On This Day In history
Birthdates which occurred on February 15:
0037 Claudius Drusus Germanicus Caesar Nero emperor of Rome (54-68)
1368 Sigismund Nürnberg Germany, Holy Roman emperor (1410-37)
1483 Babur founder of Mughal dynasty in India (1526-30
1497 Philipp Melanchthon Germany, Protestant reformer
1519 Pedro Menéndez de Aviles explored Florida - founded St Augustine FL
1564 Galileo Galilei Pisa, Italy, astronomer/physicist
1705 Charles A Vanloo French painter
1710 Louis XV the Well-Beloved Versailles, King of France (1715-74)
1726 Abraham Clark farmer/lawyer, signed Declaration of Independence
1748 Jeremy Bentham London England, philosopher/originator (Utilitarian)
1795 Charles Niellon Belgian brigade general (10 day campaign)
1797 Henry Engelhard Steinway piano maker (Steinway)
1803 John Augustus Sutter Swiss/US colonist of California gold rush fame (New Helvetia CA, Sutter Mill)
1809 Cyrus Hall McCormick inventor (Mechanical reaper)
1819 Christopher Sholes Mooresburg PA, inventor (typewriter)
1835 Alexander Stuart Webb Major General (Union Army), died in 1911
1858 William Pickering Boston, astronomer (9th & 10th moons of Saturn)
1861 Alfred North Whitehead English mathematician/philosopher (Adventures of Ideas)
1874 Ernest H Shackleton Kilkee Ireland, explorer (Endurance, Antarctica)
1882 John Barrymore [Blythe], Philadelphia PA, actor (Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, The Tempest, Beloved Rogue)
1886 Sax Rohmer England, author (Dr Fu Manchu)
1892 James Forrestal US, banker/Secretary of Navy
1894 Oswaldo Aranha Brazil, lawyer/statesman (1st President of UN)
1907 Cesar Romero New York NY, actor (Joker-Batman, Ocean's 11, The Thin Man)
1911 Leonard Woodcock labor leader (UAW)
1914 Arthur Sydney Martin spy catcher
1914 Kevin McCarthy Seattle WA, actor (Invasion of Body Snatchers, Howling)
1922 Herman Kahn New Jersey, writer (Thinking About the Unthinkable)
1923 Yelena Bonner Moscow, soviet dissident/wife of Andre Sakharov
1927 Harvey Korman Chicago IL, actor (Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles)
1929 James Schlesinger US Secretary of Defense (1973-75)
1931 [Patricia] Claire Bloom London, actress (Charly, Look Back in Anger)
1934 Niklaus Wirth Switzerland, computer programmer/inventor (PASCAL)
1935 Roger B Chaffee Grand Rapids MI, Lieutenant Commander USN/astronaut
1935 Susan Brownmiller Brooklyn NY, feminist author (Against Our Wills)
1944 Aleksandr A Serebrov USSR, cosmonaut (Soyuz T-7, T-8, TM-8, TM-17)
1947 Rusty Hamer Tenafly NJ, actor (Rusty-Make Room for Daddy)
1951 Melissa Manchester Bronx NY, singer (Don't Cry Out Loud)
1951 Jane Seymour [Joyce Frankenberg], Middlesex England, actress (Dr Quinn, East of Eden, Lassiter)
1954 Matt Groening cartoonist (Life in Hell, Simpsons)
1964 Chris Farley actor (Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World, Coneheads)
1971 Renee O'Connor actress, (Xena Warrior Princess)
Deaths which occurred on February 15:
1145 Lucius II [Gherardo Caccianemici], Italian Pope (1144-45), dies
1152 Konrad III Roman-German King (1138-1152), dies at about 58
1503 Henry Deane Archbishop of Canterbury (1501-03), dies
1600 José the Acosta Spanish missionary (Peru), dies at 59
1637 Ferdinand II King of Bohemia/Hungary/German Emperor (1619-37), dies at 58
1820 William Ellery US attorney (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 92
1831 Henry Maudslay inventor (metal lathe), dies
1849 Pierre F Verhulst Belgian mathematician (logistic curve), dies at 44
1905 Lewis Wallace US diplomat/soldier/Gov. NM./writer (Ben Hur), dies at 77
1943 Thomas "Fats" Waller US jazz pianist (Hot Chocolate), dies at 38
1965 Nat King Cole singer (Unforgettable, Mona Lisa), dies at 45
1968 Little Walter rocker, dies at 37
1973 Wally Cox actor (Mr Peepers, Hollywood Squares), dies at 48
1975 Julian Huxley biologist, dies
1979 Mehdi Rahimi Iran General/military Governor of Tehran, executed
1981 Mike Bloomfield rocker (Paul Butterfield Blues Band), dies of drug overdose at 36
1984 Ethel Merman singer/actress (Kid Million), dies in her sleep at 76
1988 Neil R[onald] Jones science fiction writer (Space War, Twin Worlds), dies at 78
1995 Joseph Ortiz French-Algerian extremist/rebel, dies at 77
1996 McLean Stevenson actor (MASH, Hello Larry), dies at 66
1996 Tommy Rettig actor (Lassie)/computer programmer (Clipper), dies at 54
1998 Martha Gelhorn female war correspondents, dies at 89
2002 Howard K. Smith (87), war correspondent and news analyst (ABC co-anchor), died in Bethesda, Md.
Reported: MISSING in ACTION
1966 MAUTERER OSCAR---CHARLOTTESVILLE VA.
[EJECTED]
1968 CARPENTER JOE V.---MAYSVILLE KY.
[08/09/68 RELEASED HANOI, DECEASED OCT 82]
1968 WRITER LAWRENCE D.---OLYMPIA WA.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1969 NIEDECKEN WILLIAM CLINTON---CORPUS CHRISTI TX
1969 WALSH RICHARD A.---ST PAUL MN.
1971 CREAR WILLIS C.---BIRMINGHAM AL.
"EXPLODE, NO SURV OBS"]
1971 CRONE DONALD E.---WHITTIER CA.
["EXPLODE, NO SURV OBS"]
1971 FIVELSON BARRY F.---EVANSTON IL.
["EXPLODE, NO SURV OBS"]
1971 LEONARD MARVIN M.---GRAND RAPIDS MI.
["EXPLODED, NO SURV OBS"]
1971 POWERS JOHN L.---MAC KAY ID.
["EXPLODED, NO SURV OBS"]
1971 TAYLOR JAMES H.---OROVILLE CA.
["EXPLODED, NO SURV OBS"]
POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.
On this day...
399BC Philosopher Socrates sentenced to death
1145 Bernardo elected Pope Eugene III
1637 Ferdinand III succeeds Ferdinand II as Holy Roman Emperor
1689 German Parliament declares war on France
1764 St Louis founded as a French trading post by Pierre Laclade Ligue
1768 1st mustard manufactured in America advertised, Philadelphia
1799 1st US printed ballots authorized, Pennsylvania
1804 New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery
1842 1st adhesive postage stamps in US (private delivery company), New York NY
1851 Black abolitionists invade Boston courtroom rescuing a fugitive slave
1861 Ft Point completed & garrisoned (but has never fired cannon in anger)
1862 Grant's major assault on Ft Donelson TN
1869 Charges of Treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped
1870 Ground broken for Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth MN
1879 Congress authorizes women lawyers to practice before the Supreme Court
1895 23 cm (9") of snow falls on New Orleans
1898 USS Maine blows up in Havana harbor, cause unknown-258 sailors die
1903 1st Teddy Bear introduced in America, made by Morris & Rose Michtom
1906 British Labour Party organizes
1913 1st avant-garde art show in America opens in New York NY
1918 1st WWI US army troop ship torpedoed & sunk by Germany, off Ireland
1918 Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania adopt the Gregorian calendar
1919 American Legion organizes in Paris
1926 Contract air mail service begins in US
1931 1st Dracula movie released
1932 US bobsled team member Eddie Eagan becomes only athlete to win gold in both Summer & Winter Olympics (1920 boxing gold)
1932 George Burns & Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on "Guy Lombardo Show"
1933 President-elect Franklin Roosevelt survives assassination attempt
1933 Karl Radek praises invincible force of German communist party
1936 -60º, Parshall ND (state record)
1936 Sonja Henie, Norway, wins 3rd consecutive Olympics figure skating gold
1936 Hitler announces building of Volkswagens
1939 German battleship Bismarck was launched
1939 Lillian Hellman's "Little Foxes" premieres in New York NY
1941 Duke Ellington 1st records "Take the A Train"
1942 Singapore surrenders to the Japanese
1943 Women's camp Tamtui on Ambon (Moluccas) hit by allied air raid
1948 Mao Zedong's army occupies Yenan
1949 Dmitri Shostakovich's "Song of the Woods" premieres in Leningrad
1950 Walt Disney's "Cinderella" released
1954 1st bevatron in operation-Berkeley CA
1955 1st pilot plant to produce man-made diamonds announced
1956 Pirates & Kansas City A's cancel an exhibition game in Birmingham AL, because of local ordinance barring black from playing against white
1957 Andrei A Gromyko succeeds Dmitri Shepilov as Soviet foreign minister
1961 Entire US figure skating team of 18, dies in Belgian Sabena 707 crash
1964 Beatles' "Meet the Beatles!" album goes #1 & stays #1 for 11 weeks
1964 Bill Bradley scores 51 points for Princeton
1965 Canada replaces the Union Jack flag with the Maple Leaf
1967 1st anti-bootleg recording laws enacted
1967 Longest dream (REM sleep) on record, Bill Carskadon, Chicago (2:23)
1971 After 1200 years Britain abandons 12-shilling system for decimal
1973 Friendsville Academy (Tennessee) ends 138-game basketball losing streak
1978 Escaped mass murderer Ted Bundy recaptured, Pensacola FL
1978 Leon Spinks beats Muhammad Ali in 15 for world heavyweight crown
1979 Temple City Kazoo Orchestra appears on Mike Douglas Show
1981 Rocket-powered ice sled attains 399 kph, Lake George NY
1987 ABC-TV begins broadcasting "Amerika" mini-series
1989 Soviet military occupation of Afghánistán ends
1992 100th episode of "Cops" airs on the Fox Network
1992 Jeffrey Dahmer found sane & guilty of killing 15 boys
1995 Population of People's Republic of China hits 1.2 billion
1998 Daytona 500 race; Dale Earnhardt wins
2000 Fox airs “Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?”
2001 Hans-Joachim Klein, German terrorist, is sentenced to nine years in prison by a German court for killing three people in a 1975 attack on an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria.
2003 Millions of Moral Midgets, many of them marching in the capitals of America's allies, demonstrated to keep Saddam Hussein in power
2004 Iraqi police arrested No. 41 on the American military's most-wanted list, Baath Party official Mohammed Zimam Abdul-Razaq.
Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"
Massachusetts : Spanish-American War Memorial Day (1898)
US : Battleship Day, Remember the Maine (1898)
US : Presidents' Day (formerly Washington's Birthday)-legal holiday (Monday)
US : Pancake Week Begins
US : Condom Week (Day 2)
US : Visiting Nurse Week Begins
US : Susan B. Anthony Day (holiday in Florida and Minnesota)
US : Hug Day
Grapefruit Month
Religious Observances
Christian : Feast of St Georgia (St Georgette)
Orthodox : Meeting of the Lord/Purification of the Virgin
Roman Catholic : Commemoration of Sts Faustinus & Jovita, martyrs
Anglican : Commemoration of Thomas Bray, priest/missionary
Religious History
1386 King Jagiello of Lithuania was baptized into the Christian faith. Lithuania being the last heathen nation in Europe, Jagiello's conversion finalized the Macedonian Vision in Acts 16:9, leading St. Paul to begin taking the Gospel to Europe.
1762 Anglican hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'We serve a gracious Master who knows how to overrule even our mistakes to His glory and our own advantage.'
1860 Wheaton College was chartered in Illinois under Methodist sponsorship. (The following year the school passed into Congregational control. Today, Wheaton is non-denominational.)
1930 Death of Franklin L. Sheppard, 78. He served on the editorial committee of the 1911 edition of the Presbyterian Hymnal, but is better remembered for composing the hymn tune TERRA BEATA, to which "This Is My Father's World" is most commonly sung.
1986 Living Bibles International moved to its present headquarters in Naperville, IL. Founded in 1968 by Ken Taylor, editor of the Living Bible, LBI is an interdenominational Bible distributing agency, working in 45 countries.
Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.
Thought for the day :
"Chili represents your three stages of matter: solid, liquid, and eventually gas."
