approved the telecast of its debates on a trial basis.

1990 - The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping were indicted on five criminal counts in reference to the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

1991 - U.S. President George Bush announced live on television that "Kuwait is liberated."

1997 - In Ireland, divorce became legal.

1997 - Don Cornelius received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - Britain's House of Lords agreed to give a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. This was the end to 1,000 years of male preference.

1999 - Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new hot air balloon endurance record when they had been aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes. The two were in the process of trying to circumnavigate the Earth.

1999 - Nigeria returned to civilian rule when Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo became the country's first elected president since August of 1983.

2002 - In Boston, twenty people working at Logan International Airport were charged with lying to get their jobs or security badges.

Current Birthdays


Josh Groban turns 28 years old today.

79 Joanne Woodward
Actress


77 Elizabeth Taylor
Actress


75 Ralph Nader
Consumer advocate


72 Barbara Babcock
Actress


69 Howard Hesseman
Actor ("Head of the Class," "WKRP in Cincinnati")


60 Debra Monk
Actress


55 Neal Schon
Rock musician (Journey)


52 Adrian Smith
Rock musician (Iron Maiden)


52 Timothy Spall
Actor


49 Paul Humphreys
Rock musician


49 Johnny Van Zant
Country singer


48 Leon Mobley
Rock musician


48 James Worthy
Basketball Hall of Famer


47 Adam Baldwin
Actor


47 Grant Show
Actor ("Melrose Place")


44 Mike Cross
Rock musician (Sponge)


43 Donal Logue
Actor


38 Chilli
R&B singer (TLC)


37 Jeremy Dean
Rock musician (Nine Days)


36 Roderick Clark
R&B singer


33 Tony Gonzalez
Kansas City Chiefs tight end


31 Shonna Tucker
Country musician (Drive-By Truckers)


29 Chelsea Clinton
Daughter of Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton


29 Bobby Valentino
R&B singer


26 Kate Mara
Actress

Historic Birthdays


Hugo Black

2/27/1886 - 9/25/1971
American politician and Supreme Court associate justice

75 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
2/27/1807 - 3/24/1882
American poet


81 Ellen Terry
2/27/1847 - 7/21/1928
English actress


101 Alice Hamilton
2/27/1869 - 9/22/1970
American pathologist who worked on industrial diseases


88 Lotte Lehmann
2/27/1888 - 8/26/1976
German lyric-dramatic soprano


80 David Sarnoff
2/27/1891 - 12/12/1971
Russian-bn. American C.E.O. of R.C.A. and N.B.C.


79 Marino Marini
2/27/1901 - 8/6/1980
Italian artist


66 John Steinbeck
2/27/1902 - 12/20/1968
American Nobel Prize-winning novelist


83 Peter De Vries
2/27/1910 - 9/28/1993
American editor and novelist


78 Lawrence Durrell
2/27/1912 - 11/7/1990
English novelist and poet


71 Irwin Shaw
2/27/1913 - 5/16/1984
American playwright, novelist and screenwriter

 

[minidog]

1807 - The U.S. Congress passed an act to "prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States... from any foreign kingdom, place, or country."

1836 - Texas declared its independence from Mexico and an ad interim government was formed.

1861 - The U.S. Congress created the Territory of Nevada.

1866 - Excelsior Needle Company began making sewing machine needles.

1877 - In the U.S., Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the winner of the 1876 presidential election by the U.S. Congress. Samuel J. Tilden, however, had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.

1887 - The American Trotting Association was organized in Detroit, MI.

1897 - U.S. President Cleveland vetoed legislation that would have required a literacy test for immigrants entering the country.

1899 - Mount Rainier National Park in Washington was established by the U.S. Congress.

1899 - U.S. President McKinley signed a measure that created the rank of Admiral for the U.S. Navy. The first admiral was George Dewey.

1900 - The U.S. Congress voted to give $2 million in aid to Puerto Rico.

1901 - The first telegraph company in Hawaii opened.

1901 - The U.S. Congress passed the Platt amendment, which limited Cuban autonomy as a condition for withdrawal of U.S. troops.

1903 - The Martha Washington Hotel opened for business in New York City. The hotel had 416 rooms and was the first hotel exclusively for women.

1906 - A tornado in Missouri killed 33 and did $5 million in damage.

1907 - In Hamburg, Germany, dock workers went on strike after the end of the night shift. British strike breakers were brought in. The issue was settled on April 22, 1907.

1908 - In New York, the Committee of the Russian Republican Administration was founded.

1908 - In Paris, Gabriel Lippmann introduced three-dimensional color photography at the Academy of Sciences.

1911 - Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Bluebird" opened in Paris.

1917 - The Russian Revolution began with Czar Nicholas II abdicating.

1917 - Citizens of Puerto Rico were granted U.S. citizenship with the enactment of the Jones Act.

1925 - State and federal highway officials developed a nationwide route-numbering system and adopted the familiar U.S. shield-shaped, numbered marker.

1929 - The U.S. Court of Customs & Patent Appeals was created by the U.S. Congress.

1933 - The motion picture King Kong had its world premiere in New York.

1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution. These first ten amendments had gone into effect 147 years before.

1946 - Ho Chi Minh was elected President of Vietnam.

1949 - The B-50 Superfortress Lucky Lady II landed in Fort Worth, TX. The American plane had completed the first non-stop around-the-world flight.

1962 - Wilt 'The Stilt' Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks 169-147. Chamberlain broke several NBA records in the game.

1969 - In Toulouse, France, the supersonic transport Concorde made its first test flight.

1974 - Postage stamps jumped from 8 to 10 cents for first-class mail.

1984 - The first McDonald's franchise was closed. A new location was opened across the street from the old location in Des Plaines, IL.

1985 - The U.S. government approved a screening test for AIDS that detected antibodies to the virus that allowed possibly contaminated blood to be kept out of the blood supply.

1986 - Corazon Aquino was sworn into office as president of the Philippines. Her first public declaration was to restore the civil rights of the citizens of her country.

1989 - Representatives from the 12 European Community nations all agreed to ban all production of CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) by the end of the 20th century.

1995 - Russian anti-corruption journalist Vladislav Listyev was killed by a gunman in Moscow.

1995 - Nick Leeson was arrested for his role in the collapse of Britain's Barings Bank.

1998 - The U.N. Security Council endorses U.N. chief Kofi Annan's deal to open Iraq's presidential palaces to arms inspectors.

1998 - Images from the American spacecraft Galileo indicated that the Jupiter moon Europa has a liquid ocean and a source of interior heat.

2000 - In Great Britain, Chile's former President Augusto Pinochet Ugarte was freed from house arrest and allowed to return to Chile. Britain's Home Secretary Jack Straw had concluded that Pinochet was mentally and physically unable to stand trial. Belgium, France, Spain and Switzerland had sought the former Chilean leader on human-rights violations.

2003 - Over the Sea of Japan, there was a confrontation between four armed North Korean fighter jets and a U.S. RC-135S Cobra Ball. No shots were fired in the encounted in international airspace about 150 miles off North Korea's coast. The U.S. Air Force announced that it would resume reconnaissance flights on March 12.

2004 - NASA announced that the Mars rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that water had existed on Mars in the past.

Current Birthdays


Ben Roethlisberger turns 27 years old today


90 Jennifer Jones
Actress


86 Doc Watson
Bluegrass singer, musician


79 John Cullum
Actor ("Northern Exposure")


79 Tom Wolfe
Author


78 Mikhail Gorbachev
Former Soviet president


70 Barbara Luna
Actress


68 Jon Finch
Actor


67 John Irving
Author


67 Lou Reed
Rock musician


58 Cassie Yates
Actress


57 Laraine Newman
Actress, comedian ("Saturday Night Live")


56 Russ Feingold
U.S. senator, D-Wis.


54 Jay Osmond
Singer


54 Ken Salazar
Secretary of the interior


53 John Cowsill
Pop musician (The Cowsills)


50 Larry Stewart
Country singer (Restless Heart)


47 Jon Bon Jovi
Rock musician


46 Alvin Youngblood Hart
Blues singer, musician


41 Daniel Craig
Actor


33 Casey
Rock musician (Jimmie's Chicken Shack)


32 Chris Martin
Rock singer (Coldplay)


32 Heather McComb
Actress ("Party of Five")


28 Bryce Dallas Howard
Actress


24 Reggie Bush
Football player


24 Robert Iler
Actor ("The Sopranos")


Historic Birthdays


Theodor Seuss Geisel

3/2/1904 - 9/24/1991
American author and illustrator (Dr. Seuss)

64 Adrian VI
3/2/1459 - 9/14/1523
Dutch - Elected Pope in 1522


58 DeWitt Clinton
3/2/1769 - 2/11/1828
American who presided over construction of the Erie Canal


70 Sam Houston
3/2/1793 - 7/26/1863
American lawyer and politician


60 Bedrich Smetana
3/2/1824 - 5/12/1884
Bohemian composer of operas and symphonic poems


71 John Jay Chapman
3/2/1862 - 11/4/1933
American poet, dramatist, and critic


82 Pius XII
3/2/1876 - 10/9/1958
Italian Pope (1939-58)


50 Kurt Weill
3/2/1900 - 4/3/1950
German-bn. American composer


72 Edward Condon
3/2/1902 - 3/26/1974
American physicist


80 Geoffrey Grigson
3/2/1905 - 11/25/1985
English poet, editor, and literary critic


65 Ernst Haas
3/2/1921 - 9/12/1986
Austrian-bn. photojournalist

 

[minidog]

1791 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution that created the U.S. Mint.

1803 - The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, began.

1812 - The U.S. Congress passed the first foreign aid bill.

1817 - The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans was opened.

1845 - Florida became the 27th U.S. state.

1845 - The U.S. Congress passed legislation overriding a U.S. President’s veto. It was the first time the Congress had achieved this.

1849 - The U.S. Department of the Interior was established.

1849 - The Gold Coinage Act was passed by the U.S. Congress. It allowed the minting of gold coins.

1849 - The U.S. Congress created the territory of Minnesota.

1851 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 3-cent piece. It was the smallest U.S. silver coin.

1857 - Britain and France declared war on China.

1863 - Free city delivery of mail was authorized by the U.S. Postal Service.

1875 - The U.S. Congress authorized the 20-cent piece. It was only used for 3 years.

1878 - Russia and the Ottomans signed the treaty of Stenafano. The treaty granted independence to Serbia.

1885 - The American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) was incorporated in New York as a subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company.

1885 - The U.S. Post Office began offering special delivery for first-class mail.

1894 - The "Atlantis" was first published. It was the first Greek newspaper in America.

1900 - Striking miners in Germany returned to work.

1903 - In St. Louis, MO, Barney Gilmore was arrested for spitting.

1903 - The U.S. imposed a $2 head tax on immigrants.

1904 - Wilhelm II of Germany made the first recording of a political document with Thomas Edison's cylinder.

1905 - The Russian Czar agreed to create an elected assembly.

1906 - A Frenchman tried the first flight in an airplane with tires.

1908 - The U.S. government declared open war on on U.S. anarchists.

1909 - Aviators Herring, Curtiss and Bishop announced that airplanes would be made commercially in the U.S.

1910 - J.D. Rockefeller Jr. announced his withdrawal from business to administer his father's fortune for an "uplift in humanity". He also appealed to the U.S. Congress for the creation of the Rockefeller Foundation.

1910 - In New York, Robert Forest founded the National Housing Association to fight deteriorating urban living conditions.

1910 - Nicaraguan rebels admitted defeat in open war and resorted to guerrilla tactics in the hope of U.S. intervention.

1915 - The motion picture "Birth of a Nation" debuted in New York City.

1918 - The Treaty of Brest Litovsky was signed by Germany, Austria and Russia. The treaty ended Russia's participation in World War I.

1923 - The first issue of Time magazine was published.

1930 - "Flying High" opened at the Apollo Theatre in New York City.

1931 - The "Star Spangled Banner," written by Francis Scott Key, was adopted as the American national anthem. The song was originally a poem known as "Defense of Fort McHenry."

1938 - A world record for the indoor mile run was set by Glenn Cunningham. He ran the distance in 4 minutes, 4.4 seconds.

1939 - In Bombay, Ghandi began a fast to protest the state's autocratic rule.

1941 - Moscow denounced the Axis rule in Bulgaria.

1945 - Superman encountered Batman and Robin for the first time on the Mutual Broadcasting System.

1945 - During World War II, Finland declared war on the Axis.

1952 - "Whispering Streets" debuted on ABC Radio.

1952 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld New York's Feinberg Law that banned Communist teachers in the U.S.

1956 - Morocco gained its independence.

1959 - The San Francisco Giants had their new stadium officially named Candlestick Park.

1969 - Apollo 9 was launched by NASA to test a lunar module.

1969 - Sirhan Sirhan testified in a Los Angeles court that he killed Robert Kennedy.

1973 - Japan disclosed its first defense plan since World War II.

1974 - About 350 people died when a Turkish Airlines DC-10 crashed just after takeoff from Orly Airport in Paris.

1978 - The remains of Charles Chaplin were stolen from his grave in Cosier-sur-Vevey, Switzerland. The body was recovered 11 weeks later near Lake Geneva.

1980 - The submarine Nautilus was decommissioned. The vessels final voyage had ended on May 26, 1979.

1985 - Women Against Pornography awarded its ‘Pig Award’ to Huggies Diapers. The activists claimed that the TV ads for diapers had "crossed the line between eye-catching and porn."

1985 - The TV show "Moonlighting" premiered.

1991 - 25 people were killed when a United Airlines Boeing 737-200 crashed while on approach to the Colorado Springs airport.

1991 - Rodney King was severely beaten by Los Angeles police officers. The scene was captured on amateur video.

1994 - The Mexican government reached a peace agreement with the Chiapas rebels.

1995 - A U.N. peacekeeping mission in Somalia ended. Several gunmen were killed by U.S. Marines in Mogadishu while overseeing the pull out of peacekeepers.

1999 - In Egypt, 19 people were killed when a bus plunged into a Nile canal.

1999 - Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones began their attempt to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon non-stop. They succeeded on March 20, 1999.

Current Birthdays


Santonio Holmes turns 25 years old today

64 George Miller
Director, producer ("Mad Max" films)


64 Hattie Winston
Actress


62 Jennifer Warnes
Singer


59 Tim Kazurinsky
Actor, director ("Saturday Night Live")


56 Robyn Hitchcock
Rock musician


55 John Lilley
Rock musician (The Hooters)


51 Miranda Richardson
Actress


48 Mary Page Keller
Actress


47 Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Olympic track and field gold medalist


43 Tone-Loc
Rapper, actor


41 Brian Leetch
Hockey player


40 John Bigham
Rock musician


39 Julie Bowen
Actress ("Ed," "Boston Legal")


38 Brett Warren
Country singer (The Warren Brothers)


35 David Faustino
Actor ("Married... With Children")


32 Ronan Keating
Singer (Boyzone)


28 Lil' Flip
Rapper


27 Jessica Biel
Actress ("7th Heaven")


Historic Birthdays


Alexander Graham Bell

3/3/1847 - 8/2/1922
Scottish-born American inventor of the telephone

33 Thomas Otway
3/3/1652 - 4/14/1685
English dramatist and poet


80 William Macready
3/3/1793 - 4/27/1873
English actor, manager and diarist


66 George Pullman
3/3/1831 - 10/19/1897
American industrialist and inventor


73 Sir John Murray
3/3/1841 - 3/16/1914
Scottish naturalist


79 William Green
3/3/1873 - 11/21/1952
American labor leader who headed the A.F.L.


67 Leopold Jessner
3/3/1878 - 10/30/1945
German Expressionist theatrical producer and director


58 Damaskinos
3/3/1891 - 5/20/1949
Greek archbishop of Athens


98 Matthew Ridgway
3/3/1895 - 7/26/1993
American army general


26 Jean Harlow
3/3/1911 - 6/7/1937
American movie actress


68 James Merrill
3/3/1926 - 2/6/1995
American poet

 

[minidog]

1634 - Samuel Cole opened the first tavern in Boston, MA.

1681 - England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area that later became the state of Pennsylvania.

1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, which had caused bitter and violent opposition in the U.S. colonies.

1778 - The Continental Congress voted to ratify the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and the Treaty of Alliance. The two treaties were the first entered into by the U.S. government.

1789 - The first Congress of the United States met in New York and declared that the U.S. Constitution was in effect.

1791 - Vermont was admitted as the 14th U.S. state. It was the first addition to the original 13 American colonies.

1794 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. Congress. The Amendment limited the jurisdiction of the federal courts to automatically hear cases brought against a state by the citizens of another state. Later interpretations expanded this to include citizens of the state being sued, as well.

1813 - The Russians fighting against Napoleon reached Berlin. The French garrison evacuated the city without a fight.

1826 - The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.

1837 - The state of Illinois granted a city charter to Chicago.

1861 - The Confederate States of America adopted the "Stars and Bars" flag.

1877 - Emile Berliner invented the microphone.

1880 - Halftone engraving was used for the first time when the "Daily Graphic" was published in New York City.

1881 - Eliza Ballou Garfield became the first mother of a U.S. President to live in the executive mansion.

1902 - The American Automobile Association was founded in Chicago.

1904 - In Korea, Russian troops retreated toward the Manchurian border as 100,000 Japanese troops advanced.

1908 - The New York board of education banned the act of whipping students in school.

1908 - France notified signatories of Algeciras that it would send troops to Chaouia, Morocco.

1914 - Doctor Fillatre successfully separated Siamese twins.

1917 - Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

1925 - Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office in Washington, DC. The presidential inauguration was broadcast on radio for the first time.

1930 - Emma Fahning became the first woman bowler to bowl a perfect game in competition run by the Women’s International Bowling Congress in Buffalo, NY.

1933 - U.S. President Roosevelt gave his inauguration speech in which he said "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself."

1933 - Labor Secretary Frances Perkins became the first woman to serve in a Presidential administrative cabinet.

1942 - "Junior Miss" starring Shirley Temple aired on CBS radio for the first time.

1942 - The Stage Door Canteen opened on West 44th Street in New York City.

1944 - Louis "Lepke" Buchalter, the head of Murder, Inc., was executed for murder at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, NY. He was the leader of U.S. organized crime during the 1930's.

1946 - Canada reported that it had uncovered a spy ring that had been organized by the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa. All four people accused admitted to being involved.

1947 - France and Britain signed an alliance treaty.

1950 - Walt Disney’s "Cinderella" was released.

1952 - U.S. President Harry Truman dedicated the "Courier," the first seagoing radio broadcasting station.

1952 - Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis were married.

1954 - In Boston, Peter Bent Brigham Hospital reported the first successful kidney transplant.

1963 - Six people received a death sentence in Paris for plotting to kill French President Charles de Gaulle.

1975 - Queen Elizabeth knighted Charlie Chaplin.

1977 - More than 1,500 people were killed in an earthquake that affected southern and eastern Europe.

1986 - "Today" debuted in London as England’s newest, national, daily newspaper.

1989 - Time, Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. announced a plan to merge.

1991 - Sheik Saad al-Jaber al-Sabah, the prime minister of Kuwait, returned to his country for the first time since Iraq's invasion.

1993 - Authorities announced the arrest of Mohammad Salameh. He was later convicted for his role in the World Trade Center Bombing in New York City.

1994 - Bosnia's Croats and Moslems signed an agreement to form a federation in a loose economic union with Croatia.

1994 - Four extremists were convicted in the World Trade Center bombing in which six people were killed and more than a thousand were injured.

1997 - U.S. President Clinton barred federal spending on human cloning.

1998 - Microsoft repaired software that apparently allowed hackers to shut down computers in government and university offices nationwide.

1998 - The U.S. Supreme Court said that federal law banned on-the-job sexual harassment even when both parties are the same sex.

1999 - Monica Lewinsky's book about her affair with U.S. President Clinton went on sale in the U.S.

1999 - U.S. Marine Captain Richard Ashby was acquitted in a military court of the charge of recklessly flying his jet. 20 people were killed in Italy when his jet hit a gondola cable.

2002 - Canada banned human embryo cloning but permitted government-funded scientists to use embryos left over from fertility treatment or abortions.

2003 - In the southern Philippines, a bomb hidden in a backpack exploded and killed at least 19 people at an airport.

2003 - In the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir, at least 9 people were killed and 52 were injured when a bus fell into a deep gorge.

Current Birthdays


Rick Perry turns 59 years old today.

71 Paula Prentiss
Actress


68 Adrian Lyne
Director


65 Bobby Womack
R&B singer


61 Chris Squire
Rock musician (Yes)


61 Shakin' Stevens
Rockabilly singer


58 Chris Rea
Singer


57 Ronn Moss
Actor ("The Bold and the Beautiful")


56 Emilio Estefan
Musician (Miami Sound Machine)


56 Scott Hicks
Director


56 Kay Lenz
Actress


55 Catherine O'Hara
Actress


51 Patricia Heaton
Actress ("Everybody Loves Raymond")


49 Mykelti Williamson
Actor


48 Steven Weber
Actor ("Wings")


46 Jason Newsted
Rock musician (Metallica)


44 Stacy Edwards
Actress ("Chicago Hope")


43 Patrick Hannan
Rock musician (The Sundays)


43 Grand Puba
Rapper


42 Evan Dando
Rock singer (Lemonheads)


41 Patsy Kensit
Actress


40 Chastity Bono
Daughter of Sonny and Cher


39 Nick Stabile
Actor


38 Fergal Lawler
Rock musician (The Cranberries)


38 Jason Sellers
Country singer


32 Jason Marsalis
Jazz musician


24 Whitney Port
TV personality ("The Hills")


19 Andrea Bowen
Actress ("Desperate Housewives")


16 Jenna Boyd
Actress

Historic Birthdays


Knute Rockne

3/4/1888 - 3/31/1931
American football coach at Notre Dame

66 Henry the Navigator
3/4/1394 - 11/13/1460
Portuguese sponsor of voyages of exploration


63 Antonio Vivaldi
3/4/1678 - 7/28/1741
Italian composer and violinist


67 Sir Henry Raeburn
3/4/1756 - 7/8/1823
Scottish portrait painter


46 Aleksandr Popov
3/4/1859 - 12/31/1905
Russian physicist and electrical engineer


76 David Watson Taylor
3/4/1864 - 7/28/1940
American marine architect


86 Enrique Larreta
3/4/1875 - 7/7/1961
Argentine novelist


67 Richard Tolman
3/4/1881 - 9/5/1948
American physical chemist and physicist


49 Pearl Fay White
3/4/1889 - 8/4/1938
American film star


90 Charles Goren
3/4/1901 - 4/3/1991
American contract bridge authority


64 George Gamow
3/4/1904 - 8/19/1968
Russian-bn. American nuclear physicist and cosmologist

 

[minidog]

1623 - The first alcohol temperance law in the colonies was enacted in Virginia.

1624 - In the American colony of Virginia, the upper class was exempted from whipping by legislation.

1750 - "King Richard III" was performed in New York City. It was the first Shakespearean play to be presented in America.

1766 - The first Spanish governor of Louisiana, Antonio de Ulloa, arrived in New Orleans.

1770 - "The Boston Massacre" took place when British troops fired on a crowd in Boston killing five people. Two British troops were later convicted of manslaughter.

1793 - Austrian troops defeated the French and recaptured Liege.

1836 - Samuel Colt manufactured the first pistol (.34-caliber).

1842 - A Mexican force of over 500 men under Rafael Vasquez invaded Texas for the first time since the revolution. They briefly occupied San Antonio, but soon headed back to the Rio Grande.

1845 - The U.S. Congress appropriated $30,000 to ship camels to the western U.S.

1864 - For the first time, Oxford met Cambridge in track and field competition in England.

1867 - An abortive Fenian uprising against English rule took place in Ireland.

1868 - The U.S. Senate was organized into a court of impeachment to decide charges against President Andrew Johnson.

1872 - George Westinghouse patented the air brake.

1900 - The American Hall of Fame was founded.

1900 - Two U.S. battleships leave for Nicaragua to halt revolutionary disturbances.

1901 - Germany and Britain began negotiations with hopes of creating an alliance.

1902 - In France, the National Congress of Miners decided to call for a general strike for an 8-hour day.

1905 - Russian troops began their retreat from Mukden in Manchuria, China. Over 100,000 had been killed in 3 days of fighting.

1907 - In St. Petersburg, Russia, the new Duma opened. 40,000 demonstrators were dispersed by troops.

1910 - In Philadelphia, PA, 60,000 people left their jobs to show support for striking transit workers.

1910 - The Moroccan envoy signed the 1909 agreement with France.

1912 - The Italians became the first to use dirigibles for military purposes. They used them for reconnaissance flights behind Turkish lines west of Tripoli.

1918 - The Soviets moved the capital of Russia from Petrograd to Moscow.

1922 - Phoebe Anne Oakley Mozee broke all existing records for women's trap shooting. She hit 98 out of 100 targets.

1923 - Old-age pension laws were enacted in the states of Montana and Nevada.

1924 - Frank Caruana of Buffalo, NY, became the first bowler to roll two perfect games in a row.

1933 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a four-day bank holiday in order to stop large amounts of money from being withdrawn from banks.

1933 - The Nazi Party won 44 percent of the vote in German parliamentary elections.

1934 - In Amarillo, TX, the first Mother's-In-Law Day was celebrated.

1943 - Germany called fifteen and sixteen year olds for military service due to war losses.

1946 - Winston Churchill delivered his "Iron Curtain Speech".

1946 - The U.S. sent protests to the U.S.S.R. on incursions into Manchuria and Iran.

1953 - Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin died. He had been in power for 29 years.

1956 - The U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the ban on segregation in public schools.

1969 - Gustav Heinemann was elected West German President.

1970 - A nuclear non-proliferation treaty went into effect after 43 nations ratified it.

1976 - The British pound fell below the equivalent of $2 for the first time in history.

1977 - U.S. President Jimmy Carter appeared on CBS News with Walter Cronkite for the first "Dial-a-President" radio talk show.

1982 - John Belushi died in Los Angeles of a drug overdose at the age of 33.

1984 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cities had the right to display the Nativity scene as part of their Christmas display.

1985 - Mike Bossy, of the New York Islanders, became the first National Hockey League player to score 50 goals in eight consecutive seasons.

1993 - Cuban President Fidel Castro said that Hillary Clinton is "a beautiful woman."

1993 - Sprinter Ben Johnson was banned from racing for life by the Amateur Athletic Association after testing positive for banned performance-enhancing substances for a second time.

1997 - North Korea and South Korea met for first time in 25 years for peace talks.

1997 - Chuck Niles received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - NASA announced that an orbiting craft had found enough water on the moon to support a human colony and rocket fueling station.

1998 - It was announced that Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins would lead crew of Columbia on a mission to launch a large X-ray telescope. She was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission.

2004 - Martha Stewart was found guilty of lying about the reason for selling 3,298 shares of ImClone Systems stock, conspiracy, making false statement and obstruction of justice.

Current Birthdays


Kevin Connolly turns 35 years old today

87 James Noble
Actor


75 James B. Sikking
Actor


73 Dean Stockwell
Actor


72 Denny Crum
Hall of Fame basketball coach


71 Fred Williamson
Actor


63 Michael Warren
Actor


62 Eddie Hodges
Actor, singer


61 Eddy Grant
Rock singer


57 Alan Clark
Rock musician (Dire Straits)


55 Marsha Warfield
Actress, comedian


54 Penn Jillette
Magician, comedian (Penn and Teller)


53 Adriana Barraza
Actress


53 Teena Marie
Singer


47 Charlie Reid
Rock singer (The Proclaimers)


47 Craig Reid
Rock singer (The Proclaimers)


39 John Frusciante
Rock musician (Red Hot Chili Peppers)


39 Rome
R&B singer


35 Jill Ritchie
Actress


34 Jolene Blalock
Actress ("Enterprise")


34 Eva Mendes
Actress


34 Niki Taylor
Model


33 Paul Konerko
Baseball player


20 Jake Lloyd
Actor ("Star Wars" films )

Historic Birthdays


Sir Rex Harrison

3/5/1908 - 6/2/1990
English stage and film actor

82 Gerardus Mercator
3/5/1512 - 12/2/1594
Flemish cartographer


75 Jan van der Heyden
3/5/1637 - 3/28/1712
Dutch painter of cityscapes


74 Giovanni Tiepolo
3/5/1696 - 3/27/1770
Italian painter


80 Lady Augusta Gregory
3/5/1852 - 5/22/1932
Irish writer and playwright


58 Howard Pyle
3/5/1853 - 11/9/1911
American illustrator, painter, and author


83 Michael von Faulhaber
3/5/1869 - 6/12/1952
German cardinal and archbishop of Munich


47 Rosa Luxemburg
3/5/1871 - 1/15/1919
German revolutionary and agitator


72 Arthur Schendel
3/5/1874 - 9/11/1946
Dutch novelist and short-story writer


86 Edouard Belin
3/5/1876 - 3/4/1963
French engineer and inventor


72 Heitor Villa-Lobos
3/5/1887 - 11/17/1959
Brazilian musician and composer

 

[minidog]

0322 BC - Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, died.

1774 - The British closed the port of Boston to all commerce.

1799 - In Palestine, Napoleon captured Jaffa and his men massacred more than 2,000 Albanian prisoners.

1848 - In Hawaii, the Great Mahele was signed.

1849 - The Austrian Reichstag was dissolved.

1850 - U.S. Senator Daniel Webster endorsed the Compromise of 1850 as a method of preserving the Union.

1854 - Charles Miller received a patent for the sewing machine.

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell received a patent (U.S. Patent No. 174,465) for his telephone.

1901 - It was announced that blacks had been found enslaved in parts of South Carolina.

1904 - The Japanese bombed the Russian town of Vladivostok.

1904 - In Springfield, OH, a mob broke into a jail and shot a black man accused of murder.

1906 - Finland granted women the right to vote.

1908 - Cincinnati's mayor, Mark Breith announced before the city council that, "Women are not physically fit to operate automobiles."

1911 - Willis Farnworth patented the coin-operated locker.

1911 - In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, the U.S. sent 20,000 troops to the border of Mexico.

1918 - Finland signed an alliance treaty with Germany.

1925 - The Soviet Red Army occupied Outer Mongolia.

1927 - A Texas law that banned Negroes from voting was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1933 - CBS radio debuted "Marie The Little French Princess." It was the first daytime radio serial.

1933 - The board game Monopoly was invented.

1935 - Malcolm Campbell set an auto speed record of 276.8 mph in Florida.

1936 - Hitler sent German troops into the Rhineland in violation of the Locarno Pact and the Treaty of Versailles.

1942 - Japanese troops landed on New Guinea.

1945 - During World War II, U.S. forces crossed the Rhine River at Remagen, Germany.

1947 - John L. Lewis declared that only a totalitarian regime could prevent strikes.

1951 - U.N. forces in Korea under General Matthew Ridgeway launched Operation Ripper against the Chinese.

1954 - Russia appeared for the first time in ice-hockey competition. Russia defeated Canada 7-2 to win the world ice-hockey title in Stockholm, Sweden.

1955 - "Peter Pan" was presented as a television special for the first time.

1955 - Baseball commissioner Ford Frick said that he was in favor of legalizing the spitball.

1955 - Phyllis Diller made her debut at the Purple Onion in San Francisco, CA.

1959 - Melvin C. Garlow became the first pilot to fly over a million miles in jet airplanes.

1965 - State troopers and a sheriff's posse broke up a march by civil rights demonstrators in Selma, AL.

1968 - The Battle of Saigon came to an end.

1971 - A thousand U.S. planes bombed Cambodia and Laos.

1975 - The U.S. Senate revised the filibuster rule. The new rule allowed 60 senators to limit debate instead of the previous two-thirds.

1981 - Anti-government guerrillas in Colombia executed the kidnapped American Bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman. The guerrillas accused Bitterman of being a CIA agent.

1983 - TNN (The Nashville Network) began broadcasting.

1985 - "Commonwealth" magazine ceased publication after five decades.

1985 - The first AIDS antibody test, an ELISA-type test, was released.

1987 - Mike Tyson became the youngest heavyweight titleholder when he beat James Smith in a decision during a 12-round fight in Las Vegas, NV.

1989 - Poland accused the Soviet Union of a World War II massacre in Katyn.

1994 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parodies that poke fun at an original work can be considered "fair use" that does not require permission from the copyright holder.

1994 - In Moldova, a referendum was rejected by 90% of voters to form a union with Rumania.

1999 - In El Salvador, Francisco Flores Pérez of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance (Arena) was elected president.

2002 - A federal judge awarded Anna Nicole Smith more than $88 million in damages. The ruling was the latest in a legal battle over the estate of Smith's late husband, J. Howard Marshall II.

2003 - Scientists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center announced that they had transferred 6.7 gigabytes of uncompressed data from Sunnvale, CA, to Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 58 seconds. The data was sent via fiber-optic cables and traveled 6,800 miles.
Current Birthdays


Jenna Fischer turns 35 years old today.

79 Lord Snowdon
Photographer, ex-husband of Princess Margaret


75 Willard Scott
TV personality ("Today")


71 Janet Guthrie
Auto racer


69 Daniel J. Travanti
Actor ("Hill Street Blues")


67 Michael Eisner
Former Walt Disney Co. CEO


66 Chris White
Rock musician (The Zombies)


63 Matthew Fisher
Rock musician (Procol Harum)


63 John Heard
Actor


63 Peter Wolf
Rock singer (J. Geils Band)


59 Franco Harris
Football Hall of Famer


57 Ernie Isley
R&B singer, musician (The Isley Brothers)


57 Lynn Swann
Football Hall of Famer


53 Bryan Cranston
Actor ("Malcolm in the Middle")


50 Donna Murphy
Actress


50 Nick Searcy
Actor


49 Ivan Lendl
Tennis Hall of Famer


48 Mary Beth Evans
Actress ("Days of Our Lives")


46 Bill Brochtrup
Actor


45 Denyce Graves
Opera singer


45 Wandy Sykes
Actress-comedian


44 Taylor Dayne
Rock singer


42 Randy Guss
Rock musician (Toad the Wet Sprocket)


41 Jeff Kent
Baseball player


38 Peter Sarsgaard
Actor


38 Rachel Weisz
Actress


35 Hugo Ferreira
Rock singer (Tantric)


34 Audrey Marie Anderson
Actress ("The Unit")


29 Laura Prepon
Actress ("That 70s Show")


Historic Birthdays


Maurice Ravel

3/7/1875 - 12/28/1937
French composer

88 Alessandro Manzoni
3/7/1785 - 5/22/1873
Italian poet and novelist


79 Sir John Herschel
3/7/1792 - 5/11/1871
English astronomer


65 Giuseppe Ferrari
3/7/1811 - 6/2/1876
Italian historian and political philosopher


45 Henry Draper
3/7/1837 - 11/20/1882
American physician and amateur astronomer


87 Tomas Masaryk
3/7/1850 - 9/14/1937
Czechoslovakian founder and president


83 Julius Wagner-Jauregg
3/7/1857 - 9/27/1940
Austrian Nobel Prize-winning psychiatrist and neurologist


71 Piet Mondrian
3/7/1872 - 2/1/1944
Dutch abstract art painter


86 Helen Parkhurst
3/7/1887 - 6/1/1973
American educator, author, and lecturer


65 Anna Magnani
3/7/1908 - 9/26/1973
Italian actress