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On This Day In History...

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January 31, 1606

At Westminster in London, Guy Fawkes, a chief conspirator in the plot to blow up the British Parliament building, jumps to his death moments before his execution for treason.

On the eve of a general parliamentary session scheduled for November 5, 1605, Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Guy Fawkes lurking in a cellar of the Parliament building. Fawkes was detained and the premises thoroughly searched. Nearly two tons of gunpowder were found hidden within the cellar. In his interrogation, Fawkes revealed that he was a participant in an English Catholic conspiracy organized by Robert Catesby to annihilate England’s entire Protestant government, including King James I. The king was to have attended Parliament on November 5.

Over the next few months, English authorities killed or captured all of the conspirators in the “Gunpowder Plot” but also arrested, tortured, or killed dozens of innocent English Catholics. After a brief trial, Guy Fawkes was sentenced, along with the other surviving chief conspirators, to be hanged, drawn, and quartered in London. On January 30, 1606, the gruesome public executions began in London, and on January 31 Fawkes was called to meet his fate. While climbing to the hanging platform, however, he jumped from the ladder and broke his neck, dying instantly.

In remembrance of the Gunpowder Plot, Guy Fawkes Day is celebrated across Great Britain every year on the fifth of November. As dusk falls in the evening, villagers and city dwellers across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn an effigy of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.

*Historical.com
Mendalla
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February 1 is a sad day for us space geeks. It's the day the Columbia disintegrated on re-entry, killing seven astronauts. Losing Challenger was bad enough but losing a second shuttle was unthinkable.

A mighty warrior meets an unusual challenger. The Last Challenge of Jadek Prynn.

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On this day, in 1904:

"The Norwegian Nobel Institute was established 1 February, 1904, tasked with supporting the Nobel Committee in its review of nominations and candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. According to § 12 of the Nobel Foundation statutes, "each Nobel Institute shall be under the leadership of the prize-awarding body that established it." The Director of the Institute is the Nobel Committee's permanent secretary, and the Institute can be regarded as the Committee's secretariat. The events in December are all planned and coordinated through this office."

The Norwegian Nobel Institute

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February 1, 1884

On this day in 1884, the first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation and history of over half a million words, past and present

Plans for the dictionary began in 1857 when members of London’s Philological Society, who believed there were no up-to-date, error-free English dictionaries available, decided to produce one that would cover all vocabulary from the Anglo-Saxon period (1150 A.D.) to the present. Conceived of as a four-volume, 6,400-page work, it was estimated the project would take 10 years to finish. In fact, it took over 40 years until the 125th and final fascicle was published in April 1928 and the full dictionary was complete–at over 400,000 words and phrases in 10 volumes–and published under the title A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles.

Unlike most English dictionaries, which only list present-day common meanings, the OED provides a detailed chronological history for every word and phrase, citing quotations from a wide range of sources, including classic literature and cookbooks. The OED is famous for its lengthy cross-references and etymologies. The verb “set” merits the OED’s longest entry, at approximately 60,000 words and detailing over 430 uses.No sooner was the OED finished than editors began updating it. A supplement, containing new entries and revisions, was published in 1933 and the original dictionary was reprinted in 12 volumes and officially renamed the Oxford English Dictionary.

Between 1972 and 1986, an updated 4-volume supplement was published, with new terms from the continually evolving English language plus more words and phrases from North America, Australia, the Caribbean, New Zealand, South Africa and South Asia.In 1984, Oxford University Press embarked on a five-year, multi-million-dollar project to create an electronic version of the dictionary. The effort required 120 people just to type the pages from the print edition and 50 proofreaders to check their work. In 1992, a CD-ROM version of the dictionary was released, making it much easier to search and retrieve information.

Today, the dictionary’s second edition is available online to subscribers and is updated quarterly with over 1,000 new entries and revisions. At a whopping 20 volumes weighing over 137 pounds, it would reportedly take one person 120 years to type all 59 million words in the OED.

*History.com
Survivor
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Two of the greatest violinists the world has ever known were born on this day: Fritz Kreisler (1875) and Jascha Heifetz (1901).
AnnaMayZing
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1665: British forces captured New Amsterdam, the centre of the Dutch colony in North America. The trading settlement on the island of Manhattan was renamed New York in honour of the Duke of York, its new governor.

1901: The state funeral of Queen Victoria. At the time of her death, her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any other British monarch and the longest of any female monarch in history. (On 9th September 2015 Queen Elizabeth II overtook Queen Victoria as the longest serving monarch of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.)

1940: The birth of Sir David John White OBE, better known by his stage name David Jason. He is best remembered as the main character Derek 'Del Boy' Trotter in the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses. He also played detective Jack Frost on the ITV crime drama A Touch of Frost, Granville in the sitcom Open All Hours, and Pop Larkin in the comedy drama The Darling Buds of May.

1943: The half-starved remnants of the German 6th Army gave themselves up after their five months of bloody fighting for Stalingrad ended in defeat.

If anyone wishes to find the beginning of this epic saga, here it is:
https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/drama/the-nurses.aspx

However, since this story is now available in paperback, only the first few chapters remain. Buy at:

https://www.vbay.info/thenurses

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

DenimAngel
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On this day in 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, it gets scared and runs back into its burrow, predicting six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.


Groundhog Day has its roots in the ancient Christian tradition of Candlemas, when clergy would bless and distribute candles needed for winter. The candles represented how long and cold the winter would be. Germans expanded on this concept by selecting an animal–the hedgehog–as a means of predicting weather. Once they came to America, German settlers in Pennsylvania continued the tradition, although they switched from hedgehogs to groundhogs, which were plentiful in the Keystone State.
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February 2, 1922

Murder in Hollywood: A tale of vice and vixens

Police discovered the body of film director William Desmond Taylor in his Los Angeles bungalow. Lieutenant Tom Ziegler responded to a call about a “natural death” at the Alvarado Street home of Taylor. When he arrived they found actors, actresses, and studio executives rummaging through the director’s belongings. He also found Taylor lying on the living room floor with a bullet in his back–not exactly suggesting a “natural” death.

The murder of Taylor, 50 years old, became a nationwide scandal and proof to the nation’s moralists of Hollywood’s depravity. Two of the actresses linked to Taylor got caught up in the scandal and saw their film careers die a quick death following the murder. Comedian Mabel Normand had been linked romantically with Taylor, but was sent to a sanatarium to to recover from tuberculosis, and died. While she was away, Mary Miles Minter, a teenager, became a star in Taylor’s silent films and fell in love with him. Charlotte Shelby, Minter’s mother, disapproved of the budding relationship.

After his murder, a love note to Taylor from Minter was found in his home, along with her nightgown in the bedroom. Other damning facts came to light. Minter had once tried to shoot herself with the same type of gun used in Taylor’s murder. Furthermore, Shelby had previously threatened the life of another director who had made a pass at her daughter. And to top it off, Shelby’s alibi witness received suspiciously large sums of money after the murder. Still, no one was ever prosecuted for Taylor’s death and the case remains officially unsolved.

Many years later, in Minter’s unpublished autobiography, she admitted that she and her mother were at Taylor’s bungalow on the night of the killing. Famous director King Vidor told people that Minter had ambiguously admitted that her mother had killed Taylor after finding her daughter at Taylor’s home.


*History.com
magnificent1rascal
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Feb 2, 2018

On this day, one year ago, I came home from the hospital following a complete hysterectomy. The surgery was supposed to be the end of a growing health concern that had lasted for eight months up to that point, but the pathology report led to more tests and procedures until I was finally given a clean bill of health three months later.
Connect with Maggie

Like my Facebook fan pages: Maggie Rascal and M.P. Witwer • Friend me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maggierascal • Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Maggie1Rascal
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Quote by magnificent1rascal
Feb 2, 2018

On this day, one year ago, I came home from the hospital following a complete hysterectomy. The surgery was supposed to be the end of a growing health concern that had lasted for eight months up to that point, but the pathology report led to more tests and procedures until I was finally given a clean bill of health three months later.



February 3, 2019

On this day, we celebrate our friend Maggie.
AnnaMayZing
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1690 – The colony of Massachusetts issues the first paper money in the Americas.

1809 – The Territory of Illinois is created by the 10th United States Congress.

1959 – American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed when their plane crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City Municipal Airport in Iowa.

1998 – Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

If anyone wishes to find the beginning of this epic saga, here it is:
https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/drama/the-nurses.aspx

However, since this story is now available in paperback, only the first few chapters remain. Buy at:

https://www.vbay.info/thenurses

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

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1870 US state of Iowa ratifies the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution allowing suffrage for all races & colour

1928 Paleoanthropologist Davidson Black reports his findings on the ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China in the journal Nature and declares them to be a new species he names 'Sinanthropus pekinensis' (now known as 'Homo erectus')

1377 Mass execution of population (between 2,500 and 5,000) of Cesena, Italy, by Breton troops of Giovanni Acuto under the command of Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, acting as the legate of Pope Gregory XI

1743 Philadelphia establishes a "pesthouse" to quarantine immigrants

1752 Dutch States-General forbids export of windmills

1863 Samuel Clemens first uses the pen name Mark Twain in a Virginia City newspaper, the "Territorial Enterprise"
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Quote by magnificent1rascal
Feb 2, 2018

On this day, one year ago, I came home from the hospital following a complete hysterectomy. The surgery was supposed to be the end of a growing health concern that had lasted for eight months up to that point, but the pathology report led to more tests and procedures until I was finally given a clean bill of health three months later.




Been there, bad news. So glad you finally, finally got some answers and were able to take a deep breath and smile again.
Mendalla
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Quote by magnificent1rascal
Feb 2, 2018

On this day, one year ago, I came home from the hospital following a complete hysterectomy. The surgery was supposed to be the end of a growing health concern that had lasted for eight months up to that point, but the pathology report led to more tests and procedures until I was finally given a clean bill of health three months later.


Glad to hear that's behind you now. A buddy's wife went through that a decade or so ago.

February 4 - In 1974, Patricia Hearst, of the Hearst newspaper family, was kidnapped by the SLA (Symbionese Liberation Army). Hearst actually joined the group (under duress she claimed, though the prosecution thought otherwise) and was sentenced to 35 years prison for the crimes she was involved in. She was eventually pardoned by Bill Clinton after having her sentence commuted by Jimmy Carter. I was only 9 but remember the story fairly well.

A mighty warrior meets an unusual challenger. The Last Challenge of Jadek Prynn.

AnnaMayZing
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1555 – John Rogers is burned at the stake, becoming the first English Protestant martyr under Mary I of England.

1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.

1861 – American Civil War: In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from six break-away U.S. states meet and form the Confederate States of America.

1938 – Adolf Hitler appoints himself as head of the Armed Forces High Command.

1974 – M62 coach bombing: The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb on a bus carrying off-duty British Armed Forces personnel in Yorkshire, England. Nine soldiers and three civilians are killed.

2004 – Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

If anyone wishes to find the beginning of this epic saga, here it is:
https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/drama/the-nurses.aspx

However, since this story is now available in paperback, only the first few chapters remain. Buy at:

https://www.vbay.info/thenurses

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

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February 4, 1789


On this day in 1789, 69 members of Congress cast their ballots to elect George Washington the first president of the United States.

As the former leader of the Continental Army and chairman of the Continental Congress, Washington possessed the necessary credentials for the presidency, if not the enthusiasm. After months of appearing to sidestep, and even outright rejecting the idea of assuming the presidency, Washington reluctantly accepted Congress’ decision. Runner-up John Adams became Washington’s vice president.

Washington’s reluctance stemmed in part from the fact that becoming president would place him squarely in the middle of a raging legislative debate regarding the character of the new government, a conflict that persisted to the end of his second term. Washington dreaded presiding over a fragile young nation that already appeared to be dividing along partisan lines. He also expressed concern over his advancing age. In his memoirs, he wrote that on the eve of his inauguration he felt more like a culprit who is going to the place of his execution than a national hero. His letters at the time reveal his trepidation and reluctant sense of duty. Nevertheless, he knew he had earned the nation’s trust and respect while leading the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War and that it was now relying on him once again.

Washington’s humility meshed well with the new nation’s democratic sensibilities. Fearing any comparison to the monarchal government from which American had just been liberated, an aging Washington took care to avoid any physical or symbolic references to European monarchs from the beginning of his term, including ordering his tailor to make his inauguration suit out of simple broadcloth. (Later on, as he settled into the presidency, Washington took to wearing slightly more presidential black velvet.) When the Senate proposed that he be called by the official title His Highness the President of the United States of America and the Protector of Their Liberties, an embarrassed Washington opted for the more modest address of Mr. President.

The first Mr. President embarked on a week-long journey from his estate at Mount Vernon to his inauguration in New York without his wife, Martha, who chose to stay at home. During a presidency in which the role of the president was still evolving and under constant scrutiny, Washington periodically revealed his longing for a return to a more relaxed life at his beloved Mount Vernon and still managed to keep close tabs on the farm, sending detailed instructions for the estate’s maintenance.

*History.com
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February 4, 1789


On this day in 1789, 69 members of Congress cast their ballots to elect George Washington the first president of the United States.

As the former leader of the Continental Army and chairman of the Continental Congress, Washington possessed the necessary credentials for the presidency, if not the enthusiasm. After months of appearing to sidestep, and even outright rejecting the idea of assuming the presidency, Washington reluctantly accepted Congress’ decision. Runner-up John Adams became Washington’s vice president.

Washington’s reluctance stemmed in part from the fact that becoming president would place him squarely in the middle of a raging legislative debate regarding the character of the new government, a conflict that persisted to the end of his second term. Washington dreaded presiding over a fragile young nation that already appeared to be dividing along partisan lines. He also expressed concern over his advancing age. In his memoirs, he wrote that on the eve of his inauguration he felt more like a culprit who is going to the place of his execution than a national hero. His letters at the time reveal his trepidation and reluctant sense of duty. Nevertheless, he knew he had earned the nation’s trust and respect while leading the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War and that it was now relying on him once again.

Washington’s humility meshed well with the new nation’s democratic sensibilities. Fearing any comparison to the monarchal government from which American had just been liberated, an aging Washington took care to avoid any physical or symbolic references to European monarchs from the beginning of his term, including ordering his tailor to make his inauguration suit out of simple broadcloth. (Later on, as he settled into the presidency, Washington took to wearing slightly more presidential black velvet.) When the Senate proposed that he be called by the official title His Highness the President of the United States of America and the Protector of Their Liberties, an embarrassed Washington opted for the more modest address of Mr. President.

The first Mr. President embarked on a week-long journey from his estate at Mount Vernon to his inauguration in New York without his wife, Martha, who chose to stay at home. During a presidency in which the role of the president was still evolving and under constant scrutiny, Washington periodically revealed his longing for a return to a more relaxed life at his beloved Mount Vernon and still managed to keep close tabs on the farm, sending detailed instructions for the estate’s maintenance.

*History.com


I have been such a fan of George Washington for a long time. So overlooked today. Doubt much is even taught about him as the first President. This was a great capsule of the man.
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February 5, 1631


Roger Williams arrives in America.

Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island and an important American religious leader, arrives in Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony from England. Williams, a Puritan, worked as a teacher before serving briefly as a colorful pastor at Plymouth and then at Salem. Within a few years of his arrival, he alarmed the Puritan oligarchy of Massachusetts by speaking out against the right of civil authorities to punish religious dissension and to confiscate Indian land. In October 1635, he was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony by the General Court.

After leaving Massachusetts, Williams, with the assistance of the Narragansett tribe, established a settlement at the junction of two rivers near Narragansett Bay, located in present-day Rhode Island. He declared the settlement open to all those seeking freedom of conscience and the removal of the church from civil matters, and many dissatisfied Puritans came. Taking the success of the venture as a sign from God, Williams named the community “Providence.”

Among those who found a haven in the religious and political refuge of the Rhode Island Colony was Anne Hutchinson, like Williams, exiled from Massachusetts for religious reasons; some of the first Jews to settle in North America; and the Quakers. In Providence, Roger Williams also founded the first Baptist church in America and edited the first dictionary of Native American languages.


*History.com
Mendalla
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Quote by Dreamcatcher
February 5, 1631


Roger Williams arrives in America.



We went to Providence many ago when my son was still small. He read, forget why, a kids book about Williams so had an obsession with seeing sites around the city associated with Williams. Kind of cool. Personally, I was happier about being in the beloved hometown of horror/fantasy writer H. P. Lovecraft but that's a whole other story.

A mighty warrior meets an unusual challenger. The Last Challenge of Jadek Prynn.

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On February 6th, I will be celebrating 48 years of marriage with the same woman. My wife will be going through her annual WTF was I thinking mode and calling old boyfriends to see if there's still a chance.


Happy 48th anniversary to you both, Larry and Mrs Dream.

Lucky you, to catch and hold onto your Dream. Best wishes to you both for the coming years.
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Quote by Dreamcatcher
On February 6th, I will be celebrating 48 years of marriage with the same woman. My wife will be going through her annual WTF was I thinking mode and calling old boyfriends to see if there's still a chance.


Happy 48th anniversary to you both, Larry and Mrs Dream.

Lucky you, to catch and hold onto your Dream. Best wishes to you both for the coming years.



Thank you, my friend. I assure you it was the kindness and patience of Mrs. Dream that has been the tether. She will be given Sainthood at the end I am sure.


February 6, 1891


Dalton Gang commits its first train robbery.

The members of the Dalton Gang stage an unsuccessful train robbery near Alila, California–an inauspicious beginning to their careers as serious criminals.

Bob, Emmett, and Grat Dalton were only three of Lewis and Adeline Dalton’s 10 sons. The brothers grew up on a succession of Oklahoma and Kansas homesteads during the post-Civil War period, when the region was awash in violence lingering from the war and notorious outlaw bands like the James-Younger Gang. Still, the majority of the Dalton boys became law-abiding citizens, and one of the older brothers, Frank, served as a deputy U.S. marshal.

Ironically, Frank’s position in law enforcement brought his younger brothers into lives of crime. When Oklahoma whiskey runners murdered Frank in 1887, Grat took Frank’s place as a deputy marshal and recruited Emmett and Bob as assistants. Disillusioned by the fate of their older law-abiding brother, the three Dalton boys showed little respect for the law and began rustling cattle and horses to supplement their income. The brothers soon began to use their official law enforcement powers for their own ends, and in 1888, they killed a man for pursuing Bob’s girlfriend.

Such gross abuses of authority did not escape attention for long. By 1890, all three men were discredited as lawmen, though they managed to escape imprisonment. Taking up with some of the same hardcore criminals they had previously sworn to bring to justice, the Daltons decided to expand their criminal operations. Bob and Grat headed to California, leaving Emmett behind in Oklahoma because they felt he was still too young for a life of serious crime. In California, they planned to link up with their brother Bill and become bank and train robbers.

The Dalton Gang’s first attempt at train robbery was a fiasco. On February 6, 1891, Bob, Grat, and Bill tried to rob a Southern Pacific train near Alila, California. While Bill kept any passengers from interfering by shooting over their heads, Bob and Grat forced the engineer to show them the location of the cash-carrying express car. When the engineer tried to slip away, one of the brothers shot him in the stomach. Finding the express car on their own, Bob and Grat demanded that the guard inside open the heavy door. The guard refused and began firing down on them from a small spy hole. Thwarted, the brothers finally gave up and rode away.

The Daltons would have done well to heed the ominous signs of that first failed robbery and seek safer pursuits. Instead, they returned to Oklahoma, reunited with young Emmett, and began robbing in earnest. A year later, the gang botched another robbery, boldly attempting to hit two Coffeyville, Kansas, banks at the same time. Townspeople caught them in the act and killed Bob, Grat, and two of their gang members. Emmett was seriously wounded and served 14 years in prison.

Of all the criminal Dalton brothers, only Emmett lived into old age. Freed from prison in 1907, he married and settled in Los Angeles, where he built a successful career in real estate and contracting.
AnnaMayZing
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Quote by Dreamcatcher
On February 6th, I will be celebrating 48 years of marriage with the same woman. My wife will be going through her annual WTF was I thinking mode and calling old boyfriends to see if there's still a chance.


So this was the day you became known as Dreamcatcher? Congratulations to you both.

1840 – Signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, establishing New Zealand as a British colony.

1862 – American Civil War: Forces under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and Andrew H. Foote give the Union its first victory of the war, capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee in the Battle of Fort Henry.

1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.

1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.


1958 – Eight Manchester United F.C. players and 15 other passengers are killed in the Munich air disaster.

1989 – The Round Table Talks start in Poland, thus marking the beginning of the overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.

If anyone wishes to find the beginning of this epic saga, here it is:
https://www.storiesspace.com/stories/drama/the-nurses.aspx

However, since this story is now available in paperback, only the first few chapters remain. Buy at:

https://www.vbay.info/thenurses

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana

Mendalla
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Quote by AnnaMayZing

1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.





Had she the gift of foretelling the future, she might well have abdicated on the spot and stayed in Kenya.Z2uhmxOMXgZeA6Bd She's been a great Queen but what a ride she's had, especially the last half of her reign.

A mighty warrior meets an unusual challenger. The Last Challenge of Jadek Prynn.

Dreamcatcher
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February 7, 1964

The Beatles arrive in New York

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London Heathrow lands at New York’s Kennedy Airport–and “Beatlemania” arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S. hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” At Kennedy, the “Fab Four”–dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark pudding bowl haircuts–were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto American soil.

Two days later, Paul McCartney, age 21, Ringo Starr, 23, John Lennon, 23, and George Harrison, 20, made their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, a popular television variety show. Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month. The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England.

The Beatles’ first American tour left a major imprint in the nation’s cultural memory. With American youth poised to break away from the culturally rigid landscape of the 1950s, the Beatles, with their exuberant music and good-natured rebellion, were the perfect catalyst for the shift. Their singles and albums sold millions of records, and at one point in April 1964 all five best-selling U.S. singles were Beatles songs. By the time the Beatles first feature-film, A Hard Day’s Night, was released in August, Beatlemania was epidemic the world over. Later that month, the four boys from Liverpool returned to the United States for their second tour and played to sold-out arenas across the country.

Later, the Beatles gave up touring to concentrate on their innovative studio recordings, such as 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band, a psychedelic concept album that is regarded as a masterpiece of popular music. The Beatles’ music remained relevant to youth throughout the great cultural shifts of the 1960s, and critics of all ages acknowledged the songwriting genius of the Lennon-McCartney team. In 1970, the Beatles disbanded, leaving a legacy of 18 albums and 30 Top 10 U.S. singles.

During the next decade, all four Beatles pursued solo careers, with varying success. Lennon, the most outspoken and controversial Beatle, was shot to death by a deranged fan outside his New York apartment building in 1980. McCartney was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1997 for his contribution to British culture. In November 2001, George Harrison succumbed to cancer. Ringo Starr was knighted himself for "services to music" in 2018.

*History.com
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February 8, 1587


Mary Queen of Scots beheaded.

After 19 years of imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England for her complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I.

In 1542, while just six days old, Mary ascended to the Scottish throne upon the death of her father, King James V. Her mother sent her to be raised in the French court, and in 1558 she married the French dauphin, who became King Francis II of France in 1559 but died the following year. After Francis’ death, Mary returned to Scotland to assume her designated role as the country’s monarch.

In 1565, she married her English cousin Lord Darnley in order to reinforce her claim of succession to the English throne after Elizabeth’s death. In 1567, Darnley was mysteriously killed in an explosion at Kirk o’ Field, and Mary’s lover, the Earl of Bothwell, was the key suspect. Although Bothwell was acquitted of the charge, his marriage to Mary in the same year enraged the nobility. Mary brought an army against the nobles, but was defeated and imprisoned at Lochleven, Scotland, and forced to abdicate in favor of her son by Darnley, James.

In 1568, Mary escaped from captivity and raised a substantial army but was defeated and fled to England. Queen Elizabeth initially welcomed Mary but was soon forced to put her friend under house arrest after Mary became the focus of various English Catholic and Spanish plots to overthrow Elizabeth. Nineteen years later, in 1586, a major plot to murder Elizabeth was reported, and Mary was brought to trial. She was convicted for complicity and sentenced to death.

On February 8, 1587, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded for treason. Her son, King James VI of Scotland, calmly accepted his mother’s execution, and upon Queen Elizabeth’s death in 1603 he became king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.
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February 9, 1825


Presidential election decided in the House.

As no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the election of 1824, the U.S. House of Representatives votes to elect John Quincy Adams, who won fewer votes than Andrew Jackson in the popular election, as president of the United States. Adams was the son of John Adams, the second president of the United States.

In the 1824 election, 131 electoral votes, just over half of the 261 total, were necessary to elect a candidate president. Although it had no bearing on the outcome of the election, popular votes were counted for the first time in this election. On December 1, 1824, the results were announced. Andrew Jackson of Tennessee won 99 electoral and 153,544 popular votes; John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts received 84 electoral and 108,740 popular votes; Secretary of State William H. Crawford, who had suffered a stroke before the election, received 41 electoral votes; and Representative Henry Clay of Kentucky won 37 electoral votes.

As dictated by the U.S. Constitution, the presidential election was then turned over to the House of Representatives. The 12th Amendment states that if no electoral majority is won, only the three candidates who receive the most popular votes will be considered in the House.

Representative Henry Clay, who was disqualified from the House vote as a fourth-place candidate, agreed to use his influence to have John Quincy Adams elected. Clay and Adams were both members of a loose coalition in Congress that by 1828 became known as the National Republicans, while Jackson’s supporters were later organized into the Democratic Party.

Thanks to Clay’s backing, on February 9, 1825, the House elected Adams as president of the United States. When Adams then appointed Clay to the top Cabinet post of secretary of state, Jackson and his supporters derided the appointment as the fulfillment of a corrupt bargain.

With little popular support, Adams’ time in the White House was for the most part ineffectual, and the so-called Corrupt Bargain continued to haunt his administration. In 1828, he was defeated in his reelection bid by Andrew Jackson, who received more than twice as many electoral votes than Adams.

*History.com