This Day In History
- 1804 The Louisiana Purchase was divided into the Territory of Orleans and the District of Louisiana.
- 1827 Composer Ludwig van Beethoven died at age 56 in Vienna, Austria.
- 1875 Poet Robert Frost was born in San Francisco.
- 1885 The first commercial moving-picture film was produced in Rochester, NY. Eastman Kodak, the film and camera maker, still manufactures a huge variety of film from the same place. Eastman Kodak was ‘developed’ by George Eastman. What does the word Kodak stand for? Nothing. One of the most widely recognized trademarks in the world was named because it had a unique sound that started with the letter K, and could be pronounced and spelled in almost any language.
- 1892 Poet Walt Whitman died at age 72.
- 1911 Playwright Tennessee Williams was born in Columbus, Miss.
- 1936 The first telescope with a 200-inch-diameter, reflecting mirror was shipped -- very, very carefully -- from Corning, New York to Mt. Palomar Observatory in California.
- 1945 The battle of Iwo Jima ended; about 22,000 Japanese troops were killed or captured in the fighting and more than 4,500 U.S. troops were killed.
- 1953 Dr. Jonas Salk announced a new vaccine -- to prevent poliomyelitis.
- 1971 East Pakistan proclaimed its independence, taking the name Bangladesh.
- 1979 In a ceremony at the White House, President Sadat of Egypt and Prime Minister Begin of Israel signed a peace treaty ending 30 years of war between the two countries.
- 1982 Groundbreaking ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial took place in Washington, DC.
- 1992 A judge in Indianapolis sentenced former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson to six years in prison for raping a Miss Black America contestant.
- 1997 The bodies of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate techno-religious cult who'd committed suicide were found inside a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
- 1999 Dr. Jack Kevorkian was convicted of second-degree murder for giving a lethal injection to an ailing man whose death was shown on ''60 Minutes.''
- 2000 Vladimir Putin was elected Russia's second democratically chosen president.
- 2002 Arthur Andersen chief executive Joseph Berardino resigned, bowing to mounting pressure as a result of the accounting firm's role in the Enron scandal.
- 2003 Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., died at age 76.
- 1874 Robert Frost (four-time Pulitzer prize-winning poet: Birches, Mending Wall, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening; read The Gift Outright at inauguration of John F. Kennedy; died Jan 29, 1963)
- 1911 Tennessee (Thomas Lanier) Williams (Pulitzer prize-winning playwright: A Streetcar Named Desire [1948], Cat on a Hot Tin Roof [1955]; The Glass Menagerie, Night of the Iguana, Summer and Smoke, The Rose Tattoo, Camino Real, Sweet Bird of Youth, Small Craft Warnings; died Feb 24, 1983)
- 1914 William Westmoreland (U.S. Army General: head of U.S. forces in Vietnam)
- 1930 Sandra Day O’Connor (1st woman nominated and appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court [1981])
- 1931 Leonard Nimoy (actor: Star Trek; director: Three Men and a Baby)
- 1934 Alan Arkin (actor: Catch-22, The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming; director: Little Murders)
- 1943 Bob Woodward (investigative reporter: Washington Post: Watergate [w/reporter Carl Bernstein]; author: All the President’s Men [w/Carl Bernstein], The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court [w/Scott Armstrong], The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House)
- 1944 Diana Ross (Diane Earle) (singer: group: The Supremes: I Hear a Symphony, Come See About Me; solo: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Theme from ‘Mahogany’, Love Hangover, You Keep Me Hangin’ On; actress: Lady Sings the Blues, Mahogany, The Wiz)
- 1949 Vicki Lawrence (Emmy Award-winning actress: The Carol Burnett Show [1975-76]; Vicki!, Mama’s Family; singer: The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia)
- 1950 Martin Short (Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian: SCTV, The Show Formerly Known as the Martin Short Show; Saturday Night Live, The Three Amigos, Three Fugitives, Innerspace)
No comments:
Post a Comment