TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, FEB. 9, the 40th day of 2019. There are 325 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1964, The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York on CBS.
In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
In 1942, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II. Daylight-saving “War Time” went into effect in the United States, with clocks moved one hour forward.
In 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces.
In 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, W.Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.
In 1960, Adolph Coors Co. chairman Adolph Coors III, 44, was shot to death in suburban Denver during a botched kidnapping attempt. The man who killed him, Joseph Corbett, Jr., served 19 years in prison.
In 1964, the G.I. Joe action figure was introduced at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
In 1971, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake in California’s San Fernando Valley claimed 65 lives.
In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin U. Chernenko.
In 2002, Britain’s Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in London at age 71.
In 2017, a federal appeals court refused to reinstate President Donald Trump’s ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim nations, unanimously rejecting the administration’s claim of presidential authority, questioning its motives and concluding that the order was unlikely to survive legal challenges.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Television journalist Roger Mudd is 91. Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee is 79. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 77. Actor Joe Pesci and singer Barbara Lewis are 76. Author Alice Walker is 75. Actress Mia Farrow is 74. Singer Joe Ely is 72. Actress Judith Light is 70. Rhythm-and-blues musician Dennis “DT” Thomas (Kool & the Gang) is 68. Country singer Travis Tritt is 56. Actor-producer Charlie Day and rock singer Chad Wolf (Carolina Liar) are 43. Actor Tom Hiddleston is 38. Actor David Gallagher is 34. Actor Michael B. Jordan and actress Rose Leslie are 32. Actor Evan Roe (TV: “Madam Secretary”) is 19.