1473: Polish astronomer Nicholas Copernicus was born on this day.
Copernicus was an astrologer and mathematician by trade.  His theory
that the Earth was not the center of the universe was published after
his death.





1663: Canada became a royal province of the British Empire.  At the 
time the French still controlled all the best parts though.
	  




1778: The American ship Ranger arrived in France, flying the recently
adopted Stars and Stripes in a foreign port for the first time.





1779: Captain Cook was murdered by Hawaiian natives.  Cook found
Hawaiians friendly at first, because the Hawaiians thought he and his
men were gods. 





1847: Women's suffrage leader Anna Howard Shaw was born on this day. 





1859: Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.





1872: The first state bird refuge was authorized in Lake Merritt, Calif.





1876: Inventors Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray applied
separately for patents related to the telephone.  The U.S. Supreme
Court eventually ruled Bell the rightful inventor.





1879: B-K Bruce of Mississippi became the first black member of the
U-S Senate to sit in the presiding officer's chair.





1884: Cincinnati flooded , when the Ohio River crested at nearly 72
feet above flood-stage.





1886: The California citrus industry started on this day, when the 
first train load of oranges left Los Angeles for eastern markets.





1894: Comedian Jack Benny was born.





1895: Oscar Wilde's final play, "The Importance of Being Earnest,"
opened at the St. James Theatre in London.
  




1899: Congress approved, and President McKinley signed, legislation
authorizing states to use voting machines for federal elections.  





1903: The Commerce Department and the Labor Department (aka The
Department of Commerce and Labor) were created simultaneously when
President Theodore Roosevelt signed the legislation establishing the
twin departments.  Today the Labor Department is the bureaucracy that
gives you the monthly reports on wholesale prices, consumer prices
and unemployment, while Commerce issues most of the others.





1912: Arizona was admitted to the Union as the 48th state.





  

1913: Sports commentator Mel Allen and the Teamsters union leader
Jimmy Hoffa were both born on this day.
   




1919: The United Parcel Service (UPS) was founded.





1920: The League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago.  Its first
president was Maude Wood Park.





1924: The IBM Corporation was founded by Thomas Watson.





1929: The "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a Chicago
garage as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down.





1933: An eight-day bank holiday was declared in Michigan in a
Depression-era move to avert a financial panic. 





1939: Victor Fleming replaced George Cukor as director for "Gone
With The Wind."
  




1945: Peru, Paraguay, Chile and Ecuador joined the United Nations. 





1962: First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy hosted a televised tour of the
White House that showcased the building's interior restoration.





1971: President Richard Nixon installed a secret taping system at
the White House. 





1978: The first "micro on a chip" was patented by Texas Instruments.





1979: Iranian radicals stormed the U-S embassy in Tehran trapping
Ambassador William Sullivan and 100 others.  The short-lived seige
was a prelude to the infamous hostage takeover beginning later that
year.





1988: At age 50, Bobby Allison became the oldest driver to win the
Daytona 500. 





1989: Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman
Rushdie, author of the novel "The Satanic Verses," a work
condemned as blasphemous throughout the Islamic world.  Rushdie
once said - "Literature is the one place in any society where,
within the secrecy of our own heads, we can hear voices talking
about everything in every possible way."
  




1990: 94 people were killed when an Indian Airlines passenger jet
crashed while landing at a southern Indian airport.





1999: Chicago Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, 77, was hospitalized
after he collapsed at a nightclub in Palm Springs, Calif.  He died
five days later.

1921: Hugh Downs, newscaster





1934: Florence Henderson, actress, "The Brady Bunch"





1944: Carl Bernstein, Watergate journalist





1944: Alan Parker, film director, "Evita"





1946: Gregory Hines, actor/dancer





1948: Teller, magician/Illusionist (of "Penn & Teller")





1951: Michael Doucet, singer/musician, Beausoleil





1956: Ken Wahl, actor, "Wiseguy"





1960: Jim Kelly, NFL quarterback





1960: Meg Tilly, actress, "The Big Chill"





1964: Zach Galligan, actor, "Gremlins"





1972: Drew Bledsoe, NFL quarterback, New England Patriots

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