Today in History

Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023

Today is Thursday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2023. There are 331 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Feb. 9, 1971, a magnitude 6.6earthquake in California’s San Fernando Valley claimed 65 lives. The crew of Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man’s third landing on the moon.

On this date:

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. 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, West Virginia, Republican Sen. Joseph Mccarthy of Wisconsin charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.

In 1962, an agreement was signed to make Jamaica an independent nation within the British Commonwealth later in the year.

In 1963, the Boeing 727 went on its first-ever flight as it took off from Renton, Washington. In 1964, the Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York on CBS. The G.I. Joe action figure was introduced at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

In 1984, Soviet leader Yuri V. Andropov, 69, died 15 months after succeeding Leonid Brezhnev; he was followed by Konstantin U. Chernenko (chehr-nyen’-koh).

In 1986, during its latest visit to the solar system, Halley’s Comet came closest to the sun (its next return will be in 2061). In 2002, Britain’s Princess Margaret, sister of Queen Elizabeth II, died in London at age 71.

In 2009, New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs, telling ESPN he’d used banned substances while with the Texas Rangers for three years. In 2020, “Parasite,” from South Korea, won the best picture Oscar, becoming the first foreign-language film to take home the biggest honor in film. Ten years ago: Hundreds of mourners and dignitaries, including first lady Michelle Obama, packed the funeral service for Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old honor student who was shot and killed Jan. 29 as she stood with friends at a neighborhood park about a mile from President Barack Obama’s Chicago home in the Kenwood neighborhood.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump signed a $400 billion budget deal that sharply boosted spending, swelling the federal deficit; the measure ended a brief overnight federal government shutdown. At the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea, North and South Korean athletes entered Olympic Stadium together, waving flags showing a unified Korea; it was their first joint Olympic march in more than a decade.

One year ago: It was revealed that Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian figure skating superstar who had just led her team to an Olympic gold medal, tested positive for a banned heart medication before the Beijing Games. Actor Bob Saget’s family revealed that it was an accidental blow to the head that led to his death in a Florida hotel room a month earlier.

Today’s birthdays:

Actor Janet Suzman is 84. Nobel Prize-winning author J.M. Coetzee is 83. Actor-politician Sheila James Kuehl (TV: “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”) is

82. Singer-songwriter Carole King is 81. Actor Joe Pesci is

80. Singer Barbara Lewis is

80. Author Alice Walker is 79. Actor Mia Farrow is 78. Former Sen. Jim Webb, D-VA., is 77. Singer Joe Ely is 76. Actor Judith Light is 74. Actor Charles Shaughnessy is 68. Actor Ed Amatrudo is 67. Former Virginia Gov. Terry Mcauliffe is 66. Jazz musician Steve Wilson is 62. Country singer Travis Tritt is

60. Actor Julie Warner is 58. Country singer Danni Leigh is 53. Actor Sharon Case is

52. Actor Jason George is 51. Actor Amber Valletta is 49. Actor-producer Charlie Day is 47. Rock singer Chad Wolf (Carolina Liar) is 47. Actor A.J. Buckley is 46. Rock musician Richard On (O.A.R.) is 44. Actor Ziyi (zee yee) Zhang is 44. Olympic silver and bronze medal figure skater Irina Slutskaya is 44. Actor Tom Hiddleston is 42. Actor David Gallagher is

38. Actor Michael B. Jordan is 36. Actor Rose Leslie is 36. Actor Camille Winbush is 33. Actor Jimmy Bennett is 27. Actor Evan Roe (TV: “Madam Secretary”) is 23.

Friday, Feb. 10, 2023

Today is Friday, Feb. 10, the 41st day of 2023. There are 330 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 10, 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

On this date:

In 1763, Britain, Spain and France signed the Treaty of Paris, ending the Seven Years’ War (also known as the French and Indian War in North America).

In 1840, Britain’s Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-coburg (Koh’-borg) and Gotha (Gah’-thuh).

In 1936, Nazi Germany’s Reichstag passed a law investing the Gestapo secret police with absolute authority, exempt from any legal review.

In 1959, a major tornado tore through the St. Louis area, killing 21 people and causing heavy damage.

In 1967, the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with presidential disability and succession, was ratified as Minnesota and Nevada adopted it.

In 1981, eight people were killed when a fire set by a busboy broke out at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino.

In 1989, Ron Brown was elected the first Black chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

In 1992, boxer Mike Tyson was convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant. (Tyson served three years in prison.) “Roots” author Alex Haley died in Seattle at age 70. In 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost the first game of a match in Philadelphia against an IBM computer dubbed “Deep Blue.” (Kasparov ended up winning the match, 4 games to 2; he was defeated by Deep Blue in a rematch the following year.)

In 2005, North Korea boasted publicly for the first time that it possessed nuclear weapons. In 2015, NBC announced it was suspending Brian Williams as “Nightly News” anchor and managing editor for six months without pay for misleading the public about his experiences covering the Iraq War. Jon Stewart announced he would step down as host of “The Daily Show” on Comedy Central later in the year.

In 2020, U.S. health officials confirmed the first case of the novel coronavirus among the hundreds of people who’d been evacuated from China to military bases in the United States; it was among the 13 confirmed cases in the U.S. Britain declared the new coronavirus a “serious and imminent threat to public health” and said people with the virus could now be forcibly quarantined.

Ten years ago: Joe Paterno’s family released its response to Penn State’s report on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, attacking Louis Freeh’s conclusion that the coach hid sex abuse allegations against his longtime assistant. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford took charge of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. At the Grammy Awards, Fun. won song of the year for “We Are Young”; Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know” picked up record of the year.

Five years ago: Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes in Syria that were ordered after Israel intercepted an Iranian drone that had infiltrated its airspace; it was the most serious Israeli engagement in Syria since the war erupted there almost seven years earlier. In a tweet that appeared to take aim at the rising #Metoo movement, President Donald Trump wrote that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation;” the tweet came in the aftermath of the resignation of a pivotal aide, Rob Porter, who’d been accused of abusing two ex-wives. The Korean women’s hockey team, the first in Olympic history to combine players from the North and South, lost its debut game, 8-0, to Switzerland before a cheering, chanting sellout crowd at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

One year ago: The U.S. Labor Department revealed that inflation over the past year had soared at its highest rate in forty years. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the Ukraine crisis has grown into “the most dangerous moment” for Europe in decades, while his top diplomat held icy talks with her Moscow counterpart who said the Kremlin wouldn’t accept lectures from the West. Today’s birthdays: Opera singer Leontyne Price is

96. Actor Robert Wagner is

93. Singer Roberta Flack is

86. Singer Jimmy Merchant (Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers) is 83. Rock musician Bob Spalding (The Ventures) is

76. Olympic gold-medal swimmer Mark Spitz is 73. Walt Disney Co. executive Robert Iger is 72. Rock musician and composer Cory Lerios (Pablo Cruise) is 72. World Golf Hall of Famer Greg Norman is 68. Actor Kathleen Beller is 67. Country singer Lionel Cartwright is 63. Movie director Alexander Payne is 62. ABC News correspondent George Stephanopoulos is 62. Political commentator Glenn Beck is 59. Actor Laura Dern is 56. Writerproducer-director Vince Gilligan (TV: “Breaking Bad”) is 56. Country singer Dude Mowrey is 51. Actor Jason Olive is 51. Actor Elizabeth Banks is 49. Actor Julia Pace Mitchell is 45. Reggaeton singer Don Omar is 45. Actor Uzo Aduba is 42. Actor Stephanie Beatriz is 42. Actor Max Brown is 42. Actor Barry Sloane is 42. Rock singer Eric Dill is 41. Actor Trevante Rhodes is 33. Actor Emma Roberts is 32. Actor Makenzie Vega is 29. Actor Chloe Grace Moretz is 26. Actor Yara Shahidi is 23.

Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023

Today is Saturday, Feb. 11, the 42nd day of 2023. There are 329 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Feb. 11, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.

On this date:

In 660 B.C., tradition holds that Japan was founded as Jimmu ascended the throne as the country’s first emperor.

In 1847, American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio.

In 1937, a six-week-old sitdown strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union.

In 1963, American author and poet Sylvia Plath was found dead in her London flat, a suicide; she was 30.

In 1975, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party. In 1979, followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-may’nee) seized power in Iran. In 1990, South African Black activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27years in captivity. In 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded Harry Whittington, a companion during a weekend quail-hunting trip in Texas. In 2008, the Pentagon charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (Hah’-leed shayk moh-hah’med) and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2011, Egypt exploded with joy after pro-democracy protesters brought down President Hosni Mubarak, whose resignation ended three decades of authoritarian rule.

In 2020, the World Health Organization gave the official name of COVID-19TO the disease caused by the coronavirus that had emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Ten years ago: With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope had done in more than half a millennium: announced his resignation. The bombshell came during a routine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals. (The 85-year-old pontiff was succeeded by Pope Francis.)

Five years ago: A Russian passenger plane crashed into a snowy field six minutes after taking off from Moscow, killing all 65 passengers and six crew members; investigators would blame human error, saying the pilots had received flawed air speed readings after failing to turn on a heating unit for the measurement equipment. Amid swirling winds, 17-yearold snowboarder Red Gerard won the United States’ first gold medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, capturing the men’s slopestyle event. Singer Vic Damone, who possessed what Frank Sinatra once called “the best pipes in the business,” died in Florida at the age of 89.

One year ago: President Joe Biden called on President Vladimir Putin to pull back more than 100,000 Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders and warned that the U.S. and its allies would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if Russia invades. A tense standoff at a key U.s.-canadian border bridge eased as protesters opposed to Covid-19restrictions withdrew their vehicles.

Today’s birthdays: Gospel singer Jimmy Carter is 91. Actor Tina Louise is 89. Fashion designer Mary Quant is 89. Bandleader Sergio Mendes is

82. Actor Philip Anglim is 71. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is

70. Actor Catherine Hickland is

67. Rock musician David Uosikkinen (The Hooters) is 67. Actor Carey Lowell is 62. Singer Sheryl Crow is 61. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is 59. Actor Jennifer Aniston is 54. Actor Damian Lewis is 52. Actor Marisa Petroro is 51. Singer D’angelo is 49. Actor Brice Beckham is 47. Rock vocalist Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) is

46. Singer-actor Brandy is 44. Country musician Jon Jones (The Eli Young Band) is 43. Actor Matthew Lawrence is

43. R&B singer Kelly Rowland is 42. Actor Natalie Dormer is

41. Singer Aubrey O’day is 39. Actor Q’orianka Kilcher is 33. Actor Taylor Lautner is 31.