On This Day:
Thursday February 2, 2012
This is the 33rd day of the year, with 333 days remaining
in 2012.
Fact of the Day: Hawaii state fish
The state fish of Hawaii is the HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA'A,
which is a form of trigger fish. It is actually not too hard
to pronounce if you notice the repetition. HUMU - HUMU -
NUKU - NUKU - APUA'A.
Holidays
Candlemas (Wives' Feast Day)/ Presentation of the Lord/
Imbolc / Imbolg / Lupercalia / Feast of Pan / Feast of
Torches / Feast of Waxing Light / Oimelc.
Feast day of the Purification, St. Joan de Lestonnac, St.
Adalbald of Ostrevant, and the Martyrs of Ebsdorf.
Groundhog
Day.
Events
962 -
Otto
I invaded Italy
and is crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
1536
- The Argentine city of Buenos
Aires was founded by Pedro
de Mendoza of Spain.
1653
- New
Amsterdam -- now New
York City -- was incorporated.
1801
- The first parliament of the United
Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland
assembled.
1848
- The Treaty
of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ended the Mexican
War.
1848
- The United
States paid Mexico
$15 million for lands that eventually became Arizona,
California,
New
Mexico, and Texas.
1863
- Samuel
Langhorne Clemens decided to use the pseudonym "Mark
Twain."
1876
- The National
Baseball League was founded with eight teams: Boston,
Chicago,
Cincinnati,
New
York, Philadelphia,
St.
Louis, Louisville,
and Hartford.
1878
- Greece
declared war on Turkey.
1887
- The first Groundhog
Day was celebrated in Punxsutawney,
Pennsylvania.
1892
- William
Painter of Baltimore,
Maryland,
patented the crown-cork bottle cap.
1916
- U.S. Senate
voted independence for the Philippines,
effective in 1921.
1936
- Babe
Ruth was voted into the Baseball
Hall of Fame.
1943
- The last German troops in Stalingrad
surrendered to the Red
Army, ending one of the pivotal battles of World
War II.
1946
- The game "Twenty
Questions" was first aired on radio.
1950
- "What's
My Line?" premiered on TV.
1967
- The American
Basketball Association was formed.
1971
- Idi
Amin assumed power in Uganda,
following a coup ousting President Milton
Obote.
1980
- Details of ABSCAM,
an FBI
operation to uncover political corruption in the government,
were released to the public. The FBI
had conducted a sting operation targeting members of Congress
using phony Arab businessmen.
1989
- The last Soviet
Union armored column leaves Kabul,
ending nine years of military occupation in Afghanistan.
1990
- President F.W.
de Klerk lifted a ban on the African
National Congress and promised to free Nelson
Mandela.
2003
- After 13 years as president of Czechoslovakia
and then of the Czech
Republic, Vaclav
Havel gave his farewell address.
2006
- An aging Egyptian
passenger ferry carrying more than 1,400 people sinks in the
Red
Sea off the Saudi
coast.
Births
1882
- James
Joyce, Irish poet and novelist.
1895
- George
Halas, American, co-founder of National
Football League.
1901
- Jascha
Heifetz, Russian-born violin virtuoso.
1905
- Ayn
Rand (Alissa
Rosenbaum), Russian-born American social critic,
writer.
1907
- W.H.
Auden, British-born Pulitzer
Prize-winning poet.
1942
- Graham
Nash, English-born singer-songwriter.
1947
- Farrah
Fawcett-Majors (born Ferrah Leni Fawcett), American
actress.
Deaths
1884
- Wendell
Phillips, American abolitionist,
advocate for Native Americans, and orator.
1969
- Boris
Karloff (born William Henry Pratt), English-born
American actor.
1979
- Sid
Vicious (born John Simon Ritchie), English punk
rock musician and bass player of the Sex
Pistols.
1996
- Gene
Kelly (born Eugene Curran Kelly), American dancer,
choreographer, movie actor, and director.
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