This Week In #History … February 28th – March 6th

#TalkNerdyToMeLover’s @UlaVovk

Feb 28
1692 Salem witch hunt begins
1759 Pope Clement XIII allows Bible to be translated into various languages
1883 1st U.S. vaudeville theater opens in Boston
1917 Russian Duma sets up Provisional Committee; workers set up Soviets
1933 Hitler disallows German Communist Party (KPD)
1956 Forrester issued a patent for computer core memory
1959 Launch of Discoverer 1 (WTR)-1st polar orbit
1970 Bicycles permitted to cross Golden Gate Bridge
1977 1st killer whale born in captivity (Marineland, Los Angeles California)
2010 Egypt announces the discovery of a granite head from a statue of Tutankhamun’s grandfather, Amenhotep III, buried at a temple in Luxor

Happy birthday to Michel de Montaigne, Jobst Burgi, Thomas Newcomen, Rene-Antoine de Reaumur, D. Francois J. Arago, Karl Earnest Ritter von Baer, Ernest Renan, Hermann Schell, Jacob P Vis, Vyacheslav I Ivanov, Jose Vasconcelos, Victor Sutherland, Ben Hecht, Linus Pauling, Stephen Harold Spender, Olan Soule, Zero “Samuel” Mostel, John Bouber, John Swire, Bettye Ackerman, Leon Cooper, Gavin MacLeod, Jeff Farrell, Frank Bonner, Mimsy Farmer, Charles “Bubba” Smith, Mercedes Ruehl, Gustavo Thoeni, Jennie Lynn, Gilbert Gottfried, John Turturro, Rae Dawn Chong, Noureddine Morceli, Rory Cochrane, Ali Larter.

Mar 1
1642 Georgeana (York), Maine became the 1st incorporated American city
1780 Pennsylvania becomes 1st U.S. state to abolish slavery (for new-borns only)
1803 Ohio becomes 17th state
1864 Louis Ducos du Hauron patents movie machine (never built)
1872 Yellowstone becomes world’s 1st national park
1912 Albert Berry makes 1st parachute jump from an airplane
1937 1st permanent automobile license plates issued (Connecticut)
1941 “Captain America” appears in a comic book
1961 President Kennedy establishes the Peace Corp
1966 Venera 3 becomes 1st man-made object to impact on a planet (Venus)
1978 Charlie Chaplin’s coffin was stolen from a Swiss cemetery
1988 Wayne Gretzky passes Gordie Howe with his record 1,050th NHL assist
2010 Ejup Ganic, former President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is stopped while trying to escape war crime charges, at London Heathrow airport

Happy birthday to Johann B Schup, Jacob Gottfried Weber, Vittorio Bersezio, Matthias J. Scheeben, William Dean Howells, Georg Simmel, Rebecca Lee, Lytton Strachey, Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Hartman, Terence De Marney, David Niven, Ralph Waldo Ellison, Roger Delgado, Howard Nemerov, Jack Clayton, Michael Flanders, Yitzhak Rabin, Donald “Deke” Kent Slayton, Robert Clary, Raymond St. Jacques, Joan Hackett, Marion Farouk-Sluglett, Leo Brouwer, Louis Gerstner, Jerry Fischer, Peter Guber, John Leeson, Mauro Checcoli, Franz Hohler, Roger Daltrey, Dirk Benedict, Tony Ashton, Ron Howard, Catherine Bach, Clinton Gregory, Javier Bardem, Jack Davenport, Mark-Paul Gosselaar.

Mar 2
1789 Pennsylvania ends prohibition of theatrical performances
1829 New England Asylum for the Blind, 1st in U.S., incorporated, Boston
1866 1st U.S. company to make sewing needles by machine incorporated, Connecticut
1923 Time magazine debuts
1930 1st U.S. indoor glider flight, St. Louis Terminal Building
1949 1st automatic street light (New Milford, Ct)
1958 1st surface crossing of Antarctic continent is completed in 99 days
1969 1st test flight of the supersonic Concorde
1976 Walt Disney World logged its 50 millionth guest
1983 Final episode of M*A*S*H; 125,000,000 viewers
1994 Miami begins a latin walk of fame, 1st star for Gloria Estefan
2009 Joao Bernardo Vierira, President of Guinea-Bissau is assassinated during an armed attack on his residence in Bissau

Happy birthday to Thomas Bodley, Camille Desmoulins, Samuel Houston, Constantine D. Uschinsky, Gosta Forsell, Wallis Clark, Felix Bressart, Edward Uhler Condon, Theodor Geisel – Dr. Seuss, William Hansen, Marjorie Weaver, Martin Ritt, Jennifer Jones, Philip K. Dick, John Cullum, Tom Wolfe, Al Waxman, Ricardo Lagos, Barbara Luna, John Irving, Katherine Crawford, Gordon Thompson, Rory Gallagher, Eddie Money, Mitchel Laurance, Cassie Yates, Laraine Newman, John Cowsill, Larry Stewart, Daniel Craig, Amber Smith, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Biel.

Mar 3
1634 1st tavern in Boston opens (Samuel Cole)
1791 1st internal revenue act (taxing distilled spirits and carriages)
1845 Florida becomes 27th state
1869 University of South Carolina opens to all races
1885 American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) incorporates
1915 National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NASA forerunner) created
1934 John Dillinger breaks out of jail using a wooden pistol
1959 1st U.S. probe to enter solar orbit, Pioneer 4, launched
1969 Apollo 9 launched for 151 Earth orbits (10 days)
1985 Bill (Willie) Shoemaker is 1st jockey to surpass $100 million
2005 Steve Fossett flys the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer to a world record by completing the first non-stop, non-refueled, solo flight around the world

Happy birthday to Edward Herbert of Cherbury, William Godwin, George M. Pullman, George W. Hill, John Murray, Georg Cantor, Alexander Graham Bell, Wee Willie Keeler, Garrett Morgan, Edward Thomas, Edmund Lowe, Bill Nestell, Robert Gordon, Ragnar Frisch, Juanita Hansen, Edna Best, Ruby Dandridge, Donald Novis, Jay Morris Arena, Arthur Kornberg, James Doohan, Diana Barrymore, Richard Vernon, James Merrill, Gia Scala, Douglas Leedy, Mike Pender, Chris Hughes, Miranda Richardson, Lisa Ann Poggi, Tone-Loc, Diann Roffe-Steinrotter, Julie Bowen, Martin Prochazka, David Faustino, Ronan Keating, Kim Smith.

Mar 4
1675 John Flamsteed appointed 1st Astronomer Royal of England
1791 Vermont admitted as 14th state (1st addition to the 13 colonies)
1826 1st U.S. Railroad chartered, Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachsetts
1849 U.S. had no president, Polks term ends on a Sunday, Taylor couldn’t be sworn-in, Senator David Atchison (President pro tem) term ended March 3rd
1881 Holmes and Watson begin “A Study in Scarlet,” 1st case together
1923 Lenin’s last article in Pravda (about Red bureaucracy)
1955 1st radio facsimile transmission sent across the continent
1962 AEC announces 1st atomic power plant in Antarctica in operation
1979 U.S. Voyager I photo reveals Jupiter’s rings
1997 President Clinton bans federally funded human cloning research

Happy birthday to Henry the Navigator, Antonio Vivaldi, Benjamin Waterhouse, Charles Dibdin, Wijnand J J Nuijen, Giovanni Schiaparelli, Pearl White, Edgar Barrier, John Garfield, Hans Eysenck, Joan Greenwood, Patrick Moore, Thayer David, Alan Sillitoe, Paula Prentiss, John Hancock, Zoltan Jeney, Bobby Womack, Dieter Meier, Michael Ashcroft, Jean O’Leary, Shakin’ Stevens, Billy Gibbons, Emilio Estefan, Gwen Welles, Patricia Heaton, Kelly Lynch, Steven Weber, Stacy Edwards, Tim Vine, Patsy Kensit, Dionna Harris, Chastity Bono.

Mar 5
1558 Smoking tobacco introduced in Europe by Francisco Fernandes
1770 Boston Massacre, British troops kill 5 in crowd. Crispus Attackus becomes 1st black to die for American freedom
1836 Samuel Colt manufactures 1st pistol, 34-caliber “Texas” model
1868 Stapler patented in England by C. H. Gould
1872 George Westinghouse, Jr. patents triple air brake for trains
1933 Germany’s Nazi Party wins majority in parliament (43.9%-17.2M votes)
1956 “King Kong,” 1st televised
1968 U.S. launches Solar Explorer 2 to study the Sun
1979 Voyager I’s closest approach to Jupiter (172,000 miles)
2010 Gordon Brown, United Kingdom’s Prime Minister, gives evidence to the Iraq Inquiry

Happy birthday to William Oughtred, John van der Heyden, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Jacques Babinet, James Merritt Ives, Elisha Harris, Constance Fenimore Woolson, Isabella Gregory, Howard Pyle, Rosa Luxemburg, Henry Travers, Paul Radmilovic, Henry Daniell, Ludwig Donath, Lowell Peters, Sophie Stewart, Joan Sterndale Bennett, Joseph Tomelty, Virginia Christine, Joan Shawlee, Dean Stockwell, Michael D[iamond] Resnick, Paul Sands, Randy Matson, Michael Warren, Harvey Jacob Alperin, Marsha Warfield, Penn Jillette, Mark Handley, Matt Robinson, Matt Lucas, Eva Mendes, Kevin Connolly, Jolene Blalock, Jake Lloyd.

Mar 6
1521 Magellan discovers Guam
1646 Joseph Jenkes, MA, receives 1st colonial machine patent
1899 “Asprin” patented by Felix Hoffmann
1918 U.S. naval boat “Cyclops” disappears in Bermuda Triangle
1940 1st U.S. telecast from an airplane, New York City
1947 XB-45, 1st U.S. 4-engine jet bomber, makes 1st test flight, Muroc, California
1961 1st London minicabs introduced
1967 Muhammad Ali is ordered by selective service to be inducted
1980 French Academy, founded in 1635, elects it 1st woman novelist (Marguerita Youcenar)
1991 Following Iraq’s capitulation in the Persian Gulf conflict, President Bush told Congress that “Aggression is defeated. The war is over.”
2007 Mega Millions has the highest lottery jackpot ever, $370 million dollars

Happy birthday to Michelangelo, Jean Luis Vives, Cyrano de Bergerac, Joseph von Fraunhofer, Aaron Lufkin Dennison, Guy Kibbee, Fernand Ansseau, Victor Kilian, Jay C. Flippen, Ludwig Donath, Elizabeth Pinkston Becker, Bob Wills, Charles Frank, Madge Adam, Ella Logan, Roger Price, Frankie Howerd, William Hedgcock Webster, Ann Curtis, William J. Bell, John Smith, Carmen Delavallade, Ronnie Delaney, Valentina V Tereshkova-Nikolayev, Lovelace Watkins, David Spielberg, Joanna Miles, David Gilmore, Rob Reiner, Anna Maria Horsford, Tony Klatka, Martin Kove, Kiki Dee, Jackie Zeman, Alan Davies, Moira Kelly, Connie Britton, Andrea Elson, Amy Pietz, Shaquille O’Neal, Ellen Muth.