THE HIDEABOUT NEWSPAPER
FEBRUARY 2018 • 53
This Month in History February 1 2003 - Sixteen minutes before it was scheduled to land, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart in flight over west Texas, killing all seven crew members. This was the second space shuttle lost in flight. In January 1986, Challenger exploded during liftoff. February 2 In weather lore, if a groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, or marmot emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow winter will soon end. If on the other hand, it is sunny and the groundhog sees its shadow, winter will continue for 6 more weeks. February 3 1870 - The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing the right of citizens to vote, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting Congress the authority to collect income taxes. 2010 - The box office movie success Avatar becomes the highest grossing film in the U.S. and Canada and surpasses 2 billion dollars mark in worldwide sales. February 4 1932 - The first Winter Olympics to be held in the United States. These games took place in Lake Placid, New York. 1974 - Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst is kidnapped in Berkeley, California by the Symbionese Liberation Army. 1997 - A civil jury panel in Santa Monica, CA had determined that O.J. Simpson was guilty of the deaths of both his ex-wife Nicole Brown-Simpson and Ronald Goldman. He had originally been acquitted in the year 1995. 2004 - Facebook is founded by Mark Zuckerberg. February 5 1922 - DeWitt Wallace and his wife Lila Wallace publish the first Reader’s Digest magazine designed to provide abridged articles on a wide variety of subjects, for easy reading. February 6 1943 - Frank Sinatra makes his singing debut on the popular radio show “Your Hit Parade.” His career takes off after that and he eventually becomes one of the most respected vocalists of all time. 1952 - King George VI of England died. Upon his death, his daughter Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Her actual coronation took place on June 2, 1953. February 7 1958 - Dodgers officially become the Los Angeles Dodgers, Inc 2011 - AOL purchases the liberal website, The Huffington Post, for $315 million. 2014 - The Tonight Show with Jay Leno Ends February 8 1910 - The Boy Scouts of America was founded by William Boyce in Washington, D.C., modeled after the British Boy Scouts. 1973 - The US Senate approved the formation of a special committee to investigate the Watergate bugging
incident. 2005 - Leaders of both Palestine and Israel declare a truce in what many hope will be a “new era of peace.” February 9 1943 - During World War II in the Pacific, U.S. troops captured Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands after six months of battle, with 9,000 Japanese and 2,000 Americans killed. 1953 - WNEP TV channel 16 in Scranton Wilkes-Barre, PA (ABC) 1st broadcast 1964 - 1st appearance of Beatles on “Ed Sullivan Show” (73.7 million viewers) February 10 1942 - The first Medal of Honor during World War II was awarded to 2nd Lt. Alexander Nininger (posthumously) for heroism during the Battle of Bataan. February 11 1990 - In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, at age 71, was released from prison after serving 27 years of a life sentence on charges of attempting to overthrow the apartheid government. In April 1994, he was elected president in the first all-race elections. 2011 - In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak resigns. February 12 2011 - Archaeologists have found the ship that belonged to Captain George Pollard who inspired Herman Melville’s novel ‘Moby Dick.’ The Two Brothers whaling ship’s remains were found off the coast of Hawaii. The ship sank in 1823 when it hit a coral reef. February 13 1945 - During World War II in Europe, British and American planes began massive bombing raids on Dresden, Germany. A four-day firestorm erupted that was visible for 200 miles and engulfed the historic old city, killing an estimated 135,000 German civilians. 2000 - On the day after Charles M. Schultz died the comic strip “Peanuts” appeared in newspapers for the last time. The characters of “Peanuts” included Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Snoopy, Woodstock, and others. February 14 1929 - The St. Valentine’s Day massacre occurred in Chicago as seven members of the Bugs Moran gang were gunned down by five of Al Capone’s mobsters posing as police. 1962 - Jacqueline Kennedy gives a tour of the White House shown on Television which 3 out of 4 Americans watch on TV. 2013 - Oscar Pistorius, who had recently competed in both the Olympics and Paralympics as a runner, was arrested over shooting and killing his model/actress girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. February 15 1989 - Soviet Russia completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan after nine years of unsuccessful involvement in the civil war between Muslim rebel groups and the Russian-backed Afghan government. Over 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in the fighting. February 16 1968 - The first 911 emergency telephone
system is inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala. but due to problems with telephone service boundaries and electromechanical switching equipment which could not recognize the 911 number it is not until the mid 1980s that 911 works countrywide. February 17 1865 - During the American Civil War, Fort Sumter in South Carolina was returned to the Union after nearly a year and a half under Confederate control. The fort had been the scene of the first shots of the war. February 18 1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden flight above the Mojave Desert. February 19 1942 - Internment of Japanese Americans began after President Franklin Roosevelt issued an Executive Order requiring those living on the Pacific coast to report for relocation. Over 110,000 persons therefore shut down their businesses, sold off their property, quit school and moved inland to the relocation centers. February 20 1962 - Astronaut John Glenn became the first American launched into orbit, traveling aboard the “Friendship 7” spacecraft. Glenn was the third American in space, preceded by Alan Shepard and Virgil “Gus” Grissom who had each completed short sub-orbital flights. All of them had been preceded by Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who was the first human in space, completing one orbit on April 12, 1961 - a feat that intensified the already ongoing Space Race between the Russians and Americans. Glenn’s successful flight showed the Americans had caught up and was followed in September 1962 by President John F. Kennedy’s open call to land an American on the moon before the decade’s end. 2003 - A fire at a rock concert in a Rhode Island, nightclub kills 100 people and seriously injures almost 200 more . The cause was traced to a pyrotechnics display which set fire to the soundproofing foam on the ceiling. February 21 1965 - Former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X (1925-1965) was shot and killed while delivering a speech in a ballroom in New York City. 1972 - President Richard Nixon arrived in China for historic meetings with Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Premier Chou En-lai. 1994 - CIA agent Aldrich Ames was arrested on charges he spied for the Soviet Union from 1985 to 1991. February 22 1879 - Frank Winfield Woolworth opens the Great 5 Cents Store in Utica, New York. Pledging to sell “nothing” that cost more than a nickel expanding over the next 50 years to 1000 stores, but due to changes in the retail market the last Woolworths shop in the United States was closed down on July 17, 1997. 1956 - In Montgomery, Alabama, 80 participants in the three-month-old bus boycott voluntarily gave themselves up for arrest after an ultimatum from white city leaders. Martin Luther King and
Rosa Parks were among those arrested. Later in 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court mandated desegregation of the buses. 1980 - The United States hockey team, composed in great part of college players, defeat the defending champions and favorites to win the gold medal Soviet Union squad by 4-3. 1997 - Scottish scientists from the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh announce they have successfully cloned an adult sheep named Dolly, The sheep was born in July of 1996, and Dolly was the world’s first cloned mammal. February 23 1942 - During World War II, the first attack on the U.S. mainland occurred as a Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California, causing minor damage. 1991 - In Desert Storm, the Allied ground offensive began after a devastating month-long air campaign targeting Iraqi troops in both Iraq and Kuwait. 1997 - For the first time ever, a movie had been shown on television without commercial interruptions. The movie the Schindler’s List, a movie about the saving of the lives of Jewish factory workers in Germany, was aired on NBC on this date. February 24 1940 - The song “When You Wish Upon a Star” is recorded by Frances Langford. It becomes a major hit and it is still one of the most recognizable songs today. February 25 1964 - Cassius Clay, defeated Sonny Liston when Liston retired at the end of the sixth round in Miami to become Heavyweight Champion of the World. 1982 - Final episode of “The Lawrence Welk Show” airs. February 26 2011 - The United States’ space shuttle Discovery docked at the International Space Station for the last time. After the last trip, the Discovery is set to become a museum attraction, as well as the other shuttles in its fleet. February 27 1991 - In Desert Storm, the 100-hour ground war ended as Allied troops entered Kuwait just four days after launching their offensive against Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces. February 28 1983 - The final episode of M*A*S*H, a series about the staff of an Army hospital during the Korean War entitled ( Goodbye, Farewell and Amen ) became the mostwatched television episode in U.S. history, with viewer estimates at 106 million Americans. 1991 - The gulf war is over following Iraq accepting all 12 resolutions made by the United Nations. 1993 - A raid by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ATF agents who were trying to serve warrants for illegal guns on the heavily armed compound of a religious cult 10 miles outside of Waco, Texas turns into a bloody gun battle, leaving at least four Federal agents and two cult members dead and at least 15 agents injured.