February 1

February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 333 days remaining, (334 in leap years).

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Contents

1 Events

2 Births

3 Deaths

4 Holidays and observances

5 Fiction

6 External links

Events

1662 - The Chinese pirate Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
1713 - The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat.
1790 - In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
1793 - France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
1796 - The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
1814 - Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of Mayon Volcano.
1861 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
1862 - Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time (Atlantic Monthly).
1880 - First edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
1884 - Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
1893 - Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio (West Orange, New Jersey).
1896 - The opera La bohème premieres (Turin).
1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
1913 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
1918 - Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
1919 - The first Miss America is crowned (New York City).
1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
1924 - United Kingdom recognizes USSR.
1929 - Frenchman Charles Rigoulet is the first weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.
1943 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
1946 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
1958 - Merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
1960 - Four black students stage a sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1968 - Vietnam War: Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed by Eddie Adams and helped sway public opinion against the war.
1974 - In São Paulo, Brazil, a fire in a 25-story office building kills 189 and injures 293. Kuala Lumpur declared a Federal Territory.
1978 - Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
1979 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1982 - Senegal and Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
1992 - The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
1994 - In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.
1995 - Manic Street Preachers lyricist Richey James Edwards goes missing from the Embasy Hotel in London, UK.
1996 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress
1999 - North Dakota Public Radio is launched.
2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts onboard.
2004 - At least 244 people trampled to death in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

Births

1690 - Francesco Maria Veracini, composer (d. 1768)
1761 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, mycologist (d. 1836)
1844 - G. Stanley Hall, psychologist (d. 1844)
1859 - Victor Herbert, composer (d. 1924)
1874 - Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austrian writer (d. 1929)
1882 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
1887 - Charles Nordhoff, author (d. 1947)
1894 - John Ford, director, producer (d. 1973)
1894 - James P. Johnson, pianist, composer (d. 1955)
1901 - Clark Gable, actor (d. 1960)
1902 - Langston Hughes writer (d. 1967)
1904 - S. J. Perelman, humorist, author (d. 1979)
1906 - Hildegarde, actress, singer
1907 - Günter Eich, lyricist (d. 1972)
1908 - George Pál, director, producer (d. 1980)
1909 - George Beverly Shea, Canadian singer
1915 - Stanley Matthews, English football player
1918 - Dame Muriel Spark, author
1922 - Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (d. 2004)
1925 - Alfred Grosser, political scientist and publicist
1928 (or 1929) - Stuart Whitman, American actor
1931 - Boris Yeltsin, President of Russia
1935 - Dieter Kühn, writer
1937 - Don Everly, musician
1937 - Garrett Morris, comedian
1938 - Sherman Hemsley, comedian, actor
1940 - Bibi Besch, Austrian-American actress (d. 1996)
1942 - Terry Jones, actor, writer (Monty Python's Flying Circus)
1946 - Bart Braverman, American actor
1947 - Jessica Savitch, journalist (d. 1983)
1948 - Rick James, American musician, composer (d. 2004)
1948 - Elisabeth Sladen, British actress
1954 - Bill Mumy, actor, musician
1956 - Exene Cervenka, musician (X)
1962 - Tomoyasu Hotei, Japanese rock guitarist
1965 - Sherilyn Fenn, actress
1965 - Brandon Lee, actor (d. 1993)
1965 - Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
1965 - Sherilyn Fenn, American actress
1966 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
1968 - Lisa Marie Presley, actress
1968 - Pauly Shore, comedian
1969 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine footballer
1969 - Joshua Redman, American jazz musician
1971 - Jill Kelly, erotic actress
1971 - Yoshi DeHerrera, former 'Mad Modder' on The Screen Savers
1971 - Zlatko Zahovič, Slovenian football player
1975 - Big Boi, American musician (Outkast)
1978 - Julie Roberts, country music singer

Deaths

1328 - King Charles IV of France (b. 1294)
1563 - Menas, Emperor of Ethiopia (died of fever)
1691 - Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)
1793 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)
1851 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
1893 - George Henry Sanderson, Politician, Mayor of San Francisco from 1891 through 1893 (b. 1824)
1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
1928 - Hughie Jennings, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1869)
1944 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
1957 - Friedrich Paulus, German general
1966 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
1966 - Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
1976 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics
1980 - Jack Bailey, American television announcer
1981 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
1981 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aircraft manufacturer
1988 - Heather O'Rourke, actress (b. 1975)
1989 - Elaine de Kooning, American artist (b. 1819)
1997 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)
1997 - Marjorie Reynolds, American actress
1999 - Paul Mellon, American philanthropist
2002 - Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer, writer (b. 1925)
2002 - Irish McCalla, American actress, model
2003 - The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, astronauts: Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959), David Brown (b. 1956), Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961), Laurel Clark (b. 1961), Rick D. Husband (b. 1957), Willie McCool (b. 1961), Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)
2003 - Mongo Santamaria, percussionist, band leader, Latin jazz musician
2005 - John Vernon, Canadian actor

Holidays and observances

St. Brigid of Kildare -one of the three patron saints of Ireland, the others being St. Patrick and St. Columcille.
Imbolc - the first day of Spring in Ireland (Irish Calendar), one of the eight solar holidays in the Wheel of the Year.
2003 - Chinese New Year - Year of the Ram.

Fiction

In Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the fictional character Willy Wonka gives an unprecedented tour of his chocolate factory on February 1 (year unspecified).