SPEEKERBOXX

 What Happened Today... February 1st

1884 - The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.

1968 - Elvis Presley celebrated the birth of his daughter, Lisa Marie; who would go onto marry and divorce Michael Jackson in the 1990s.

 1972 - Wings recorded Give Ireland Back to the Irish.

 1991 - An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan and Pakistan, resulting in more than 1,200 people killed.

 What Happened Today... February 2nd

1801 - The British parliament assembled, including for the first time Irish representatives.

1972 - The British Embassy in Dublin was burned down after a day of anti-British demonstrations.

1979 - Sex Pistols, Sid Vicious was found dead of a heroin overdose at age 22.

 What Happened Today... February 3rd

1913 - The 16th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified, giving the government the power to impose and collect taxes on income.

1919 - The first meeting of the League of Nations took place in Paris.

1931 - A huge earthquake struck New Zealand, almost destroying the towns of Napier and Hastings.

1953 - Marine archeologist Jacques Cousteau became renowned worldwide for documenting his deep sea explorations.

1964 - The Beatles, received their first gold record for the single, "I Want To Hold Your Hand". The group also won a gold award for "Meet The Beatles", which was only released in the United States 14 days earlier.

1966 - The first controlled landing on the moon was made by the Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna IX.

1996 - An earthquake measuring 7.0 rocked southwestern China, killing at least 302 people and injuring 15,000.

 What Happened Today... February 4th

1924 - Mahatma Gandhi was released after spending two years in jail in Bombay.

1932 - At Lake Placid, New York, the Winter Olympics were held in the United States for the first time. The venue would be home to the Winter Olympics again in 1980, when the United States Hockey Team won its "Do you believe in miracles?" gold medal.

1938 - Adolf Hitler became Germany's war minister and Joachim von Ribbentrop took over foreign affairs.

1997 - 16 months after O.J. Simpson was cleared of murder charges, a civil trial jury blamed him for the killings of his ex-wife and her friend and ordered him to pay $8.5 million in compensatory damages.

 What Happened Today... February 5th

1953 - "Peter Pan", the Walt Disney film, opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City

1971 - A British soldier was shot dead during riots in Belfast, the first to be killed in action since troops went to Northern Ireland in 1969.

 What Happened Today... February 6th

1685 - Charles II, king of Great Britain and Ireland, died; James II acceded to the throne.

1918 - Women over 30 and men over 21 won the right to vote in Britain as the Representation of the People Act received royal assent.

1952 - Queen Elizabeth II succeeded to the British throne upon the death of her father, King George VI.

1956 - The first circular school building in the United States, St. Patrick Center, opened in Kankakee, Illinois.

1958 - Seven members of Britain's Manchester United football team were among 21 killed in a plane crash in Munich. Nicknamed the "Busby Babes" after their manager, Matt Busby, they were returning from a European Cup match.

1964 - France and Britain agreed on the joint construction of a Channel tunnel.

1981 - Former Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison teamed to record a musical tribute to John Lennon.

1998 - Carl Wilson, the Beach Boys' lead guitarist and youngest of the Wilson brothers, died at age 51 in Los Angeles.

 What Happened Today... February 7th

1878 - Pope Pius IX died. At 31 years, 236 days, his pontificate was the longest in history.

1984 - United States astronaut Bruce McCandless flew up to 100 yards from the Space Shuttle "Challenger" using only a powered backpack, the first time it had been done.

1996 - A Boeing 757 charter jet carrying 189 people plunged into shark-infested waters off the Dominican coast, killing everyone aboard.

 What Happened Today... February 8th

1924 - The gas chamber was used for the first time as a form of execution. Gee Jon was put to death in Nevada for murder.

1993 - The newly divided Czech and Slovak republics began using separate currencies for the first time.

What Happened Today... February 9th

1540 - The first-recorded horse race in England was held at Roodeye Fields, Chester.

1963 - The first Boeing 727 took off, becoming the world’s most popular way to fly. Before production was stopped in 1984, 1,832 of the aircraft were built.

1969 - The Boeing 747 took its first flight, ushering flew in the age of the jumbo jet.

1983 - The racehorse Shergar, the 1981 English Derby winner, was stolen from his stable in Ireland.

 What Happened Today... February 10th

1863 - Two of the world’s most famous midgets, General Tom Thumb, who stood three feet, four inches high, and his bride, Lavinia Warren, who was two feet, eight inches tall, were married in New York City front.

1863 - Alanson Crane patented the fire extinguisher.

1956 - Elvis Presley recorded "Heartbreak Hotel".

 What Happened Today... February 11th

1573 - English explorer Francis Drake first saw the Pacific Ocean.

1965 - Ringo Starr married his Liverpool sweetheart Maureen Cox.

1970 - Japan became the fourth country to put a satellite into orbit.

1975 - Margaret Thatcher became the first woman leader of a British political party when she was elected leader of the Conservatives.

1990 - Nelson Mandela released from prison after serving more than 27 1/2 years of a life sentence for conspiracy.

1994 - Five astronauts and a cosmonaut returned to Earth aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery after the first joint United States-Russian space shuttle mission.

What Happened Today... February 12th

1950 - The European Broadcasting Union was founded.

1968 - Ramparts published Eldridge Cleaver's Soul on Ice.

1968 - Singer and famed guitarist, Jimi Hendrix, was awarded an honorary high school diploma from Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington. It was the same school he dropped out of at age 14.

1986 - The Channel Tunnel treaty between Britain and France was signed.

1994 - Two thieves stole one of the world's most famous paintings, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, in Oslo.

1994 - More than 100 people trekked the English Channel Tunnel in a sponsored walk for charity. They became the first humans to walk from France to Britain since the Ice Age.

 What Happened Today... February 13th

1542 - Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII of England, was executed for adultery.

1990 - Roaring crowds gave Nelson Mandela a hero's welcome when he returned to the black township of Soweto with a pledge to end "the dark hell of apartheid."

What Happened Today... February 14th

1014 - Pope Benedict VIII was crowned Henry II as Holy Roman Emperor.

1972 - The Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna 20 was launched to the moon.

1989 - Kidnappers escaped with up to $2.5 million ransom after releasing former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants from a month of captivity.

1996 - The artist formerly known as Prince, age 37, returned to his hometown of Minneapolis and, under his given name Prince Rogers Nelson, married his dancer Mayte Jannell Garcia, age 22.

What Happened Today... February 15th

1971 - Britain changed over to decimal currency from pounds, shillings and pence.

1990 - Britain and Argentina restored full diplomatic ties, affirming reconciliation after their 1982 war for the Falkland Islands.

 What Happened Today... February 16th

1918 - Lithuania proclaimed its independence from Russia.

1968 - Elvis Presley was awarded a gold record for his album of hymns, "How Great Thou Art".

What Happened Today... February 17th

1945 - A Soviet offensive forced the rocket expert Wernher von Braun and other scientists to evacuate the V2 rocket site at Peenemunde, East Germany.

1962 - The Beach Boys first hit, "Surfin’" swept California.

 What Happened Today... February 18th

1564 - Italian artist, sculptor, architect and poet Michelangelo died in Rome.

1991 - An IRA bomb exploded in London's Victoria Railway station, killing one and injuring at least 40 people.

1996 - An IRA explosion ripped apart a bus in London, killing one person and injuring nine others.

What Happened Today... February 20th

1974 - After a decade of marriage, Cher separated from husband Sonny Bono. Soon after, she filed for divorce and alimony.

1985 - The sale of contraceptives was made legal in Ireland.

What Happened Today... February 21st

1842 - The sewing machine was patented by John J. Greenough of Washington, DC.

1916 - WWI's single longest battle at Verdun, France. An estimated one million men were killed, decimating both the French and German armies.

1994 - British members of parliament voted overwhelmingly to reduce the age of consent for homosexual men from 21 to 18.

What Happened Today... February 22nd

1630 - Popcorn was introduced to English colonists by Quadequine, brother of Massasoit, who brought a bag of it to dinner.

1991 - In the Gulf War, the United States gave Iraq 24 hours to withdraw from Kuwait or face an all-out ground war.

What Happened Today... February 23rd

1944 - Josef Stalin forced 1 million Chechens into exile and dissolved the republic accusing them of collaboration with Nazi Germany.

1967 - At Lawrence, Kansas, Jim Ryun set a record in the half-mile run with a time of 1:48.3.

1997 - Researchers in Scotland cloned a lamb named Dolly. Dolly had a genetic makeup identical to that of her mother.

What Happened Today... February 24th

1887 - Paris and Brussels became the first two capital cities to be linked by telephone.

1920 - Lady Astor, first woman member of the British Parliament, made her maiden speech.

1920 - An extremist political group in Germany outlined its program to create a Third German Reich. Its spokesman, Adolf Hitler, said it would change its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

1989 - The cargo door of a United Airlines jumbo jet blew out on a flight from Los Angeles, California to Sydney, Australia at roughly 22,000 feet; nine passengers were lost.

1991 - In the Gulf War, the ground campaign began with an allied night attack. More than 14,000 Iraqis were captured in the first 24 hours of fighting.

What Happened Today... February 25th

1964 - Cassius Clay stunned the boxing world by winning the heavyweight title in Miami Beach.

1972 - The Soviet Union's Luna 20 spacecraft returned to Earth with samples of the Moon's surface.

 What Happened Today... February 26th

1797 - The Bank of England issued one pound notes for the first time.

1815 - Napoleon left the island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France.

1839 - In Britain, the first Grand National horse race was run.

1935 - RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) was first demonstrated by Robert Watson-Watt.

1936 - Adolf Hitler opened the first factory for the production of the "People's Car," the Volkswagen, in Saxony.

1962 - In Northern I reland, the IRA suspended its campaign of violence it began in 1956 against the province's government.

1990 - The Soviet Union agreed to withdraw all of its 73,500 troops from Czechoslovakia by July 1991. 

What Happened Today... February 27th

1908 - The United States' flag added star #46, for Oklahoma, which entered the union on November 16, 1907.

1970 - Simon and Garfunkel were awarded a gold record for their single, "Bridge Over Troubled Water".

1990 - Nelson Mandela arrived in Zambia on his first foreign trip since his release from 27 years in South African jails.

What Happened Today... February 28th

1933 - A day after the Reichstag burned down, Adolf Hitler persuaded President Hindenburg to sign a decree suspending guarantees of personal liberty, freedom of speech and the press and the right of assembly.

1971 - The male voters of Liechtenstein defeated a referendum on giving women the vote.

1991 - After 42 days of the Gulf War, United States-led forces ceased fire at 8 a.m. Kuwait time and Iraq told its army to  stop fighting.

1996 - Princess Diana of Wales announced that she would grant Prince Charles a divorce.

What Happened Today... February 29th

1288 - Scotland established this day as the only one when a woman could propose marriage to a man. If the man refused, he was had to pay a fine.

1960 - A White House report said America's kids were getting too fat.