Today in History
Jan 31, 2022, 10:00 PM | Updated: 10:07 pm
Today in History
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2022. There are 333 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 1, 1960, four Black college students began a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, where they’d been refused service.
On this date:
In 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York. (However, since only three of the six justices were present, the court recessed until the next day.)
In 1862, “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” a poem by Julia Ward Howe, was published in the Atlantic Monthly.
In 1865, abolitionist John S. Rock became the first Black lawyer admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 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.
In 1959, men in Switzerland rejected giving women the right to vote by a more than 2-1 referendum margin. (Swiss women gained the right to vote in 1971.)
In 1979, Iranian religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-MAY’-nee) received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.
In 1991, 34 people were killed when an arriving USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
In 1994, Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding’s ex-husband, pleaded guilty in Portland, Oregon, to racketeering for his part in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in exchange for a 24-month sentence (he ended up serving six months) and a $100,000 fine.
In 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven of its crew members: commander Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload commander Michael Anderson; mission specialists Kalpana Chawla, David Brown and Laurel Clark; and payload specialist Ilan Ramon (ee-LAHN’ rah-MOHN’), the first Israeli in space.
In 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.
In 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.
In 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.”
Ten years ago: Facebook, the Internet social network, announced plans to go public with a stock offering. Don Cornelius, 74, creator of “Soul Train,” died in Los Angeles of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. Boxing trainer Angelo Dundee died in Tampa, Florida, at age 90.
Five years ago: The Republican-controlled Senate confirmed Rex Tillerson, 56-43, to be U.S. secretary of state. A nearly 20-hour prison hostage standoff began in Delaware as inmates at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center seized four staff members; one guard was killed, two hostages released before authorities put down the uprising and rescued the remaining captive. Violence and rioting at the University of California, Berkeley, forced the cancellation of a talk by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
One year ago: Myanmar’s military staged a coup and arrested the civilian leaders of its government, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. A sprawling, lumbering winter storm walloped the Eastern U.S., shutting down coronavirus vaccination sites, closing schools and halting transit. The U.S. government said it would not conduct immigration enforcement arrests at coronavirus vaccination sites around the country. Former AFL-CIO President John Sweeney died at age 86 at his Washington-area home. Actor Dustin Diamond, best known as “Screech” on the ’90s sitcom “Saved by the Bell,” died after a three-week fight with cancer.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Garrett Morris is 85. Bluegrass singer Del McCoury is 83. TV personality-singer Joy Philbin is 81. Political commentator Fred Barnes is 79. Rock musician Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 72. Blues singer-musician Sonny Landreth is 71. Actor-writer-producer Bill Mumy (MOO’-mee) is 68. Rock singer Exene Cervenka is 66. Actor Linus Roache is 58. Princess Stephanie of Monaco is 57. Actor Sherilyn Fenn is 57. Lisa Marie Presley is 54. Comedian-actor Pauly Shore is 54. Actor Brian Krause is 53. Jazz musician Joshua Redman is 53. Rock musician Patrick Wilson (Weezer) is 53. Actor Michael C. Hall is 51. Rock musician Ron Welty is 51. Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is 47. Roots rocker Jason Isbell is 43. Country singer Julie Roberts is 43. Rock singer-musician Andrew VanWyngarden is 39. TV personality Lauren Conrad is 36. Actor-singer Heather Morris is 35. Actor and mixed martial artist Ronda Rousey is 35. Rock singer Harry Styles (One Direction) is 28.
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