On This Day in History
Born On This Day:
1490: Karel van Bourbon, military man/mayor (Lombardije) 1519: François Guise, (Balafré), French general strategist 1653: Arcangelo Corelli, Fusignano Italy, violinist/composer (Concerto grossi)
1723: Tobias Mayer, “method of lunars” for longitude determination
1781: René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laënnec, inventor (stethoscope)
1804: Samuel Read Anderson, Brig General (Confederate Army), died in 1883
1824: William Farrar Baldy Smith, Mjr Gen (Union volunteers), died in 1903
1837: Francis Jay Herron, Major General (Union volunteers), died in 1902
1844: A Montgomery Ward, founded the mail-order business
1854: Friedrich A Krupp, German arms manufacturer
1867: William Cadbury, England, chocolate manufacturer
1874: Thomas J Watson Sr., U.S. representative/founder (IBM)
1888: Otto Stern, physicist (Nobel 1943)
1889: H.L. (Haroldson L) Hunt, Texas oil multi-millionaire 1902: Marian Anderson, Philadelphia, operatic contralto/banned by D.A.R.
1908: “Red” (Walter L) Barber, Mississippi, sports announcer (Brooklyn Dodgers, NY Yankees)
1914: Arthur Kennedy, Worcester Mass, actor (Fantastic Voyage, Peyton Place)
1924: Margaret Truman, Missouri, U.S. president's daughter/writer/pianist (Murder at the FBI)
1925: Hal Holbrook, Cleveland, actor (All the President's Men, Mark Twain)
1929: Chaim Potok, novelist (The Promise)
1929: Yasser Arafat, PLO-leader/murder
1933: Bobby Lewis, rocker (Tossin' & Turnin')
1934: Barry Humphries, Australia TV host (Dame Edna Everage)
1936: Jim Brown, Georgia, NFL fullback (Cleveland Browns)/actor (Dirty Dozen)
1939: Mary Ann Mobley, Biloxi Ms, Miss America-1959/actor (Diff'rent Strokes)
1941: Gene Pitney, singer/songwriter (Town Without Pity) 1942: Huey Newton, Black Panther leader
1962: Lou Diamond Phillips, actor (La Bamba, Stand & Deliver)
1963: Michael (“Air”) Jordan, Brooklyn NY, best-ever NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls/Olympic-gold-92)
Deaths which occurred on February 17:
0364 Flavius Jovianus Christian emperor of Rome (363-64), dies at about 32
0956 Hugo the Great earl of Paris/duke of Francia, dies at about 55
1600 Giordano Bruno advocate of Copernican theory & plurality of worlds, burned at stake by the Inquisition in Rome
1688 Reverend James Renwick hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian
1815 Franz Gotz composer, dies at 59
1878 José Amador de los Ríos Spanish historian/poet, dies at 59
1905 Serge Alexandrovich Governor-General Moscow, murdered
1907 Henry Steel Olcott US co-founder (Theosophist Society-Madras), dies at 74
1908 Geronimo Apache chief, dies at about 79
1959 Tim Mara co-founder of NFL's New York Giants, dies
1962 Bruno Walter symphony conductor (New York Philharmonic), dies at 85
1977 Quincy Howe newscaster (CBS Weekend News), dies at 76
1980 Jerry Fielding orchestra leader (Bewitched, Hogan's Heroes, Lively Ones), dies at 57
1980 Graham Sutherland painter, dies
1982 Lee [Israel] Strasberg father of method acting/actor (And Justice for All), dies of a heart attack at 80
1982 Theolonious S Monk US, jazz pianist/composer (Blue Monk), dies at 64
1989 Lefty Gomez New York Yankee pitching great, dies at 80
1991 Enrique Bermudez commandant (Contra), dies
1993 Alfredo de Leon leader (Philippines Red Scorpio Gang), killed
1994 Randy Shilts US journalist (And the band played on), dies of AIDs at 41
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1967 SOOTER DAVID W.---VALLEJO CA.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY DRV, DECEASED
1968 ASHBY CLAYBORN W. JR.---LOUISVILLE KY.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 COONS CHESTER L.---BISMARK ND.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 DAWSON FRANK A.---FAIRFIELD CA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 DONATO PAUL N.---BOSTON MA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 HAYDEN GLENN M.---LONG BEACH CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01 DEC 93]
1968 KRAVITZ JAMES S.---RIVERSIDE CA.
[REMAINS IDENTIFIED 01 DEC 93]
1968 MARTIN JAMES E.---SALT LAKE CITY UT.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 THURMAN CURTIS F.---ST JAMES MO.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1968 WONN JAMES C.---PITTSBURGH PA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 1993]
1972 CUTTER JAMES D.---FORT KNOX KY.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 96]
1972 FRASER KENNETH J.---BROOKLYN NY.
[03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1972 HAWLEY EDWIN A. JR.---BIRMINGHAM AL.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED]
1972 IRWIN ROBERT H.---PEEKSKILL NY.
["DEAD, CREWMAN SAID IN HANOI" " REMAINS RETURNED 7/31/89, ID 11/08/89"]
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
1568 The Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II agrees to pay an annual tribute to the Sultan Selim II for peace
1772 The first partition of Poland-Russia & Prussia (joined later by Austria)
1776 The first volume is published of Gibbon's “Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire”
1791 Messier catalogs galaxy M83 (spiral galaxy in Hydra)
1795 Thomas Seddal harvests an 8.3-kg potato from his garden in Chester England
1801 The U.S House of Representatives breaks the electoral college tie, choosing Thomas Jefferson to be president over Aaron Burr
1817 Baltimore becomes the first U.S. city to be lit by gas lighting (by the first U.S. gas company, the Gas Light Company of Baltimore)
1854 Britain recognize the independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
1864 The Confederate vessel, CSS HL Hunley, becomes the first submarine to sink an enemy ship
1865 Columbia South Carolina burns down as the Confederates evacuate and Union forces move in during the Civil War
1867 The first ship passes through the Suez Canal
1870 Mississippi becomes the 9th state to be readmitted to the U.S. after the Civil War
1872 “Harper's Weekly” features a cartoon about the Free Love movement
1876 Sardines are first canned (in Eastport Maine)
1878 The first telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
1897 The National Congress of Parents & Teachers organizes (Washington DC)
1904 Giacomo Puccini's opera “Madama Butterfly” premieres at La Scala (and is poorly received)
1905 Frances Willard becomes the first woman honored in National Statuary Hall
1911 The first hydroplane flight is made to & from a ship (by Glenn Curtiss - San Diego)
1913 The first minimum wage law in the U.S. takes effect (in Oregon)
1913 The New York Armory Art Show displays the first U.S. showing of “Modern Art”, introducing Picasso, Matisse, Duchamp and other artists to the public
1915 Edward Stone, the first U.S. combatant to die in WW I, is mortally wounded
1933 “Newsweek” magazine is first published
1934 The first high school auto driving course is offered (at State College in Pennsylvania)
1936 “The Phantom” cartoon strip, by Lee Falk, debuts
1942 The first red wing blackbird is sighted at Block Island (Rhode Island)
1944 The Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins (U.S. victory on Feb 22nd)
1947 The Voice of America begins broadcasting to the USSR
1949 Chaim Weitzman is elected as the first president of Israel
1957 The Suez Canal reopens
1958 The syndicated comic strip “B.C.” is first published (ZOT!)
1959 The first weather satellite is launched (Vanguard 2 weighing 9.8 kg)
1964 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Westberry v. Sanders that congressional districts must have equal populations
1966 The French satellite Diapason D-1A is launched into Earth orbit
1967 The Beatles release “Penny Lane” & “Strawberry Fields”
1967 Kosmos 140 launches into Earth orbit in a test of the Soyuz program
1968 The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame opens in Springfield Massachusetts
1970 Jeffrey McDonald murders his wife and daughter
1971 The first municipal veterinary hospital is opened by W.E. Ziegler (Los Angeles)
1972 President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China
1979 China invades Vietnam
1980 Buddy Baker wins the Daytona 500 (177.6 MPH/285.8 kph)
1981 Chrysler Corporation reports the largest corporate losses in U.S. history
1986 The first Francophone Summit convenes at Versailles
(First order of business..find someone to surrender to)
1986 Johnson & Johnson announces it will no longer sell encapsulated pharmaceuticals
1987 Don Mattingly wins the highest salary arbitration of the time ($1,975,000 per year)
1989 Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya form a common market
1989 A six-week study of the Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone “hole”
1990 Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan gives videotaped testimony for a 2nd day about the Iran-Contra affair in the trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter
1991 Iraq Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz travels to Moscow to discuss possible negotiated end to the U.S.-led air war, and impending ground war, to free Kuwait and contain Iraq
1992 Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer is sentenced in Milwaukee Wisconsin to life in prison (he is beaten to death in prison in 1994)
1993 A Haitian ferry boat capsizes in a storm, killing more than 1,000 people
1995 Colin Ferguson is convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings
1995 A Federal judge rules a lawsuit is allowable that claims U.S. tobacco makers knew nicotine was addictive & manipulated its levels in cigarettes to keep customers addicted
1996 World chess champion Garry Kasparov beats IBM supercomputer “Deep Blue,” in a six-game match (Philadelphia)
1998 Larry Wayne Harris and Bill Levitt are arrested for possession of anthrax
2002 In Saudi Arabia a man was sentenced to 6 years in prison and 4,750 lashes for having sex with his wife’s sister. The woman, who did not consent, was sentenced to 6 months and 65 lashes.
2003 European Union leaders declared their solidarity with the United States, warning Saddam Hussein that Iraq faced one "last chance" to disarm peacefully but calling war a last resort.
2004 Gambian president announced the discovery of "large quantities" of oil in his tiny West African nation, saying the offshore find would eliminate poverty and hunger
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Sri Lanka : Maha Shivaratree
US : Pancake Week (Day 3)/Pancake Tuesday
US : Kraut and Frankfurter Week (Day 5)
US : Champion Crab Races Day
Community College Month
Religious Observances
Ancient Rome : Quirinalia-Feast of Quirinus (a d xiij Kal Mar)
Christian : Feast of St Silvinus
Christian : Commemoration of Flight into Egypt
Roman Catholic : Memorial of 7 Holy Founders of the Servite Order (opt)
Religious History
1741 English revivalist George Whitefield advised in a letter: 'Be content with no degree of sanctification. Be always crying out, "Lord, let me know more of myself and of thee."'
1815 In deciding the legal case "Terrett v. Taylor," the U.S. Supreme Court declared unconstitutional an act of the Virginia Legislature which denied property rights to Protestant Episcopal churches in the state. The Court ruled that religious corporations, like other corporations, have rights to their property.
1816 Birth of Edward Hopper, American Presbyterian clergyman. He is remembered today as author of the hymn, "Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me."
1889 Billy Sunday, 27, baseball player-turned-preacher, made his first appearance as an evangelist in Chicago. A strong fundamentalist, Sunday preached temperance and opposed scientific evolution. Over 100 million are estimated to have heard Sunday preach before his death in 1935.
1969 Russian-born, Milwaukee-raised Golda Meir (n‚e Mabovitch [Myerson]), 70, was sworn in as Israel's first female prime minister. (She would hold the office for five embattled years.)
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page."
