TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, FEB. 8, the 39th day of 2021. There are 326 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1952, Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed her accession to the British throne after the death of her father, King George VI.
In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
In 1693, a charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in the Virginia Colony.
In 1831, Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first Black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, was born in Delaware.
In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
In 1922, President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the White House.
In 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death.
In 1960, work began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles.
In 1971, NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock exchange, held its first trading day.
In 1989, 144 people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fogcovered mountain in the Azores.
In 2007, model, actor and tabloid sensation Anna Nicole Smith died in Hollywood, Florida, at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.
In 2010, Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop superstar in Los Angeles Superior Court. (Murray was convicted in 2011 and served two years in prison.)
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Composerconductor John Williams is 89. Broadcast journalist Ted Koppel is 81. Actor Nick Nolte is 80. Comedian Robert Klein is 79. Actor Brooke Adams is 72. Actor Mary Steenburgen is 68. Author John Grisham is 66. Retired NBA All-Star and College Basketball Hall-of-Famer Marques Johnson is 65. Actor Henry Czerny is 62. The former president of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino III, is 61. Rock singer Vince Neil (Motley Crue) is 60. Actor Mary McCormack is 52. Basketball Hall-of-Famer Alonzo Mourning is 51. Actor Susan Misner is 50. Dance musician Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk), and actors Seth Green and Joshua Morrow are 47. Rock musician Phoenix (Linkin Park) is 44. Actor William Jackson Harper is 41. Actor Jim Parrack is 40. Folk singer-musician Joey Ryan (Milk Carton Kids) is 39. Actorcomedian Cecily Strong is 37. NBA star Klay Thompson and professional surfer Bethany Hamilton are 31.