HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Wednesday, February 1, the 32nd day of 2017. There are 333 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 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 and the United Kingdom. 1964 – The Beatles have their first number one hit in the

United States with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” 1968 – Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lém 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. 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 São 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. 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. 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.