From Marilyn Monroe to her mother's friend who was instrumental in Marilyn's career. I can not be a huge Joe DiMaggio fan and not love Marilyn.

 

13 Feb 1945

Allied firebombing raid started massive firestorms in Dresden, Germany.

German intelligence detected a Soviet build-up that suggested a move against the eastern Pommern and Danzig-Westpreußen region of Germany (occupied Poland and Danzig).

Soviet troops captured Budapest, Hungary.

Heinz Guderian and Adolf Hitler argued on the Eastern Front situation; Guderian would later make note of Hitler's inability to control his rage.

 

On this same day for many years it's a ritual for men to be searching Supermarkets on the way home from work for any valentines day cards left on shelves

 

13 Feb 2000

The last Peanuts comic strip ran in newspapers, ending a 50-year run during which creator Charles Schulz introduced the world to Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and the world’s most beloved beagle, Snoopy.

 

On February 13, 1923, the New York Renaissance, the first all-Black professional basketball team, is organized. The Renaissance, commonly called the Rens, become one of the dominant teams of the 1920s and 1930s.

The team's founder was Robert L. Douglas, whose primary objective was to give New York City's male, Black athletes opportunities to better themselves. In February 1923, Douglas struck an agreement with William Roach, a Harlem-based real estate developer who owned the New Renaissance Ballroom and Casino, and the Rens were born.

In 1963, the Rens team was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

On February 14, 1970, The Who appeared at Leeds University, England. The show was recorded for the bands forthcoming 'Live At Leeds' album, one of my favorite live records (right up there with Humble Pie's 'Rockin' the Fillmore').

Since its initial reception, Live at Leeds has been cited by several music critics as the best live rock recording of all time. It stands as a 'How To' manual for the hard rocking 3 piece band setup of bass, drums and guitar (plus a singer of course). The sound is thick and full and features the instrumentalists at the top of their games.

The University of Leeds refectory has been named a national landmark in the UK, with the Live at Leeds show commemorated with a blue plaque.

To me, this is the magic cut of the album - a far cry from the original studio cut:

 

February 14

Happy Valentine's Day



c. 269 - Saint Valentine was executed.






Saint Valentine
Born: c. 226 - Terni, Italia, Roman Empire
Passed: c. 269 - age 42 or 43 - Rome, Italia, Roman Empire
Patronage: Affianced couples, happy marriages, love, beekeepers, against fainting, plague, and epilepsy

Saint Valentine was a 3rd-century Roman saint. From the High Middle Ages, his feast day has been associated with a tradition of courtly love. Saint Valentine was a clergyman(either a priest or a bishop) in the Roman Empire who ministered to persecuted Christians. He was martyred by decapitation and his body was buried on the Via Flamina on this date, which has been observed as the Feast of Saint Valentine(Saint Valentine's Day) since at least the eighth century.

Although not much of St. Valentine's life is reliably known, and whether the stories involve two different saints by the same name is also not officially decided, it is agreed that St. Valentine was martyred and then buried on the Via Flamina to the north of Rome. One common story about St. Valentine is that at one point in his life, as the former Bishop of Terni, Narnia, and Amelia, he was under house arrest with Judge Asterius. While discussing religion and faith with the Judge, Valentine pledged the validity of Jesus. The judge immediately put Valentine and his faith to the test.

St. Valentine was presented with the blind daughter of the judge and to restore her sight. If he succeeded, the judge vowed to do anything for St. Valentine. Placing his hands onto her eyes her sight was restored. Judge Asterius was humbled and obeyed St. Valentine's requests. Asterius broke all the idols in his house, fasted for three days and became baptized, along with his family and entire 44 members of his household. The now faithful judge then freed all of the Christian inmates.

St. Valentine was later arrested again for trying to convert people to Christianity and was sent to Rome under Emperor Claudius Gothicus(Claudius II). In Rome, St. Valentine continued to marry Christian couples and give aid to persecuted Christians. Both of these were serious crimes and he was imprisoned. A relationship between the saint and emperor began to grow, until St. Valentine attempted to convince Claudius of Christianity. Claudius became raged and sentenced St. Valentine to death, commanding him to renounce his faith or be beaten with clubs and beheaded.

St. Valentine refused to renounce his faith and Christianity and was beheaded outside the Flamnjnian Gates. Legend has it he sent a card to the blind girl a note signed "Your Valentine".

1818 - Frederick Douglass was born.




Frederick Douglass
Born: February 14, 1818 - Talbot, Maryland
Passed: February 20, 1896 - age 77 - heart attack

Frederick Douglass is a towering figure of American history. He was born enslaved but he made a daring escape to the North and became a celebrated orator, author, and activist. He became a powerful and eloquent voice not only for the abolition of slavery but for broader human rights.

Shortly after Douglass' mother passed away when he was eight years old, his enslaver sent him to Baltimore where he became property of the Auld family. Douglass learned to read there, first from his owner's sister-in-law Sophia and later on his own. He purchased his first book when he was 12 years old, a collection of revolutionary writings and speeches. In 1831 ke learned of the abolutionist movement which further inspired his quest for freedom.

After being sent back to Maryland to work as a field hand , and being jailed for a failed escape attempt, he was returned to Baltimore. This is where he met his future wife, a freewoman named Anna Murray. On September 3, 1838, with forged papers and a sailor's disguise, Douglass escaped via train to freedom in New York City. He and Anna married and moved to Massachusetts.

Douglass would spend the rest of his life working tirelessly to abolish slavery. Through the Anti-Slavery Society of Massachusetts Douglass(who had changed his name to Bailey in 1838) traveled widely around the country speaking of his experience in bondage. He became an active member of the Underground Railroad, helping othersin their quest to escape to freedom in the North. In 1845 he wrote his first of three bestselling autobiographical books, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

To avoid recapture by slave trackers, Douglass and his family moved overseas, where he continued speaking out against slavery. After British admirers raised money to buy his freedom from the Aulds, ne and his family returned to America and relocated to Rochester, New York. There Douglass edited and published an influential Black newspaper called The North Star. It ended up titled Douglass Monthly.

Douglass not only became internationally known as a figure of the anti-slavery movement, he was becoming the conscience of the nation with orations like the 1852 "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" speech. It was a reminder that independence was at the time enjoyed by only a fraction of the U.S. population. In 1861, when the American Civil War erupted Douglass worked to recruit blak soldiers for the Union and met repeatedly with Abraham Lincoln to advocate for equal pay for Black troops and to prod him toward ending slavery. He continued to publish on the cruelty of slavery after the end of the Civil War. He served as U.S. Marshall for the District of Columbia among other government appointments,



1894 - Jack Benny was born.


Jack Benny
Born: February 14, 1894 - Chicago, Illinois
Passed: December 26, 1974 - age 80 - Beverly Hills, California - pancreatic cancer

Jack Benny was an entertainer whose unusual comedic method and expert timing made him a legendary success in U.S, radio and television for more than 30 years. Benny Kubelsky was reared in Waukeegan, Illinois, a small town north of Chicago, where his father operated a saloon and later a dry goods store. As a boy he helped at the store and took up the violent, and by his high-school years he became proficient with the violin. He played it in vaudeville from 1912; and in 1918 when he was taken into the U.S. Navy he was assigned to entertainment duty. It was there that his comic talent came to light, and while he remained a competent violinist in private, on stage his violin became little more than a prop he played ineptly for comic relief.

After World War I Benny returned to vaudeville as a comedian. He appeared in his first motion picture in 1927, and he completed 18 more between 1930 and 1945. The turning point in his career came in 1932 when he entered radio and quickly gained a large following. Audiences responded to Benny's type of humor where he was subtle and languid as most comedy was characterized by broad jokes and rapid delivery . Over the years his cast carefully developed his sage image as a vain, stingy man and would-be violinist. The Jack Benny Program remained on network radio and television for 23 years, until 1965. There were so many stars on the The Jack Benny Program, including Mary Livinston(his real life wife), Eddie Anderson, Phil Harris, Dennis Day, Kenny Baker, Mel Blanc, and many more. Don Wilson was the announcer and fellow star.

 

Saint Valentine's Day Massacre

1929 Saint Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, seven gangsters are killed, allegedly on Al Capone's orders

The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre was the murder of seven members and associates of Chicago's North Side Gang on Saint Valentine's Day 1929. The men were gathered at a Lincoln Park, Chicago, garage on the morning of February 14, 1929. They were lined up against a wall and shot by four unknown assailants, two of whom were disguised as police officers.

The murders resulted from the competition for control of organized crime in the city during Prohibition between the largely Irish North Siders, headed by George "Bugs" Moran, and their largely Italian Chicago Outfit rivals led by Al Capone. The perpetrators have never been conclusively identified, but former members of the Egan's Rats gang working for Capone are suspected of involvement; others have said that members of the Chicago Police Department who allegedly wanted revenge for the killing of a police officer's son played a part.

At 10:30 in the morning on Saint Valentine's Day, Thursday, February 14, 1929, seven men were murdered at the garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side. They were shot by four men using weapons that included two Thompson submachine guns. Two of the shooters were wearing police uniforms, while the others wore suits, ties, overcoats, and hats. Witnesses saw the men in police uniforms leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage after the shooting.

The victims included five members of George "Bugs" Moran's North Side Gang. Moran's second in command and brother-in-law Albert Kachellek (alias James Clark) was killed along with Adam Heyer, the gang's bookkeeper and business manager; Albert Weinshank, who managed several cleaning and dyeing operations for Moran; and gang enforcers Frank Gusenberg and Peter Gusenberg. Two associates were also shot: Reinhardt H. Schwimmer, a former optician turned gambler and gang associate; and John May, an occasional mechanic for the Moran gang.

Chicago police officers arrived at the scene to find that victim Frank Gusenberg was still alive, despite having sustained 14 bullet wounds. He was taken to the hospital, where doctors stabilized him for a short time and police tried to question him. When the police asked him who did it, he reportedly replied, "I won't talk. For God's sake get me to a hospital." He died three hours later.

The massacre was an attempt to eliminate Bugs Moran, head of the North Side Gang. Al Capone, who was at his Florida home at the time, was widely assumed to have been responsible for ordering the massacre. The impetus for the plan may have been the North Side Gang's hijacking of some expensive whisky being illegally smuggled by Capone's gang from Canada across the Detroit River.

Moran was the last survivor of the North Side gunmen; his succession had come about because his similarly aggressive predecessors, Hymie Weiss and Vincent Drucci, had been killed in the violence that followed the murder of their original leader, Dean O'Banion.

Several factors contributed to the timing of the plan to kill Moran. Moran and Capone had been vying for control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging trade. Moran had also been muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs, and he had taken over several saloons that were run by Capone, insisting that they were in his territory. Earlier in the year, North Sider Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter unsuccessfully attempted to murder Jack McGurn. The North Side Gang was complicit in the murders of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo and Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo. Both had been presidents of the Unione Siciliana, the local Mafia, and close associates of Capone.

The plan was to lure Moran to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street on February 14, 1929, to kill him and perhaps two or three of his lieutenants. It is usually assumed that the North Siders were lured to the garage with the promise of a stolen, cut-rate shipment of whiskey, supplied by Detroit's Purple Gang, which was associated with Capone. The Gusenberg brothers were supposed to drive two empty trucks to Detroit that day to pick up two loads of stolen Canadian whisky.

All of the victims were dressed in their best clothes, with the exception of John May, as was customary for the North Siders and other gangsters at the time.

Most of the Moran gang arrived at the warehouse by approximately 10:30 a.m., but Moran was not there, having left his Parkway Hotel apartment late. He and fellow gang member Ted Newberry were approaching the rear of the warehouse from a side street when they saw a police car nearing the building. They immediately turned and retraced their steps, going to a nearby coffee shop. They encountered gang member Henry Gusenberg on the street and warned him, so he too turned back. North Side Gang member Willie Marks also spotted the police car on his way to the garage and ducked into a doorway and jotted down the license number before leaving the neighborhood.

Capone's lookouts likely mistook one of Moran's men, probably Albert Weinshank, who was the same height and build, for Moran himself. The physical similarity between the two men was enhanced by their dress that morning; both happened to be wearing the same color overcoats and hats.

Witnesses outside the garage saw a Cadillac sedan stop in front of the garage. Four men emerged and walked inside, two of them dressed in police uniform. The two fake police officers carried shotguns and entered the rear portion of the garage, where they found members of Moran's gang and associates Reinhart Schwimmer and John May, who was fixing one of the trucks. The fake policemen then ordered the men to line up against the wall, then signaled to the pair in civilian clothes who had accompanied them. Two of the killers opened fire with Thompson sub-machine guns, one with a 20-round box magazine and the other a 50-round drum. They were thorough, spraying their victims left and right, even continuing to fire after all seven had hit the floor. Two shotgun blasts afterward all but obliterated the faces of John May and James Clark, according to the coroner's report.

To give the appearance that everything was under control, the men in street clothes came out with their hands up, prodded by the two uniformed policemen. Inside the garage, the only survivors in the warehouse were May's dog "Highball" and Frank Gusenberg, despite 14 bullet wounds. He was still conscious, but he died three hours later, refusing to identify the killers.

 

2005: YouTube is launched
Three former employees of PayPal, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim, frustrated at not being able to share digital videos with one another, open an office above a pizzeria in San Mateo, California, and launch the site that will allow anyone to upload, view, and share videos of cute cats and virtually anything else as well.

 

14 Feb 1944
SHAEF, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force, established its headquarters in the United Kingdom.

14 Feb 1945
British and Canadian troops reached the Rhine River northwest of Duisberg, Germany.

German Panzerkorps "Großdeutschland" and German 24th Panzer Corps counterattacked near Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland), seeing some success against Soviet 4th Tank Army, but the Germans were unable halt the larger Soviet attempt to surround the city. Nearby, Soviet troops captured Groß-Rosen Concentration Camp in Groß-Rosen, Germany (now Rogoznica, Poland).

The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against Dresden, Germany.

 

February 15

399 B.C. - Philosopher Socrates was sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the young men of the city and for impiety.



Socrates was born in Alopeke, Athens, Greece and became an influential philosopher in ancient Athens in the 5th Century B.C.. He is famous for his "Socratic method", a dialectic method of inquiry whereby a series of questions is asked to establish a person's beliefs or knowledge. He believed the knowledge of the Good is the key to a virtuous life, philosophy should improve society, and the best form of government is based on knowledge and virtue.

Socrates' Theory of ethics is based on the idea that virtue is knowledge, meaning that if someone truly knows what is good, they will inevitably choose to do good. Moral behavior stems from understanding and not ignorance, and that the key to understanding life is the pursuit of knowledge and self-reflection through critical thinking. This is the Socratic method.

The trial of Socrates was held to determine his guilt of two chartges: asebeia(impiety)against the pantheon of Athens, and corruption of the youth of the city-state. The accusers cited two impious acts by Socrates: failing to acknowledge the gods that the city acknowledges" and "introducing new deities".

The death sentence of Socrates was the legal consequence of asking politico-philosophic questions of his students, which resulted in the two accusations of moral corruption and impiety, At trial the majority of dikasts(male-citizen jurors chosen by lot) voted to convict him of the two charges, then consistent with common legal practice voted to determine his punishment. They agreed to a sentence of death to be executed by Socrates drinking a poisonous beverage of hemlock.

438 - Roman Theodosius II published the law codex Codex Theodosianus.


Emperor Theodosius II
Born: April 10, 401
Passed: July 28, 450 - age 49
Reign: January 10, 402 to July 28, 450
Burial: Church of the Holy Apostles, Constantinople

Theodosius II was Augustus as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father Arcadius in 408. His reign was marked by the Codex Theodosius, the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, and presided over the outbreak of two
Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.

Emperor Theodosius II announced to the Senate of Constantinople his intention to form a committee to codify all of the laws from the reign of Constantine up to his reign. The laws in the code span from 312 to 438 Twenty-two scholars worked in two teams for nine years starting in 429 to assemble the Codex Theodosianus. It was a collection of 16 books containing more than 2,500 constitutions issued, while, at the same time omitting obsolete provisions and superfluous phrases. Ar the same time the committee made additions, emendations, and alterations.

The Theodosian Code both codified and elevated the status of Christianity in Europe and signified a distinct change in the practice of religion in general.It also used the apostolic teaching of the Gospel: Let us believe in one deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in equal majesty and in the Holy Trinity. He officially began to proscribe the practice of paganism and authorized the destruction of many temples throughout the empire. Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire and made all other religions illegal. The Codex is one of the many reasons why Christianity thrived and excelled but also why paganism suffered and greatly shrank.

1764 - The city of St. Louis was established in Spanish Louisiana(Missouri).


Pierre Laclede Liguest and Auguste Chouteau - founders

St. Louis started in 1763 when a French merchant named Pierre Laclede Liquest, who had a monopoly on all trade along the Missouri River, left New Orleans in a search of a place to establish a trading post. After storing his supplies at Fort de Chartres in Illinois. Laclede set out with Auguste Chouteau, his 14-year-old lieutenant in search of a site.

Despite Leclede's original plan to establish a post near the mouth of the Missouri River but abandoned that idea because he found the spot to be swampy marsh that frequently flooded. However, just 20 miles downstream from the lowland they came upon a bluff that rose nearly 40 feet above the water, just downriver from the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

In early February 1764, after the icy river broke up enough to allow boat passage Chouteau and 30 men returned to the bluff with instructions from Laclede to clear the land of trees in order to build a trading post. With the felled trees the crew constructed cabins. When Laclede visited he gave the settlement the name St. Louis in honor of King Louis IX.



The 1763 Treaty of Paris surrendered all territory east of the Mississippi to the British. The French villagers in Illinois, not wanting to be forced under British rule, crossed the river to settle around Laclede's trading post. By year's end the population of St. Louis was 40 families.

1862 - General Ulysesse S. Grant begins his major assault at the Battle of Fort Donelson







Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, and Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, guarded the positions where those rivers bisected Confederate lines. After Fort Henry fell fell to Union forces led by General U.S. Grant on February 6, 1862, Fort Donelson stood as a lone sentry protecting important Southern agricultural lands and the city of Nashville, the capital of Tennessee and a munition center. Confederate General Albert Sydney Johnston dispatched four generals and rushed 18,000 troops to the Union forces under General Grant, wh were marching from Fort Henry, and a Union gunboat flotilla under the command of Commodore Andrew Foote was steaming downriver. The battle began on February 13 as Grant's soldiers prodded Confederate lines, the early action showed the ensuing battle would be costly. When the Union gunboats arrived the next day they met determined fire from Confederate shore batteries that severely damaged gunboats and Foote's flagship was left in shambles. The following day the Confederates had a fleeting chance to turn the battle in their favor, but poor coordination among their generals, as well as vague commands from Foote, would cheat them of victory. Also on February 14 General Lee Wallace's brigade arrived from Fort Henry with 10,000 additional troops.

At dawn of February 15 the Confederates launched an assault against McClernand's division on the Union's unprotected right flank. The Union troops, unable to sleep because of the cold, were not entirely caught by surprise, but Grant was. Not expecting a land assault by Confederates, he was up before dawn and had headed downriver to meet with Foote. Grant left orders that none of his generals were to initiate an engagement and no-one was left in charge. The Confederate plan was to push McClernand away and take control of Wynn's Ferry and Forge Roads, the main routes to to Nashville. The Confederates withdrew from Fort Donelson, leaving the 30th Tennessee Regiment designated to stay in their trenches and prevent a Union pursuit. The attack started well, and after two hours of heavy fighting, McClernand's line was pushed back. It was in this attack that Union troops in the West heard the famous, unnerving rebel yell.

The Confederate offensive ended around noon when the Union formed a defensive line on a ridge along Wynn's Ferry Road. The Confederates assaulted them three times unsuccessfully and withdrew to a ridge half of a mile away. The Confederates had a good morning pushing the Union defenders back a mile or two and opened their escape route. Grant arrived in the early afternoon and finally became aware of the situation. Grant first visited C.F. Smith on the Union left and ordered the 8th Missouri and 11th Indiana to the Union right. Grant then rode 7 miles over icy roads to find McClernand and Wallace. Grant was dismayed at the confusion and lack of organized leadership.

True to his nature, Grant did not panic and rode back to the river. He heard the sounds of naval gunfire and sent word to Foote to continue the naval gunfire. Grant observed the Confederates were fighting with knapsacks of three-day rations, which implied to him they were attempting to escape, not pressing for a combat victory, Grant moved quickly and ordered Smith to take Fort Donelson Smith formed his two remaining brigades to make an attack. Cook's brigade would be in support to the right and the rear to draw fire away from the attacking forces. Smith's two-brigade attack quickly seized the outer line of entrenchments on the Confederate right from the 30th Tennessee. The Union was now poised to seize Fort Donelson. By 5:30 Wallace's troops had succeeded in retaking the ground lost that morning and by nightfall had driven the Confederates back to their original positions. Grant began plans to resume his assault in the morning.

On February 16 Confederate General Simon B. Buckner asked for an armistice and surrender terms from his old friend Grant. Grant replied, "No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." This was probably the war's first demand for unconditional surrender. Although Buckner was appalled he turned over about 15,ooo men, 20,000 rifles, 48 pieces of artillery, 17 heavy guns, 3,000 horses and a large commissary of food. The battle was bloody: the South lost 1,500 to 3,000 men; Union loses were 500 killed and 2,100 wounded. Although 3,000 Confederates managed to escape, the defeat demoralized Southern society, Citizens in Nashville rioted, Southern hopes of help from England diminished, and the Union owned a deep wedge into the Southern lines. With the fall of Fort Henry 10 days earlier, the South was compelled to retreat along a wide front. Grant whose first and middle names became the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant" came to the favorable attention of President Abraham Lincoln.

1964 - Chris Farley was born.


Christopher Crosby Farley
Born: February 15, 1964 - Madison, Wisconsin
Passed: December 18, 1997 - age 33 - drug overdose of opiates and cocaine.

Chris Farley was ab American actor and comedian who started out with Chicago's Second City Theater and was later a cast member with Saturday Night Live from 1990 to 1995' He acted in a number of films including Airheads(1994), Black Sheep(1996). and Almost Heroes(1008).

Farley is particularly remembered for his collaboration with fellow Saturday Night Live cast members, including Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, Adam Sandler, and most of all David Spade.

Just prior to his death, Farley had been selected to voice the character Shrek. He had finished much of the recording but died shortly before this process was finished.

 

A lot of noteworthy stuff happened on February 15 over the years, from the tragic loss of Nat King Cole (1965), Blues harp player Little Walter, born Marion Walter Jacobs (1968) and blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield (1981), to the plane crash that killed the entire 18-member U.S. figure skating team (1961).

For the approaching 20th century, the most crucial occurrence was on February 15 1898, when the battleship USS Maine sunk in Cuba’s Havana harbor after a massive explosion of unknown origin. More than 260 of the 350-plus American crew members aboard were killed.

Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that a Spanish mine was responsible and called for a declaration of war, with the rallying cry, "Remember the Maine!"

Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain’s brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898.

It took only a scant 3 months for the United States to decisively defeat Spanish forces on land and sea. In August an armistice halted the fighting, and on December 12, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain, officially ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire with the ceding of such former Spanish possessions as Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines.

Many years later, an independent investigation revealed a key section of the hull showed that it was bent outward, indicating an internal explosi0n that may have been caused by a spontaneous combustion fire in the coal bunker.

 

Assassination Attempt on FDR

1933 President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt survives assassination in Miami, Florida, attempt but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak is mortally wounded, he would die on March 29

Giuseppe Zangara (September 7, 1900 – March 20, 1933) was an Italian immigrant and naturalized United States citizen who attempted to assassinate the President-elect of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, on February 15, 1933, 17 days before Roosevelt's inauguration. During a night speech by Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, Zangara fired five shots with a handgun he had purchased a couple of days before. He missed his target and instead killed Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago, and injured four bystanders.


Giuseppe Zangara

 

1946: ENIAC unveiled as first general-purpose computer
The University of Pennsylvania formally dedicates their room-filling computer that the press has dubbed a 'Giant Brain.' The six main programmers, all women, have initially programmed ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer) to run computations on the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb.

 

February 16 is another ho-hum day in history, with King Tut's tomb opened in 1923, and Fidel Castro ascending to power in Cuba in 1959, but let's talk about the key event that marks this date:

On February 16, 1937, Wallace Hume Carothers patented nylon!

Carothers, a chemist for DuPont, was trying to create a synthetic alternative to silk by combining two carbon-based substances, which created a solid at the boundary where they met and was very stretchable. He called his new fiber 'Polymer 66.'

In early 1940, TIME reported that something strange was going on in Wilmington, Delaware, the home of DuPont: every Wednesday, women would wait for the stores that sold lingerie to open and then rush in, ready to offer proof that they were Wilmington residents, because that was the only city in America where nylon stockings could be purchased, for between $1.15 and $1.35 a pair - and only by residents of Wilmington.

With the outbreak of WWII, the U.S. stopped all imports of silk from Japan and nylon sales surged, being now readily available everywhere.

Women and men everywhere were grateful...

Carothers

 

February 16

1903 - Edgar Bergan, American ventriloquist(Charlie McCarthy) was born.


Edgar Bergen with Marylin Monroe
Born: February 16, 1903 - Chicago, Illinois
Passed: September 30, 1978 - age 75 - Paradise, Nevada
Years active: 1919 - 1978
Edgar Bergman was a ventriloquist in vaudeville, on the radio, and in motion pictures whose career spanned almost 60 years. Bergen
was best known for his character Charle McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. bergen pioneered modern-day ventriloquism and has been described by the puppetry organization UNIMA as the 'quintessential ventriloquist of the 20th century. He is also known for being the father of Candice Bergen(Murphy Brown).

The Edgar Bergen-Charlie McCarthy Show was a permanent fixture on American network radio from 1937 to 1957. Othaer characters created by Bergen were Mortimer Snerd and Elfie Klinker. They were woven into the popular program that was radio's most popular in 1937-1940 and 1942-1943, as well as the top seven from 1937 to 1952.

Bergen's parents took him to visit their native Sweden when he was four years old. He learned the language that various later characters would occasionally articulate. He attended public schools in Chicago where, at 11 years old, he discovered a facility for vocal tricks that gave him an interest in ventriloquism. He had the head of the dummy Charlie McCarthy carved(he made the body himself) while he was still in high school. By the time he attended Northwestern University he was proficient enough to earn his expenses with ventriloquism and magic tricks.

Bergen went into vaudeville and performed in nightclubs in the United States and Europe. During World War II Bergen took Charlie with him to entertain the American service personnel; touring the Aleutian Islands, Alaska and Greenland, appearing often as guests on variety television shows.

Their initial appearance, December 17, 1936 as a guest on the Rudy Vallee Program was so successful that the following year they were given regular cast roles as part of the Chase and Sanborn Hour. The popularity of ventriloquism on radio, where one could see neither the dummies nor his skills, surprised and puzzled many critics. Even knowing that Bergen provided the voice listeners still perceived Charlie as a real person. In 1947 Sam Berman carictured Bergen and McCarthy for the station's promotional book NBC Parade of Stars: As Heard Over Your Favorite NBC Station.

Even with the slow-whitted Mortimer Anerd and the man-hungry Effie Kinker the star always remained Charlie McCarthy. He always was presented as a highly precocious child(even with the top hat, cape, and monocle)- a debonair, girl-crazy, child about town. As a child, and a wooden one at that, Charlie could get away with doubble-entendres, which were otherwise impossible under broadcast standards of the time.



1967 - NY Yankee pitcher Red Ruffling was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


Charles Herbert "Red" Ruffling
Born: May 3, 1905 - Granville, Illinois
Passed: February 17, 1986 - age 80 - Mayfield Heights, Ohio - stroke-related problems

Red Ruffling was an American professional pitcher who played in Major League Baseball from 1924 to 1947. Ruffling is most remembered for his time with the highly successful Yankees teams in the 1930s and 1940s.

Teams:
-Boston Red Sox(1924--1930)
-New York Yankees(1930-1942; 1945-1946)
-Chicago White Sox(1947)

MLB statistics:
-Win-Loss - 273-225
-Earned Run Average - 3.80
-Strikeouts - 1,987

Career highlights and awards:
-All-Star - 6 times(1932; 1936-1939; 1941)
-World Series champion - 6 times(1932; 1936-1939; 1941)
-AL wins leader - 1938
AL strikeout leader - 1932
boston Red Sox hall of fame

 

Bringing Up Baby

1938 "Bringing Up Baby" film directed by Howard Hawks, starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant, is released

Bringing Up Baby is a 1938 American screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks, and starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant. It was released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film tells the story of a paleontologist in a number of predicaments involving a scatterbrained heiress and a leopard named Baby. The screenplay was adapted by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde from a short story by Wilde which originally appeared in Collier's Weekly magazine on April 10, 1937.

The script was written specifically for Hepburn, and tailored to her personality. Filming began in September 1937 and wrapped in January 1938, over schedule and over budget. Production was frequently delayed by Hepburn and Grant's uncontrollable laughing fits. Hepburn struggled with her comedic performance and was coached by another cast member, vaudeville veteran Walter Catlett. A tame leopard named Nissa was used during the shooting and played two roles in the film; Nissa's trainer stood off-screen with a whip for all of its scenes.

Bringing Up Baby was a box-office bomb upon its release, although it eventually made a small profit after its re-release in the early 1940s. Shortly after the film's premiere, Hepburn was one of a group of actors labeled as "box office poison" by the Independent Theatre Owners of America. Her career waned until The Philadelphia Story two years later. The film's reputation began to grow during the 1950s when it was shown on television.

Since then, the film has gained acclaim from both critics and audiences for its zany antics and pratfalls, absurd situations and misunderstandings, comic timing, completely screwball cast, series of lunatic and hare-brained misadventures, disasters, light-hearted surprises and romantic comedy.
In 1990, Bringing Up Baby was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant," and it has appeared on a number of greatest-films lists, ranking 88th on the American Film Institute's 100 greatest American films of all time list.

 

1659: First known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey

 

Some interesting stuff has happened on February 17 over the centuries, like China invading Vietnam in 1979, Jefferson being declared President by the House of Representatives after a tie vote in the Electoral College in 1801, and the the Confederate Hunley becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, the USS Housatonic, in 1864.

But let's get real, here: on February 17, 1975, AC/DC released its debut album 'High Voltage' in Australia, later released in the United States on September 28, 1976. The American release would contain songs from two Australia-only albums from 1975: High Voltage and T.N.T.

The Australian release contained the songs:
Baby, Please Don't Go: A cover of the traditional blues standard by Big Joe Williams
She's Got Balls: Written by Bon, Angus, and Malcolm Young
Little Lover: Written by Bon, Angus, and Malcolm Young
Stick Around: Written by Bon, Angus, and Malcolm Young
Soul Stripper: Written by Angus and Malcolm Young
You Ain't Got a Hold on Me: A bluesy song
Love Song: A ballad with keyboards
Show Business: A bluesy song

For the U.S. release, they would add hits like High Voltage, T.N.T, It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'N' Roll), and Live Wire.

Little is known of the band after that.
LOL