Today in History
Today is Wednesday, Feb. 3, the 34th day of 2016. There are 332 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 3, 1959,
rock-and-roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big
Bopper" Richardson died in a small plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
On this date: In 1783, Spain formally recognized American independence.
In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate Vice President
Alexander H. Stephens held a shipboard peace conference off the
Virginia coast; the talks deadlocked over the issue of Southern
autonomy. In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,
providing for a federal income tax, was ratified. In 1924, the 28th
president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, died in Washington,
D.C., at age 67. In 1930, the chief justice of the United States,
William Howard Taft, resigned for health reasons. (He died just over a
month later.) In 1943, during World War II, the U.S. transport ship
Dorchester, which was carrying troops to Greenland, sank after being
hit by a German torpedo; of the more than 900 men aboard, only some 230
survived. In 1959, An American Airlines Lockheed Electra crashed into
New York's East River, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. In 1966,
the Soviet probe Luna 9 became the first manmade object to make a soft
landing on the moon. In 1971, New York City police officer Frank
Serpico, who had charged there was widespread corruption in the NYPD,
was shot and seriously wounded during a drug bust in Brooklyn. In 1991,
the rate for a first-class postage stamp rose to 29 cents. In 1994, the
space shuttle Discovery lifted off, carrying Sergei Krikalev, the first
Russian cosmonaut to fly aboard a U.S. spacecraft. In 1998, Texas
executed Karla Faye Tucker, 38, for the pickax killings of two people
in 1983; she was the first woman executed in the United States since
1984. A U.S. Marine plane sliced through the cable of a ski gondola in
Italy, sending the car plunging hundreds of feet, killing all 20 people
inside. In 2005, Alberto Gonzales won Senate confirmation as attorney
general. Ten years ago: An Egyptian passenger ferry sank in the Red Sea
during bad weather, killing more than 1,000 passengers. Twenty-three
al-Qaida prisoners escaped from a Yemeni prison, including one
convicted of the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole. Actor Al Lewis
("The Munsters") died in New York (he was probably 82, although he'd
claimed to have been born in 1910, which would have made him 95). Five
years ago: Tens of thousands of protesters staged unprecedented
demonstrations against Yemen's autocratic president, Ali Abdullah Saleh
(AH'-lee ahb-DUH'-luh sah-LEH'), a key U.S. ally in battling Islamic
militants, as unrest inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia spread
further in the Arab world. One year ago: An evening rush-hour commuter
train with 750 people aboard slammed into a SUV at a crossing in
Valhalla, New York, killing the vehicle's driver and six people on the
train. A video released on militant websites purportedly showed a
Jordanian pilot who was captured by the Islamic State group being
burned to death. Today's Birthdays: Comedian Shelley Berman is 91.
Former Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md., is 83. Football Hall-of-Famer Fran
Tarkenton is 76. Actress Bridget Hanley is 75. Actress Blythe Danner is
73. Singer Dennis Edwards is 73. Football Hall-of-Famer Bob Griese is
71. Singer-guitarist Dave Davies (The Kinks) is 69. Singer Melanie is
69. Actress Morgan Fairchild is 66. Actress Pamela Franklin is 66.
Actor Nathan Lane is 60. Rock musician Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) is 60.
Actor Thomas Calabro is 57. Actor-director Keith Gordon is 55. Actress
Michele Greene is 54. Country singer Matraca (muh-TRAY'-suh) Berg is
52. Actress Maura Tierney is 51. Actor Warwick Davis is 46. Actress
Elisa Donovan is 45. Reggaeton singer Daddy Yankee is 40. Musician
Grant Barry is 39. Human rights activist Amal Alamuddin Clooney is 38.
Singer-songwriter Jessica Harp is 34. Actor Matthew Moy is 32. Actress
Rebel Wilson is 30. Rapper Sean Kingston is 26. Thought for Today:
"Your friend will argue with you. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian
writer (1918-2008).
