TODAY HISTORY LESSON: FEBRUARY 8
1587 Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle aged 44 after being convicted of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth I in the Babington Plot
1693 College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., received its charter, becoming the second institution of higher learning in the United States.
1807 Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon’s forces and Russian Empire – 1st battle Napoleon isn’t victorious
1861 Delegates from seceded states adopt a provisional Confederate Constitution.
1865 Confederate raider William Quantrill and men attack a group of Federal wagons at New Market, Kentucky.
1870 The National Weather Service was established under the U.S. Army Signal Corps.
1879 Sandford Fleming proposes the use of time zones
1887 Congress passes the Dawes Act, which gives citizenship to Indians living apart from their tribe.
1904 The Russo-Japanese war began when the Japanese launched a surprise attack on the Russian fleet at Port Arthur in northeast China.
1910 The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.
1911 US helps overthrow President Miguel Dávila of Honduras
1918 “Stars & Stripes”, weekly US armed forces newspaper, 1st published
1924 The gas chamber was used for the first time as a method of execution in the United States. Gangster Gee Jon was put to death at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
1935 1st NFL draft; Jay Berwanger of University of Chicago is 1st pick (by Eagles); He never plays in the NFL
1942 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn’t oppose the US war effort
1950 The Stasi, East Germany’s notorious secret police, is established. The “Staatssicherheit”, which was dissolved in 1990, is considered one of the most repressive intelligence agencies in the world.
1952 Elizabeth becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI, dies.
1960 Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom issued an Order-in-Council, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name “Mountbatten-Windsor”.
1960 The first 8 stars are added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame
1960 The payola (pay for broadcast airplay) hearings opened in the U.S. House of Representatives. Dick Clark would testify in April.
1964 Representative Martha Griffiths address gets civil rights protection for women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act
1971 South Vietnamese ground forces, backed by American air power, begin Operation Lam Son 719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ends three weeks later in a disaster.
1971 The NASDAQ holds its first trading day
1980 President Jimmy Carter revealed his plan to reinstate selective service draft registration.
1983 Champion thoroughbred Shergar kidnapped in Ireland; never found Lloyds of London pays $10.6 million insurance
1985 “The Dukes of Hazzard” ended its 6-1/2 year run on CBS television.
1990 CBS television temporarily suspends Andy Rooney for his anti-gay and ant-black remarks in a magazine interview.
1993 General Motors sued NBC, alleging that “Dateline NBC” had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that some GM pickups were prone to fires after certain types of crashes. The suit was settled the following day by NBC.
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
