| According to legend, Japan's first emperor, Jimmu Tenno (jimmu means "divine warrior" and tenno means "heavenly") ascended the throne in 660 B.C. Traditionally the emperor was considered a divine entity and it is also loosely believed that the reigning emperor is a direct descendant of Jimmu Tenno. The word tenno itself is the Japanese word for emperor. |
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| Early in February of 1573 Drake set out with eighteen men, to capture the Gold Train. Along the way, he was joined by thirty Cimarron's, with their chief, Pedro. After a weeks march, he climbed a tree, and was able to see the Pacific Ocean. Three days later, they were out side, the city of Old Panama from where they could easily see the ships that had arrived from Peru with the Treasures for Spanish King. |  |
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| In 1752, the Pennsylvania Hospital, the first in America, opened in Philadelphia through the indefatigible efforts of Benjamin Franklin, who was involved in drafting the petition for its establishment and fund-raising. It was established on May 11, 1751, when the colonial governor of Pennsylvania approved its charter as a proposed hospital to include treatment of people with mental illness. The first patient was received on February 11, 1752, at the hospital's temporary quarters in the Judge Kinsey mansion on Market St. |
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| From 1789 through 1794, all Senate proceedings were held in secret. Public pressure led to a reversal of that practice for legislative deliberations. Backed by the state legislatures, reporters gained admittance in 1794, and received gallery space the following year. Once inside the chamber, however, reporters had little patience for the Senate's careful deliberations. Instead, they preferred the livelier, more combative House, and only occasionally covered the Senate. |
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| In 1808, Judge Jesse Fell of Wilkes-Barre, Penn experimented by burning anthracite coal to keep his house warm. He developed a method to burn the stone coal without the use of forced air and his fireplace grate opened up the home heating market. He had found a cheap, clean burning fuel. As a result, that area of northeast Pennsylvania became an important coal mining area for generations. |
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| In 1809, Robert Fulton patented his steamboat for the first time, although he had already made his first successful steamboat trip on the Clermont between New York City and Albany in 1807. Few inventions have been as important as the steamboat, which opened up American rivers to two-way travel. Obtaining the patent for which he applied on January 1, 1809 was routine. However, defending them against the lawsuits of competitors proved troublesome for years. |
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| The term gerrymandering is derived from Elbridge Gerry, the governor of Massachusetts from 1810 to 1812. Governor Gerry signed a bill into law that redistricted his state to overwhelmingly benefit his party, the Republican Party. The opposition party, the Federalists, were quite upset. One of the congressional districts was shaped very strangely and, as the story goes, one Federalist remarked that the district looked like a salamander. No, said another Federalist, it's a gerrymander. |
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| Saint Bernadette Soubirous was a shepherd girl from the town of Lourdes in southern France. From February to July 1858, she reported eighteen apparitions of "a lady". These claims have been declared "worthy of belief" by the Catholic Church in a canonical investigation. The phenomenon made the town a major site for pilgrimages which attracts millions of Catholics each year. |  |
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| On January 27, 1861, Lincoln announced that he would depart for Washington on February 11 and asked for the "utmost privacy" during the rest of his stay in Springfield. On the rainswept morning of February 11, 1861, Lincoln stood on the Springfield train platform. In a voice trembling with emotion he addressed the crowd. "My friends-No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe every thing." |
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| By 1858, a promoter named Abe Curry had founded Carson City and named it after the Wild West hero and Indian fighter Kit Carson shown at left. A few years later, he successfully lobbied Congress to approve a branch mint in Carson City, Nevada to solve both the need for coins and to avoid the dangerous hauling of raw bullion. There were delays in opening the mint due to Congressional funding during the Civil War and the first coins finally rolled off the Carson City presses in 1870. Tests of the machinery were conducted at various times during 1869, but the dies didn't arrive from Philadelphia until January 10, 1870. The first coins struck were Liberty Seated silver dollars. |
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| In 1877 Harvard baseball captain Fred Thayer adapted a fencer's mask to be used by catchers, but it wasn't until 1890 that major leaguers accepted the screened-in luxury. |  |
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| On August 26, 1935, auto workers organized the UAW to bargain for better wages and working conditions. The Flint Sitdown began on December 30, 1936 when UAW leaders decided to call a strike against GM. The goal of the strike was simple: GM recognition of the UAW. Several hundred members of the United Automobile Workers Union (UAW) emerged from three General Motors (GM) factories in Flint, Michigan to the sounds of cheering crowd. These workers had just completed a 44-day sitdown strike. |
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| The Glenn Miller Orchestra, formed in 1938, immediately attracted attention and big crowds to venues, and a series of recordings followed. Beginning in June, 1939. Miller dominated the top spot on the various popular music charts for over a year, with "In the Mood" holding the top spot for over fifteen weeks at the beginning of 1940 and 'Tuxedo Junction' taking over and keeping Miller at 'number 1' into the summer. On February 11, 1941 Miller was presented with the first ever Gold record for "Chattanooga Choo Choo." |
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| in 1941 Pep Comics #22 came out. A story in the back of the superheroes comic about a teenaged boy in a love triangle named Archie Andrews would become the draw for this book. In this issue Archie's friends called him 'Chic'; Archie was modeled roughly around Mickey Rooney's Andy Hardy character. By 1943 this company, known then as MJL Magazines, would change its name to Archie Comics. Archie Comics is known for its tales featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle, and Forsythe "Jughead" Jones. | |
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| The XP-81 was designed to meet the Army Air Force requirement for a mixed power escort fighter in 1943. The Merlin-powered XP-81 was trucked to Muroc Dry Lake, where it was flown for the first time on February 11, 1945. The handling proved to be exceptionally good. In the meantime, the war against Japan had progressed to the point where the capture of such islands as Guam and Saipan had largely eliminated the need for long-range, high-speed escort fighters. The 13 pre-production YP-81s were cancelled shortly before V-J Day. |
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| Recording solo in 1950, Red Foley issued the song that would become his trademark tune,
"Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy," which stayed in the number one position for 13 weeks.
In 1949 the Ames Brothers scored a hit, "Forever and Ever," with Russ Morgan's orchestra, and in 1950 they had their first number one, a double-sider, “Rag Mop/Sentimental Me.” The brothers went on to chart several more hits during the early part of the decade and ended up with a regular spot on Arthur Godfrey's television show. |
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| In 1950, "All My Love" became Page’s first number one hit and spent several weeks at the top. That same year produced the biggest hit of her career, "The Tennessee Waltz." Notched at number one for months, it eventually became one of the best-selling singles of all time and prompted no less than six Top 40 covers during the following year. |  |
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| "Memories Are Made of This" is from the film The Seven Hills Of Rome in which it was sung by Mario Lanza. It was written by Terry Gilkyson (who previously had performed with the legendary Folk group The Weavers in the early 1950s), Richard Dehr and Frank Miller in 1955. |  |
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| When Paar had first taken over as host, “The Tonight Show “was still being done live. Not too long after, it began taping early in the evening that it would be aired. It was NBC's ability to edit the tapes before air time that precipitated Paar's famous tearful walkout on the February 11, 1960, program. A "water closet" joke he had told the night before was considered in bad taste by the NBC censors and had been removed. Paar didn't think the joke was offensive and he left the show for a month. |
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| "Will You Still Me Tomorrow?" was the first US #1 hit record by a black girl group, and the first #1 written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Goffin and King were a husband and wife songwriting team who worked in the Brill building, which was the center of the songwriting universe in the early '60s. They were assigned to write a song for the Shirelles as a follow-up song to "Tonight's The Night." |  |
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| "Please, Please Me" was The Beatles first single released in America. The Beatles couldn't get a major label to release it, so It went to a small label called Vee Jay records, who released it as a single 3 times- Feb 25, 1963, Jan 30, 1964, and Aug 10,1964. The only release that charted was the second, when The Beatles finally made a name for themselves in America. John Lennon wrote this in the style of Roy Orbison's overly-dramatic singing. Lennon was a big Orbison fan. |
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| Neil Diamond wrote "I'm a Believer." He performed it on one of his albums that came out a few months after the Monkee's cover version. The Monkees version was far more popular because of the exposure the song was given on their television series. The Monkees' second single, after "Last Train To Clarksville." It was released during the first season of their TV show. |  |
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| On February 11, 1968 the fourth Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Garden IV, opened after the financially troubled Pennsylvania Railroad tore down Pennsylvania Station (although the tracks remained underneath). The current Garden is the hub of Madison Square Garden Center in the office and entertainment complex known as Pennsylvania Plaza, for the railroad station atop which the complex is located. |
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| The first Japanese satellite, Osumi 5, was launched, making Japan the fourth country to put a satellite into earth orbit. The University of Tokyo's Institute of Space and Aeronautical Science launched the 24-kg satellite from the Kagoshima Space Center on the Osumi peninsula, using a Lambda 4S solid-fuel rocket. Its mission was to explore the upper atmosphere. |  |
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| Forty-eight major leaguers opted to try the new arbitration procedure that had been established to aid in the negotiation of contract differences. The first to file was Minnesota pitcher Dick Woodson, who was seeking an agreement worth $29,000. The Twins had offered $23,000 and both parties presented their arguments to a Detroit lawyer and labor arbitrator Harry H. Platt. After reviewing the monetary amounts presented, the verdict was cast in Woodson's favor. |
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| This plays over the opening credits of the 1977 movie "Stayin' Alive" while John Travolta struts through the streets of New York City. The movie has come to represent the Disco era, and has made this the song most associated with Disco. |  |
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| "Karma Chameleon" was Culture Club's biggest hit in the UK 1,405,000 copies were sold. It was also the biggest-selling single of 1983 in UK. In Canada this topped their charts for 7 weeks and was the first single by a group to sell a million copies. This won the 1984 Brit Award for Best Single. |  |
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| The album did not hit #1 in the US until 64th week on the charts, the longest ever journey to the top. Paula released 2 other singles before this came out. "Knocked Out" and "The Way You Love Me" established her as a dance singer, but this was her breakthrough hit. |  |
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| In South Africa, Nelson Mandela, at age 71, was released from prison after serving 27 years of a life sentence on charges of attempting to overthrow the apartheid government. In April 1994, he was elected president in the first all-race elections. |  |
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| The 61-year-old adventurer piloted his lightweight experimental plane, the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, to set a new record of 26,389 miles in about 76 hours. That breaks the previous record of 24,987 miles in 1986 by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yaeger in the Voyager aircraft and the balloon record of 25,361 miles set in 1999 by the Breitling Orbiter 3. |  |
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0660 BC Traditional founding of
Japan by Emperor Jimmu Tenno
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1573 First European, Francis Drake sees the Pacific
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1752 First hospital in the US, opened
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1794 First session of US Senate open to the public
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1808 Anthracite coal first burned as fuel, experimentally,
Wilkes-Barre PA
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1809 Robert Fulton patents the steamboat
More ...
1812 Massachusetts Governor Gerry signs a redistricting
bill
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1854 Major streets lit by coal gas for first time
1858 First apparition of Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette
of Lourdes France
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1861 President-elect Abraham Lincoln left Springfield,
Illinois, for Washington
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1870 US mint at Carson City NV begins issuing coins
More ...
1878 Frederick W. Thayer patented a catcher’s
mask
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1878 First US bicycle club, Boston Bicycle Club,
forms
1905 James Blackstone, Seattle, bowls 299 1/2
- last pin breaks but stands
1935 First US airplane flight with auto slung
beneath the fuselage, New York
1937 44-day sit-down strike at General Motors
in Flint MI ends
More ...
1941 First Gold record presented (Glenn Miller-Chattanooga
Choo Choo)
More ...
1942 "Archie" comic book debuts
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1945 First gas turbine propeller-driven airplane
flight tested, Downey CA
More ...
1950 "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy" by
Red Foley & "Rag Mop" by the Ames Brothers hit
#1
More ...
1951 "Tennessee Waltz" by Patti Page
topped the charts
More ...
1956 "Memories Are Made of This" by
Dean Martin
More ...
1960 Jack Paar walks off his TV show
More ...
1961 "Will You Still Me Tomorrow?" by
The Shirelles topped the charts
More ...
1963 Beatles tape 10 tracks for their first album,
including "Please, Please Me"
More ...
1964 Beatles first live appearance in US; Washington,
DC Coliseum
1966 "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees
topped the charts
More ...
1968 Madison Square Garden III closes Madison
Square Garden IV opens (New York NY)
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1969 Diana Crump becomes first US woman jockey
to ride against men, Hialelah
1970 Japan becomes 4th nation to put a satellite
(Osumi) in orbit
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1974 Dick Woodson is first of 48 to invoke baseball's
new arbitration rule
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1977 20.2-kg lobster caught off Nova Scotia (heaviest
known crustacean)
1978 "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees
topped the charts
More ...
1984 "Karma Chameleon" by the Culture
Club topped the charts
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1989 "Straight Up" by Paula Abdul topped
the charts
More ...
1990 South African Nelson Mandela released from
prison
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1999 Pluto is once again the farthest planet from
the sun in our solar system
2006 Steve Fossett breaks record for non-stop flight
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