February 14, ...
278 AD, Saint Valentine is beheaded, contributing in part to the origins of the Valentine's Day holiday.
1349, 2,000 Jews burned at the stake in Strasbourg France
1670, Roman Catholic emperor Leopold I chases Jews out of Vienna
1794. 1st US textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Philadelphia PA
1817, Frederick Douglass African-American abolitionist/lecturer/editor
1838 Margaret Knight inventor, "the female Thomas Edison"
1847 Anna Howard Shaw US, suffragette
1864 Israel Zangwill England, Jewish author/Zionist (Children of Ghetto)
1872 1st state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt CA)
1883 1st state labor union legislation; New Jersey legalizes unions
1889, born, Philip A. Randolph, American labor leader, born in Crescent City, Florida. During his youth Randolph worked as a section hand on a railroad. Upon completion of high school, he moved to New York City and attended the College of the City of New York. During his student days, he organized a small union of elevator operators. Concerned over the treatment of black employees on railroads, Randolph organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. It was the first union of predominantly black workers to be granted a charter by the American Federation of Labor. After more than ten years of struggle, his union won recognition as bargaining agent with the Pullman Company.
1894, born, Jack Benny, American comedian, who hosted long-running shows on both radio and television. He was born Benjamin Kubelsky in Chicago. Benny began a successful career in vaudeville at the age of 17 as a violinist, but he later became a monologuist, having discovered that he could convulse an audience with his deadpan stare and elegant style. His first film was Hollywood Review of 1929; other films in which he appeared are To Be or Not to Be (1942) and A Guide for the Married Man (1968). It was as a radio performer, however, that Benny achieved his greatest fame. His enormously popular program, “The Jack Benny Show,” was introduced in 1932; it was heard every week for 23 years thereafter. He first successfully transferred his well-loved characterization of the acerbic penny pincher to television in 1950. For the next 24 years he appeared frequently. “The Jack Benny Show” was seen on television from 1955 to 1964. Benny also appeared in theaters and nightclubs in the late 1950s and '60s, and after 1956 he appeared frequently as a comic violin soloist with major American symphony orchestras in fund-raising concerts.
1894 Venus is both a morning star & evening star
1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was established. (It was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in 1913.) AND IN 2000, Secretary Evans destroyed it.
1920, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago; its first president was Maude Wood Park.
1921 Hugh Downs Akron OH, TV journalist (20/20, Concentration)
1925 State of emergency crisis in Bayern ends, NSDAP re-allowed
1929, disguised as Chicago police officers and detectives, Al Capone's mobsters take out six of George "Bugs" Moran's gang in a warehouse. The infamous event will become known as the Saint Valentine's Day massacre.
1936, more than 800 delegates representing over 500 organizations elect Asa Philip Randolph, of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, as president of the newly formed National Negro Congress in Chicago.
1944, Anti-Japanese revolt on Java
1945, Perú, Paraguay, Chile & Ecuador join the United Nations
1945, 8th Air Force bombs Dresden
1949, 1st session of Knesset opens in Jerusalem
1960, Beverly Hanson wins LPGA St Petersburg Golf Open
1960, Marshal Ayub Khan elected President of Pakistan
1961, Element 103, Lawrencium, 1st produced in Berkeley CA
1961, Louise Suggs wins LPGA Royal Poinciana Golf Invitational
1962, 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV
1963 US launches communications satellite Syncom 1
1964, Bill Bradley, playing for the Ivy League Princeton basketball team, scores a record high 58 points.
1966 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points
1967 Aretha Franklin records "Respect"
1967 Latin American nuclear free zone proposal drawn up
1968 Pennsylvania Railroad/NYC Central merge into Pennsylvania Central
1975, Jennifer Michelle Roberts Greensboro NC, Miss North Carolina-America (1996)
1979, Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police. GEE WHIZ. THIS kinda stuff has been going on a long time. Does anyone believe this is going to stop just because Bush is in Iraq? NO !
1984, 6-year-old Stormie Jones became the world's first heart-liver transplant recipient at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh (she lived until November 1990).
1984 Singer Elton John marries Renate Blauel in Sydney Australia
1985 Hostage CNN reporter Jeremy Levin is released in Beirut
1985, Cable News Network reporter Jeremy Levin, who was being held hostage by extremists in Lebanon, was freed.
The Associated Press
1988, Patty Sheehan wins LPGA Sarasota Golf Classic
1989, Robin Givens is granted a divorce from Mike Tyson in Dominican Republic
1989, Union Carbide agrees to pay $470 million damages for Bhopol disaster
1989, African National Congress (ANC) opens office in Amsterdam
1989, Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini offers $1 million-$3 million bounty on Salman Rushdie's death due to his novel, "Satanic Verses"
1989, World's 1st satellite Skyphone opens
1990, Space probe Voyager 1 takes photograph of entire solar system
1991, Air raid shelter at Baghdad bombed killing 300
1992, Cease fire in Somalia begins
1993, Fire in Linxi department store in Tangshan China, kills 79
1994, Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (51) weds Deborah Koons
Missing in Action
1966 HILLS JOHN R. SOUTH BEND IN
1967 MARVIN ROBERT C. DEXTER MI
1968 DUNN JOSEPH P. HULL MA
1968 ELLIOT ROBERT M. SPRINGFIELD MA SEVERAL OBS INDICATE CAPTURE REMAINS RETURNED 12/27/99
1968 MC MAHAN ROBERT C. JACKSONVILLE IL REMAINS RETURNED 9/90 11/28/90 I.D.
1969 CLARK STANLEY S. MODESTO CA
1969 STEVENS LARRY J. CANOGA PARK CA
