THUNDER BAY – HISTORY – It was on this day in history in 1964 that the Beatles had their first #1 Hit with “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”.
In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia returning to Earth after a successful Mission STS-107 disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere. All seven Astronauts onboard the Columbia were killed. It was discovered that a small piece of foam had pierced the Shuttle during the launch. That breach of the Shuttle’s heat tiles lead to the disaster.
Debris was scattered across Texas, and the southern United States.
Significant events on February 1
- 481 – Vandal king Huneric organises a conference between Catholic and Arian bishops at Carthage.
- 1327 – Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
- 1329 – King John of Bohemia captures Medvėgalis, an important fortress of the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and baptizes 6,000 of its defenders
- 1411 – The First Peace of Thorn is signed in Thorn, Monastic State of the Teutonic Knights (Prussia).
- 1662 – The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
- 1713 – The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan’s order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
- 1793 – French Revolutionary Wars: France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
- 1796 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
- 1814 – Mayon Volcano in the Philippines erupts, killing around 1,200 people, the most devastating eruption of the volcano.
- 1835 – Slavery is abolished in Mauritius.
- 1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
- 1865 – President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
- 1876 – A murder conviction effectively forces the violent Pennsylvanian Irish anti-owner coal miners, the “Molly Maguires”, to disband.
- 1884 – The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
- 1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
- 1895 – Fountains Valley, Pretoria, the oldest nature reserve in Africa, is proclaimed by President Paul Kruger.
- 1897 – Shinhan Bank, the oldest bank in South Korea, opens in Seoul.
- 1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe, are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
- 1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
- 1920 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begins operations.
- 1924 – The United Kingdom recognizes the USSR.
- 1942 – World War II: Josef Terboven, Reichskommissar of German-occupied Norway, appoints Vidkun Quisling the Minister President of the National Government.
- 1942 – World War II: U.S. Navy conducts Marshalls-Gilberts raids, the first offensive action by the United States against Japanese forces in the Pacific Theater.
- 1942 – Voice of America, the official external radio and television service of the United States government, begins broadcasting with programs aimed at areas controlled by the Axis powers.
- 1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
- 1946 – The Parliament of Hungary abolishes the monarchy after nine centuries, and proclaims the Hungarian Republic.
- 1953 – North Sea flood of 1953 (Dutch, Watersnoodramp, literally “flood disaster”) was a major flood caused by a heavy storm, that occurred on the night of Saturday, 31 January 1953 and morning of Sunday, 1 February 1953. The floods struck the Netherlands, Belgium, England and Scotland.
- 1957 – Felix Wankel’s first working prototype (DKM 54) of the Wankel engine runs at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany
- 1960 – Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
- 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the United States with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
- 1965 – The Hamilton River in Labrador, Canada is renamed the Churchill River in honour of Winston Churchill.
- 1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War.
- 1968 – Canada’s three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
- 1968 – The New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad are merged to form Penn Central Transportation.
- 1972 – Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
- 1974 – A fire in the 25-story Joelma Building in Sao Paulo, Brazil kills 189 and injures 293.
- 1974 – Kuala Lumpur is declared a Federal Territory.
- 1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the United States to France after pleading guilty to charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
- 1979 – The Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
- 1982 – Senegal and the Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
- 1989 – The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
- 1990 – Humanitas publishing house is founded in Bucharest, shortly after the Romanian Revolution, by the philosopher Gabriel Liiceanu.
- 1991 – A runway collision between USAir Flight 1493 and SkyWest Flight 5569 at Los Angeles International Airport results in the deaths of 34 people, and injuries to 30 others.
- 1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
- 1993 – Gary Bettman becomes the NHL’s first commissioner
- 1994 – Punk rock band Green Day releases their album Dookie, which would eventually sell over 20 million copies worldwide.
- 1996 – The Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress.
- 1998 – Rear Admiral Lillian E. Fishburne becomes the first female African American to be promoted to rear admiral.
- 2001 – Putrajaya, the Malaysian administrative city, is declared a Federal Territory.
- 2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist and South Asia Bureau Chief of the Wall Street Journal, kidnapped January 23, 2002, is beheaded and mutilated by his captors.
- 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 disintegrates during reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
- 2004 – 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
- 2004 – Janet Jackson’s breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to Federal Communications Commission censorship guidelines.
- 2005 – King Gyanendra of Nepal carries out a coup d’état to capture the democracy, becoming Chairman of the Councils of ministers.
- 2013 – The Shard, the tallest building in the European Union, is opened to the public.
Source: Wikipedia.
