February 1
1790 - The United States Supreme Court convened for the first time, in New York City.
1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union during the Civil War.
1862 - Julia Ward Howe's poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in Atlantic Monthly.
1884 - The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary A-Ant, was published.
1893 - Inventor Thomas Edison completed work on the world’s first motion picture studio, his “Black Maria,” in West Orange, New Jersey.
1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established.
1942 - During World War II, the Voice of America broadcast its first program to Europe, relaying it through the facilities of the British Broadcasting Corp. in London.
1943 - During World War II, one of America’s most highly decorated military units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almost exclusively of Japanese-Americans, was authorized.
1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen as the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
1946 - A press conference announcing the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was held at the University of Pennsylvania.
1960 - Four black college students began a series of sit-ins at a whites-only lunch counter at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1968 - During the Vietnam War, a Viet Cong officer was executed with a pistol shot to the head by Saigon's police chief, the image captured became one of the most iconic photographs of the war.
1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after 15 years of exile.
1982 - "Late Night with David Letterman" premiered on NBC.
1991 - 34 people were killed when an arriving USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a videotaped deposition for senators weighing impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it tried to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere after a sixteen-day mission in space. All seven members of the crew were lost.
2009 - Johanna Sigurdardottir takes office as Iceland's first female prime minister.
2011 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he would not run for a new term in September elections but rejected protesters’ demands he step down immediately and leave the country, after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million Egyptians staged their biggest protest to date calling on him to go.
2016 - The World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the Zika virus, which was linked to birth defects in the Americas, calling it an “extraordinary event” that posed a public health threat to other parts of the world.
2020 - As China’s death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 259, Beijing criticized Washington’s order barring entry to most foreigners who had visited China in the past two weeks. A World Health Organization official said governments needed to prepare for “domestic outbreak control.”
Birthdays
27 - Harry Styles (singer)
30 - Jasmine Tookes (model)
34 - Ronda Rousey (MMA fighter / professional wrestler)
34 - Heather Morris (actress)
35 - Lauren Conrad (reality star)
39 - Jarrett Lennon (actor)
42 - Julie Roberts (country singer)
46 - Big Boi (rapper)
50 - Michael C. Hall (actor)
52 - Brian Krause (actor)
53 - Pauly Shore (actor/comedian)
53 - Lisa Marie Presley (actress/singer)
56 - Sherilyn Fenn (actress)
56 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco
57 - Linus Roache (actor)
80 - Joy Philbin (TV personality)
84 - Garrett Morris (actor)
84 - Don Everly (singer)
============================================
Today in Sports History - February 1
1913 - Jim Thorpe signs a contract to play baseball with the New York Giants.
1959 - Zack Wheat is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1962 - The National League released its first 162-game schedule.
1967 - The 10-team American Basketball Association is formed. The league would last for nine seasons and brought many revolutions to the game of basketball, including the 3-point shot.
1968 - Vince Lombardi resigned as head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
1970 - Ford Frick, Earle Combs and Jesse Haines are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1972 - The Buffalo Bills select Walt Patulski of Notre Dame with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1973 - Monte Irvin is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1984 - American lawyer and businessman David Stern becomes NBA commissioner, succeeding Larry O'Brien. (Stern would remain in the position until 2014.)
1992 - Barry Bonds signs the richest single-season contract in MLB history with the Pittsburgh Pirates for $4.7 million.
1992 - The New York Islanders retire Denis Potvin's #5.
1995 - John Stockton of the Utah Jazz becomes the NBA's career assists leader with his 9,922nd to move past Magic Johnson.
2004 - Pop superstar Janet Jackson suffered her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
2004 - The New England Patriots defeat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in Houston to win Super Bowl XXXVIII; New England quarterback Tom Brady is named MVP.
2006 - High school senior Epiphany Prince scores a U.S. national high school girls record 113 points in Murry Bergtraum High School's 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, surpassing Cheryl Miller's 105.
2008 - Johan Santana signs a six-year, $137.5 million contract with the New York Mets to become the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history.
2009 - The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in Tampa to win Super Bowl XLIII, their record sixth Super Bowl championship. Pittsburgh receiver Santonio Holmes is named MVP.
2014 - Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning wins a record fifth NFL MVP award.
2014 - Ray Guy becomes the second pure kicker, and first pure punter, to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
2014 - American businessman and lawyer Adam Silver becomes the fifth commissioner of the NBA, succeeding David Stern.
2015 - The New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Glendale 28-24 to win Super Bowl XLIX. New England quartebrack Tom Brady is named MVP and sets a Super Bowl record with 37 pass completions and increased his Super Bowl career touchdown pass record to 13.
1790 - The United States Supreme Court convened for the first time, in New York City.
1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union during the Civil War.
1862 - Julia Ward Howe's poem "Battle Hymn of the Republic" was published in Atlantic Monthly.
1884 - The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary A-Ant, was published.
1893 - Inventor Thomas Edison completed work on the world’s first motion picture studio, his “Black Maria,” in West Orange, New Jersey.
1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established.
1942 - During World War II, the Voice of America broadcast its first program to Europe, relaying it through the facilities of the British Broadcasting Corp. in London.
1943 - During World War II, one of America’s most highly decorated military units, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, made up almost exclusively of Japanese-Americans, was authorized.
1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen as the first secretary-general of the United Nations.
1946 - A press conference announcing the first electronic digital computer, ENIAC, was held at the University of Pennsylvania.
1960 - Four black college students began a series of sit-ins at a whites-only lunch counter at a Woolworth's store in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1968 - During the Vietnam War, a Viet Cong officer was executed with a pistol shot to the head by Saigon's police chief, the image captured became one of the most iconic photographs of the war.
1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned to Tehran after 15 years of exile.
1982 - "Late Night with David Letterman" premiered on NBC.
1991 - 34 people were killed when an arriving USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a videotaped deposition for senators weighing impeachment charges against President Bill Clinton.
2003 - The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it tried to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere after a sixteen-day mission in space. All seven members of the crew were lost.
2009 - Johanna Sigurdardottir takes office as Iceland's first female prime minister.
2011 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak announced he would not run for a new term in September elections but rejected protesters’ demands he step down immediately and leave the country, after a dramatic day in which a quarter-million Egyptians staged their biggest protest to date calling on him to go.
2016 - The World Health Organization declared a global emergency over the explosive spread of the Zika virus, which was linked to birth defects in the Americas, calling it an “extraordinary event” that posed a public health threat to other parts of the world.
2020 - As China’s death toll from the new coronavirus rose to 259, Beijing criticized Washington’s order barring entry to most foreigners who had visited China in the past two weeks. A World Health Organization official said governments needed to prepare for “domestic outbreak control.”
Birthdays
27 - Harry Styles (singer)
30 - Jasmine Tookes (model)
34 - Ronda Rousey (MMA fighter / professional wrestler)
34 - Heather Morris (actress)
35 - Lauren Conrad (reality star)
39 - Jarrett Lennon (actor)
42 - Julie Roberts (country singer)
46 - Big Boi (rapper)
50 - Michael C. Hall (actor)
52 - Brian Krause (actor)
53 - Pauly Shore (actor/comedian)
53 - Lisa Marie Presley (actress/singer)
56 - Sherilyn Fenn (actress)
56 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco
57 - Linus Roache (actor)
80 - Joy Philbin (TV personality)
84 - Garrett Morris (actor)
84 - Don Everly (singer)
============================================
Today in Sports History - February 1
1913 - Jim Thorpe signs a contract to play baseball with the New York Giants.
1959 - Zack Wheat is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1962 - The National League released its first 162-game schedule.
1967 - The 10-team American Basketball Association is formed. The league would last for nine seasons and brought many revolutions to the game of basketball, including the 3-point shot.
1968 - Vince Lombardi resigned as head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
1970 - Ford Frick, Earle Combs and Jesse Haines are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1972 - The Buffalo Bills select Walt Patulski of Notre Dame with the first pick in the NFL Draft.
1973 - Monte Irvin is elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1984 - American lawyer and businessman David Stern becomes NBA commissioner, succeeding Larry O'Brien. (Stern would remain in the position until 2014.)
1992 - Barry Bonds signs the richest single-season contract in MLB history with the Pittsburgh Pirates for $4.7 million.
1992 - The New York Islanders retire Denis Potvin's #5.
1995 - John Stockton of the Utah Jazz becomes the NBA's career assists leader with his 9,922nd to move past Magic Johnson.
2004 - Pop superstar Janet Jackson suffered her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
2004 - The New England Patriots defeat the Carolina Panthers 32-29 in Houston to win Super Bowl XXXVIII; New England quarterback Tom Brady is named MVP.
2006 - High school senior Epiphany Prince scores a U.S. national high school girls record 113 points in Murry Bergtraum High School's 137-32 win over Brandeis High School, surpassing Cheryl Miller's 105.
2008 - Johan Santana signs a six-year, $137.5 million contract with the New York Mets to become the highest-paid pitcher in MLB history.
2009 - The Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 27-23 in Tampa to win Super Bowl XLIII, their record sixth Super Bowl championship. Pittsburgh receiver Santonio Holmes is named MVP.
2014 - Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning wins a record fifth NFL MVP award.
2014 - Ray Guy becomes the second pure kicker, and first pure punter, to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
2014 - American businessman and lawyer Adam Silver becomes the fifth commissioner of the NBA, succeeding David Stern.
2015 - The New England Patriots defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Glendale 28-24 to win Super Bowl XLIX. New England quartebrack Tom Brady is named MVP and sets a Super Bowl record with 37 pass completions and increased his Super Bowl career touchdown pass record to 13.