On This Day In History
Birthdates which occurred on February 08:
412 St Proclus patriarch of Constantinople
1291 Afonso IV King of Portugal (1325-57)
1612 Samuel Butler England, poet/satirist (Hudibras) (baptized)
1795 Friedlieb F Runge German chemist (Chinoline)
1811 Edwin Denison Morgan Secretary of War (Confederacy), dies in 1883
1817 Richard Stoddert Ewell Lieutenant General (Confederate Army), dies in 1872
1820 William Tecumseh Sherman Major General (Union Army), dies in 1891 (War is hell)
1824 Barnard Elliot Bee Brigadier General (Confederate Army), died in 1861
1828 Jules Verne France, pioneered sci-fi (From the Earth to the Moon)
1878 Martin Buber German/Israeli philosopher/theologist (Ich und Du)
1883 Joseph A Schumpeter Austria/US economist/minister of finance
1886 Charlie Ruggles Los Angeles CA, actor (The Ruggles, Aesop-Bullwinkle Show)
1895 King Vidor director (War & Peace, Stella Dallas)
1913 Betty Field Boston MA, actress (Kings Row, Bus Stop)
1913 John Grandy British Royal Air Force-marshal
1920 Lana Turner Wallace ID, actress (Survivors, Falcon Crest)
1924 Audrey Meadows Wu Chang China, actress (Alice-Honeymooners)
1925 Jack Lemmon Boston MA, actor (Days of Wine & Roses, Missing)
1926 Neal Cassaday, writer, beatnik, was born.
1931 James Dean Marion IN, stage/film actor (Giant, Rebel Without a Cause)
1933 Jack Larson Los Angeles CA, actor (Jimmy Olsen-Superman)
1940 Nick Nolte Omaha NB, actor (Under Fire, Lorenzo's Oil, Teachers, 48 Hours, North Dallas 40)
1944 Jim Capaldi rocker (Traffic)
1952 Nancy Lord Libertarian Vice-President candidate (1992)
1955 Ethan Phillips actor (Neelix-Star Trek Voyager)
1955 Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart wrestler (WWF/WCW/NJPW/CWFI/Calgary)
1955 John Grisham writer (Client, Firm, Pelican Brief)
1958 Barry Miller New York NY, actor (Joe & Sons, Szysznyk)
1960 Dino Ciccarelli Ontario, NHL right wing (Minnesota North Stars, Washington Capitals)
Deaths which occurred on February 08:
1124 Stefanus of Thiers/Muret founder of order of Grammond/saint, dies
1245 Johannes de Rupella/de la Rochelle French theologist, dies
1587 Mary Stuart Queen of Scots (1560-87), beheaded at 44
1676 Aleksei M Romanov Czar of Russia, dies at 46
1725 Peter I "the Great" Romanov czar of Russia (1682-1725), dies at 52
1740 Clement XII [Lorenzo Corsini], blind Pope (1730-40), dies at 87
1874 David F Strauss German theologist, dies at 66
1924 Gee John US mobster (1st executed in gas chamber-Nevada), dies
1932 Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll mobster, killed by Dutch Schultz gang
1956 Connie Mack baseball manager (Philadelphia A's, 1901-50), dies at 93
1957 John Von Neumann astronomer, dies at 53
1959 William J "Wild Bill" Donovan Office Strategic Services, dies at 76
1963 Abdul Karim Kassem PM of Iraq (58-63), assassinated in Baghdad at 48
1974 Fritz Zwicky Swiss/US astronomer (supernova), dies at 75
1987 Harriet MacGibbon actress (Mrs Drysdale-Beverly Hillbillies), dies
1990 Del Shannon Coopersville MI, rock vocalist (Runaway), shoots self at 55
1995 B G Hooghoudt radio-telescope builder (Dwingeloo/Westerbork), dies at 70
1995 William Fulbright, US politician, dies
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1968 CHENOWETH ROBERT P.---PORTLAND OR.
[03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE AND WELL IN 1997]
1968 GEORGE JAMES E.---FORT WORTH TX.
1968 HAMMOND DENNIS W.---DETROIT MI.
1968 LENKER MICHAEL R.---ROCKFORD IL
[03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 LAPHAM ROBERT G.--- MARSHALL MI.
1968 PURCELL BENJAMIN H.---COLUMBUS GA.
[03/27/73 RELEASED BY PRG, (AUTHOR LOVE AND DUTY)ALIVE AND WELL 98
1968 ROSE JOSEPH III---MORGANTOWN WV.
[03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1968 ZAWTOCKI JOSEPH S. JR.---UTICA NY.
[REMAINS RETURNED 08/14/85]
1968 ZIEGLER ROY E.
[03/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 98]
1969 CLARK THOMAS E.---EMPORIUM PA.
1969 FRITZ JOHN J. JR.---WILLIAMSTOWN NJ.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED]
1969 KALIL TANOS E.
[06/69 DIC ON PRG LIST]
1969 MAC PHAIL DON A.---CHELMSFORD MA.
[03/16/73 RELEASED BY PRG, ALIVE IN 1998]
1969 NEWINGHAM JAMES A.
[02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG]
1969 WILKINS CALVIN WAYNE---WACO TX.
1971 STEWART PAUL C.---BEUENA PARK CA.
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
0421 Flavius Constantine becomes emperor Constantine III of West Roman empire
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots beheaded
1600 Vatican sentenced scholar Giordano Bruno to death.
1601 Earl Robert Devereux of Essex armies draws into London
1622 King James I disbands the English parliament
1672 Isaac Newton reads 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London
1690 French & Indian troops set Schenectady settlement New York on fire
1743 Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1744 French/Spanish fleet leaves Toulon
1775 Leidse University 400th anniversary dinner
1802 Simon Willard patents banjo clock
1807 Napoleon defeats Russians in battle of Eylau
1809 Franz I of Austria declares war on France
1837 1st Vice President chosen by the Senate, Richard Johnson (Van Buren administration)
1861 Confederate States of America organizes in Montgomery AL
1862 Battle of Roanoke Island NC, Federals gain control of Pamlico Sound
1865 1st black major in US army, Martin Robinson Delany
1883 Louis Waterman begins experiments to invent the fountain pen
1887 Dawes Act passed (Indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship)
1887 Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing MN became the 1st US ski club
1894 Enforcement Act repealed, making it easier to disenfranchise blacks
1895 Tchaikovsky/Petipa's "Swan Lake" premieres in Petersburg
1896 Western Conference forms of Midwestern U, later renamed Big 10 Conference
1898 John Ames Sherman patents 1st envelope folding & gumming machine (Massachusetts)
1904 Outbreak of hostilities in Russo-Japanese war
1905 Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people
1910 Boy Scouts of America incorporated & chartered (William D Boyce-Chicago)
1911 US helps overthrow President Miguel Dávila of Honduras
1912 1st eastbound US transcontinental flight lands in Jacksonville FL
1915 "Birth of a Nation" opens at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles CA
1918 "Stars & Stripes", weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published
1920 Swiss men vote against women's suffrage
1922 Radio arrives in the White House
1923 Coal mine explosion at Dawson NM kills 120
1924 1st coast-to-coast radio hookup General John Joseph Carty speech in Chicago
1925 Marcus Garvey enters federal prison in Atlanta GA
1926 Walt Disney Studios is formed
1926 German Reichstag decides to apply for League of Nations membership
1928 1st transatlantic TV image received, Hartsdale NY
1928 Scottish inventor J Blaird demonstrates color-TV
1930 "Happy Days Are Here Again" by Benny Mereoff hits #1
1933 -23ºF, Seminole TX (state record)
1933 1st flight of all-metal Boeing 247
1934 Export-Import Bank organizes in Washington DC
1936 1st ski jumping tournament, Red Wing MN
1936 Pandit Jawaharlal follows Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party
1942 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort
1943 British General Wingate leads a guerrilla force of "Chindits" against the Japanese in Burma.
1943 Red Army recaptures Kursk
1944 1st black reporter accredited to the White House, Harry McAlpin
1946 Premier Salazar of Portugal forbids opposition parties
1948 5th Winter Olympics games close at St Moritz, Switzerland
1949 Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty sentenced to life in prison
1955 Malenkov resigns as USSR premier, Bulganin replaces him
1960 Boston Celtic Bill Russell becomes 1st NBAer with 50 rebounds (51)
1963 AFL's Dallas Texans become Kansas City Chiefs
1963 Iraqi the Baath Party take power. Right-wing Baathists succeede in mounting a coup and executed PM Gen. Abdel Karim Qassim. Abdul Salam Arif came to power.
1965 Supremes release "Stop In the Name of Love"
1968 Officers kill 3 students demonstrating in South Carolina State (Orangeburg)
1969 Meteorite weighing over 1 ton falls in Chihuahua, México
1969 Last edition of Saturday Evening Post
1971 Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in New York, to become WWF wrestling champion
1971 South Vietnamese troops invade Laos
1973 Senate names 7 members to investigate Watergate scandal
1974 "Good Times" debuts on CBS TV
1975 1800 Unification church couples' wed in Korea
1977 Earthquake in San Francisco CA, at 5.0, strongest since 1966
1978 Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes PM of Kuwait
1983 Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance
1983 Eric Peters sets transatlantic sailboat record (E-W)-46 days
1983 Baseball orders Mickey Mantle to sever ties with Claridge Casino
1985 Bruce Morris, Marshall University, makes a 92' 5¼" basketball shot
1985 Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung returns to South-Korea
1986 5' 7" Spud Webb of Atlanta Hawks wins NBA Slam Dunk Competition
1989 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles
1990 "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine
1992 Ulysses spacecraft passes Jupiter
1993 GM sues NBC, alleging that "Dateline NBC" program had rigged 2 car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM pickups were prone to fires
1999 The Senate heard closing arguments at President Clinton's impeachment trial, with House prosecutors challenging senators to "cleanse the office" and the president's attorney dismissing the case as one of partisan retribution.
2000 Net hackers shut down at least 4 popular Web sites including Amazon.com, eBay, CNN.com and buy.com with "denial of service attacks."
2001 President Bush sent his proposed $1.6 trillion, 10-year tax cut plan to Congress
2002 Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, Taliban foreign minister, surrendered in Kandahar and was turned over to US military.
2004 Swiss voters approved a measure to put into effect some of Europe's harshest laws on violent criminals and pedophiles
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Iraq : Ramadan Revolution
Norway : Narvik Sun Pageant Day
World : Boy Scouts Day (1910)
US : New Idea Week Begins
US : Future Homemakers of America Hero Week Begins
Great American Pies Month
Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of Bl Jacoba (Bl Jacqueline)
Methodist : Race Relations Sunday (2nd Sunday in February)
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of St John of Matha, confessor/ransomer of captives
Roman Catholic : Memorial of St Jerome Emiliani (opt)
Religious History
1693 The College of William and Mary was founded in Williamsburg, Virginia for the purpose of educating Anglican clergyman. After Harvard, it is the second oldest institution of higher learning in America.
1744 Colonial missionary to the American Indians, David Brainerd wrote in his journal: 'I find that both mind and body are quickly tired with intenseness and fervor in the things of God. Oh that I could be as incessant as angels in devotion and spiritual fervor.'
1851 Death of Alexander Haldane, 83. In 1797 he founded the Society for Propagating the Gospel at Home, after discovering that the Church of Scotland was as little interested in home missions as it was in foreign missions.
1865 Birth of Lewis E. Jones, American YMCA director. Jones was also a writer of hymns, and his most enduring contribution (which he both wrote and composed) was "Power in the Blood."
1950 American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'Sin in a Christian makes God seem distant, deaf. In the body, sin saps animation, as cancer. In the soul, sin stifles the affections; as corrosion in the spirit, sin solidifies the attitudes, as a callous.'
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Every happening, great and small, is a parable whereby God speaks to us, and the art of life is to get the message."
