TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2019

On this day in history:

1779 - Captain James Cook is killed in Hawaii.

1788 - Lieutenant Philip Gidley King leaves Sydney to establish a settlement on Norfolk Island

1876 - Alexander Graham Bell filed an application for a patent for the telephone. It was officially issued on March 7, 1876.

1895 - Oscar Wilde’s final play, The Importance of Being Earnest, opened at the St. James’ Theatre in London.

1900 - Russia imposed tighter imperial control over Finland in response to an international petition for Finland’s freedom.

1900 - In South Africa, British Gen Roberts invaded Orange Free State with 20,000 troops.

1936 - The Walter Taylor Bridge, which crosses the Brisbane River, is opened.

1945 - Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations.

1966 - Decimal currency is introduced in Australia, and the Australian dollar makes its debut.

1989 - Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his novel The Satanic Verses.

1989 - The first satellite of the Global Positioning System was placed into orbit around Earth.

1989 - Union Carbide agreed to pay $470 million to the government of India. The court-ordered settlement was a result of the 1984 Bhopal gas leak disaster.

2003 - In Madrid, Spain, a ceramic plate with a bullfighting motif painted by Pablo Picasso in 1949 was stolen from an art show. The plate was on sale for $12,400.

2005 - The video-sharing website YouTube was activated.

BIRTHDAYS

Christopher Sholes 1819 George Ferris 1859

John Barrymore 1882

Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky) 1894

James Pike 1913

Jimmy Hoffa 1913

Mel Allen (Israel) 1913 Woody (Wayne) Hayes 1913 Hugh Downs 1921 Skeezix Wallet 1921 Cesare Siepi 1923

Donna Atwood 1923