This Date in History - Page 2

IBTshirts · #7 (**permalink**) 02-07-2008

February 7

1812 Author Charles D*ckens was born in Portsmouth, England.

1944 Germany launched a counteroffensive at Anzio, Italy, during World War II.

1948 Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned as Army chief of staff and was succeeded by Gen. Omar Bradley.

1964 The Beatles arrived in New York for their first American tour, touching off rock 'n' roll's "British invasion."

1974 The island nation of Grenada won independence from Britain.

1986 Haitian President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier fled his country, ending 28 years of family rule.

1990 The Soviet Union's Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power by agreeing to let other political parties compete for control of the country.

1991 The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide was sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.

1995 Ramzi Yousef, the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.

1999 Jordan's King Hussein died of cancer at age 63.

2005 Defrocked priest Paul Shanley, the most notorious figure in the sex scandal that rocked the Boston Archdiocese, was convicted of repeatedly raping and fondling a boy at his church during the 1980s. (Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison.)

If you were born on this day you share a birthday with Chris Rock (comedian 43), James Spader (actor 48) and Ashton Kutcher (30, Demi Moore's boy toy)

IBTshirts · #8 (**permalink**) 02-08-2008

Feb 8

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

1693 A charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

1837 The Senate selected Richard Mentor Johnson as vice president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.

1904 The Russo-Japanese War began.

1910 The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.

1915 D.W. Griffith's silent movie epic about the Civil War, "The Birth of a Nation," premiered in Los Angeles.

1922 President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the White House.

1924 The first execution by gas in the United State took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

1968 Three college students died in a confrontation with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, S.C., during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley.

1978 Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened debate on the Panama Canal treaties.

1980 President Jimmy Carter unveiled a plan to re-introduce draft registration.

1993 General Motors sued NBC, alleging that the program "Dateline NBC" had rigged two crashes to show that GM pickups were prone to fires. NBC settled the lawsuit the following day.

1999 The Senate heard closing arguments in President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial.

2004 Beyonce won five Grammy Awards, tying the record for female performers held by Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keyes and Norah Jones.

2005 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas announced a cease-fire at a summit in Egypt.

2007 Model and tabloid sensation Anna Nicole Smith died at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.

Notable birthdays include Ted Koppel 68, Nick Nolte 67, John Grisham 53, Gary Coleman 40 and Alonzo Mourning 38. Anna Nicole's implants would have turned 18 today.