On This Day:
Friday February 3, 2012
This is the 34th day of the year, with 332 days remaining
in 2012.
Fact of the Day: unsolicited faxes
Although agencies that engage in this sort of practice
protest otherwise, sending unsolicited faxes is illegal
nationwide (under FCC rules), unless the sender and receiver
have a "prior business relationship" that implies permission
to send. Even if this prior relationship exists, if the
receiver specifically asks not to be faxed, the sender must
stop transmitting faxes to that company.
Holidays
Feast day of St. Laurence of Spoleto, St. Anskar, St. Ia the
Virgin, St. Laurence of Canterbury, St. Blaise, St Werburga,
and St. Margaret of England.
Switzerland:
Homstrom.
Mozambique:
Heroes' Day.
Vietnam:
National Holiday for founding of Communist Party in Vietnam.
Events
1488
- Portuguese navigator Bartholomew
Diaz landed at Mossal
Bay in the Cape, the first European known to have
landed on the southern extremity of Africa.
1690
- The first paper money in America
was issued by the colony of Massachusetts.
1783
- Spain
recognized United
States' independence.
1809
- The territory of Illinois
was created.
1830
- The revolution against the Ottoman occupation in Greece
ended.
1865
- Abraham
Lincoln met to discuss peace in the Civil
War.
1913
- The 16th
Amendment to the Constitution
of the United States of America, providing for a
federal income tax, was ratified.
1916
- Canada's
original Parliament Buildings, in Ottawa,
burned down.
1917
- The United
States broke off diplomatic relations with Germany,
which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare.
1919
- The League
of Nations held its first meeting, with U.S. President
Woodrow
Wilson as chairman.
1927
- President Calvin
Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal
Radio Commission to regulate the airwaves.
1953
- French oceanographer Jacques-Yves
Cousteau published "The Silent World."
1969
- Yassir
Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO.
1973
- The cease-fire in Vietnam
went into effect and fighting came to a halt.
1994
- Nearly two decades after the fall of Saigon,
U.S. President Bill
Clinton lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam,
since Vietnam's
government cooperated in locating the 2,238 Americans still
listed as missing in the Vietnam
War.
1994
- The space shuttle Discovery
blasted off with a woman, Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen
Collins, in the pilot's seat for the first time.
2003
- Record producer Phil
Spector was arrested for murder after the body of
40-year-old actress Lana
Clarkson was found at his faux-castle mansion in Alhambra,
California.
2005
- Alberto
Gonzales won Senate confirmation as US
Attorney General.
Births
1809
- Felix
Mendelssohn, German composer.
1811
- Horace
Greeley, American journalist, founder of "The New
York Tribune," politician, helped found the Republican
Party.
1830
- Robert
Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury,
British statesman and Prime
Minister on three occasions.
1874
- Gertrude
Stein, American author.
1894
- Norman
Rockwell, American artist.
1907
- James
A. Michener, American author.
1909
- Simone
Weil, French philosopher.
1940
- Fran
Tarkenton, American football player.
1947
- Dave
Davies, singer and guitarist with the English rock
band The
Kinks.
Deaths
1924
- Woodrow
Wilson, 28th President
of the United States.
1959
- Buddy
Holly, Ritchie
Valens and J.P.
"The Big Bopper" Richardson, in a plane crash.
1975
- Umm
Kulthum (other English spellings include: Om Kalthoum,
Oum Kalsoum, Oum Kalthum, Omm Kolsoum, Umm Kolthoum, Um
Kalthoom), Egyptian
singer and musician.
1996
- Audrey
Meadows (born Audrey Cotter), American actress.
2003
- Lana
Clarkson, American actress.
2006
- Al
Lewis, American actor.
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