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Today in History
GermanStar:
Feb 1 1861
Texas secedes from the Union, becoming independent once again. Since the articles of statehood passed by the U.S. Congress give Texas this right, it is perhaps the only state whose secession was legal.
Feb 1 1964
Governor Matthew Welsh of Indiana declares "Louie, Louie" as recorded by The Kingsmen (originally by Richard Berry & The Pharaohs) "pornographic". And while the FCC couldn't figure out the lyrics, the governor's move backfires by making the song one of the most covered titles in existence.
Feb 1 1968
In Saigon, South Vietnam's national police chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executes an accused Viet Cong spy with a bullet to the head. Unfortunately for the general, he happens to shoot him right in front of NBC cameraman Vo Suu and Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams.
Feb 1 1970
US Government report reveals that 31% of college students have tried pot, man.
Feb 1 1974
A fire on the 12th floor of the 25 story Joelma Bank Building in Sao Paulo Brazil, killing 177 and seriously burning 293. A crowd of 10,000 spectators hampered firefighters near the building. The new building's cheap construction was primarily at fault.
Feb 1 1976
Heisenberg may have died today.
Feb 1 1998
Michael King of Clayton, Georgia is charged with the baseball bat beating death of Kenneth Paul Smith. King urinated in Smith's front yard, and after the property owner complained, he was severely beaten with a bat kept in King's Ford Mustang.
Feb 1 2003
The Space Shuttle Columbia blows up on re-entry, with its debris hitting homes and businesses in Nacogdoches Texas.
Feb 1 2004
During the MTV-provided halftime show of the Superbowl, former boy band member Justin Timberlake conducts an obviously pre-scripted move to expose Janet Jackson's right tit, which oddly sports a ninjitsu-style throwing star as a pasty. The nation is shocked, simply shocked, that a pristine, noncommercial event such as the Superbowl could be ruined by a Jackson.
Feb 1 2006
Singer Mary J. Blige reveals on The Oprah Winfrey Show that she was molestered by a family friend when she was a child.
GermanStar:
Feb 2 1793
Czech composer Franz Kotzwara, who penned "The Battle of Prague," dies from autoerotic asphyxiation in a London brothel.
Feb 2 1852
The first public toilet is inaugurated, located at 95 Fleet Street in London, by the Society of Arts.
Feb 2 1971
Idi Amin assumes power in Uganda, taking the government from President Milton Obote. One of his favorite pastimes seems to have been eating the brains of live prisoners. Also while in office, he eats one of his own sons.
Feb 2 1979
Sid Vicious, bassist for the Sex Pistols, dies in his sleep of a heroin overdose. He was waiting to stand trial for the stabbing death of his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen.
Feb 2 1982
President Hafiz al-Asad orders destruction of Syrian city of Hama after its occupation by Muslim Brotherhood forces seeking to topple the Syrian regime. Estimates of total deaths in this city of 180,000 ranged from 10,000 to 25,000 killed.
Feb 2 1997
Marv Albert, nationally known sportscaster, allegedly bites a 42 year old woman after an evening of watching pornographic movies. By September he is on trial for sodomy. Yessss!
Feb 2 1998
Actor Daniel Baldwin is discovered by police in his Plaza Hotel room totally naked and disoriented, with a porno movie playing at high volume. He was checked into a New York hospital in critical condition, apparently coming down from a cocaine binge. It is not clear why any Baldwin would be unable to handle his cocaine.
GermanStar:
Feb 3 1882
P.T. Barnum purchases the elephant Jumbo. He keeps him for three years until the animal's skull is crushed by a train. After his death, Jumbo gets extra exposure, as his stuffed skin and skeleton are shown separately.
Feb 3 1913
In one of the blackest days in U.S. history, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This amendment created the income tax.
Feb 3 1959
The Day the Music Died: A small plane carrying The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson), Buddy Holly, and Richie Valens crashes near Mason City, Iowa, while en route to a show in Fargo, North Dakota.
Feb 3 1998
The tail of a U.S. marine tactical surveillance jet on a training mission severs a tram cable at a ski resort near Trento in northern Italy, sending 20 skiers nearly 300 feet to their deaths.
Feb 3 1998
Female axe murderer Karla Faye Tucker executed by lethal injection at Huntsville State Prison, Texas. Tucker had brutally murdered Jerry Dean and Deborah Thornton with a pickaxe in 1983. The last woman executed in Texas was also an axe murderer, Chipita Rodriguez, who was hanged in 1863.
GermanStar:
Feb 4 1783
A large earthquake in Calabria Italy leaves 50,000 dead.
Feb 4 1899
On patrol in the city of Manila, Private William Grayson shoots three Filipino soldiers when they fail to halt. The next morning, U.S. forces launch an artillery assault on the Filipino army, killing 3,000. Thus begins the three-year Philippine-American War, a brutal and disastrous campaign foreshadowing the Vietnam War.
Feb 4 1932
The first Winter Olympics were held in the United States at Lake Placid, NY.
Feb 4 1974
Patty Hearst kidnapped
Feb 4 1983
Karen Carpenter dies of anorexia nervosa. She frequently took laxatives and induced vomiting to prevent weight gain. At the time of her death she was pencil thin.
Feb 4 1987
Pianist/homosexual Liberace dead from AIDS in Palm Springs, California. Nobody even suspected the man was gay.
Feb 4 1998
Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is assaulted with a direct hit by a fluffy cream pie during a three-pronged attack in Brussels. He was in Belgium attending meetings with industry and government leaders. Rumor is that the attack was engineered by Noel Godin, infamous for his other pie throwings at government officials.
Feb 4 1999
Gary Coleman was sentenced to a $400 fine, a suspended 90-day jail sentence, and ordered to attend 52 anger-management classes. The sentence stemmed from Coleman assaulting an autograph seeker on July 30, 1998.
GermanStar:
Feb 5 1861
The "Peep Show" machine patented by Samuel Goodale of Cincinnati.
Feb 5 1914
Beat author William S. Burroughs born in St. Louis, MO.
Feb 5 1958
The US Air Force manages to lose an H-bomb somewhere off the coast off Savannah, Georgia. Way to go!
Feb 5 1979
Woodrow Bussey files suit against the Adolf Coors Brewing Company for failing to warn him that their product, Coors Beer, is an intoxicating beverage.
Feb 5 1998
The cold war era Checkpoint Charlie sign -- "You Are Leaving The American Sector" -- is stolen in Berlin.
Feb 5 1999
Mike Tyson was sentenced to a year in jail for assaulting two people after a car accident on August 31, 1998. Tyson was also fined $5,000, had to serve 2 years of probation, and had to perform 200 hours of community service upon release.
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