Epic Idiot's what happened
On This Day

February 14

1989
GPS: The first of 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System is put into orbit.

1989
Bhopal gas leak: Union Carbide is ordered, by the Indian Supreme Court, to pay $470,000,000 in restitution for the 1984 leak that killed 3,329 people.

1989
$1,000,000 bounty is offered by the Ayatollah Khomeini for the killing of Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses.

1980
CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite announces his retirement.

1946
Computers: U.S. War Department announces its use of ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first general-purpose stored program electronic digital computer. It could calculate 1,000 times faster than anything previous. It required 18,000 vacuum tubes and 130,000 watts of power.

1931
Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi, opens.

1929
St. Valentine's Day massacre: Members of Al Capone's gang - dressed as policeman - gun down seven members of Bugs Moran's gang in Chicago.

1924
IBM: International Business Machines Corporation is founded.

1918
Tarzan: The first movie featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan character, Tarzan of the Apes, is released.

1918
Gregorian calendar is adopted by Russia: The previous day had been January 31st.

1912
Warfare: The first diesel-powered submarine is commissioned, in Groton, Connecticut.

1912
Arizona becomes the 48th state.

1899
Voting: The U.S. Congress approves the use of voting machines in federal elections.

1876
Telephone: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray both file a patent for the telephone. A long legal battle ensued which Bell ultimately won (1888).

1859
Oregon becomes the 33rd state.

1849
Presidential First: James Polk becomes the first U.S. President to have his photograph taken.

1843
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite! The circus event that inspired the Beatles song is held.

1960
Meg Tilly (Margaret Chan), American actress. Film: The Big Chill (1983) and Agnes of God (1985, title role).

1946     d. 2003
Gregory Hines, American actor, dancer. Film: History of the World Part I (1981), The Cotton Club (1984), White Nights (1985), and Tap (1989). He made his Broadway debut at age 8.

1944
Carl Bernstein, American journalist. He and Bob Woodward uncovered the Watergate scandal while working for the Washington Post.

1934
Florence Henderson, American singer, actress. TV: The Brady Bunch (Mrs. Brady).

1932     d. 1982
Vic Morrow, actor. TV: Combat! (Sgt. Chip Saunders). He was killed while filming Twilight Zone-The Movie.

1927
Lois Maxwell, Canadian actress. Film: Miss Moneypenny in the first 14 of the James Bond movies.

1921
Hugh Downs, American Emmy-winning news anchor, TV personality.

1913     d. 1975
Jimmy Hoffa, American Teamster boss (1957-71). He disappeared outside of a motel in Detroit, Michigan (1975).

1894     d. 1974
Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubelsky), American comedian, famed for his violin concertos.

1865     d. 1948
Carl Thomas Anderson, American cartoonist, creator of Henry.

1864     d. 1926
Israel Zangwill, English-born writer, Zionist. He founded an organization called the Jewish Territorialist Organization (1905), to try to create a Jewish homeland, the location of which did not necessarily have to be in what is today the state of Israel. Quote: "The way [George Bernard] Shaw behaves himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many people believe in no God at all." (source: Fifth 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said) Writngs: Children of the Ghetto (1892) and The Melting Pot (1908).

1859     d. 1896
George Washington Gale Ferris, American engineer, inventor of the Ferris wheel. It was constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. His ride was 250 feet in diameter, took 20 minutes per revolution, and had a capacity of 2,160 people.

1760     d. 1831
Richard Allen, American clergyman. Born a slave, he helped establish the first black U.S. church (1816), the African Methodist Episcopal Church of Philadelphia, of which he was bishop, making him the first black bishop in the U.S. (Source: An Almanac of the Christian Church)

1722     d. 1773
Georg Christian Füchsel, German geolgist. He originated the concept of statra, rock layers that each represent a certain epoch of time.

1988     b. 1904
Frederick Loewe, German composer of Lerner and Loewe, together they wrote My Fair Lady (1956) and Paint Your Wagon (1969).

1948     b. 1876
Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, American baseball Hall of Famer. He had the use of only three fingers on his pitching hand, giving him a natural knuckle ball.

1891     b. 1820
William Tecumseh Sherman, American Civil War general (Union), known for his destruction of Georgia and his statement "War is hell."

1808     b. 1732
John Dickinson, American statesman, author, member of the Colonial Congress (1765). He wrote the Farmer's Letters (1767-68), expressing opposition to the Townshend Acts of 1767.

1779     b. 1728
James Cook, English naval captain and explorer. He discovered the Hawaiian Islands, and introduced tatoos to the western world.  He was killed by the natives of the Sandwich Islands.

1400     b. 1367
Richard II, King of England (1377-99).

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