February 1

February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 333 days remaining, (334 in leap years).

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Events

• 1662 – The Chinese pirate Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
• 1713 – The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
• 1788 – Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat.
• 1790 – In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
• 1793 – France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
• 1796 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
• 1814 – Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of Mayon Volcano.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
• 1862 – Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time (Atlantic Monthly).
• 1880 – First edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
• 1884 – Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
• 1893 – Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio (West Orange, New Jersey).
• 1896 – The opera La Bohème premieres (Turin).
• 1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
• 1913 – New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
• 1918 – Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• 1919 – The first Miss America is crowned (New York City).
• 1920 – The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
• 1924 – United Kingdom recognizes USSR.
• 1929 – Frenchman Charles Rigoulet is the first weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.
• 1943 – World War II: Vidkun Quisling appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
• 1946 – Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• 1958 – Merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
• 1960 – Four black students stage a sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams and helped sway public opinion against the war.
• 1974 – In São Paulo, Brazil, a fire in a 25-story office building kills 189 and injures 293. Kuala Lumpur declared a Federal Territory.
• 1978 – Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
• 1979 – Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
• 1979 – Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
• 1982 – Senegal and Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
• 1992 – The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
• 1994 – In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.
• 1995 – Manic Street Preachers lyricist Richey James Edwards goes missing from the Embasy Hotel in London, UK.
• 1996 – Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress
• 1999 – North Dakota Public Radio is launched.
• 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts onboard.
• 2004 – At least 244 people trampled to death in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Births

• 1690 – Francesco Maria Veracini, composer (d. 1768)
• 1761 – Christian Hendrik Persoon, mycologist (d. 1836)
• 1844 – G. Stanley Hall, psychologist (d. 1844)
• 1859 – Victor Herbert, composer (d. 1924)
• 1874 – Hugo von Hofmannsthal, lyricist, dramatist, narrator, and essayist (d. 1929)
• 1882 – Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
• 1887 – Charles Nordhoff, author (d. 1947)
• 1894 – John Ford, director, producer (d. 1973)
• 1894 – James P. Johnson, pianist, composer (d. 1955)
• 1901 – Clark Gable, actor (d. 1960)
• 1902 – Langston Hughes writer (d. 1967)
• 1904 – S. J. Perelman, humorist, author (d. 1979)
• 1906 – Hildegarde, actress, singer
• 1907 – Günter Eich, lyricist (d. 1972)
• 1908 – George Pál, director, producer (d. 1980)
• 1909 – George Beverly Shea, Canadian singer
• 1915 – Stanley Matthews, English football player
• 1918 – Dame Muriel Spark, author
• 1922 – Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (d. 2004)
• 1925 – Alfred Grosser, political scientist and publicist
• 1928 (or 1928 or 1929) – Stuart Whitman, American actor
• 1931 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian president 1991-1999
• 1935 – Dieter Kühn, narrator, dramatist and essayist
• 1937 – Don Everly, musician
• 1937 – Garrett Morris, comedian
• 1938 – Sherman Hemsley, comedian, actor
• 1940 – Bibi Besch, Austrian-American actress (d. 1996)
• 1942 – Terry Jones, actor, writer (Monty Python's Flying Circus)
• 1946 – Bart Braverman, American actor
• 1947 – Jessica Savitch, journalist (d. 1983)
• 1948 – Rick James, American musician, composer (d. 2004)
• 1954 – Bill Mumy, actor, musician
• 1956 – Exene Cervenka, musician (X)
• 1962 – Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese rock guitarist
• 1965 – Sherilyn Fenn, actress
• 1965 – Brandon Lee, actor (d. 1993)
• 1965 – Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
• 1965 – Sherilyn Fenn, American actress
• 1966 – Michelle Akers, American soccer player
• 1968 – Lisa Marie Presley, actress
• 1968 – Pauly Shore, comedian
• 1969 – Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine football player
• 1969 – Joshua Redman, American jazz musician
• 1971 – Jill Kelly, erotic actress
• 1971 – Yoshi DeHerrera, former 'Mad Modder' on The Screen Savers
• 1971 – Zlatko Zahovič, Slovenian football player
• 1975 – Big Boi, American musician (Outkast)
• 1978 – Julie Roberts, country music singer

Deaths

• 1328 – King Charles IV of France (b. 1294)
• 1563 – Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia (died of fever)
• 1691 – Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)
• 1793 – William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)
• 1851 – Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
• 1893 – George Henry Sanderson, Politician, Mayor of San Francisco from 1891 through 1893 (b. 1824)
• 1908 – King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
• 1928 – Hughie Jennings, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1869)
• 1944 – Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
• 1957 – Friedrich Paulus, German general
• 1966 – Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
• 1966 – Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
• 1976 – Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics
• 1980 – Jack Bailey, American television announcer
• 1981 – Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
• 1981 – Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aircraft manufacturer
• 1988 – Heather O'Rourke, child actress (b. 1975)
• 1997 – Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)
• 1997 – Marjorie Reynolds, American actress
• 1999 – Paul Mellon, American philanthropist
• 2002 – Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer, writer (b. 1925)
• 2002 – Irish McCalla, American actress, model
• 2003 – The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, astronauts: Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959), David Brown (b. 1956), Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961), Laurel Clark (b. 1961), Rick D. Husband (b. 1957), Willie McCool (b. 1961), Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)
• 2003 – Mongo Santamaria, percussionist, band leader, Latin jazz musician
• 2005 – John Vernon, Canadian actor

Holidays and observances

• St. Brigid of Kildare -one of the three patron saints of Ireland, the others being St. Patrick and St. Columcille.
• Imbolc – the first day of Spring in Ireland (Irish Calendar), one of the eight solar holidays in the Wheel of the Year.
• 2003 – Chinese New Year – Year of the Ram.

External links

• BBC: On This Day

January 31 – February 2 – January 1 – March 1 — listing of all days