TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, FEB. 1, the 32nd day of 2015. There are 333 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1865, during the Civil War, Union forces led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman began the Carolinas Campaign as they invaded South Carolina. Abolitionist John S. Rock became the first black lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York. (However, since only three of the six justices were present, the court recessed until the next day.)
In 1861, Texas voted to leave the Union at a Secession Convention in Austin.
In 1896, Giacomo Puccini’s opera “La Boheme” premiered in Turin.
In 1922, in one of Hollywood’s most enduring mysteries, movie director William Desmond Taylor was shot to death in his Los Angeles home; the killing has never been solved.
In 1943, one of America’s most highly decorated military units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almost exclusively of Japanese Americans, was authorized.
In 1946, Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
In 1960, four black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they’d been refused service.
In 1968, during the Vietnam War, South Vietnam’s police chief (Nguyen Ngoc Loan) executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. Richard M. Nixon announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.
In 1988, actress Heather O’Rourke, who’d co-starred in the 1982 movie “Poltergeist,” died in San Diego at age 12.
In 1995, British rock performer Richey Edwards, 27, disappeared after last being seen in London; his fate has never been determined.
In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Stuart Whitman is 87. Folk singer Bob Shane (The Kingston Trio) is 81. Singers Don Everly and Ray Sawyer (Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show), and actor Garrett Morris are 78. Bluegrass singer Del McCoury is 76. TV personality-singer Joy Philbin is 74. Comedian-actor-director Terry Jones is 73. Political commentator Fred Barnes is 72. Rock musician Mike Campbell ( Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 65. Blues singer-musician Sonny Landreth is 64. Actor-writer-producer Bill Mumy is 61. Rock singer Exene Cervenka is 59. Actor Linus Roache is 51. Princess Stephanie of Monaco, country musician Dwayne Dupuy (Ricochet) and actress Sherilyn Fenn are 50. Lisa Marie Presley and comedian-actor Pauly Shore are 47. Actor Brian Krause, jazz musician Joshua Redman and rock musician Patrick Wilson (Weezer) are 46. Actor Michael C. Hall and rock musician Ron Welty are 44. Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is 40. Actor Jarrett Lennon is 33. Rock singer-musician Andrew Van-Wyngarden is 32. TV personality Lauren Conrad is 29. Actresssinger Heather Morris (TV: “Glee”), and actress and martial arts champion Ronda Rousey are 28. Rock singer Harry Styles ( One Direction) is 21.