Birthday

February 1
Feast day of St John of the Grating, St Henry Morse, St Pionius, St Bride or Brigid of Kildare, St Seiriol, and St Sigebert III of Austria

2005 : Canada introduces the Civil Marriage Act, making Canada the fourth country to sanction same-sex marriage.
2004 : Super Bowl XXXVIII, Reliant Stadium, Houston, New England Patriots beat Carolina Panthers 32-29. Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to FCC censorship guidelines.
2003 : Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
1996 : Visa and MasterCard announced security measures that will make it safe to shop on the Internet
1991 : President F. W. de Klerk, says he would repeal all apartheid laws
1982 : "Late Night With David Letterman," debuts on NBC-TV
1979 : Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran after 16 years of exile
1978 : Harriet Tubman is 1st black woman honored on a U.S. postage stamp
1978 : Director Roman Polanski skips bail and fled to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl
1977 : Heavy blizzard in New England claims 100 lives (what a day!)
1972 : 1st scientific hand-held calculator, the HP-35, introduced for $395
1968 : Former Vice President Richard Nixon announces candidacy for presidency
1968 : Vietnam War: The execution of Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem by South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan is videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams. This image helped build opposition to the Vietnam War. ( this is the image I recall the most, one of the events I recall most often, when I think of Feb 1 ‘this day in history’)
1966 : Buster Keaton died, US silent-film comedian
1965 : Martin Luther King, Jr. and 700 demonstrators arrested in Selma, Alabama
1965 : Peter Jennings, 26, becomes anchor of ABC's nightly news (he was only 26???!!!!)
1965 : NL adopts emergency team replacement plan to restock any club struck by disaster (wow, that’s eerily fascinating)
1960 : 4 students stage 1st civil rights sit-in, at Greensboro North Carolina Woolworth (this is something else I also associate with Feb 1)
1959 : Swiss males vote against voting rights for women
1957 : 1st black pilot (PH Young) on a U.S. scheduled passenger airline
1954 : 1st TV soap opera "Secret Storm" premieres
1953 : "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premieres on CBS television
1953 : Dr. A de Waal appointed as Netherlands 1st female Assistant Secretary of State
1944 : Piet Mondrian died, Swiss painter
1920 : The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begins operations.
1930 : The Times published its first crossword puzzle (not 100% certain of this, but it’s fun to think it’s true – and not sure which ‘Times’ is meant)
1898 : 1st auto insurance policy in U.S. issued, by Travelers Insurance Co
1896 : Giacomo Puccini's Opera "La Boheme," premieres in Turin (no, I’ve never seen this)
1892 : Mrs William Astor invites 400 guests to a grand ball at her mansion thus beginning use of "400" to describe socially elite
1884 : 1st volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, published (ok, this is very very cool)
1871 : Jefferson Long of Georgia is 1st black to make an official speech in House of Representatives (opposing leniency to former Confederates)
1865 : 13th amendment approved by President Abraham Lincoln
1865 : General Sherman's march through South Carolina begins
1865 : J. S. Rock, 1st black lawyer to practice in Supreme Court, admitted to bar
1862 : Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of Republic"
1861 : Texas becomes 7th state to secede
1851 : Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley died, English novelist
1810 : 1st insurance co managed by blacks, American Insurance Company of Philadelphia
1793 : France declares war on England and Netherlands
1790 : Supreme Court convenes for 1st time (New York City)
1650 : René Descartes died, French scientist and philosopher
1587 : English queen Elizabeth I signs Mary Stuarts death sentence



When looking at who was born on February 1st over the centuries, either I’ve missed my calling, or society doesn’t put much weight into when business leaders were born. Then again, for this data to really mean anything, I’d have to compare it to other birth dates / sun signs / months / etc. to see if there is a trend, or if this is the normal distribution :
Athlete : 49
Actor / Director / Singer : 49
Composer : 24
Military / Politician : 22
Writer : 18
Science / Psychology : 9
Philosophy / Education : 7
Law : 5
Religious : 5
Artist : 3
Business : 3

Births Of note (to me) :
1968 : George Quigley, Jr., born in Cincinnati, Ohio, skeet 1996 Olympics
1968 : Lisa Marie Presley, American Musician
1967 : Tim Naehring, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, infielder for the Boston Red Sox
1965 : Stephanie Marie Elisabeth de Grimaldi, Monte Carlo Monaco, Princess
1948 : Rick James, American Musician
1938 : Sherman Hemsley, Philadelphia, actor, All in the Family, Jeffersons, Amen
1937 : Don Everly, Brownie, Kentucky, vocalist, Everly Bros-Wake Up Little Susie
1931 : Boris Yeltsin, born in Russia, first President of the Russian Federation, endorsed free market economies
1905 : Emilio Segre, born in Tivoli, Italy, physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics, discovered antiprotons, a sub-atomic antiparticle and an element used for Fat Man atomic bomb used on Nagasaki
1902 : Langston Hughes, poet/translator
1901 : Clark Gable, born in Cadiz, Ohio, actor, Gone With the Wind
1878 : Hattie Wyatt Caraway, politician/teacher/1st woman elected to senate (not sure if US or State)