This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

February 7

1497 – The Bonfire of the Vanities occurs, during which supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books in Florence, Italy.

1812 – The strongest in a series of earthquakes strikes New Madrid, Missouri.

1898 – Dreyfus affair: Émile Zola is brought to trial for libel for publishing J'accuse.

1900 – Second Boer War: British troops fail in their third attempt to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

1904 – A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

1907 – The Mud March is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS).

1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

1944 – World War II: In Anzio, Italy, German forces launch a counteroffensive during the Allied Operation Shingle.

1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom.

1979 - Stephen Stills became the first rock performer to record on digital equipment in Los Angeles' Record Plant Studio.

1984 – Space Shuttle program: Mission STS-41-B: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.

1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the headquarters of the British government.

1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.

1994 - Blind Melon's lead singer Shannon Hoon was forced to leave the American Music Awards ceremony for his loud and disruptive behaviour. Hoon was later charged with battery, assault, resisting arrest, and destroying a police station phone.

1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.

2009 – Bushfires in Victoria leave 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia's history.

2013 – Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.

Births

1804 – John Deere; 1812 – Charles Dickens; 1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder (author Little House On The Prairie book series); 1873 – Thomas Andrews (designer of the RMS Titanic); 1885 – Sinclair Lewis (author Elmer Gantry); 1887 – Eubie Blake; 1906 – Puyi; 1906 – Oleg Konstantinovich Antonov (Antonov Aircraft Company); 1908 – Buster Crabbe; 1915 – Eddie Bracken; 1919 – Jock Mahoney; 1920 – Oscar Brand♪ ♫; 1922 – Hattie Jacques; 1932 – Gay Talese; 1934 – Earl King♪ ♫; 1946 – Sammy Johns (sang "Chevy Van", and that's alright with me); 1946 – Pete Postlethwaite; 1949 – Joe English(Wings); 1955 – Miguel Ferrer; 1956 – Mark St. John(KISS); 1960 – Robert Smigel (puppeteer and voice behind Triumph, The Insult Comic Dog); 1960 – James Spader; 1962 – Garth Brooks♪ ♫; 1962 – David Bryan(Bon Jovi); 1962 – Eddie Izzard; 1965 – Chris Rock; 1972 – Robyn Lively; 1975 – Wes Borland(Limp Bizkit); 1978 – Ashton Kutcher; 1985 – Tina Majorino (ther little girl with a map of Dry Land tattooed on her back 'Enola' in Waterworld); 1999 – Bea Miller♪ ♫

Deaths

1871 – Henry E. Steinway♪ ♫; 1938 – Harvey Samuel Firestone (founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company); 1959 – Guitar Slim♪ ♫; 1979 – Josef Mengele; 1999 – King Hussein of Jordan; 2000 – Doug Henning; 2001 – Dale Evans; 2015 – Billy Casper

[glatt]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

1904 – A fire in Baltimore, Maryland destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.

This is the kind of thing that you read and you just kind of skim over it.

But can you imagine? Where do 1,500 families live while they rebuild? And how do you rebuild that many houses? How do you afford it if you are one of those families? Did they have insurance then?

How many families lived in those formaldehyde FEMA trailers after Katrina? Was it like that?

[xoxoxoBruce]

In less than 30 hours the fire lasted...

One reason for the fire's long duration involved the lack of national standards in firefighting equipment. Despite fire engines from nearby cities (such as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as well as units from New York City, Virginia, Wilmington, and Atlantic City) responding with horse-drawn pumpers, wagons and other related equipment (primitive by modern day standards, but only steam engines were motorized in that era) carried by the railroads on flat cars and box cars, many were unable to help since their hose couplings could not fit Baltimore's fire hydrants.

By railroad? Wow, clear the tracks. Philly, NYC, Wilmington, and Washington are on the main line but like Atlantic City, others would have to change tracks.

[Gravdigr]

February 8

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1693 – The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, is granted a charter by King William III and Queen Mary II.

1865 – Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Slavery was outlawed in the United States, including Delaware, when the Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 6, 1865. Delaware ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on February 12, 1901, which was the ninety-second anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.

1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

1915 – D. W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles.

1922 – United States President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio set in the White House.

1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.

1950 – The Stasi, the secret police of East Germany, is established.

1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.

1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

1973 - Max Yasgur died of a heart attack, aged 53. He was the owner of the dairy farm in Bethel, New York at which the Woodstock Music and Art Fair was held between August 15 - 18, 1969.

1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.

1983 – The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night.

1986 – Hinton train collision: Twenty-three people are killed when a VIA Rail passenger train collides with a 118-car Canadian National freight train near the town of Hinton, Alberta, west of Edmonton.

1990 - Suffering from depression, American singer/songwriter Del Shannon died of self inflicted gunshot wounds.

1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the lawsuit the next day.

1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.

2013 – A blizzard disrupts transportation and leaves hundreds of thousands of people without electricity in the Northeastern United States and parts of Canada.

Births

1700 – Daniel Bernoulli; 1820 – William Tecumseh Sherman; 1828 – Jules Verne; 1906 – Chester Carlson (invented Xerography); 1914 – Bill Finger (co-created Batman); 1921 – Lana Turner; 1922 – Audrey Meadows; 1925 – Jack Lemmon; 1930 – Alejandro Rey; 1931 – James Dean; 1932 – John Williams♪ ♫; 1940 – Ted Koppel; 1941 – Nick Nolte; 1941 – Tom Rush♪ ♫; 1942 – Robert Klein; 1942 – Terry Melcher♪ ♫(record producer, only child of Doris Day); 1944 – Roger Lloyd-Pack; 1948 – Dan Seals♪ ♫(England Dan & John Ford Coley, younger brother of Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts); 1949 – Brooke Adams; 1950 – Cristina Ferrare; 1953 – Mary Steenburgen; 1955 – John Grisham; 1955 – Jim 'The Anvil' Neidhart; 1960 – Stu Hamm; 1961 – Vince Neil♪ ♫(Motely Crue); 1968 – Gary Coleman ("Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?"); 1969 – Mary McCormack (In Plain Sight); 1974 – Seth Green

Deaths

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots; 1725 – Peter the Great; 1936 – Charles Curtis (31st VPOTUS); 1956 – Connie Mack; 1960 – Giles Gilbert Scott (designed the Red telephone box & Liverpool Cathedral); 1973 - Max Yasgur♪ ♫(owned the farm where Woodstock was held); 1990 – Del Shannon♪ ♫; 1994 – Raymond Scott♪ ♫; 1999 – Iris Murdoch; 2007 – Anna Nicole Smith

[Gravdigr]

February 11

World Day of the Sick, a feast day of the Roman Catholic Church, is observed on this date.

Today is Inventors' Day, in the U.S.


Events

660 BC – According to tradition, Emperor Jimmu founded Japan and established his capital in Yamato.

55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus, heir to the Roman emperorship, dies under mysterious circumstances in Rome, clearing the way for Nero to become Emperor.

1790 – The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitions U.S. Congress for the abolition of slavery.

1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public.

1808 – Jesse Fell burns anthracite on an open grate as an experiment in heating homes with coal.

1812 – Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry is accused of "gerrymandering" for the first time.

1840 – Gaetano Donizetti's opera La fille du régiment receives its first performance in Paris, France.

1843 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera I Lombardi alla prima crociata receives its first performance in Milan, Italy.

1858 – Bernadette Soubirous experiences her first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Lourdes, France.

1861 – American Civil War: The United States House of Representatives unanimously passes a resolution guaranteeing noninterference with slavery in any state.

1903 – Anton Bruckner's 9th Symphony receives its first performance in Vienna, Austria.

1937 – A sit-down strike ends when General Motors recognizes the United Auto Workers.

1938 – BBC Television produces the world's first ever science fiction television program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term "robot".

1939 – A Lockheed P-38 Lightning flies from California to New York in 7 hours 2 minutes.

1943 – World War II: General Dwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the allied armies in Europe.

1953 – U.S.President Dwight D. Eisenhower denies all appeals for clemency for Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

1971 – Eighty-seven countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union, sign the Seabed Arms Control Treaty outlawing nuclear weapons on the ocean floor in international waters.

1973 – Vietnam War: First release of American prisoners of war from Vietnam takes place.

1979 – The Iranian Revolution establishes an Islamic theocracy under the leadership of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

1981 – Around 100,000 US gallons (380 m3) of radioactive coolant leak into the containment building of TVA Sequoyah 1 nuclear power plant in Tennessee, contaminating eight workers.

1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.

1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing's World Heavyweight title, and cause the largest upset in sports history.

1992 - Mötley Crüe fired their singer Vince Neil when he turned up for rehearsals, claiming that he had lost his passion for the band and was now more involved with racing cars.

1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.

1998 - The hand-written lyrics to Elton John's hit 'Candle in the Wind' written by Bernie Taupin were auctioned off at Christie's in LA for £278,512.

2001 – A Dutch programmer launched the Anna Kournikova virus infecting millions of emails via a trick photo of the tennis star.

2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution culminates in the resignation of president Hosni Mubarak and the transfer of power to the Supreme Military Council after 18 days of protests.

2012 - Whitney Houston was found dead in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, submerged in the bathtub. Beverly Hills paramedics arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and found the singer unresponsive and performed CPR. Houston was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. Local police said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent." It was later ruled by the coroner to have been an "accidental drowning".

Births

1466 – Elizabeth of York; 1800 – Henry Fox Talbot; 1812 – Alexander H. Stephens (Vice President of the Confederate States of America); 1847 – Thomas Edison; 1909 – Max Baer; 1914 – Josh White♪ ♫; 1917 – Sidney Sheldon; 1919 – Eva Gabor; 1921 – Lloyd Bentsen ("Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."); 1925 – Virginia E. Johnson (Masters & Johnson); 1925 – Kim Stanley (the narrator of To Kill A Mockingbird, 'Pancho Barnes' in The Right Stuff); 1926 – Leslie Nielsen (The Naked Gun movies, Airplane! movies, Police Squad!); 1934 – Tina Louise ('Ginger' on Gilligan's Island); 1934 – Manuel Noriega; 1934 – John Surtees; 1935 – Gene Vincent; 1936 – Burt Reynolds; 1937 – Phillip Walker♪ ♫; 1939 – Gerry Goffin♪ ♫(co-wrote "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "The Loco-Motion", "Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)", "Saving All My Love for You", et al); 1941 – Sérgio Mendes; 1943 – Stan Szelest(The Band, Ronnie Hawkins, Lonnie Mack); 1953 – Jeb Bush; 1961 – Carey Lowell (Law & Order: Trial by Jury, Licence to Kill ); 1962 – Sheryl Crow♪ ♫; 1964 – Sarah Palin; 1964 – Ken Shamrock; 1969 – Jennifer Aniston; 1971 – Damian Lewis (Life, Homeland, Band of Brothers); 1974 – Isaiah Mustafa (The Man Your Man Could Smell Like); 1976 – Peter Hayes♪ ♫(Black Rebel Motorcycle Club); 1977 – Mike Shinoda♪ ♫(Linkin Park); 1979 – Brandy Norwood♪ ♫(Moesha); 1981 – Kelly Rowland♪ ♫(Destiny's Child); 1982 – Natalie Dormer(Game of Thrones, The Tudors); 1984 – Aubrey O'Day♪ ♫(Danity Kane)

Deaths

55 – Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus; 1503 – Elizabeth of York; 1650 – René Descartes; 1868 – Léon Foucault (Foucault pendulum); 1959 – Marshall Teague; 1963 – Sylvia Plath; 1976 – Lee J. Cobb; 1985 – Henry Hathaway; 1986 – Frank Herbert; 1994 – Neil Bonnett; 1994 – Sorrell Booke ('Boss Hogg' on The Dukes of Hazzard); 1994 – William Conrad; 2006 – Peter Benchley (author Jaws, The Deep, The Island); 2008 – Frank Piasecki (pioneered tandem rotor helicopter designs, a la Chinook); 2010 – Alexander McQueen (fashion designer); 2012 – Whitney Houston♪ ♫; 2013 – Rick Huxley(Dave Clark Five); 2015 – Bob Simon; 2015 – Jerry Tarkanian (NCAA basketball coach famous for chewing a towel on the sidelines)

[Gravdigr]

On the upside, Whitney just made five years clean and sober.

[xoxoxoBruce]

World Day of The Sick? Perfect for all the sick fuckers around here.

[Gravdigr]

February 12

The U.S. state of Georgia celebrates the arrival of the first colonists to the thirteenth of the original Thirteen Colonies with Georgia Day.

Today is Darwin Day, celebrating the birth date of Charles Darwin and his contributions to science.

Today, is a legal public holiday in the U.S. celebrating the birth date of Abraham Lincoln.

Also observed today is National Freedom to Marry Day, ion the U.S., promoting and bringing awareness to same sex marriage.

Our friends and neighbors in Canadia mark this day as Sexual and Reproductive Health Awareness Day.

And, finally, the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted this date as Red Hand Day, drawing attention to the fates of child soldiers in war and armed conflict.


Events

1502 – Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India.

1554 – A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason.

1593 – Japanese invasion of Korea: Approximately 3,000 Joseon defenders led by general Kwon Yul successfully repel more than 30,000 Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.

1733 – Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah (known as Georgia Day).

1855 – Michigan State University is established.

1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.

1915 – In Washington, D.C., the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial is put into place.

1924 – George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere in a concert titled "An Experiment in Modern Music", in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano.

1946 – World War II: Operation Deadlight ends after scuttling 121 of 154 captured German U-boats.

1947 – The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.

1963 – Construction begins on the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

1967 - 15 police officers raided Redlands, the West Sussex home of The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards during a weekend party. The police who were armed with a warrant issued under the dangerous drugs act took away various substances for forensic tests. George and Pattie Harrison had been at the house, but it was said that the police waited for them to leave before they raided the house in order not to bust the holder of an MBE.

1974 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union.

1977 - Pink Floyd released their tenth studio album Animals in the US, where it reached No.3 in the charts. The album's cover image, a pig floating between two chimneys on Battersea Power Station, was conceived by bassist Roger Waters and realised by long-time design and photographic collaborators Hipgnosis.

1989 - Aretha Franklin lost a court case against Broadway producer Ashton Springer, who sued for $1 million (£0.58 million) when Aretha failed to turn up for rehearsals for the stage show Sing Mahalia Sing, blaming her fear of flying on the non appearance.

1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.

1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch's iconic painting The Scream.

1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

2001 – NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touches down in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros, becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.

2003 - Former Doors drummer John Densmore took out legal action against The Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek and guitarist Robby Krieger for breach of contract, trademark infringement and unfair competition. The band had reformed with Ex- Cult singer Ian Astbury and former Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Densmore said "It shouldn't be called The Doors if it's someone other than Jim Morrison singing."

2004 – The city of San Francisco begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom.

2009 – Colgan Air Flight 3407 crashes into a house in Clarence Center, New York while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport, killing all on board and one on the ground.

2016 – Pope Francis met Patriarch Kirill at José Martí International Airport in Cuba, the first meeting between the pontiff of the Catholic Church and the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, together they signed the Havana Declaration.

Births

41 - Tiberius Claudius Caesar Britannicus; 1663 – Cotton Mather; 1775 – Louisa Adams (6th FLOTUS); 1809 – Charles Darwin; 1809 – Abraham Lincoln (16th POTUS); 1876 – 13th Dalai Lama; 1877 – Louis Renault (founded Renault automobiles); 1893 – Omar Bradley; 1904 – Ted Mack; 1915 – Lorne Greene; 1919 – Forrest Tucker; 1923 – Franco Zeffirelli; 1926 – Joe Garagiola, Sr.; 1926 – Charles Van Doren (quiz show cheater); 1928 – Vincent Montana, Jr.(MFSB); 1930 – Arlen Specter; 1936 – Joe Don Baker; 1938 – Judy Blume; 1939 – Ray Manzarek(The Doors); 1942 – Ehud Barak; 1944 – Moe Bandy♪ ♫; 1945 – Maud Adams; 1948 – Ray Kurzweil; 1950 – Steve Hackett(Genesis); 1950 – Michael Ironside (B-movies); 1952 – Simon MacCorkindale; 1952 – Michael McDonald(Steely Dan, Doobie Bros); 1953 – Joanna Kerns; 1956 – Arsenio Hall; 1956 – Brian Robertson(Thin Lizzy, Motorhead); 1966 – Paul Crook♪ ♫(Meat Loaf, Anthrax, Sebastian Bach); 1968 – Josh Brolin; 1968 – Chynna Phillips♪ ♫; 1969 – Darren Aronofsky; 1974 – 'Prince' Naseem Hamed; 1980 – Christina Ricci; 1984 – Brad Keselowski

Continued in next post

[Gravdigr]

Continued from previous post

Deaths

1554 – Lady Jane Grey; 1789 – Ethan Allen; 1804 – Immanuel Kant (he probably could, if he'd apply himself); 1929 – Lillie Langtry; 1942 – Grant Wood; 1971 – James Cash Penney (founded J.C. Penney dept store); 1976 – Sal Mineo; 1982 – Victor Jory; 1983 – Eubie Blake; 1985 – Nicholas Colasanto ('Coach' on Cheers); 1995 – Philip Taylor Kramer(Iron Butterfly); 2000 – Screamin' Jay Hawkins♪ ♫; 2000 – Tom Landry (must've been a sad for LumberJim); 2000 – Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts); 2008 – David Groh (Rhoda); 2011 – Betty Garrett (All In The Family, Laverne & Shirley); 2011 – Kenneth Mars (that guy who was in that thing); 2012 – David Kelly ('Granpa Joe,' in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Waking Ned Devine); 2014 – Sid Caesar; 2015 – Gary Owens

[Gravdigr]

February 13

Today is World Radio Day. Really? Ya want me, ME, to celebrate radio?! Nice try. Fuck you, radio.


Events

1322 – The central tower of Ely Cathedral collapses on the night of 12th–13th.

1542 – Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery.

1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.

1689 – William and Mary are proclaimed co-rulers of England.

1867 – Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards.

1880 – Thomas Edison observes the Edison effect.

1913 – The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.

1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

1935 – A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, the son of Charles Lindbergh.

1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment.

1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game.

1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons.

1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee.

1961 - Frank Sinatra launched his own record label, Reprise Records, in order to allow more artistic freedom for his own recordings. Hence, he garnered the nickname “The Chairman of the Board.” One of the label’s founding principles under Sinatra’s leadership was that each artist would have full creative freedom, and, at some point, complete ownership of their work.

1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug.

1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.

1970 - On this day, Friday the 13th, Black Sabbath released their debut self-titled studio album on Vertigo records in the UK. Peaking at No.8 on the charts, the album has been recognized as the first main album to be credited with the development of the heavy metal genre.

1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 1/2-mile-long section of the Hood Canal Bridge.

1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.

1982 - The marble slab was stolen from the grave of Lynyrd Skynyrd's singer Ronnie Van Zant, police found it two weeks later in a dried up river bed.

1983 – Two US Marshals are killed in a shootout with tax protester Gordon Kahl (<--Interesting read.) in Medina, North Dakota.

1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany.

2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".

2007 - Rod Stewart was paid $1,000,000 when he performed at a billionaire's birthday bash. Stewart was booked to play a half-hour gig to help Steve Schwarzman celebrate his 60th birthday held at New York's Park Avenue Armory.

2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations.

2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855.

Births

1885 – Bess Truman (35th FLOTUS); 1891 – Grant Wood; 1919 – Tennessee Ernie Ford♪ ♫; 1920 – Boudleaux Bryant♪ ♫(wrote "Rocky Top", Nazareth hit "Love Hurts", Everly Bros hits "All I Have to Do Is Dream", "Bye Bye Love" et al); 1923 – Chuck Yeager; 1932 – Susan Oliver; 1933 – Kim Novak; 1934 – George Segal; 1938 – Oliver Reed; 1941 – Bo Svenson; 1942 – Carol Lynley; 1942 – Peter Tork(The Monkees); 1943 - Bill Szymczyk♪ ♫; 1944 – Stockard Channing; 1944 – Jerry Springer ("Jerr-EE!, Jerr-EE!, Jerr-EE!"); 1947 – Stephen Hadley; 1947 – Mike 'Coach K' Krzyzewski; 1947 – Kevin Bloody Wilson♪ ♫; 1950 – Peter Gabriel♪ ♫(Genesis); 1951 – David Naughton (An American Werewolf In London, Dr. Pepper commercials); 1952 – Ed Gagliardi(Foreigner); 1955 – Scott Smith(Loverboy); 1956 – Peter Hook(Joy Division); 1957 – Tony Butler(Big Country); 1961 – Henry Rollins♪ ♫(Black Flag, Rollins Band); 1966 – Neal McDonough (Band Of Brothers, Desperate Housewives, Suits); 1974 – Robbie Williams♪ ♫; 1976 – Feist♪ ♫; 1979 – Mena Suvari (American Beauty, American Pie movies)

Deaths

1542 – Catherine Howard ("Hassaaaaan chop!"; 1728 – Cotton Mather; 1818 – George Rogers Clark; 1883 – Richard Wagner♪ ♫; 1976 – Lily Pons♪ ♫; 1996 – Martin Balsam; 2002 – Waylon 'Watasha' Jennings♪ ♫; 2014 – Ralph Waite (The Waltons, NCIS); 2016 – Antonin Scalia

[Gravdigr]

February 14

Today is Valentine's Day. So, smell a rose, eat a piece of chocolate, get some...As for me

IIIIIIIIIIIIII ain't got nobooooooody
Nobody cares for me
Nobody cares for me
IIIIIIIIIIIIII'm so sad and looooooonely
Sad and lonely, sad and lonely
Won't some sweet mama come and take a chance with me?
'Cause I ain't so bad

Today is also V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls.

Concurrently with Valentine's Day, Singles Awareness Day (SAD) is a made up thing observed today by sad, envious people no one wants to be around, who feel left out.


Events

1349 – Several hundred Jews are burned to death by mobs while the remaining Jews are forcibly removed from Strasbourg.

1400 – Richard II of England dies, most probably from starvation, in Pontefract Castle, on the orders of Henry Bolingbroke.

1778 – The United States flag is formally recognized by a foreign naval vessel for the first time, when French Admiral Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte renders a nine gun salute to USS Ranger, commanded by John Paul Jones.

1779 – James Cook is killed by Native Hawaiians near Kealakekua on the Island of Hawaii.

1849 – In New York City, James Knox Polk becomes the first serving President of the United States to have his photograph taken.

1855 – Texas is linked by telegraph to the rest of the United States, with the completion of a connection between New Orleans and Marshall, Texas.

1859 – Oregon is admitted as the 33rd U.S. state.

1899 – Voting machines are approved by the U.S. Congress for use in federal elections.

1900 – British forces begin the Battle of the Tugela Heights in an effort to lift the Siege of Ladysmith.

1912 – Arizona is admitted as the 48th U.S. state. It is the last state formed in the continental U.S.

1912 – The US Navy commissions its first class of diesel-powered submarines.

1924 – The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).

1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago.

1945 – World War II: On the first day of the bombing of Dresden, the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces begin fire-bombing Dresden. In 3 days of bombing, 722 RAF, and 527 USAAF heavy bombers drop 3900 tons of bombs and incendiary devices, destroying 1600 acres of central Dresden.
_______________________________________________

Apologies, but I will have to delay the rest of today's entry. Buddy has a minor emergency. Gravdigr to the rescue!

[xoxoxoBruce]

1929 – Saint Valentine's Day Massacre: Seven people, six of them gangster rivals of Al Capone's gang, are murdered in Chicago

But two guys got away, disguised themselves as women, and took a train to Florida.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

But two guys got away, disguised themselves as women, and took a train to Florida.

That's hot; I like it!

[Gravdigr]

Do try to keep up.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Do try to keep up.

you crack me up man.