On This Day February 22

1983
U.S. announces that it will buy out property owners in dioxin-tainted Times Beach, Missouri.

1928
Ku Klux Klan announces they are shedding their masks and changing their name to Knights of the Green Forest.

1879
Frank W. Woolworth opens his first store, in Utica, New York. All the merchandise was priced at 5¢. It failed almost immediately, so he found a new location and tried again.

1856
First national meeting of the Republican Party is held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

1630
The settlers get their first taste of popcorn, a gift from the Indian Quadequina.

1962 d. 2006
Steve Irwin (Stephen Robert Irwin), Australian naturalist, wildlife expert. TV: The Crocodile Hunter (1996-2006, title role). Film: The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (2002). He died after being fatally pierced in the heart by a stingray barb while diving off Queensland's Great Barrier Reef. He was filming a shallow-water segment for his daughter's upcoming television series.

1920 d. 1994
Giulietta Masina (Guilia Anna Masina), Italian actress, wife of Fellini. Film: La Strada (1954, Gelsomina) Nights of Cabiria (1956, Cannes Best Actress, as the prostitute).

1918 d. 1940
Robert Pershing Wadlow, American giant, the world's tallest person: 8 ft. 11½ in. (source: Guinness Book of World Records)

1918 d. 2000
Alfred J. Gross, Canadian-born inventor. He invented the walkie-talkie (1939) and the pager (1949) and laid the groundwork for cordless and cellular phones. While visiting Gross' workshop, Chester Gould was inspired to give Dick Tracy his 2-way wristwatch.

1907
Robert Young, American actor. TV: Father Knows Best (Jim Anderson) and Marcus Welby, M.D. (title role).

1896 d. 1981
Enid Markey, American actress. Film: Tarzan of the Apes (1918, making her the first Jane of Tarzan films).

1891 d. 1963
Clarence Elmer Mitchell, American baseball player. He is the only person to have hit a triple in a World Series game (1920).

1857 d. 1941
Sir Robert Baden-Powell, British major general, founder of the Boy Scouts (1908) and the Girl Guides (1910).

1839 d. 1906
Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor, author of Is There a Santa Clause? (1897).

1987 b. 1920
David Susskind, American Emmy-winning TV producer and talk show host, known for his controversial guests.

1987 b. 1927
Andy Warhol, American pop artist, filmmaker, famous for his silk-screen images of Campbell's soup cans and celebrities and for movies such as Andy Warhol's Frankenstein (1975).

1984 b. circa 1962
Bubble Boy, known publicly only as David. He spent most of his life inside a protective bubble due to a severe immune deficiency. On Feb. 7 he left his bubble and was able to kiss his mother for the first time.

1977 b. 1895
George Winthrop Fish, American urologist. He was the inspiration for the 1960s Dr. Kildare TV series.

1925 b. 1836
Sir Thomas Clifford Allbut, English physician, inventor of the short clinical thermometer (1866).

1900 b. 1823
Dan Rice (Daniel McLaren), American clown. He worked for P.T. Barnum and later started his own circus. He ran for the Republican nomination for U.S. president and was the model for the early Uncle Sam portraits.

1810 b. 1771
Charles Brockden Brown, American novelist, "The father of the American novel." Writings: Wieland (1798) and Ormond (1799).

1512 b. 1451
Amerigo Vespucci, Italian explorer, for whom America is named, and one of the first to recognize North and South America as new continents.

February 22

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Deaths