I Eat Gravel

1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her half-sister, Queen Elizabeth I.

1622 – King James I of England disbands the English Parliament.

1692 – A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family
of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials.

1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the
United States Senate.

1855 – The Devil’s Footprints mysteriously appear in southern Devon.

1856 – Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei abolishes slavery in Wallachia.

1865 – In the United States, Delaware voters reject the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, and vote to continue the practice of slavery. (Delaware finally ratifies the amendment
on February 12, 1901.)

1879 – Sandford Fleming first proposes adoption of Universal Standard Time at a meeting of the
Royal Canadian Institute.

1887 – The Dawes Act authorizes the President of the United States to survey Native American
tribal land and divide it into individual allotments.

1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce.

1922 – President Warren G. Harding introduces the first radio in the White House.

1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes
place in Nevada.

1960 – Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issues an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”.

1963 – Travel, financial and commercial transactions by United States citizens to Cuba are made
illegal by the John F. Kennedy administration.

1966 – The National Hockey League awards Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania a second NHL franchise, the
Pittsburgh Penguins.

1968 – American civil rights movement: The Orangeburg massacre, an attack that left three or four
dead in Orangeburg, South Carolina on black students from South Carolina State University who
were protesting racial segregation at the town’s only bowling alley.

1971 – The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time.

1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth.

1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.

1993 – General Motors sues NBC after Dateline NBC allegedly rigs two crashes intended to
demonstrate that some GM pickups can easily catch fire if hit in certain places. NBC settles the
lawsuit the next day.

1996 – The U.S. Congress passes the Communications Decency Act.

2010 – The last planned night launch of the space shuttle takes place before dawn from the
Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

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Born on February 8:
412 – Proclus, Greek philosopher (d. 487)
1405 – Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last reigning Emperor of the Byzantine Empire (d. 1453)
1807 – Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and naturalist (d. 1889)
1828 – Jules Verne, French author (d. 1905)
1834 – Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist (d. 1907)
1925 – Jack Lemmon, American actor and film director (d. 2001)
1931 – James Dean, American actor (d. 1955)
1940 – Ted Koppel, American journalist
1941 – Nick Nolte, American actor
1961 – Vince Neil, American singer (Mötley Crüe)
1974 – Seth Green, American actor

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Today in Alaskan history:
1939 The Goldstein Building in downtown Juneau was gutted by fire, destroying radio station KINY-AM and the Juneau Medical Center.

1939 Alfred Rosenberg, supervisor of the spiritual and philosophical development of Nazidom, said that Alaska offered too harsh a climate for relocation of Jews.

1975 The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced plans to kill up to 80% of the wolves in the Tanana Flats during its planned extermination program.

1975 Anchorage Representative Susan Sullivan suggested that the proposed new Alaska capital be called Gruening .

On February 7, 457 – Leo I becomes emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

On February 7, 1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.

On February 7, 1856 – The Kingdom of Awadh is annexed by the British East India Company after a peaceful abdication of
Wajid Ali Shah, the king of Awadh.

On February 7, 1856 – The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the first piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856)
anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.

On February 7, 1882 – The last heavyweight boxing championship bare-knuckle fight takes place in Mississippi City,
Mississippi.

On February 7, 1894 – The Cripple Creek miner’s strike, led by the Western Federation of Miners, begins in Cripple Creek,
Colorado.

On February 7, 1935 – The classic board game Monopoly is invented.

On February 7, 1940 – The second full length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.

On February 7, 1943 – Imperial Japanese naval forces complete the evacuation of Imperial Japanese Army troops from Guadalcanal during Operation Ke, ending Japanese attempts to retake the island from Allied forces in the Guadalcanal Campaign.

On February 7, 1962 – The United States bans all Cuban imports and exports.

On February 7, 1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time since either was discovered.

On February 7, 1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU).

On February 7, 1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation.

On February 7, 1990 – Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

On February 7, 1991 – Haiti’s first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.

On February 7, 1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union.

On February 7, 1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.

On February 7, 1999 – Crown Prince Abdullah becomes the King of Jordan on the death of his father, King Hussein.

On February 7, 2009 – Bushfires in Victoria left 173 dead in the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history.

On February 7, 2010 – Large explosion at Kleen Power Plant in Middletown, Connecticut kills 2 and injures many others.

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Born on February 7:
1478 – Sir Thomas More, English statesman, humanist, and author (d. 1535)
1804 – John Deere, American manufacturer (Deere & Company) (d. 1886)
1812 – Charles Dickens, English novelist (d. 1870)
1885 – Sinclair Lewis, American writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1951)
1960 – James Spader, American actor
1962 – Garth Brooks, American singer
1962 – Eddie Izzard, British actor and comedian
1962 – David Bryan, American musician (Bon Jovi)
1965 – Chris Rock, American comedian and actor
1968 – Sully Erna, American singer (Godsmack)
1975 – Wes Borland, American guitarist (Limp Bizkit)
1978 – Ashton Kutcher, American actor

Today in Alaskan history:
1911 The steamer Victoria went on the rocks at Hinchinbrook Island, but was later salvaged.

1931 The Coast Guard Cutter Tallapoosa arrived in Juneau from Baltimore to take permanent station.

1969 Sen. Mike Gravel called for the U.S. to pay 1/2 the cost of the Alaska-Canadian Highway .

On February 4, 1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

On February 4, 1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the
French Republic.

On February 4, 1801 – John Marshall is sworn in as Chief Justice of the United States.

On February 4, 1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal
and the Miami and Erie Canal.

On February 4, 1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus is discovered in Egypt.

On February 4, 1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-
away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.

On February 4, 1899 – The Philippine-American War begins.

On February 4, 1936 – Radium becomes the first radioactive element to be made synthetically.

On February 4, 1941 – World War II: The United Service Organization (USO) is created to entertain
American troops.

On February 4, 1967 – Lunar Orbiter program: Lunar Orbiter 3 lifts off from Cape Canaveral’s Launch
Complex 13 on its mission to identify possible landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo spacecraft.

On February 4, 1969 – Yasser Arafat takes over as chairman of the Palestine Liberation
Organization.

On February 4, 1974 – The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkeley,
California.

On February 4, 1980 – Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini names Abolhassan Banisadr as president of
Iran.

On February 4, 1992 – A Coup d’état is led by Hugo Chávez Frías, against Venezuelan President
Carlos Andrés Pérez.

On February 4, 1997 – After at first contesting the results, Serbian President Slobodan Milošević
recognizes opposition victories in the November 1996 elections.

On February 4, 2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social network is founded by Mark
Zuckerberg.

On February 4, 2008 – The London Low Emission Zone (LEZ) scheme begins to operate in the UK.

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Born on February 4:
1677 – Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer (d. 1731)
1902 – Charles Lindbergh, American pilot (d. 1974)
1906 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (d. 1997)
1913 – Rosa Parks, American civil rights activist (d. 2005)
1929 – Jerry Adler, American actor
1947 – Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President of the United States
1948 – Alice Cooper, American musician
1964 – Noodles, American guitarist (The Offspring)
1969 – Dallas Drake, ice hockey player
1973 – Oscar de la Hoya, Mexican-born boxer
1973 – Manny Legacé, Canadian ice hockey goaltender
1975 – Natalie Imbruglia, Australian musician and actress

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Today in Alaskan history:
1939 U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ickles “demanded” imposition of an 8% tax on Alaskan gold production.
1941 The Alaska Defense Command was established under General Simon Bolivar Buckner.
1969 Anchorage Borough Planning Director, Robert Pavitt , predicted an Anchorage population of 250,000 by 1988.
1985 The Attu battlegrounds and airfields were designated as national historic landmarks.

On February 3, 1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in America.

On February 3, 1783 – Spain recognizes United States independence.

On February 3, 1787 – Shays’ Rebellion is crushed.

On February 3, 1809 – The Illinois Territory is created.

On February 3, 1870 – The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, granting voting rights to citizens regardless of race.

On February 3, 1913 – The Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal government to impose and collect an income tax.

On February 3, 1966 – The unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft makes the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon.

On February 3, 1988 – The United States House of Representatives rejects President Ronald Reagan’s request for $36.25 million to aid Nicaraguan Contras.

On February 3, 1998 – In Italy, a U.S. Military plane hit a cable causing the death of 20 skiers on a lift.

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Born on February 3:
1811 – Horace Greeley, American journalist, editor, and publisher
1894 – Norman Rockwell, American illustrator

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Today in Alaskan history:
February 3, 1961 – Juneau’s first commercial jet landed.

On February 2, 1653 – New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.

On February 2, 1709 – Alexander Selkirk is rescued from shipwreck on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

On February 2, 1878 – Greece declares war on Turkey.

On February 2, 1887 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.

On February 2, 1913 – Grand Central Station was opened in New York City.

On February 2, 1925 – Dog sleds reach Nome, Alaska with diphtheria serum, inspiring the Iditarod race.

On February 2, 1980 – Reports surface that FBI were targeting Congressmen in the Abscam operation.

On February 2, 1998 – U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

On February 2, 1999 – Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

On February 2, 2004 – It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

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Born on February 2:
1649 – Pope Benedict XIII (d. 1730)
1882 – James Joyce, Irish author (d. 1941)
1947 – Farrah Fawcett, American actress
1975 – Todd Bertuzzi, Canadian hockey player

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Today in Alaskan history:
February 2, 1931 – The flag was raised for the first time over the new Capitol building at Juneau. Governor George Parks raised the flag.