Historical Events and Current Affairs on February 5

1428: King Alfonso V, orders Sicily's Jews to attend conversion sermons
1488: Roman catholic German emperor Maximilian I caught in Belgium
1512: French troops under Gaston de Foix rescues Bologna
1556: Kings Henri I & Philip II sign Treaty of Vaucelles
1572: Beggars assault Oisterwijk Neth, drive nuns out
1576: Henry of Navarre abjures Catholicism at Tours
1631: Rhode Island, founder, Roger Williams arrives in Boston from England
1644: 1st US livestock branding law passed, by Connecticut
1649: Prince of Wales becomes king Charles II
1663: Earthquake in Canada
1679: German emperor Leopold I signs peace with France
1736: Methodists John & Charles Wesley arrive in Savannah, Georgia
1777: Georgia becomes 1st US state to abolish both entail & primogeniture
1778: Articles of Confederation ratified by 1st state, South Carolina
1782: Spanish take Minorca (western Mediterranean) from English
1783: Earthquakes ravage Calabria, killing 30,000
1783: Sweden recognizes US independence
1795: Zealand Neth surrenders to French general Michaud
1816: Rossini's Opera "Barber of Seville," premieres in Rome
1817: 1st US gas co incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for street lights)
1825: Hannah Lord Montague of NY creates 1st detachable shirt collar
1831: Jan van Speijk blows up his gunboat in Antwerp, killing about 30
1846: "Oregon Spectator" is 1st newspaper to be published on the West Coast
1850: Adding machine employing depressible keys patented, New Paltz, NY
1855: British govt of Palmerston forms
1861: 1st moving picture peep show machine is patented by Samuel Goodale
1861: Kinematoscope patented by Coleman Sellers, Phila
1861: Louisiana delegation except Mr Bouligny withdraws from Congress
1864: Federals occupy Jackson, Mississippi
1865: Battle of Hatcher's Run, VA (Armstrong's Mill, Dabney's Mill)
1870: 1st motion picture shown to a theater audience, Philadelphia
1879: Joseph Swan demonstrates light bulb using carbon glow
1881: Phoenix, Az incorporates
1885: News of fall of Khartoum reaches London
1887: Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Otello" premieres at La Scala in Italy
1887: Snow falls on SF
1893: Alfred Naess skates world record 500m (49.4 sec)
1894: Female suffrage organization in Amsterdam forms
1897: Marcel Proust meets Jean Lorrain in a pistol duel
1900: British troops under Gen Buller occupy Vaal Krantz, Natal
1901: Loop-the-loop centrifugal RR (roller coaster) patented by Ed Prescot
1901: Pierpont Morgan forms US Steel Corp
1904: American occupation of Cuba ends
1907: Arnold Sch”nberg's 1st string quartet premieres in Vienna
1911: Society of Dutch Composers forms in Amsterdam
1916: Enrico Caruso recorded "O Solo Mio" for the Victor Talking Machine Co
1917: Congress overrides Wilson's veto, curtailing Asian immigration
1917: Morosco Theater opens at 217 W 45th St NYC (demolished 1982)
1917: Present Mexican constitution adopted
1918: 1st US pilot to down an enemy airplane, Stephen W Thompson
1918: Separation of church & state begins in USSR
1919: NL pres John Heydler dismisses charges that Hal Chase bet against his
1919: team & threw games in collusion with gamblers
1921: Yankees purchase 20 acres in Bronx for Yankee Stadium
1922: Reader's Digest magazine 1st published
1923: General mine strike against wage cuts in Saar
1923: Mass arrests of socialists & communists in Italy
1927: Buster Keaton's movie "The General" released & bombed
1929: Jimmy Hatlo's "They'll Do It Every Time" cartoon debuts in SF
1929: K Reinmuth discovers asteroids #1106 Cydonia, #1109 Tata & #1346 Gotha
1930: 5th Aliyah to Israel begins
1931: Maxine Dunlap becomes 1st US women to earn a glider pilot license
1932: Reinmuth find asteroids 2897 Ole Romer, 3263, 3426 Seki & 6808 Plantin
1933: Marinus van der Lubbe passes Dutch/German boundary
1934: Reinmuth discovers asteroids #2346 Lilio, #2444 Lederle, #2957 & #3707
1936: National Wildlife Federation forms
1937: 1st Charlie Chaplin talkie, "Modern Times," released
1937: FDR proposes enlarging Supreme Court, "court packing" plan failed
1938: Hans Engnestangen skates world record 500m (41.8 sec)
1940: Gen Winckelman replaces Gen Reijnders as Dutch supreme commander
1940: Glenn Miller & his Orchestra record "Tuxedo Junction"
1941: Dutch Premier De Geer returns from Lisbon to Netherlands
1942: "Woman of the Year," starring Hepburn & Tracy opens at Radio City
1942: Braves get Tommy Holmes from Yanks for Buddy Hassett & Gene Moore
1943: Amsterdam resistance group CS-6 shoots nazi general Seyffardt
1943: Clandestine Radio Atlantiksender, Germany, 1st transmission
1944: 358 RAF-bombers attack Stettin
1945: Big Racket becomes fastest race horse at 69t.6 kph (440 yd/20.8 s)
1945: British premier Churchill arrives in Yalta, the Krim
1945: US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manilla
1947: Bolewet Beirut becomes president of Poland
1948: "Nature of Things" science show premieres on NBC prime time
1948: Dick Button becomes 1st US figure skating Olympic champion
1948: Gretchen Fraser becomes 1st US woman Olympic slalom champion
1949: Huaso sets official world equestrian high-jump record, 2.47 m, Chic
1953: "Peter Pan" by Walt Disney opens at Roxy Theater, NYC
1953: 5th Emmy Awards: I Love Lucy, Thomas Mitchell & Helen Hayes wins
1954: WCDC TV channel 19 in Adams, MA (ABC) begins broadcasting
1956: 7th Winter Olympic games close at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
1956: NY Mayor Robert Wagner & Bkln Boro Pres Frank Cashmore sponsor a bill
1956: to create a $30M Brooklyn Sports Center Authority to build
1957: Dmitri Shostakovitch completes his 2nd Piano Concert
1958: Clifton R Wharton confirmed as 1st US black foreign minister (Romania)
1958: Gamel Abdel Nasser nominated 1st president of United Arab Republic
1958: Vanguard TV-3 back-up launches into Earth orbit; reaches 6 km
1959: "Redhead" opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 455 performances
1959: Australia regain the Ashes with a 10 wicket victory at Adelaide
1962: French President de Gaulle calls for Algeria's independence
1962: Suit to bar Englewood NJ from "racial segregated" schools, filed
1962: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter & Saturn within 16ø
1963: Maarten Schmidt discovers enormous red shifts in quasars
1963: Soviet lunar probe failure
1965: Beursschouwburg opens in Brussels
1966: BBC opens a relay radio station on Ascension Island
1967: "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" premieres on CBS (later ABC, NBC)
1967: Anastasio Somoza elected president of Nicaragua
1967: Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Robert Penn Warren
1968: KDTV TV channel 39 in Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (IND) begins broadcasting
1968: Skater Kees Verkerk wins olympic gold in the 1500m
1969: "Turn-On," debuts & cancelled by ABC after flopping so badly
1969: US population reaches 200 million
1969: Vince Lombardi, becomes part owner, vp, gm & head coach of Redskins
1970: US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1970: WSCV TV channel 51 in Ft Lauderdale, FL (IND) suspends broadcasting
1971: Alan Shepard & Edward Mitchell (Apollo 14) walk on Moon for 4 hrs
1971: Apollo 14, 3rd US manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro
1972: "Another Puff" by Jerry Reed peaks at #65
1972: Bob Douglas is 1st black elected to Basketball Hall of Fame
1972: US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers & baggage
1973: Comic strip "Hagar The Horrible" debuted
1973: Funeral for LC William Nolde, last US soldier killed in Vietnam War
1973: Juan Corona sentenced to 25 consecutive life terms for 25 murders
1974: British mine strike
1974: Mats Wermelin, Sweden, scores all points in 272-0 basketball win
1974: Maximum speed on Autobahn reduced to 100 kph
1974: Patty Hearst kidnapped
1974: US Mariner 10 returns 1st close-up photos of Venus' cloud structure
1976: Australia complete 5-1 series drubbing of West Indies
1977: "CB Savage" by Rod Hart peaks at #67
1977: "Dis-Gorilla (part 1)" by Rick Dees peaks at #56
1977: "In The Mood" by Henhouse 5 Plus Too (Ray Stevens) peaks at #40
1977: "Turn Loose On My Leg" by Jim Stafford peaks at #98
1977: "Up Your Nose" by Gabriel Kaplan peaks at #91
1977: General Mills Adventure Theater premieres on CBS radio
1977: Sugar Ray Leonard beats Luis Vega in 6 rounds in his 1st pro fight
1977: US female Figure Skating championship won by Linda Fratianne
1977: US male Figure Skating championship won by Charles Tickner
1978: Fred Newman makes 88 consecutive basketball free throws blindfolded
1979: Costliest single periodical ad, $3.2 million, Gulf + Western in Time
1979: Sears Radio Theater premieres on CBS
1980: 32nd NHL All-Star Game: Wales beat Campbell 6-3 at Detroit
1980: Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel
1981: "Piaf" opens at Plymouth Theater NYC for 165 performances
1981: Largest Jell-O made (9,246 gallons of watermelon-flavor) in Brisbane
1981: Milt jury in NC convicts Robert Garwood of collaborating with enemy
1982: Chin A Sen ends term as president of Suriname
1982: DEA announces seizure of 3,192 tons of marijuana, 495 people
1982: Laker Airways collapse owing œ270M ($351M)
1982: Suriname pres Chin A Sen resigns & flees to Neth
1983: Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie brought to trial
1984: #3590 Holst & #7636
1984: NZ beat England (82 & 93) by an innings in 3 days
1986: Corazon Aquino & Ferdinand Marcos appear on "Nightline"
1987: Dow Jones avg closes above 2,200 for 1st time
1987: Soyuz TM-2 launches
1988: 1st prime-time wrestling match in 30 yrs-Andre beats Hulk Hogan
1988: Arizona House of Reps vote to impeach Republican Gov Evan Mecham
1988: Panamanian Gen Manuel Noriega indicted by US grand jury for drugs
1989: Kareem Abdul-Jabar becomes 1st NBA player to score 38,000 points
1990: Notre Dame becomes 1st team to sell its game to a major network (NBC)
1991: A Michigan court bars Dr Jack Kevorkian from assisting in suicides
1991: All American Bowl ends after 14 years
1991: Big East Football conference forms
1991: Howard Stern kisses NY Giant Leonard Marshall's ass over bet,
1991: Joni Mitchel inducted into the Canadian Hall of Fame
1991: LA King Dave Taylor becomes 29th NHler to score 1000 points
1991: Stern lost claiming the Giants would lose the Superbowl
1992: Jury selection begins in the LA cops beating Rodney King case
1993: Grenade explodes in Sarajevo, killing 63 & injuring 160
1993: R James Woolsey, becomes 16th director of CIA
1994: "Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego," debuts on Fox TV
1994: Jackson Miss, 30 years after the crime
1994: Medgar Evers' murderer Byron De La Beckwith sentenced to life, in
1995: Japan's Shinshinto Party wins local elections
1995: NFL Pro Bowl: AFC beats NFC 41-13
1995: Sandra V”lker swims female European record 50m backstroke: 27.77
1997: 3 Swiss banks create $70 million Holocaust fund
1997: Brook Lee, Hawaii, crowned 46th Miss USA (en route to Miss Universe)
1998: Alberto Acciarito convicted of harassing his ex-wife Ingrid Rossellini
1998: Author Tom Clancy confirms he signed agreement to purchase Minn
1998: Nancy Kerring & Tonya Harding talk on FOX (Taped Dec 22nd)
1998: Vikings for slightly more than $200 million, an NFL franchise record

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