Today in History
February 8 - Today in History
By Staff
Feb 8, 2011 - 12:00:00 AM

0421 -  Flavius Constantine becomes emperor Constantine III of West Roman Empire
1526 - Heavy storm strikes Dutch coast, many die
1587 - Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots (1560-87), beheaded at 44 [NS=Feb 18]
1600 - Vatican convicts 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
1690 - Lord Halifax resigns as Lord Privy Seal
1693 - William & Mary college is 2nd college chartered in US
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
1743 - Comet C/1743 C1 approaches within 0.0390 AUs of Earth
1744 - French/Spanish fleet leaves Toulon
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 VP chosen by Senate, Richard Johnson (Van Buren admin)
1861 - Confederate States of America organizes in Montgomery, Alabama
1862 - Battle of Roanoke Island North Carolina, Federals gain control of Pamlico Sound
1865 - 1st black major in US army, Martin Robinson Delany
1883 - Louis Waterman begins experiments to invents fountain pen
1887 - Aurora Ski Club of Red Wing, Minnesota became the 1st US ski club
1887 - Dawes Act passed (indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship)
1889 - Flood ravages Dutch coast
1894 - Enforcement Act repealed, making it easier to disenfranchise blacks
1896 - Western Conference forms of Midwestern University, later renamed Big 10 Conference
1898 - John Ames Sherman patents 1st envelope folding & gumming mach (Massachusetts)
1904 - Russo-Japanese War begins
1905 - Cyclone hit Tahiti & adjacent islands, killing some 10,000 people
1909 - France & Germany sign treaty about Morocco
1910 - Boy Scouts of America incorporated & chartered (William D Boyce-Chic)
1911 - US helps overthrow President Miguel Devila of Honduras
1912 - 1st eastbound US transcontinental flight lands in Jacksonville, Florida
1914 - General Zamon becomes president of Haiti
1916 - French cruiser "Admiral Charner" torpedoed off Syrian coast, kills 374
1916 - NL votes down Charlie Ebbets proposal to limit 25� seats
1918 - "Stars & Stripes," weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published
1920 - Swiss men vote against women's suffrage
1922 - Radio arrives at the White House
1923 - Coal mine explosion at Dawson, New Mexico kills 120
1923 - German NSDAP Volkischer Beobachter newspaper becomes a daily
1924 - 1st coast-to-coast radio hookup: General John Joseph Carty speech in Chicago
1925 - Marcus Garvey enters federal prison in Atlanta
1926 - German Reichstag decides to apply for League of Nations membership
1926 - Walt Disney Studios forms
1927 - Belgian-Swiss treaty signed
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
1931 - Gas explosion Fire in Fushun-coal mine, Manchuria kills 3,000
1933 - 1st flight of all-metal Boeing 247
1934 - Export-Import Bank organizes in Washington, DC
1934 - Gaston Doumergue forms new French government
1935 - 1st NFL draft; Jay Berwanger of U Chicago is 1st pick (by Eagles) He never plays in NFL
1936 - 1st NFL draft, Eagles select Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger
1936 - 1st ski jumping tournament, Red Wing, Minnesota
1936 - 1st successful Toronto Maple Leaf penalty shot, Conacher vs Rangers
1936 - Pandit Jawaharlal follows Gandhi as chairman of India Congress Party
1940 - Lodtz, 1st large ghetto established by Nazis in Poland
1941 - Japanese armored barges cross Strait of Johore to attack Singapore
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 - Red Army recaptures Kursk
1944 - 1st black reporter accredited to White House, Harry McAlpin
1944 - U-762 sunk off Ireland
1945 - Allied air attack on Goch/Kleef/Kalkar/Reichswald
1946 - Premier Salazar of Portugal forbids opposition parties
1947 - Jan van der Hoorn wins 8th Dutch 11-cities skating race (10:51)
1948 - 5th Winter Olympic games close at St Moritz, Switzerland
1949 - Hungarian Cardinal Mindszenty sentenced to life in prison
1952 - "RCA Victor Show Starring Dennis Day," debuts on NBC TV
1953 - Betty Jameson wins LPGA Serbin Golf Open
1955 - Malenkov resigns as USSR premier, Bulganin replaces him
1956 - Mine disaster in Quaregnon Belgium, 8 die
1957 - SF Public Library's bookmobile initiated in front of City Hall
1958 - Edgar Whitehead succeeds Garfield Todd as premier of South Rhodesia
1958 - French planes bomb Sakiet Tunisia, 75 die
1960 - Boston Celtic Bill Russell becomes 1st NBAer with 50 rebounds (51)
1960 - Congress opens hearings looking into payola
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - 1st transmission of Clandestine Voice of Iraqi People (Communist)
1963 - AFL's Dallas Texans become KC Chiefs
1963 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1964 - Rep Martha Griffiths address gets civil rights protection for women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act
1965 - Eastern DC-7B crashes into Atlantic off Jones Beach NJ, kills 84
1965 - Supremes release "Stop In the Name of Love"
1967 - Longest losing streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history (10 games)
1967 - Peter (Asher) & Gordon (Waller) discontinue their singing partnership
1967 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1968 - Officers kill 3 students demonstrating in SC State (Orangeburg)
1969 - Last edition of Saturday Evening Post
1969 - Meteorite weighing over 1 ton falls in Chihuahua, M�xico
1971 - Pedro Morales beats Ivan Koloff in NY, to become WWF wrestling champ
1971 - South Vietnamese troops invade Laos
1972 - Josh Gibson & Buck Leonard selected to Hall of Fame
1973 - Senate names 7 members to investigate Watergate scandal
1974 - "Good Times," debuts on CBS TV
1974 - Ringo releases "You're 16"
1974 - Skylab 4's astronauts land
1974 - Soap opera "Secret Storm" ends a 20 year run
1975 - 1800 Unification church couples' wed in Korea
1975 - Caps only got one shot in a period against Islanders
1976 - Hua Guofeng becomes premier of China PR
1976 - Jan Stephens wins LPGA Sarah Coventry Naples Golf Classic
1976 - Largest crowd at Cleveland Coliseum (Cavs vs Wash-21,130)
1977 - Earthquake in SF, at 5.0, strongest since 1966
1977 - Hustler publisher Larry Flynt sentenced due to
1978 - Crown Prince Sad Abdallah al-Salim Al Sabah becomes PM of Kuwait
1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1981 - Sally Little wins LPGA Elizabeth Arden Golf Classic
1981 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Elaine Zayak
1981 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Scott Hamilton
1982 - Dodgers trade Davey Lopes to A's breaking up the longest-playing infield (Cey-Russell-Lopes-Garvey)
1983 - 35th NHL All-Star Game: Campbell beat Wales 9-3 at NY Islander
1983 - Baseball orders Mickey Mantle to sever ties with Claridge Casino
1983 - Eric Peters sets transatlantic sailboat record (E-W)-46 days
1983 - Wayne Gretzky sets NHL all star record of 4 goals in 1 period
1983 - Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance
1984 - 14th Winter Olympic games opens in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia
1984 - 1st time 8 people in space
1984 - A's take Yankees pitcher Tim Belcher as Type A free agent compensation
1984 - Soyuz T-10 launches with crew of 3 to Salyut 7
1985 - Bruce Morris, Marshall Univ, makes a 92' 5�" basketball shot
1985 - Michael Gross swims world record 800m freestyle (7:38.75)
1985 - Opposition leader Kim Dae Jung returns to South-Korea
1986 - 5' 7" Spud Webb of Atlanta Hawks wins NBA Slam Dunk Competition
1986 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Brian Boitano
1987 - 37th NBA All-Star Game: West beats East 154-149 (OT) at Seattle
1987 - Nancy Lopez wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic
1988 - NASA launches DOD-2
1989 - 5 cm of snow falls in outskirts of Los Angeles
1989 - Jockey Chris Antley begins record of 64 consecutive winning days
1989 - US Boeing 707 crashes into Santa Maria mountain, 145 die
1990 - "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney suspended by CBS for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine
1991 - Roger Clemens signs record $5,380,250 per year Red Sox contract
1992 - "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred peaks at #1
1992 - 16th Winter Olympic games opens in Albertville, France
1992 - Ulysses spacecraft passes Jupiter
1993 - Suchoi-24 crashes into Tupolev passenger flight, 134 die
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
1994 - Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car
1994 - Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee charge with possession of loaded firearm
1995 - 6.4 earthquake at Trujillo, Colombia (46+ killed)
1996 - NFL & Cleveland allows Art Modell to move his NFL franchise to Balt but he had to leave the Browns' name behind
1998 - 1st female ice hockey game in Olympic history Finland beats Sweden 6-0
1998 - 48th NBA All-Star Game: East beats West 135-114 at NYC
1998 - NHL stops season until Feb 24th to accomodate the Olympics

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