On This Day:
Thursday February 9, 2012
This is the 40th day of the year, with 326 days remaining
in 2012.
Fact of the Day: fish in winter
Fish don't go into a state of true hibernation in the
winter, yet their metabolisms do slow down. Advice for fish
in backyard ponds is to stop feeding entirely in
November-December and to not resume again till at least
March (or until the water temperature has reached 50 degrees
F), and then to start with very low-protein, easily
digestible foods until May or so. Fish become much less
active in the winter, don't grow, and hardly need to eat.
The only need that remains the same is that for oxygen, and
when fish do die in the winter, it's often because their
supply of oxygen is used up before the ice over their
habitat melts.
Holidays
Feast day of St. Apollonia, St. Sabinus of Canossa, St.
Teilo, St. Alto, St. Ansbert, and St. Nicephorus of Antioch.
Lebanon:
St. Maron's Day.
Events
1718
- French colonists arrived in Louisiana.
1801
- The Holy
Roman Empire came to an end with the signing of the Peace
of Luneville between Austria
and France.
1825
- The U.S. House
of Representatives elected John
Quincy Adams the 6th President after no candidate
received a majority of electoral votes. He had won fewer
votes than Andrew
Jackson in the popular election.
1861
- Jefferson
Davis was elected president of the Confederate
States of America.
1870
- The U.
S. Weather Bureau was established.
1895
- The first college basketball game was played as Minnesota
State School of Agriculture defeated the Porkers of Hamline
College, 9-3.
1900
- American collegian Dwight
Filley Davis challenged British tennis players to come
across the Atlantic
Ocean and compete against his Harvard
team, which was the beginning of the Davis
Cup competition.
1942
- The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal
meeting to coordinate military strategy during World
War II.
1942
- The Normandie,
thought by many to be the most elegant ocean liner ever
built, burned and sank in New
York Harbor during its conversion to an Allied trip
transport ship.
1943
- The Battle
of Guadalcanal ended in the southwest Pacific
Ocean as an important American victory over the
Japanese in World
War II.
1950
- Joseph
McCarthy, Republican senator from Wisconsin,
announced during a speech that he knew of 205 communists who
had infiltrated the U.S. State
Department.
1964
- The Beatles
made their first live American television appearance, on "The
Ed Sullivan Show."
1994
- Nelson
Mandela became the first black president of South
Africa.
2001
- An American submarine
accidentally strikes and sinks a Japanese
fishing vessel off the coast of Hawaii,
killing nine.
Births
1773
- William
Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United
States of America (1941, shortest term -- 32 days).
1874
- Amy
Lowell, American poet.
1914
- Carmen
Miranda, Brazilian singer, actress.
1943
- Joe
Pesci, American actor.
1963
- Travis
Tritt, American country singer.
1981
- John
Walker Lindh, American-born Taliban fighter.
Deaths
1966
- Sophie
Tucker, American singer.
1981
- Bill
Haley, American singer and songwriter, considered by
many the "Father of Rock and Roll."
2002
- The Princess
Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, the younger daughter of
England's George
VI and Queen
Elizabeth.
2004
- Claude
Ryan, Canadian politician and leader of the Parti
libéral du Québec from 1978 to 1982.
2006
- Freddie
Laker, British airline entrepreneur.
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