1945 – During WW II Allied bombers begin 4 day raid over Germany
1685 – Born today – Johann Sebastian Bach, Eisenach, Germany, Composer

1931 – Nevada legalized gambling

1902 – John Steinbeck, U.S. author (The Grapes of Wrath) (Nobel 1962)

1933 – Nina Simone, singer & pianist in Tyron NC

1600 – Giordano Bruno burned in Rome as a heretic
1854 – British recognize independence of Orange Free State (South Africa)
1870 – Mississippi readmitted to U.S. after Civil War
1878 – 1st telephone exchange in SF opens with 18 phones
1908 – Geronimo – Apache hero – dies (birth date unknown)

1600 – Giordano Bruno – advocate of Copernican theory & plurality of worlds – is burned at the stake by the Inquisition in Rome
1914 – 1st airplane flight to LA from SF
1923 – Howard Carter finds the Pharoah Tutankhamun
1945 – US forces land on Corregidor – complete conquest on March 3
1946 – 1st commercially designed helicopter tested – Bridgeport Ct
1964 – Beatles second appearance on Ed Sullivan

1764 – St. Louis founded
1898 – USS Maine sinks in Havana harbor – cause unknown
1933 – Pres-elect Franklin Roosevelt survives assassination attempt
1950 – Walt Disney’s “Cinderella” released
1955 – Production announced-1st pilot plant to produce man-made diamonds

1753 – Valentine’s Day
1876 – Alexander Graham Bell files application for patent on the telephone
1918 – USSR adopts New Style (Gregorian) calendar
1929 – St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago – 7 gangsters killed
1961 – Element 103 – lawrencium – 1st produced in Berkeley California
1972 – John & Yoko guest host Mike Douglas Show for the entire week
1972 – USSR launches Luna 20; unmanned probe soft-lands on moon – returns
1980 – US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares

1678 – Tycho Brahe 1st sketches “Tychonic system” idea of solar system
1741 – 1st magazine published in America (The American Magazine)
1867 – Blue Danube” waltz premiers in Vienna
1945 – Fire-bombing of Dresden begins; c. 50 -000 killed
1955 – Israel acquires 4 of the 7 dead sea scrolls
1960 – France explodes its 1st atomic bomb – in Algerian desert

1541 – Santiago – Chile founded
1915 – Cornerstone laid for Lincoln Memorial in Washington – DC
1945 – SF selected for site of UN Conference
1947 – A daytime fireball & meteorite fall is seen in eastern Siberia
1955 – Pres Eisenhower sends 1st US advisors to S Vietnam
1961 – USSR launches Venera 1 toward Venus

1877 – US Weather Service is founded
1922 – Snow on Mauna Loa
1943 – Japanese evacuated Guadalcanal – ending epic battle
1953 – Superman TV series premiers
1964 – 1st appearance of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan
1969 – Boeing 747 makes its 1st coml flight
1971 – Apollo 14 returns to Earth
1986 – Halley’s Comet reaches perihelion (closest approach to sun)

1587 – Mary – Queen of Scots beheaded
1672 – Isaac Newton reads 1st optics paper before Royal Society in London
1883 – Louis Waterman begins experiments that invent the fountain pen
1911 – US helps to overthrow Miguel D vila – president of Honduras
1922 – Radio arrives in the White House
1926 – Walt Disney Studios formed
1969 – Meteorite weighing over one ton is recovered in Chihuahua – Mexico
1977 – Earthquake in SF – at 5.0 – strongest since 1966

Here’s how we calculate the power in a name. In short – the first three places are the same as last year: Coca Cola, Microsoft and IBM.

1788 – Mass becomes 6th state to ratify constitution
1900 – Spanish-American War ends
1922 – US – UK – France – Italy & Japan sign Washington naval arms limitation
1952 - Elizabeth II becomes queen of Great Britain
1959 – Fidel Castro is interviewed by Edward R Murrow