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Milestones
- Thread starter admihoek
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Jan 30th:Martina of Rome, virgin martyr (226x8). The daughter of a Christian former consul. orphaned at an early age, she gave away her inheritance to the poor and devoted herself to a life of prayer. She testified so openly to her Christian faith that she could not escape the persecutions under Alexander Severus. Arrested and commanded to return to idolatry, she refused, whereupon she was subjected to various tortures and was finally beheaded. According to one legend, she bled milk, making her the patron of nursing mothers.
Her relics were discovered in 1634 in the crypt of a basilica near the Forum, dedicated to her. She is the patron saint of the city of Rome.
Her relics were discovered in 1634 in the crypt of a basilica near the Forum, dedicated to her. She is the patron saint of the city of Rome.
January 30 is the anniversary of two historic executions. In one of them, the accused had to be raised from the dead. Otherwise, this date has seen assassinations, an assassination attempt, and a royal murder-suicide that was an international sensation of its time.
58 BC. Livia Drusilla is born. Livia Drusilla, after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also known as Julia Augusta, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Augustus as well as his adviser. She was the mother of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, paternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-great grandmother of the Emperor Nero. She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta.
133. Roman Emperor Marcus Severus Didius Julianus is born. He ruled from March 28, 193 to June 1, 193. Julianus ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard, who had assassinated his predecessor Pertinax. This incited the Roman Civil War of 193–197. Julianus was ousted and sentenced to death by his successor, Septimius Severus.
Severus had Julianus beheaded. He dismissed the Praetorian Guard and executed the soldiers who had killed Pertinax. According to Cassius Dio, Julianus' last words were "But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?"
1606. English conspirator Everard Digby is executed. Sir Everard Digby was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was raised in a Protestant household, and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were converted to Catholicism by the Jesuit priest John Gerard.
Digby was tried on the same day as seven of his surviving co-conspirators, in Westminster Hall, on Monday 27 January 1606. As the king and his family watched in secret, the charges against the plotters were read aloud. Alone among them Digby pleaded "Guilty", and was tried on a separate indictment.
Digby was hanged, drawn and quartered early on Thursday 30 January. Throngs of spectators lined the streets as he was strapped to a wattled hurdle, and alongside Robert Wintour and John Grant was dragged by horse to the western end of Old St Paul's Cathedral churchyard. Armed guards interspersed along the route were there to defend against any possible rescue, but did not keep the miscreants' families from witnessing the fate of the four men. Cold and grubby, Digby was the first of the four to face the executioner.
Digby was stripped of his clothing, except for his shirt. Murmuring "O Jesus, Jesus, save me and keep me", he climbed the ladder and was hanged for a short period. The executioner cut the rope, and Digby fell back to the scaffold, wounding his forehead. Fully conscious, he was taken to the block and castrated, disembowelled, and quartered.
1648. The Treaty of Münster is signed, ending the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain. The Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt (1566–1648), was the revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Netherlands against the Spanish (Habsburg) Empire.
Spain was initially successful in suppressing the rebellion. In 1572, however, the rebels captured Brielle and the rebellion flared anew. The northern provinces became independent first de facto, and in 1648 officially. During the revolt, The United Provinces of the Netherlands or Dutch Republic rapidly grew to become a world power through its merchant shipping, and experienced a period of economic, scientific, and cultural growth.
The Southern Netherlands (situated in modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France) remained under Spanish rule. The continuous repression by the Spanish in the south caused many of its financial, intellectual, and cultural elite to flee north, significantly contributing to the success of the Dutch Republic.
1649. King Charles I of England is beheaded. The last years of Charles' reign were marked by the English Civil War, in which he was opposed by the forces of Parliament -- who challenged his attempts to augment his own power -- and by Puritans, who were hostile to his religious policies and apparent Catholic sympathy.
The first Civil War (1642 - 1645) ended in defeat for Charles, after which the parliamentarians expected him to accept their demands for a constitutional monarchy. Instead, he remained defiant, provoking a second Civil War (1648 - 1649). This was considered unacceptable, and Charles was subsequently tried, convicted and executed for high treason. The monarchy was then abolished, and a republic was established, called the Commonwealth of England.
When Charles was beheaded, it is reputed that he wore two shirts as to prevent the cold January weather causing any noticeable shivers that the crowd could have been mistaken for fear or weakness. He put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke. Even his enemies were impressed by the dignity with which the king died.
It was common practice for the head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words "Behold the head of a traitor!"; although Charles' head was exhibited, the words were not used. In an unprecedented gesture, one of the revolutionary leaders, Oliver Cromwell, allowed the King's head to be sewn back on his body so the family could pay its respects. Charles was buried in private and at night on February 7, 1649, in the Henry VIII vault inside St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.
1661. Two years after his death, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is formally executed. In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution. Symbolically, this took place on January 30; the same date that Charles I had been executed. His body was hung in chains at Tyburn. Finally, his disinterred body was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Abbey until 1685. Afterwards the head changed hands several times, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.
1703. The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master. A group of samurai were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) Asano Naganori was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for two years to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder. With much embellishment, this true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all good people should preserve in their daily lives. The popularity of the almost mythical tale was only enhanced by rapid modernization during the Meiji era of Japanese history, when it is suggested many people in Japan longed for a return to their cultural roots.
1781. Maryland becomes the 13th and final state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, almost three years after the official deadline given by Congress of March 10, 1778.
The problematic Articles of Confederation remained the law of the land for only eight years before the Constitutional Convention rejected them in favor of a new, more centralized form of federal government. They crafted the current U.S. Constitution, which took effect in 1789, giving the federal government greater authority over the states and creating a bicameral legislature.
1798. A brawl breaks out in the House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spits in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut.
1826. The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
1835. In the first assassination attempt against an American President, a mentally ill man named Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot President Andrew Jackson in the United States Capitol. Both of Lawrence's pistols misfire, and Jackson proceeds to beat his would-be assassin with his cane.
1862. The first United States ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched. She is most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships, the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 during the American Civil War, in which Monitor fought the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy. The Monitor was the first in a long line of Monitor Class U.S. warships.
1882. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, is born in Hyde Park, New York.
1889. Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.
By 1889, it was known by many, including both his wife Stephanie, and his father Emperor Franz Joseph, that Rudolf and Mary were having an affair. Rudolf's marriage to Stephanie was not particularly happy, and Stephanie carried on affairs of her own with Rudolf's tacit knowledge.
On the morning of January 30, 1889, Mary and Rudolf were found dead at Rudolf's hunting lodge Mayerling. The death of his only son devastated Franz Joseph I. He had no other male heirs.
The initial official explanation for the incident was that Rudolf had suffered heart failure; Mary was not mentioned and her body was buried secretly. However, the official story did not hold up well, and it later had to be admitted that Rudolf had committed suicide. Many stories were floated about the pair's death, with the most widely accepted being that the two lovers had carried out a suicide pact after Franz Joseph demanded they separate. Rudolf shot his mistress in the head, then sat by her body for several hours before shooting himself. A special dispensation from the Vatican was obtained, declaring Rudolf to be in a state of "mental imbalance" in order for Rudolf to be buried in the Imperial Crypt.
1911. The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
1925. The government of Turkey expels Patriarch Constantine VI from Istanbul.
1933. With the stirring notes of the William Tell Overture and a shout of "Hi-yo, Silver! Away!", The Lone Ranger debuts on Detroit's WXYZ radio station. The creation of station-owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker, the "masked rider of the plains" became one of the most popular and enduring western heroes of the 20th century. Joined by his trusty steed, Silver, and loyal Indian scout, Tonto, the Lone Ranger sallied forth to do battle with evil western outlaws and Indians, generally arriving on the scene just in time to save an innocent golden-haired child or sun-bonneted farm wife.
1933. President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany.
The year 1932 had seen Hitler's meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. A charismatic speaker, Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his fledgling Nazi party. In an election held in July 1932, the Nazis won 230 governmental seats; together with the Communists, the next largest party, they made up over half of the Reichstag.
Hindenburg, intimidated by Hitler's growing popularity and the thuggish nature of his cadre of supporters, the SA (or Brownshirts), initially refused to make him chancellor. Instead, he appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who attempted to steal Hitler's thunder by negotiating with a dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. At the next round of elections in November, the Nazis lost ground -- but the Communists gained it, a paradoxical effect of Schleicher's efforts that made right-wing forces in Germany even more determined to get Hitler into power.
Hitler's emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. He began immediately, ordering a rapid expansion of the state police, the Gestapo, and putting Hermann Goering in charge of a new security force, composed entirely of Nazis and dedicated to stamping out whatever opposition to his party might arise. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was off and running, and there was little Hindenburg -- or anyone -- could do to stop it.
1943. In the second day of the Battle of Rennell Island during World War II, the USS Chicago is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
1945. During World War II, the Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest maritime disaster in known history, killing roughly 9,000 people.
1948. Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
1950. I Can Dream, Can't I? by The Andrews Sisters is the number one hit in the United States.
1956. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1959. MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
1962. Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan. The Wallendas performed without safety nets.
1965. American Playboy model, actress, and stand-up comedienne Julie McCullough is born as Julie Michelle McCullough in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. She is known primarily as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for February 1986, and for her role as Julie Costello in the sitcom Growing Pains, a role from which she was controversially fired due to her Playboy career. (See pictures.)
McCullough appeared in eight episodes until she was fired in 1990, which stemmed series star Kirk Cameron's conversion to evangelical Christianity, a conversion that served to alienate him from his fellow cast members. He called for McCullough's termination because of his objections to her having posed nude in Playboy, and accused the show's producers of promoting pornography.
A decade later, Cameron apologized to his TV family, attributing his prior behavior to his lack of maturity but did not mend fences with McCullough, who remains critical of him, stating that she lost a lot from the public criticism she endured from the controversy. Although McCullough herself is Catholic, she has criticized the evangelical TV programming Cameron has produced, which she has viewed on one occasion, saying on her MySpace page:
"He thinks if I read science books that I'm going to hell. 'I rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints . . . the sinners are much more fun.' And a lot more interesting than some book-burner who is still having growing pains. I am at peace with God. Kirk thinks people like me are going to Hell; if I do then at least I'll go well informed and well read." (Well said, Julie!)
Having enjoyed doing comedy on stage her entire life, McCullough now works as a stand-up comedienne, and has performed at the Hollywood Improv, the Palms Hotel and Casino, and the Laugh Factory.
1968. The Tet Offensive begins during the Vietnam War when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam. Although every clash resulted in an American victory. the action was a pivotal point in the conflict, turning American public opinion against the war.
1969. The Beatles' give their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
1971. Carole King's Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.
1972. British Paratroopers kill fourteen Roman Catholic civil rights-anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland, earning this day the nickname "Bloody Sunday (1972)."
1982. Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".
1994. Péter Lékó becomes the youngest chess grand master.
1996. Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit.
The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is an Irish republican paramilitary organization which was formed on December 8, 1974. It enjoyed its peak of influence in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is now one of a number of small armed republican groups in Ireland.
2003. Richard Reid, a British citizen and al-Qaida follower, is sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.
2005. Iraqis vote in their country's first free election in a half-century,
2011. Demonstrations against the government, in which more than 150 people have been killed and over 4,000 injured, continue in Egypt. .Egyptian authorities extend the curfew hours they are imposing on the people of Egypt. The government threatens to open fire on any person who disobeys its rule. Several prison breaks occur, including the escape of 5,000 from a jail in Faiyum Governorate, many including 34 members of the Muslim Brotherhood from Wadi El Natrun, where eight people were killed in riots, and at least eight Hamas militants from Abu Zaabal Prison in Cairo, two of them escaping to Gaza, and two policemen and twelve escaped inmates were killed there; many more escaped from Tora Prison in Cairo, close to where "dozens" of people were killed. Soldiers have been deployed outside of many prisons.
2012. Tibetan advocacy groups claim that as many as seven ethnic Tibetans have been killed and 60 wounded in the past week in protests in China's Sichuan province bordering Tibet.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama answers questions about the State of the Union posed by citizens in the first-ever completely virtual interview from the White House but fails to answer the most popular questions which were related to the controversial topic of marijuana legalization.
58 BC. Livia Drusilla is born. Livia Drusilla, after her formal adoption into the Julian family in AD 14 also known as Julia Augusta, was a Roman empress as the third wife of the Emperor Augustus as well as his adviser. She was the mother of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Claudius, paternal great-grandmother of the Emperor Caligula, and maternal great-great grandmother of the Emperor Nero. She was deified by Claudius who acknowledged her title of Augusta.
133. Roman Emperor Marcus Severus Didius Julianus is born. He ruled from March 28, 193 to June 1, 193. Julianus ascended the throne after buying it from the Praetorian Guard, who had assassinated his predecessor Pertinax. This incited the Roman Civil War of 193–197. Julianus was ousted and sentenced to death by his successor, Septimius Severus.
Severus had Julianus beheaded. He dismissed the Praetorian Guard and executed the soldiers who had killed Pertinax. According to Cassius Dio, Julianus' last words were "But what evil have I done? Whom have I killed?"
1606. English conspirator Everard Digby is executed. Sir Everard Digby was a member of the group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. Although he was raised in a Protestant household, and married a Protestant, Digby and his wife were converted to Catholicism by the Jesuit priest John Gerard.
Digby was tried on the same day as seven of his surviving co-conspirators, in Westminster Hall, on Monday 27 January 1606. As the king and his family watched in secret, the charges against the plotters were read aloud. Alone among them Digby pleaded "Guilty", and was tried on a separate indictment.
Digby was hanged, drawn and quartered early on Thursday 30 January. Throngs of spectators lined the streets as he was strapped to a wattled hurdle, and alongside Robert Wintour and John Grant was dragged by horse to the western end of Old St Paul's Cathedral churchyard. Armed guards interspersed along the route were there to defend against any possible rescue, but did not keep the miscreants' families from witnessing the fate of the four men. Cold and grubby, Digby was the first of the four to face the executioner.
Digby was stripped of his clothing, except for his shirt. Murmuring "O Jesus, Jesus, save me and keep me", he climbed the ladder and was hanged for a short period. The executioner cut the rope, and Digby fell back to the scaffold, wounding his forehead. Fully conscious, he was taken to the block and castrated, disembowelled, and quartered.
1648. The Treaty of Münster is signed, ending the Eighty Years' War between the Netherlands and Spain. The Eighty Years' War, or Dutch Revolt (1566–1648), was the revolt of the Seventeen Provinces in the Netherlands against the Spanish (Habsburg) Empire.
Spain was initially successful in suppressing the rebellion. In 1572, however, the rebels captured Brielle and the rebellion flared anew. The northern provinces became independent first de facto, and in 1648 officially. During the revolt, The United Provinces of the Netherlands or Dutch Republic rapidly grew to become a world power through its merchant shipping, and experienced a period of economic, scientific, and cultural growth.
The Southern Netherlands (situated in modern-day Belgium, Luxembourg and Northern France) remained under Spanish rule. The continuous repression by the Spanish in the south caused many of its financial, intellectual, and cultural elite to flee north, significantly contributing to the success of the Dutch Republic.
1649. King Charles I of England is beheaded. The last years of Charles' reign were marked by the English Civil War, in which he was opposed by the forces of Parliament -- who challenged his attempts to augment his own power -- and by Puritans, who were hostile to his religious policies and apparent Catholic sympathy.
The first Civil War (1642 - 1645) ended in defeat for Charles, after which the parliamentarians expected him to accept their demands for a constitutional monarchy. Instead, he remained defiant, provoking a second Civil War (1648 - 1649). This was considered unacceptable, and Charles was subsequently tried, convicted and executed for high treason. The monarchy was then abolished, and a republic was established, called the Commonwealth of England.
When Charles was beheaded, it is reputed that he wore two shirts as to prevent the cold January weather causing any noticeable shivers that the crowd could have been mistaken for fear or weakness. He put his head on the block after saying a prayer and signalled the executioner when he was ready; he was then beheaded with one clean stroke. Even his enemies were impressed by the dignity with which the king died.
It was common practice for the head of a traitor to be held up and exhibited to the crowd with the words "Behold the head of a traitor!"; although Charles' head was exhibited, the words were not used. In an unprecedented gesture, one of the revolutionary leaders, Oliver Cromwell, allowed the King's head to be sewn back on his body so the family could pay its respects. Charles was buried in private and at night on February 7, 1649, in the Henry VIII vault inside St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle.
1661. Two years after his death, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is formally executed. In 1661, Oliver Cromwell's body was exhumed from Westminster Abbey, and was subjected to the ritual of a posthumous execution. Symbolically, this took place on January 30; the same date that Charles I had been executed. His body was hung in chains at Tyburn. Finally, his disinterred body was thrown into a pit, while his severed head was displayed on a pole outside Westminster Abbey until 1685. Afterwards the head changed hands several times, before eventually being buried in the grounds of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 1960.
1703. The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master. A group of samurai were left leaderless (becoming ronin) after their daimyo (feudal lord) Asano Naganori was forced to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka. The ronin avenged their master's honor after patiently waiting and planning for two years to kill Kira. In turn, the ronin were themselves forced to commit seppuku for committing the crime of murder. With much embellishment, this true story was popularized in Japanese culture as emblematic of the loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honor that all good people should preserve in their daily lives. The popularity of the almost mythical tale was only enhanced by rapid modernization during the Meiji era of Japanese history, when it is suggested many people in Japan longed for a return to their cultural roots.
1781. Maryland becomes the 13th and final state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, almost three years after the official deadline given by Congress of March 10, 1778.
The problematic Articles of Confederation remained the law of the land for only eight years before the Constitutional Convention rejected them in favor of a new, more centralized form of federal government. They crafted the current U.S. Constitution, which took effect in 1789, giving the federal government greater authority over the states and creating a bicameral legislature.
1798. A brawl breaks out in the House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spits in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut.
1826. The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales, is opened.
1835. In the first assassination attempt against an American President, a mentally ill man named Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot President Andrew Jackson in the United States Capitol. Both of Lawrence's pistols misfire, and Jackson proceeds to beat his would-be assassin with his cane.
1862. The first United States ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched. She is most famous for her participation in the first-ever naval battle between two ironclad warships, the Battle of Hampton Roads on March 9, 1862 during the American Civil War, in which Monitor fought the ironclad CSS Virginia of the Confederate States Navy. The Monitor was the first in a long line of Monitor Class U.S. warships.
1882. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, is born in Hyde Park, New York.
1889. Archduke Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian crown, is found dead with his mistress, Baroness Mary Vetsera in Mayerling.
By 1889, it was known by many, including both his wife Stephanie, and his father Emperor Franz Joseph, that Rudolf and Mary were having an affair. Rudolf's marriage to Stephanie was not particularly happy, and Stephanie carried on affairs of her own with Rudolf's tacit knowledge.
On the morning of January 30, 1889, Mary and Rudolf were found dead at Rudolf's hunting lodge Mayerling. The death of his only son devastated Franz Joseph I. He had no other male heirs.
The initial official explanation for the incident was that Rudolf had suffered heart failure; Mary was not mentioned and her body was buried secretly. However, the official story did not hold up well, and it later had to be admitted that Rudolf had committed suicide. Many stories were floated about the pair's death, with the most widely accepted being that the two lovers had carried out a suicide pact after Franz Joseph demanded they separate. Rudolf shot his mistress in the head, then sat by her body for several hours before shooting himself. A special dispensation from the Vatican was obtained, declaring Rudolf to be in a state of "mental imbalance" in order for Rudolf to be buried in the Imperial Crypt.
1911. The destroyer USS Terry makes the first airplane rescue at sea saving the life of James McCurdy 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.
1925. The government of Turkey expels Patriarch Constantine VI from Istanbul.
1933. With the stirring notes of the William Tell Overture and a shout of "Hi-yo, Silver! Away!", The Lone Ranger debuts on Detroit's WXYZ radio station. The creation of station-owner George Trendle and writer Fran Striker, the "masked rider of the plains" became one of the most popular and enduring western heroes of the 20th century. Joined by his trusty steed, Silver, and loyal Indian scout, Tonto, the Lone Ranger sallied forth to do battle with evil western outlaws and Indians, generally arriving on the scene just in time to save an innocent golden-haired child or sun-bonneted farm wife.
1933. President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or führer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany.
The year 1932 had seen Hitler's meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. A charismatic speaker, Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his fledgling Nazi party. In an election held in July 1932, the Nazis won 230 governmental seats; together with the Communists, the next largest party, they made up over half of the Reichstag.
Hindenburg, intimidated by Hitler's growing popularity and the thuggish nature of his cadre of supporters, the SA (or Brownshirts), initially refused to make him chancellor. Instead, he appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who attempted to steal Hitler's thunder by negotiating with a dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. At the next round of elections in November, the Nazis lost ground -- but the Communists gained it, a paradoxical effect of Schleicher's efforts that made right-wing forces in Germany even more determined to get Hitler into power.
Hitler's emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. He began immediately, ordering a rapid expansion of the state police, the Gestapo, and putting Hermann Goering in charge of a new security force, composed entirely of Nazis and dedicated to stamping out whatever opposition to his party might arise. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was off and running, and there was little Hindenburg -- or anyone -- could do to stop it.
1943. In the second day of the Battle of Rennell Island during World War II, the USS Chicago is sunk and a U.S. destroyer is heavily damaged by Japanese torpedoes.
1945. During World War II, the Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest maritime disaster in known history, killing roughly 9,000 people.
1948. Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist.
1950. I Can Dream, Can't I? by The Andrews Sisters is the number one hit in the United States.
1956. American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
1959. MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, strikes an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sinks, killing all 95 aboard.
1962. Two of the high-wire Flying Wallendas are killed when their famous seven-person pyramid collapses during a performance in Detroit, Michigan. The Wallendas performed without safety nets.
1965. American Playboy model, actress, and stand-up comedienne Julie McCullough is born as Julie Michelle McCullough in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. She is known primarily as Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month for February 1986, and for her role as Julie Costello in the sitcom Growing Pains, a role from which she was controversially fired due to her Playboy career. (See pictures.)
McCullough appeared in eight episodes until she was fired in 1990, which stemmed series star Kirk Cameron's conversion to evangelical Christianity, a conversion that served to alienate him from his fellow cast members. He called for McCullough's termination because of his objections to her having posed nude in Playboy, and accused the show's producers of promoting pornography.
A decade later, Cameron apologized to his TV family, attributing his prior behavior to his lack of maturity but did not mend fences with McCullough, who remains critical of him, stating that she lost a lot from the public criticism she endured from the controversy. Although McCullough herself is Catholic, she has criticized the evangelical TV programming Cameron has produced, which she has viewed on one occasion, saying on her MySpace page:
"He thinks if I read science books that I'm going to hell. 'I rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints . . . the sinners are much more fun.' And a lot more interesting than some book-burner who is still having growing pains. I am at peace with God. Kirk thinks people like me are going to Hell; if I do then at least I'll go well informed and well read." (Well said, Julie!)
Having enjoyed doing comedy on stage her entire life, McCullough now works as a stand-up comedienne, and has performed at the Hollywood Improv, the Palms Hotel and Casino, and the Laugh Factory.
1968. The Tet Offensive begins during the Vietnam War when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam. Although every clash resulted in an American victory. the action was a pivotal point in the conflict, turning American public opinion against the war.
1969. The Beatles' give their last public performance on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.
1971. Carole King's Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.
1972. British Paratroopers kill fourteen Roman Catholic civil rights-anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland, earning this day the nickname "Bloody Sunday (1972)."
1982. Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".
1994. Péter Lékó becomes the youngest chess grand master.
1996. Suspected leader of the Irish National Liberation Army Gino Gallagher is killed while in line for his unemployment benefit.
The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) is an Irish republican paramilitary organization which was formed on December 8, 1974. It enjoyed its peak of influence in the late 1970s and early 1980s and is now one of a number of small armed republican groups in Ireland.
2003. Richard Reid, a British citizen and al-Qaida follower, is sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.
2005. Iraqis vote in their country's first free election in a half-century,
2011. Demonstrations against the government, in which more than 150 people have been killed and over 4,000 injured, continue in Egypt. .Egyptian authorities extend the curfew hours they are imposing on the people of Egypt. The government threatens to open fire on any person who disobeys its rule. Several prison breaks occur, including the escape of 5,000 from a jail in Faiyum Governorate, many including 34 members of the Muslim Brotherhood from Wadi El Natrun, where eight people were killed in riots, and at least eight Hamas militants from Abu Zaabal Prison in Cairo, two of them escaping to Gaza, and two policemen and twelve escaped inmates were killed there; many more escaped from Tora Prison in Cairo, close to where "dozens" of people were killed. Soldiers have been deployed outside of many prisons.
2012. Tibetan advocacy groups claim that as many as seven ethnic Tibetans have been killed and 60 wounded in the past week in protests in China's Sichuan province bordering Tibet.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama answers questions about the State of the Union posed by citizens in the first-ever completely virtual interview from the White House but fails to answer the most popular questions which were related to the controversial topic of marijuana legalization.
Attachments
1968. The Tet Offensive begins during the Vietnam War when Viet Cong forces launch a series of surprise attacks in South Vietnam. Although every clash resulted in an American victory. the action was a pivotal point in the conflict, turning American public opinion against the war.- Milestones
Like or dislike the Viet Nam war, or any war, (and in '68 Tree was 12 yrs old) the turning point in this war was the U.S. Press. All military or any objective civilian historians will say the Tet Offensive was a crushing defeat for the Viet Cong and the N. Viet Nam Regular army. But the press had turned against the president who signed more civil rights legislation than all presidents before him and the Viet Cong/North Viets knew all they had to do is wait it out.
Sounds a bit like some of our friends who don't wan't women to be educated today...
...Not polical, though if the moderators decide differently I will not be offended if the post is removed or edited...
I'm asking that you truly think about not only what you read but how you read it...
Tree
...so crucify me
Like or dislike the Viet Nam war, or any war, (and in '68 Tree was 12 yrs old) the turning point in this war was the U.S. Press. All military or any objective civilian historians will say the Tet Offensive was a crushing defeat for the Viet Cong and the N. Viet Nam Regular army. But the press had turned against the president who signed more civil rights legislation than all presidents before him and the Viet Cong/North Viets knew all they had to do is wait it out.
Sounds a bit like some of our friends who don't wan't women to be educated today...
...Not polical, though if the moderators decide differently I will not be offended if the post is removed or edited...
I'm asking that you truly think about not only what you read but how you read it...
Tree
...so crucify me
Admi was 23 and lived in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and he was a real protester against all those political leaders.
just like those in this timeAdmi was 23 and lived in the Netherlands (Amsterdam) and he was a real protester against all those political leaders.
just like those in this time
in my time flower power and of course against war yoko ono and john lennon
make love not war!
tree
January 31 has witnessed riots. revolts, and executions, as well as the space flight of a chimp who paved the way for human astronauts.
36 BC. Antonia Minor, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, is born. (See picture.) Usually called Antonia the Younger, she was the younger niece of the Emperor Augustus, sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and both maternal great-grandmother and paternal great-aunt of the Emperor Nero.
In 31 AD, Antonia exposed a plot by her daughter Livilla and Tiberius’ notorious Praetorian prefect, Sejanus, to murder the Emperor Tiberius and Caligula and to seize the throne for themselves. Livilla had poisoned her husband, Drusus Julius Caesar (sometimes known by his nickname "Castor") Tiberius' son, in order to remove rivals. Sejanus was executed on Tiberius’s orders, and Livilla was handed over to her formidable mother. Antonia imprisoned Livilla in her room and allowed her to starve to death.
When Tiberius died, Caligula became emperor in March 37 AD. Caligula awarded her a senatorial decree, granting her all the honors that Livia Drusilla had received in her lifetime. She was also offered the title of Augusta, previously only given to Augustus's wife Livia, but rejected it. Despite that, they had a falling out when she criticized Caligula's behavior, after which she committed suicide or was poisoned by her grandson.
When Claudius became emperor after his nephew Caligula’s assassination in 41 AD, he gave his mother the title of Augusta. Her birthday became a public holiday, in which yearly games and public sacrifices were held. An image of her was paraded in a carriage.
314. With the approval of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, Silvester I begins his reign as Pope of the Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Miltiades.
1504. France cedes Naples to Aragon. Founded around the 9th century BC as a Greek colony, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Originally named Parthenope and later Neápolis, it was among the foremost cities of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society. Naples eventually became part of the Roman Republic as a major cultural center. As a microcosm of European history, the city has witnessed the rise and fall of numerous civilizations, each leaving traces in its art and architecture. Between 1282 and 1816, Naples was the capital city of a kingdom that bore its name -- the Kingdom of Naples. Then, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861.
1606. Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting to blow up Parliament and James I of England. Fawkes is infamous for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which he was assigned to carry out because of his military and explosives experience. The plot, masterminded by Robert Catesby, was an attempt by a group of English Roman Catholic conspirators to kill King James I of England (VI of Scotland), his family, and most of the aristocracy in one swoop by blowing up the House of Lords building in the Houses of Parliament during its State Opening.
Following his arrest, he was tortured for days, after special permission to do so had been granted by the King. Eventually he revealed the names of his conspirators, who were either already dead or whose names were known to the authorities. Some had fled to Warwickshire where they were either killed or captured. Fawkes and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were tried in Westminster Hall, and after being found guilty, were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and St Paul's Yard, where they were hanged, drawn, and quartered on January 31.
1747. The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1752. Future Patriot Gouverneur Morris is born to the wealthy Morris family of New York. An early supporter of independence, Morris began to shape the new national government in 1781, when he assumed the post of assistant superintendent of finance for the Confederation. In that capacity, Morris worked with Superintendent Robert Morris (no relation) to urge an expansion of federal powers and proposed that the new nation adopt a new decimal currency modeled on the Spanish dollar.
Morris' passion for a strong federal government found frequent voice during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, at which he represented Pennsylvania. Morris supported Madison's original proposal that Congress should have the power to veto state laws, was in favor of life terms for senators, whom he thought should be required to have large landholdings in order to serve, and was against the protection of slavery by the federal government.
Morris was also an author of large sections of the Constitution of the United States and one of its signers. He is widely credited as the author of the document's preamble, and has been called the "Penman of the Constitution." In an era when most Americans thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single union of states.
Morris served as the American minister plenipotentiary, or ambassador, to France from 1792 until his recall in 1794 for failing to support the bloody, and in his opinion, ill-conceived revolution. While in France, he witnessed the Reign of Terror and attempted to protect Louis XVI and his family from angry mob violence.
Morris served as a senator from New York from 1800 to 1803, completing the term of James Watson, who had resigned to accept a presidential naval appointment. Allying with the Federalists in their opposition to the War of 1812, Morris -- the same man who once argued for a strong federal union -- suggested that New England and New York secede from the United States in protest.
1801. John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States. John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the United States (1801–1835) whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches. The longest-serving Chief Justice and the fourth longest-serving justice in US Supreme Court history, Marshall dominated the Court for over three decades and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. Most notably, he reinforced the principle that federal courts are obligated to exercise judicial review, by disregarding purported laws if they violate the Constitution.
1865. Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief of Confederate forces in the American Civil War. Initially, Lee was against secession and had been offered command of the Union army but when Virginia seceded, Lee felt honor bound to fight for his "country."
The word "country," to describe the United States, did not come into popular usage until after the Civil War. Up until that time, Americans used the word "Union." One's "country" was one's home state.
1865. The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states' rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support -- some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865.
1876. The United States orders all Native Americans to move to reservations.
1910. The Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.
1917. In World War I, Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare. Under previous rules of engagement, merchant ships would be stopped, occupants safely evacuated and then the vessel sunk, usually by gunfire, all following Prize Rules. This had little effect and increasingly placed the German submarine -- U-boat -- at risk from defensive weaponry.
Germany had practical strategic problems. War-weariness affected the German home situation. The best chance of achieving an early advantageous peace with Britain was to stifle its trade and imports. Surface ships had not been effective, neither could the German Navy force the Royal Navy off the seas.
Germany gambled that unrestricted submarine warfare would critically damage Britain before an incensed United States could make a practical impact on the outcome of the war. It was a miscalculation.
1919. The Battle of George Square erupts in Scotland. Also known as Bloody Friday and Black Friday, it was one of the worst riots on the streets of Glasgow. The dispute revolved around a campaign for shorter working hours, backed by widespread strike action. Clashes between police and protesters broke out, and led to the Government sending soldiers to the city to prevent any further gatherings due to their fear of a left-wing workers revolution, described as a "Bolshevist uprising" by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, as had happened the previous year in the 1917 Russian Revolution and was occurring in Germany while the 40 Hours strike unfolded.
The exact cause of the riot has been disputed -- some sources indicate it was caused by an unprovoked police baton charge, while others indicate that strikers attempted to stop trams trying to run in the square. Fighting broke out between workers and police with the fighting spreading as far as Glasgow Green. Many people, women and children among them, were injured. More than a dozen strikers were taken to Duke Street Prison and later tried at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh.
After the riot, soldiers with machine guns, tanks and a howitzer, occupied Glasgow's streets for a week to deter any more gatherings. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing that fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers' side if a revolutionary situation developed in Glasgow. English troops were transported from England and stationed in Glasgow specifically to combat this possible scenario. The soldiers of the Highland Light Infantry, based in the city's Maryhill barracks were subject to a lock-in, with an estimated 10,000 English troops and tanks sent into the city to control unrest and extinguish any revolution that should break out.
1929. The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky. He was an influential politician in the early days of the Soviet Union, first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was also among the first members of the Politburo.
Following a power struggle with Joseph Stalin in the 1920s, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union. He was eventually assassinated in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent
1930. 3M markets Scotch Tape.
36 BC. Antonia Minor, daughter of Mark Antony and Octavia Minor, is born. (See picture.) Usually called Antonia the Younger, she was the younger niece of the Emperor Augustus, sister-in-law of the Emperor Tiberius, paternal grandmother of the Emperor Caligula and Empress Agrippina the Younger, mother of the Emperor Claudius, and both maternal great-grandmother and paternal great-aunt of the Emperor Nero.
In 31 AD, Antonia exposed a plot by her daughter Livilla and Tiberius’ notorious Praetorian prefect, Sejanus, to murder the Emperor Tiberius and Caligula and to seize the throne for themselves. Livilla had poisoned her husband, Drusus Julius Caesar (sometimes known by his nickname "Castor") Tiberius' son, in order to remove rivals. Sejanus was executed on Tiberius’s orders, and Livilla was handed over to her formidable mother. Antonia imprisoned Livilla in her room and allowed her to starve to death.
When Tiberius died, Caligula became emperor in March 37 AD. Caligula awarded her a senatorial decree, granting her all the honors that Livia Drusilla had received in her lifetime. She was also offered the title of Augusta, previously only given to Augustus's wife Livia, but rejected it. Despite that, they had a falling out when she criticized Caligula's behavior, after which she committed suicide or was poisoned by her grandson.
When Claudius became emperor after his nephew Caligula’s assassination in 41 AD, he gave his mother the title of Augusta. Her birthday became a public holiday, in which yearly games and public sacrifices were held. An image of her was paraded in a carriage.
314. With the approval of Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, Silvester I begins his reign as Pope of the Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Miltiades.
1504. France cedes Naples to Aragon. Founded around the 9th century BC as a Greek colony, Naples is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Originally named Parthenope and later Neápolis, it was among the foremost cities of Magna Graecia, playing a key role in the merging of Greek culture into Roman society. Naples eventually became part of the Roman Republic as a major cultural center. As a microcosm of European history, the city has witnessed the rise and fall of numerous civilizations, each leaving traces in its art and architecture. Between 1282 and 1816, Naples was the capital city of a kingdom that bore its name -- the Kingdom of Naples. Then, in union with Sicily, it became the capital of the Two Sicilies until the unification of Italy in 1861.
1606. Guy Fawkes is executed for plotting to blow up Parliament and James I of England. Fawkes is infamous for his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, which he was assigned to carry out because of his military and explosives experience. The plot, masterminded by Robert Catesby, was an attempt by a group of English Roman Catholic conspirators to kill King James I of England (VI of Scotland), his family, and most of the aristocracy in one swoop by blowing up the House of Lords building in the Houses of Parliament during its State Opening.
Following his arrest, he was tortured for days, after special permission to do so had been granted by the King. Eventually he revealed the names of his conspirators, who were either already dead or whose names were known to the authorities. Some had fled to Warwickshire where they were either killed or captured. Fawkes and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were tried in Westminster Hall, and after being found guilty, were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and St Paul's Yard, where they were hanged, drawn, and quartered on January 31.
1747. The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.
1752. Future Patriot Gouverneur Morris is born to the wealthy Morris family of New York. An early supporter of independence, Morris began to shape the new national government in 1781, when he assumed the post of assistant superintendent of finance for the Confederation. In that capacity, Morris worked with Superintendent Robert Morris (no relation) to urge an expansion of federal powers and proposed that the new nation adopt a new decimal currency modeled on the Spanish dollar.
Morris' passion for a strong federal government found frequent voice during the Constitutional Convention of 1787, at which he represented Pennsylvania. Morris supported Madison's original proposal that Congress should have the power to veto state laws, was in favor of life terms for senators, whom he thought should be required to have large landholdings in order to serve, and was against the protection of slavery by the federal government.
Morris was also an author of large sections of the Constitution of the United States and one of its signers. He is widely credited as the author of the document's preamble, and has been called the "Penman of the Constitution." In an era when most Americans thought of themselves as citizens of their respective states, Morris advanced the idea of being a citizen of a single union of states.
Morris served as the American minister plenipotentiary, or ambassador, to France from 1792 until his recall in 1794 for failing to support the bloody, and in his opinion, ill-conceived revolution. While in France, he witnessed the Reign of Terror and attempted to protect Louis XVI and his family from angry mob violence.
Morris served as a senator from New York from 1800 to 1803, completing the term of James Watson, who had resigned to accept a presidential naval appointment. Allying with the Federalists in their opposition to the War of 1812, Morris -- the same man who once argued for a strong federal union -- suggested that New England and New York secede from the United States in protest.
1801. John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States. John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the United States (1801–1835) whose court opinions helped lay the basis for American constitutional law and made the Supreme Court of the United States a coequal branch of government along with the legislative and executive branches. The longest-serving Chief Justice and the fourth longest-serving justice in US Supreme Court history, Marshall dominated the Court for over three decades and played a significant role in the development of the American legal system. Most notably, he reinforced the principle that federal courts are obligated to exercise judicial review, by disregarding purported laws if they violate the Constitution.
1865. Robert E. Lee becomes general-in-chief of Confederate forces in the American Civil War. Initially, Lee was against secession and had been offered command of the Union army but when Virginia seceded, Lee felt honor bound to fight for his "country."
The word "country," to describe the United States, did not come into popular usage until after the Civil War. Up until that time, Americans used the word "Union." One's "country" was one's home state.
1865. The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery in America. The amendment read, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude...shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
In 1864, an amendment abolishing slavery passed the U.S. Senate but died in the House as Democrats rallied in the name of states' rights. The election of 1864 brought Lincoln back to the White House along with significant Republican majorities in both houses, so it appeared the amendment was headed for passage when the new Congress convened in March 1865. Lincoln preferred that the amendment receive bipartisan support -- some Democrats indicated support for the measure, but many still resisted. The amendment passed 119 to 56, seven votes above the necessary two-thirds majority. Several Democrats abstained, but the 13th Amendment was sent to the states for ratification, which came in December 1865.
1876. The United States orders all Native Americans to move to reservations.
1910. The Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.
1917. In World War I, Germany announces its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare. Under previous rules of engagement, merchant ships would be stopped, occupants safely evacuated and then the vessel sunk, usually by gunfire, all following Prize Rules. This had little effect and increasingly placed the German submarine -- U-boat -- at risk from defensive weaponry.
Germany had practical strategic problems. War-weariness affected the German home situation. The best chance of achieving an early advantageous peace with Britain was to stifle its trade and imports. Surface ships had not been effective, neither could the German Navy force the Royal Navy off the seas.
Germany gambled that unrestricted submarine warfare would critically damage Britain before an incensed United States could make a practical impact on the outcome of the war. It was a miscalculation.
1919. The Battle of George Square erupts in Scotland. Also known as Bloody Friday and Black Friday, it was one of the worst riots on the streets of Glasgow. The dispute revolved around a campaign for shorter working hours, backed by widespread strike action. Clashes between police and protesters broke out, and led to the Government sending soldiers to the city to prevent any further gatherings due to their fear of a left-wing workers revolution, described as a "Bolshevist uprising" by the then Secretary of State for Scotland, as had happened the previous year in the 1917 Russian Revolution and was occurring in Germany while the 40 Hours strike unfolded.
The exact cause of the riot has been disputed -- some sources indicate it was caused by an unprovoked police baton charge, while others indicate that strikers attempted to stop trams trying to run in the square. Fighting broke out between workers and police with the fighting spreading as far as Glasgow Green. Many people, women and children among them, were injured. More than a dozen strikers were taken to Duke Street Prison and later tried at the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh.
After the riot, soldiers with machine guns, tanks and a howitzer, occupied Glasgow's streets for a week to deter any more gatherings. No Scottish troops were deployed, with the government fearing that fellow Scots, soldiers or otherwise, would go over to the workers' side if a revolutionary situation developed in Glasgow. English troops were transported from England and stationed in Glasgow specifically to combat this possible scenario. The soldiers of the Highland Light Infantry, based in the city's Maryhill barracks were subject to a lock-in, with an estimated 10,000 English troops and tanks sent into the city to control unrest and extinguish any revolution that should break out.
1929. The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky. He was an influential politician in the early days of the Soviet Union, first as People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs and later as the founder and commander of the Red Army and People's Commissar of War. He was also among the first members of the Politburo.
Following a power struggle with Joseph Stalin in the 1920s, Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party and deported from the Soviet Union. He was eventually assassinated in Mexico by Ramón Mercader, a Soviet agent
1930. 3M markets Scotch Tape.
Attachments
1943. German Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad, followed two days later by the remainder of his Sixth Army, ending one of World War II's fiercest battles. For Hitler, it was the beginning of the end.
1944. In World War II, American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1945. U.S. Army private Eddie Slovik is executed in World War II, he is the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion. There were many other deserters during the war but military brass wanted to make an example.
He was tried on November 11 for desertion and was convicted in less than two hours. The nine-officer court-martial panel passed a unanimous sentence of execution, "to be shot to death with musketry." Slovik was shot and killed by a 12-man firing squad in eastern France. None of the rifleman even flinched, firmly believing Slovik had gotten what he deserved.
1950. President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1953. Flooding in the North Sea kills more than 1,500 people in the Netherlands and destroys one million acres of farmland. The storm also caused death and destruction in Great Britain and Belgium.
The storm began in the North Atlantic and moved slowly toward the British Isles and the Netherlands. By the morning of January 31, winds were reaching more than 100 miles per hour. That evening, a 200-mile area of England was experiencing flooding, particularly the Ouse and Orwell river regions. Sea walls were breached all along the coast and the Margate lighthouse was destroyed. By the time the water subsided in England on February 2, 307 people were dead and thousands were homeless. Winston Churchill declared it a national disaster and established a relief fund for the victims. In Belgium, the Schelde River flooded and a dike near the city of Antwerp broke. Despite the impending disaster, the country's King Baudouin made a trip to French Riviera. He returned under heavy criticism.
The worst of the storm, however, hit the Netherlands, where 50,000 buildings were wiped out by the flood and 300,000 people were left homeless. The islands of Schouwen, Duiveland and Walcheren were completely inundated and the centers of large cities like Rotterdam and Dordrecht were severely damaged. Thousands of people were stranded on their rooftops for days awaiting rescue. An extension of the United States' post-war Marshall Plan relief was set in motion on February 6 in order to assist the Netherlands with the immense relief effort. On February 8, Queen Juliana proclaimed an official day of mourning. The state of emergency put in effect was not lifted for another week. By the time the flood receded, 1,524 lives were lost in the Netherlands alone.
1957. Eight people on the ground in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
1961. Ham the Chimp travels into outer space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2. After the flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington D.C., then at the North Carolina Zoo before dying at the age of 27 on January 19, 1983. Ham appeared repeatedly on television, as well as on film with Evel Knievel.
1968. The Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other targets, in the early morning hours; the assaults were later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
1970. British actress Minnie Driver is born as Amelia Driver in London. She first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. (See pictures.)
In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted comic recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, Karen's (Megan Mullally) nemesis and daughter of Karen's lover, played by veteran British comic and Monty Python alumnus John Cleese.
Driver has also worked on several animated features, including Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan and the dubbed English version of the 1999 Japanese megahit Princess Mononoke.
1971. Apollo 14, piloted by astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a manned mission to the Moon. On February 5, after suffering some initial problems in docking the lunar and command modules, Shepard and Mitchell descended to the lunar surface on the third U.S. moon landing. Upon stepping out of the lunar module, Shepard, who in 1961, aboard Freedom 7, was the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the Moon.
1988. In Super Bowl XXII, the Washington Redskins win their second championship of the 1980s, 42-10 over the Denver Broncos.
1990. The first Russian McDonald's opens in Moscow.
1990. Los Angeles prosecutors announce that they will retry Raymond Buckey, who was accused of molesting children at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. The McMartin trials had already taken over six years and cost more than $13.5 million without a single guilty verdict resulting from 208 charges. However, a jury had deadlocked on 13 charges (voting 11-2 for acquittal) against Buckey, and prosecutors, not willing to let the matter drop, decided to retry him on eight of these counts.
The McMartin prosecutions represented the height of the hysteria over sexual abuse of children in America. Despite a complete lack of reputable evidence against the teachers and workers at McMartin Preschool, and with every indication that the children had been coerced and manipulated into their testimony, the prosecutors nonetheless proceeded against Ray Buckey for more than six years.
"Believe the children" became the mantra of advocates who insisted that children never lied or were mistaken about abuse. Throughout the nation, parents and day-care workers were jailed after false, and often absurd, allegations about child sexual abuse. As this hysteria swept the country, abuse counseling quickly became a cottage industry, attracting often-unqualified people who seemed to find sexual abuse everywhere.
This was abundantly clear in Ray Buckey's case. In one instance, a girl initially failed to identify Buckey as someone who had harmed her. After an interview with Children's Institute International, the counseling agency who worked with every child in the case, the girl did pick Buckey as her attacker. It later turned out that Buckey wasn't even at the school during the time period that the child attended McMartin.
Buckey's retrial went much faster. By July, the jury had acquitted on seven charges and were deadlocked (once again, the majority voting for acquittal) on the other six accusations. The district attorney then finally decided to drop the case. The Buckeys successfully sued the parents of one child for slander in 1991, but they were awarded only $1 in damages.
1996. An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
2006. Samuel A. Alito Jr. assumes office as the 110th Supreme Court justice of the United States. He is generally considered a conservative jurist and since becoming a member of the Supreme Court he has often voted with conservative members of the court. He is the second Italian-American on the Supreme Court.
2007. Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.
2011. The price of oil rises above $100 for the first time since 2008 as traders worry about possible disruption to the Suez Canal as a result of unrest in Egypt.
2012. An Afghan woman was killed by her husband and mother-in-law 3 months after giving birth to her third daughter after not producing a son. The young Afghan woman gave birth to a third girl three months ago -- to a husband, the authorities say, who had been demanding a boy. Last week, the man and his mother, in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, put a rope around the woman’s neck and strangled her, the police said. The body of the woman, known only as Storai, 22, was found by the police a few hours later in her room, and she was buried a day later, on Jan. 26.
Elsewhere, voters in the U.S. state of Florida go to the polls for a Republican primary with Mitt Romney projected to win.
1944. In World War II, American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
1945. U.S. Army private Eddie Slovik is executed in World War II, he is the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion. There were many other deserters during the war but military brass wanted to make an example.
He was tried on November 11 for desertion and was convicted in less than two hours. The nine-officer court-martial panel passed a unanimous sentence of execution, "to be shot to death with musketry." Slovik was shot and killed by a 12-man firing squad in eastern France. None of the rifleman even flinched, firmly believing Slovik had gotten what he deserved.
1950. President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.
1953. Flooding in the North Sea kills more than 1,500 people in the Netherlands and destroys one million acres of farmland. The storm also caused death and destruction in Great Britain and Belgium.
The storm began in the North Atlantic and moved slowly toward the British Isles and the Netherlands. By the morning of January 31, winds were reaching more than 100 miles per hour. That evening, a 200-mile area of England was experiencing flooding, particularly the Ouse and Orwell river regions. Sea walls were breached all along the coast and the Margate lighthouse was destroyed. By the time the water subsided in England on February 2, 307 people were dead and thousands were homeless. Winston Churchill declared it a national disaster and established a relief fund for the victims. In Belgium, the Schelde River flooded and a dike near the city of Antwerp broke. Despite the impending disaster, the country's King Baudouin made a trip to French Riviera. He returned under heavy criticism.
The worst of the storm, however, hit the Netherlands, where 50,000 buildings were wiped out by the flood and 300,000 people were left homeless. The islands of Schouwen, Duiveland and Walcheren were completely inundated and the centers of large cities like Rotterdam and Dordrecht were severely damaged. Thousands of people were stranded on their rooftops for days awaiting rescue. An extension of the United States' post-war Marshall Plan relief was set in motion on February 6 in order to assist the Netherlands with the immense relief effort. On February 8, Queen Juliana proclaimed an official day of mourning. The state of emergency put in effect was not lifted for another week. By the time the flood receded, 1,524 lives were lost in the Netherlands alone.
1957. Eight people on the ground in Pacoima, California are killed following the mid-air collision between a Douglas DC-7 airliner and a Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jet.
1961. Ham the Chimp travels into outer space aboard Mercury-Redstone 2. After the flight, Ham lived for 17 years in the National Zoo in Washington D.C., then at the North Carolina Zoo before dying at the age of 27 on January 19, 1983. Ham appeared repeatedly on television, as well as on film with Evel Knievel.
1968. The Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other targets, in the early morning hours; the assaults were later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.
1970. British actress Minnie Driver is born as Amelia Driver in London. She first came to broad public attention when she played the lead role in Circle of Friends. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1997 film Good Will Hunting. (See pictures.)
In 2003 and 2004, she had a noted comic recurring role on Will & Grace as Lorraine Finster, Karen's (Megan Mullally) nemesis and daughter of Karen's lover, played by veteran British comic and Monty Python alumnus John Cleese.
Driver has also worked on several animated features, including Disney's 1999 version of Tarzan and the dubbed English version of the 1999 Japanese megahit Princess Mononoke.
1971. Apollo 14, piloted by astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell, and Stuart A. Roosa, is successfully launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a manned mission to the Moon. On February 5, after suffering some initial problems in docking the lunar and command modules, Shepard and Mitchell descended to the lunar surface on the third U.S. moon landing. Upon stepping out of the lunar module, Shepard, who in 1961, aboard Freedom 7, was the first American in space, became the fifth astronaut to walk on the Moon.
1988. In Super Bowl XXII, the Washington Redskins win their second championship of the 1980s, 42-10 over the Denver Broncos.
1990. The first Russian McDonald's opens in Moscow.
1990. Los Angeles prosecutors announce that they will retry Raymond Buckey, who was accused of molesting children at the McMartin Preschool in Manhattan Beach, California. The McMartin trials had already taken over six years and cost more than $13.5 million without a single guilty verdict resulting from 208 charges. However, a jury had deadlocked on 13 charges (voting 11-2 for acquittal) against Buckey, and prosecutors, not willing to let the matter drop, decided to retry him on eight of these counts.
The McMartin prosecutions represented the height of the hysteria over sexual abuse of children in America. Despite a complete lack of reputable evidence against the teachers and workers at McMartin Preschool, and with every indication that the children had been coerced and manipulated into their testimony, the prosecutors nonetheless proceeded against Ray Buckey for more than six years.
"Believe the children" became the mantra of advocates who insisted that children never lied or were mistaken about abuse. Throughout the nation, parents and day-care workers were jailed after false, and often absurd, allegations about child sexual abuse. As this hysteria swept the country, abuse counseling quickly became a cottage industry, attracting often-unqualified people who seemed to find sexual abuse everywhere.
This was abundantly clear in Ray Buckey's case. In one instance, a girl initially failed to identify Buckey as someone who had harmed her. After an interview with Children's Institute International, the counseling agency who worked with every child in the case, the girl did pick Buckey as her attacker. It later turned out that Buckey wasn't even at the school during the time period that the child attended McMartin.
Buckey's retrial went much faster. By July, the jury had acquitted on seven charges and were deadlocked (once again, the majority voting for acquittal) on the other six accusations. The district attorney then finally decided to drop the case. The Buckeys successfully sued the parents of one child for slander in 1991, but they were awarded only $1 in damages.
1996. An explosives-filled truck rams into the gates of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing at least 86 and injuring 1,400.
2006. Samuel A. Alito Jr. assumes office as the 110th Supreme Court justice of the United States. He is generally considered a conservative jurist and since becoming a member of the Supreme Court he has often voted with conservative members of the court. He is the second Italian-American on the Supreme Court.
2007. Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.
2011. The price of oil rises above $100 for the first time since 2008 as traders worry about possible disruption to the Suez Canal as a result of unrest in Egypt.
2012. An Afghan woman was killed by her husband and mother-in-law 3 months after giving birth to her third daughter after not producing a son. The young Afghan woman gave birth to a third girl three months ago -- to a husband, the authorities say, who had been demanding a boy. Last week, the man and his mother, in the northern Afghan province of Kunduz, put a rope around the woman’s neck and strangled her, the police said. The body of the woman, known only as Storai, 22, was found by the police a few hours later in her room, and she was buried a day later, on Jan. 26.
Elsewhere, voters in the U.S. state of Florida go to the polls for a Republican primary with Mitt Romney projected to win.
Use of the term "Scotch" in the name has a pejorative origin. A customer complained that 3M was manufacturing its masking tape too cheaply, and told company engineer Richard Drew to,
"take this tape back to your stingy Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it."
60 years ago - a dreadful tragedy.
In my part of Scotland, that night is remembered for our "Titanic"
we named it (feb 2) De watersnoodramp (The disastrous floods because the dikes broke and the water flooded through the dike over the Islands all 5 meter under sea level ) I was 7 years old and all over in my country we brought blankets, food, clothes and so on. Yep 60 years ago already.......................Use of the term "Scotch" in the name has a pejorative origin. A customer complained that 3M was manufacturing its masking tape too cheaply, and told company engineer Richard Drew to,"take this tape back to your stingy Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it."60 years ago - a dreadful tragedy.In my part of Scotland, that night is remembered for our "Titanic"
I know that was a stamp with 10 c for the post and the other 10 for victimshelp
1876. The United States orders all Native Americans to move to reservations- Milestones
Another highpoint in American history
...at least my father's generation (he was the first born on this land) didn't sit on the White Cliffs of Dover smoking a Madame Wu and say "well, at least Hitler's contained there..."
tree
Another highpoint in American history
...at least my father's generation (he was the first born on this land) didn't sit on the White Cliffs of Dover smoking a Madame Wu and say "well, at least Hitler's contained there..."
tree
Naraku
Draconarius
This incident inspired The Boomtown Rats only US hit. Thus, it was indirectly responsible for Band Aid & Live Aid.
Can't believe I'm the only one who recognised that quote.
Never be amazed here, your avatar could be changed without warning...This incident inspired The Boomtown Rats only US hit. Thus, it was indirectly responsible for Band Aid & Live Aid.
Can't believe I'm the only one who recognised that quote.
...MTV used to play music videos (that promoted one hit wonders)
...The Weather Channel used to do the weather 24 /7 (with some good jazz music on the '8's)
...Tree used to be proud of his 14.6 Baud Modem... In baseball batting .333 is pretty good
tree
LittleSiss
Sorceress
And in Baltimore it's 6:42 ... Time for 11 O'clock report! 
February is the second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the shortest month and the only month with fewer than 30 days. February was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 in the old Roman calendar.
January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added about 700 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until circa 450 BC, when it became the second month. At certain intervals Roman priests inserted an intercalary month, Intercalaris, after February to realign the year with the seasons.
February begins, astronomically speaking, with the sun in the constellation of Capricornus and ends with the sun in the constellation of Aquarius. Astrologically, February begins with the sun in the sign of Aquarius and ends in the sign of Pisces.
Historical names for February include the Anglo-Saxon terms Solmoneth (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage) as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl."
February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in a common year, and on the same day of the week as August in a leap year. February in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to August in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.
481. Vandal king Huneric organizes a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops at Carthage. Although Huneric was a fervent adherent to Arianism, his reign opened with making a number of positive overtures towards the local Roman population. Following the visit of a diplomatic mission from the Eastern Roman Empire led by Alexander, Huneric restored properties seized by his father from the merchants of Carthage. On February 1, 484 he organized a meeting of Catholic bishops with Arian bishops, but on February 24, 484 he forcibly removed the Catholic bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica. A few were martyred, including the former proconsul Victorian along with Frumentius and other wealthy merchants, who were killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians.
1327. Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. The reign of his father, Edward II, was fraught with military defeat, rebellious barons and corrupt courtiers, not to mention an unfaithful wife who plotted to overthrow and then murder him.
On January 20, 1327, when the young Edward was fourteen years old, the king was deposed by his queen, Isabella, and her consort Roger Mortimer. Edward, now Edward III, was crowned on February 1, and a regency was set up for him, led by Isabella and Mortimer. Mortimer, the de-facto ruler of England subjected the young prince to constant disrespect and humiliation, creating tension between the two. Mortimer knew his position as ruler was precarious, especially after Edward and his wife, Philippa of Hainault, had a son on June 15,1330.
Mortimer used his power to acquire a number of noble estates (many from Earl of Arundel). His greed and arrogance caused him to be hated by many of the other nobles. All this was not lost on the young king. Shortly before his 18th birthday, Edward, with the help of a few trusted companions, staged a coup at Nottingham castle on October 19, 1330, with the result that both Mortimer and his mother Isabella were arrested. Mortimer was sent to the Tower of London, and hanged one month later. Isabella was forced into retirement at Castle Rising. With this dramatic event, Edward's personal reign began.
He remained on the throne for 50 years; no English monarch had reigned for as long as Edward since Henry III, and none would until George III. Having restored royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, he went on to transform England into the most efficient military power in Europe.
1587. The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island is established by the landing of Sir Walter Raleigh. This Colony would become known as the "Lost Colony."
The Roanoke Colony in present-day North Carolina was an enterprise financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was carried out by Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville (Raleigh's cousin) in the late 16th century to establish a permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony. Between 1585 and 1587, several groups attempted to establish a colony, but either abandoned the settlement or died. The final group of colonists disappeared after three years elapsed without supplies from England during the Anglo-Spanish War. They are known as "The Lost Colony" and their fate is still unknown.
1662. The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. This ended the Dutch East India Company's rule over Taiwan and began the Kingdom of Tungning's rule over the island. Taiwanese scholar Lu Chien-jung described this event as "a war that determined the fate of Taiwan in the four hundred years that follow."
1709. Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
1790. In the Royal Exchange Building on New York City's Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States meets for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding. The U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in March 1789. The Constitution granted the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over all laws, especially those in which constitutionality was at issue. The court was also designated to rule on cases concerning treaties of the United States, foreign diplomats, admiralty practice, and maritime jurisdiction.
In September 1789, the Judiciary Act was passed, implementing Article Three by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life. The same day, President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The Supreme Court later grew into arguably the most powerful judicial body in the world in terms of its central place in the U.S. political order. In times of constitutional crisis, for better or worse, it always played a definitive role in resolving the great issues of the time.
1793. France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
1814. The Mayon Volcano erupts in the Philippines, killing around 1200 people; it is Mayon's most devastating eruption to date.
1861. Texas secedes from the United States as the country rushes toward civil war. The Texans who voted to leave the Union did so over the objections of their governor, Sam Houston. A staunch Unionist, Houston's election in 1859 as governor seemed to indicate that Texas did not share the rising secessionist sentiments of the other Southern states.
However, events swayed many Texans to the secessionist cause. John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in October 1859 had raised the specter of a major slave insurrection, and the ascendant Republican Party made many Texans uneasy about continuing in the Union. After Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in November 1860, pressure mounted on Houston to call a convention so that Texas could consider secession. He did so reluctantly in January 1861, and sat in silence on February 1 as the convention voted 166-8 in favor of secession. Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was replaced in March 1861 by his lieutenant governor.
Texas' move completed the first round of secession. Seven states -- South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas -- left the Union before Lincoln took office. Four more states -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas -- waited until the formal start of the Civil War, with the April 1861 firing on Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, before deciding to leave the Union. The remaining slave states -- Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri -- never mustered the necessary majority for secession.
1862. Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly. It quickly becomes the Union's unofficial national anthem during the American Civil War. (The Star-Spangled Banner was officially adopted in the 20th century.)
1887. Harvey Wilcox officially registers Hollywood with the Los Angeles County recorder’s office.
1908. King Carlos I of Portugal and his eldest son, Luis Filipe, are assassinated by revolutionaries while riding in an open carriage through the streets of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital.
1913. New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
1920. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations. The predecessor of the RCMP, the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) was created on May 23, 1873, by Sir John A. MacDonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, with the intent of bringing law and order to (and asserting Canadian sovereignty over) the North-West Territories (which then included modern day Alberta, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and most of modern Manitoba).
The RCMP acts as the federal (national) police force of Canada, enforcing federal laws. It also has contracts with Canada's three territories and eight of its provinces to serve as their provincial/territorial police force. Most of Canada's provinces, while constitutionally responsible for law and order, prefer to sub-contract policing to the RCMP. The RCMP consequently operates under the direction of the provinces in regard to provincial and municipal law enforcement. The exceptions are Ontario, Quebec, and parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, which have retained their own provincial police forces.
1922. American silent film actor and director William Desmond Taylor is murdered; the crime remains unsolved. At 7:30 a.m. on the morning of February 2, 1922, the body of William Desmond Taylor was found inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments, 404-B South Alvarado Street, in the Westlake Park area of downtown Los Angeles, California, which was then known as a trendy and affluent neighborhood. He had been shot in the back. The time of Taylor's death was set at 7:50 in the evening of February 1.
More than a dozen individuals were eventually named as suspects by both the press and the police. Newspaper reports at the time were both overwhelmingly sensationalized and speculative, even fabricated. In the midst of a media circus caused by the case, Los Angeles Undersheriff Eugene Biscailuz warned Chicago Tribune reporter Eddie Doherty, "The industry has been hurt [by other Hollywood scandals such as the Roscoe Arbuckle trial]. Stars have been ruined. Stockholders have lost millions of dollars. A lot of people are out of jobs and incensed enough to take a shot at you."
According to Robert Giroux, "The studios seemed to be fearful that if certain aspects of the case were exposed, it would excacerbate their problems." King Vidor said of the case in 1968: "Last year I interviewed a Los Angeles police detective, now retired, who had been assigned to the case immediately after the murder. He told me, 'We were doing all right and then, before a week was out, we got the word to lay off.'" Through a combination of poor crime scene management and apparent corruption, much physical evidence was immediately lost, and the rest vanished over the years. Several sources claim that in the hours following Taylor's murder, Paramount Pictures general manager Charles Eyton entered Taylor's bungalow with a group of Paramount employees and removed compromising items, either before police arrived or with their permission.
On October 21, 1964, while living in the Hollywood hills under the name Pat Lewis, silent film actress Margaret Gibson (see picture) suffered a heart attack.
As a recently converted Roman Catholic, before dying she confessed she "shot and killed William Desmond Taylor." She had worked with Taylor when he first came to Hollywood. In 1917 she was indicted, tried and acquitted on charges equivalent to prostitution (there were also allegations of opium dealing) and changed her professional name to Patricia Palmer. In 1923 Gibson was arrested and jailed on extortion charges which were later dropped. Gibson was 27 and in Los Angeles at the time of the murder. There is no record her name was ever mentioned in connection with the murder investigation.
1943. During World War II, Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers. He held the office of Minister President in occupied Norway from February 1942 to the end of World War II, while the elected social democratic cabinet of Johan Nygaardsvold was exiled in London. After the war he was tried for high treason and subsequently executed by firing squad. His surname became an synonym for "traitor," especially a collaborationist.
1943. Japanese forces on Guadalcanal Island, defeated by U.S. Marines, start to withdraw after the Japanese emperor finally gives them permission. In total, the Japanese lost more than 25,000 men compared with a loss of 1,600 by the Americans. Each side lost 24 warships.
1958. Egypt and Syria merge to form the United Arab Republic. They did not live happily ever after; the UAR lasted only until 1961.
1960. Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1965. American actress Sherilyn Fenn is born as Sheryl Ann Fenn in Detroit, Michigan. An Emmy and Golden Globe award nominee, she is best known for playing Audrey Horne on the cult TV series Twin Peaks, for her roles in Ruby, Of Mice and Men, Boxing Helena and Rude Awakening, and for portraying actress Elizabeth Taylor in Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story. (See pictures.)
1971. American porn star Jill Kelly is born as Adrianne Diane Moore in Pomona, California. Over the course of her career, Kelly has appeared in over 400 pornographic movies. While she is best known for her work in adult movies, she has also made appearances in mainstream Hollywood productions, including Spike Lee's He Got Game. (See pictures.)
1978. Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979. Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1982. Senegal and the Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
1996. The "Communications Decency" Act is passed by the U.S. Congress. The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was arguably the first attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet, in response to "public concerns" in 1996. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court partially overturned the law in one of its landmark rulings regarding the Internet.
In Philadelphia on June 12, 1996 a panel of federal judges blocked part of the CDA, saying it would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults. The next month, another U.S. federal court in New York struck down the portion of the CDA intended to protect children from indecent speech as too broad. On June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court upheld the Philadelphia court's decision in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, stating that the indecency provisions were an unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment right to free speech because they did not permit parents to decide for themselves what material was acceptable for their children, extended to non-commercial speech, and did not define "patently offensive," a term with no prior legal meaning. (The New York case, Reno v. Shea, was affirmed by the Supreme Court the next day, without a published opinion.)
1999. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gives a deposition that is videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton.
2003. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing seven astronauts.
2004. Janet Jackson exposes her breast on American television during the half-time show of the Super Bowl, prompting the "Nipplegate" controversy. Actually, the nipple was chastely covered by an ornament (which made me suspect that the exposure was no mere "wardrobe malfunction" but a cleverly concocted ploy to lead the nation down the path to perdition). Almost lost in the much ado about nothing was the Superbowl victory of the New England Patriots.
2011. The Australian state of Queensland evacuates off-shore islands and low-lying parts of North Queensland ahead of Cyclone Yasi which is expected to hit the state as a Category 4 tropical cyclone late on Wednesday or early Thursday. Cyclone Yasi is upgraded to Category 5 and is predicted to be the worst storm to hit Australia in generations.
Meanwhile, the United States National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning for nine states in the Midwestern United States with a storm affecting a total of 30 states from Texas to Maine. The storm is expected to affect as much as a third of the U.S. population, and has already created dangerous travel conditions and forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and the closure of major interstate highways. The Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker declares a state of emergency in southern Wisconsin as a result of the blizzard.
2012. At least 73 people are killed as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in the city of Port Said. All Egyptian Premier League matches are cancelled following the riots.
January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period. They were added about 700 BC. February remained the last month of the calendar year until circa 450 BC, when it became the second month. At certain intervals Roman priests inserted an intercalary month, Intercalaris, after February to realign the year with the seasons.
February begins, astronomically speaking, with the sun in the constellation of Capricornus and ends with the sun in the constellation of Aquarius. Astrologically, February begins with the sun in the sign of Aquarius and ends in the sign of Pisces.
Historical names for February include the Anglo-Saxon terms Solmoneth (mud month) and Kale-monath (named for cabbage) as well as Charlemagne's designation Hornung. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl."
February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in a common year, and on the same day of the week as August in a leap year. February in the Northern Hemisphere is the seasonal equivalent to August in the Southern Hemisphere and vice versa.
481. Vandal king Huneric organizes a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops at Carthage. Although Huneric was a fervent adherent to Arianism, his reign opened with making a number of positive overtures towards the local Roman population. Following the visit of a diplomatic mission from the Eastern Roman Empire led by Alexander, Huneric restored properties seized by his father from the merchants of Carthage. On February 1, 484 he organized a meeting of Catholic bishops with Arian bishops, but on February 24, 484 he forcibly removed the Catholic bishops from their offices and banished some to Corsica. A few were martyred, including the former proconsul Victorian along with Frumentius and other wealthy merchants, who were killed at Hadrumetum after refusing to become Arians.
1327. Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer. The reign of his father, Edward II, was fraught with military defeat, rebellious barons and corrupt courtiers, not to mention an unfaithful wife who plotted to overthrow and then murder him.
On January 20, 1327, when the young Edward was fourteen years old, the king was deposed by his queen, Isabella, and her consort Roger Mortimer. Edward, now Edward III, was crowned on February 1, and a regency was set up for him, led by Isabella and Mortimer. Mortimer, the de-facto ruler of England subjected the young prince to constant disrespect and humiliation, creating tension between the two. Mortimer knew his position as ruler was precarious, especially after Edward and his wife, Philippa of Hainault, had a son on June 15,1330.
Mortimer used his power to acquire a number of noble estates (many from Earl of Arundel). His greed and arrogance caused him to be hated by many of the other nobles. All this was not lost on the young king. Shortly before his 18th birthday, Edward, with the help of a few trusted companions, staged a coup at Nottingham castle on October 19, 1330, with the result that both Mortimer and his mother Isabella were arrested. Mortimer was sent to the Tower of London, and hanged one month later. Isabella was forced into retirement at Castle Rising. With this dramatic event, Edward's personal reign began.
He remained on the throne for 50 years; no English monarch had reigned for as long as Edward since Henry III, and none would until George III. Having restored royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, he went on to transform England into the most efficient military power in Europe.
1587. The Roanoke Colony on Roanoke Island is established by the landing of Sir Walter Raleigh. This Colony would become known as the "Lost Colony."
The Roanoke Colony in present-day North Carolina was an enterprise financed and organized by Sir Walter Raleigh. It was carried out by Ralph Lane and Richard Grenville (Raleigh's cousin) in the late 16th century to establish a permanent English settlement in the Virginia Colony. Between 1585 and 1587, several groups attempted to establish a colony, but either abandoned the settlement or died. The final group of colonists disappeared after three years elapsed without supplies from England during the Anglo-Spanish War. They are known as "The Lost Colony" and their fate is still unknown.
1662. The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege. This ended the Dutch East India Company's rule over Taiwan and began the Kingdom of Tungning's rule over the island. Taiwanese scholar Lu Chien-jung described this event as "a war that determined the fate of Taiwan in the four hundred years that follow."
1709. Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
1790. In the Royal Exchange Building on New York City's Broad Street, the Supreme Court of the United States meets for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding. The U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in March 1789. The Constitution granted the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over all laws, especially those in which constitutionality was at issue. The court was also designated to rule on cases concerning treaties of the United States, foreign diplomats, admiralty practice, and maritime jurisdiction.
In September 1789, the Judiciary Act was passed, implementing Article Three by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life. The same day, President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The Supreme Court later grew into arguably the most powerful judicial body in the world in terms of its central place in the U.S. political order. In times of constitutional crisis, for better or worse, it always played a definitive role in resolving the great issues of the time.
1793. France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
1814. The Mayon Volcano erupts in the Philippines, killing around 1200 people; it is Mayon's most devastating eruption to date.
1861. Texas secedes from the United States as the country rushes toward civil war. The Texans who voted to leave the Union did so over the objections of their governor, Sam Houston. A staunch Unionist, Houston's election in 1859 as governor seemed to indicate that Texas did not share the rising secessionist sentiments of the other Southern states.
However, events swayed many Texans to the secessionist cause. John Brown's raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia), in October 1859 had raised the specter of a major slave insurrection, and the ascendant Republican Party made many Texans uneasy about continuing in the Union. After Abraham Lincoln's election to the presidency in November 1860, pressure mounted on Houston to call a convention so that Texas could consider secession. He did so reluctantly in January 1861, and sat in silence on February 1 as the convention voted 166-8 in favor of secession. Houston refused to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and was replaced in March 1861 by his lieutenant governor.
Texas' move completed the first round of secession. Seven states -- South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas -- left the Union before Lincoln took office. Four more states -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas -- waited until the formal start of the Civil War, with the April 1861 firing on Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, before deciding to leave the Union. The remaining slave states -- Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri -- never mustered the necessary majority for secession.
1862. Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time in the Atlantic Monthly. It quickly becomes the Union's unofficial national anthem during the American Civil War. (The Star-Spangled Banner was officially adopted in the 20th century.)
1887. Harvey Wilcox officially registers Hollywood with the Los Angeles County recorder’s office.
1908. King Carlos I of Portugal and his eldest son, Luis Filipe, are assassinated by revolutionaries while riding in an open carriage through the streets of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital.
1913. New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
1920. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations. The predecessor of the RCMP, the North West Mounted Police (NWMP) was created on May 23, 1873, by Sir John A. MacDonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada, with the intent of bringing law and order to (and asserting Canadian sovereignty over) the North-West Territories (which then included modern day Alberta, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, and most of modern Manitoba).
The RCMP acts as the federal (national) police force of Canada, enforcing federal laws. It also has contracts with Canada's three territories and eight of its provinces to serve as their provincial/territorial police force. Most of Canada's provinces, while constitutionally responsible for law and order, prefer to sub-contract policing to the RCMP. The RCMP consequently operates under the direction of the provinces in regard to provincial and municipal law enforcement. The exceptions are Ontario, Quebec, and parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, which have retained their own provincial police forces.
1922. American silent film actor and director William Desmond Taylor is murdered; the crime remains unsolved. At 7:30 a.m. on the morning of February 2, 1922, the body of William Desmond Taylor was found inside his bungalow at the Alvarado Court Apartments, 404-B South Alvarado Street, in the Westlake Park area of downtown Los Angeles, California, which was then known as a trendy and affluent neighborhood. He had been shot in the back. The time of Taylor's death was set at 7:50 in the evening of February 1.
More than a dozen individuals were eventually named as suspects by both the press and the police. Newspaper reports at the time were both overwhelmingly sensationalized and speculative, even fabricated. In the midst of a media circus caused by the case, Los Angeles Undersheriff Eugene Biscailuz warned Chicago Tribune reporter Eddie Doherty, "The industry has been hurt [by other Hollywood scandals such as the Roscoe Arbuckle trial]. Stars have been ruined. Stockholders have lost millions of dollars. A lot of people are out of jobs and incensed enough to take a shot at you."
According to Robert Giroux, "The studios seemed to be fearful that if certain aspects of the case were exposed, it would excacerbate their problems." King Vidor said of the case in 1968: "Last year I interviewed a Los Angeles police detective, now retired, who had been assigned to the case immediately after the murder. He told me, 'We were doing all right and then, before a week was out, we got the word to lay off.'" Through a combination of poor crime scene management and apparent corruption, much physical evidence was immediately lost, and the rest vanished over the years. Several sources claim that in the hours following Taylor's murder, Paramount Pictures general manager Charles Eyton entered Taylor's bungalow with a group of Paramount employees and removed compromising items, either before police arrived or with their permission.
On October 21, 1964, while living in the Hollywood hills under the name Pat Lewis, silent film actress Margaret Gibson (see picture) suffered a heart attack.
As a recently converted Roman Catholic, before dying she confessed she "shot and killed William Desmond Taylor." She had worked with Taylor when he first came to Hollywood. In 1917 she was indicted, tried and acquitted on charges equivalent to prostitution (there were also allegations of opium dealing) and changed her professional name to Patricia Palmer. In 1923 Gibson was arrested and jailed on extortion charges which were later dropped. Gibson was 27 and in Los Angeles at the time of the murder. There is no record her name was ever mentioned in connection with the murder investigation.
1943. During World War II, Vidkun Quisling is appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers. He held the office of Minister President in occupied Norway from February 1942 to the end of World War II, while the elected social democratic cabinet of Johan Nygaardsvold was exiled in London. After the war he was tried for high treason and subsequently executed by firing squad. His surname became an synonym for "traitor," especially a collaborationist.
1943. Japanese forces on Guadalcanal Island, defeated by U.S. Marines, start to withdraw after the Japanese emperor finally gives them permission. In total, the Japanese lost more than 25,000 men compared with a loss of 1,600 by the Americans. Each side lost 24 warships.
1958. Egypt and Syria merge to form the United Arab Republic. They did not live happily ever after; the UAR lasted only until 1961.
1960. Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1965. American actress Sherilyn Fenn is born as Sheryl Ann Fenn in Detroit, Michigan. An Emmy and Golden Globe award nominee, she is best known for playing Audrey Horne on the cult TV series Twin Peaks, for her roles in Ruby, Of Mice and Men, Boxing Helena and Rude Awakening, and for portraying actress Elizabeth Taylor in Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story. (See pictures.)
1971. American porn star Jill Kelly is born as Adrianne Diane Moore in Pomona, California. Over the course of her career, Kelly has appeared in over 400 pornographic movies. While she is best known for her work in adult movies, she has also made appearances in mainstream Hollywood productions, including Spike Lee's He Got Game. (See pictures.)
1978. Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979. Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1982. Senegal and the Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
1996. The "Communications Decency" Act is passed by the U.S. Congress. The Communications Decency Act (CDA) was arguably the first attempt by the United States Congress to regulate pornographic material on the Internet, in response to "public concerns" in 1996. In 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court partially overturned the law in one of its landmark rulings regarding the Internet.
In Philadelphia on June 12, 1996 a panel of federal judges blocked part of the CDA, saying it would infringe upon the free speech rights of adults. The next month, another U.S. federal court in New York struck down the portion of the CDA intended to protect children from indecent speech as too broad. On June 26, 1997, the Supreme Court upheld the Philadelphia court's decision in Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, stating that the indecency provisions were an unconstitutional abridgement of the First Amendment right to free speech because they did not permit parents to decide for themselves what material was acceptable for their children, extended to non-commercial speech, and did not define "patently offensive," a term with no prior legal meaning. (The New York case, Reno v. Shea, was affirmed by the Supreme Court the next day, without a published opinion.)
1999. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gives a deposition that is videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton.
2003. Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing seven astronauts.
2004. Janet Jackson exposes her breast on American television during the half-time show of the Super Bowl, prompting the "Nipplegate" controversy. Actually, the nipple was chastely covered by an ornament (which made me suspect that the exposure was no mere "wardrobe malfunction" but a cleverly concocted ploy to lead the nation down the path to perdition). Almost lost in the much ado about nothing was the Superbowl victory of the New England Patriots.
2011. The Australian state of Queensland evacuates off-shore islands and low-lying parts of North Queensland ahead of Cyclone Yasi which is expected to hit the state as a Category 4 tropical cyclone late on Wednesday or early Thursday. Cyclone Yasi is upgraded to Category 5 and is predicted to be the worst storm to hit Australia in generations.
Meanwhile, the United States National Weather Service issues a blizzard warning for nine states in the Midwestern United States with a storm affecting a total of 30 states from Texas to Maine. The storm is expected to affect as much as a third of the U.S. population, and has already created dangerous travel conditions and forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and the closure of major interstate highways. The Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker declares a state of emergency in southern Wisconsin as a result of the blizzard.
2012. At least 73 people are killed as a result of clashes between fans of Egyptian football teams Al-Masry and Al-Ahly in the city of Port Said. All Egyptian Premier League matches are cancelled following the riots.
