# Today in History **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530 "2016-07-10T04:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 109
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2165 "2022-02-07T05:04:29Z")
**February 7, 2013** : Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2166 "2022-02-07T16:58:48Z")
February 7, 1812: The strongest of the three major New Madrid earthquakes occurs. Estimates put this earthquake at an astonishing 8.6 on the Richter scale, making it the strongest earthquake ever recorded in the lower 48 states. The earthquake causes the Mississppi River to flow backwards and creates Reelfoot Lake. > **[1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1811%E2%80%931812_New_Madrid_earthquakes)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > The 1811–1812 New Madrid earthquakes (/ˈmædrɪd/) were a series of intense intraplate earthquakes beginning with an initial earthquake of moment magnitude 7.2–8.2 on December 16, 1811, followed by a moment magnitude 7.4 aftershock on the same day. Two additional earthquakes of similar magnitude followed in January and February 1812. They remain the most powerful earthquakes to hit the contiguous United States east of the Rocky Mountains in record... ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2022, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2167 "2022-02-08T11:30:24Z")
**February 8, 1945** : Mikhail Devyataev escapes with nine other Soviet inmates from a Nazi concentration camp in Peenemünde on the island of Usedom by hijacking the camp commandant’s Heinkel He 111. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2022, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2168 "2022-02-09T11:43:21Z")
**February 9, 1964** : The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a “record-busting” audience of 73 million viewers across the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2022, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2169 "2022-02-10T11:47:11Z")
**February 10, 1996** : IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2022, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2170 "2022-02-11T11:44:12Z")
**February 11, 1938** : BBC Television produces the world’s first ever science fiction TV program, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play _R.U.R.,_ that coined the term “robot”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2022, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2171 "2022-02-12T07:57:36Z")
**February 12, 1924** : George Gershwin’s _Rhapsody in Blue_ received its premiere in a concert titled “An Experiment in Modern Music”, in Aeolian Hall, New York, by Paul Whiteman and his band, with Gershwin playing the piano. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2172 "2022-02-12T15:48:36Z")
**February 12, 1935:** The _Macon_ , the last U.S. Navy dirigible, crashes off the coast of California, killing two people. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2173 "2022-02-13T19:06:54Z")
**February 13, 1961** : An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, that appears to anachronistically encase a “1920s-style spark plug”. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2022, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2174 "2022-02-14T09:06:52Z")
**February 14, 1924** : The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2175 "2022-02-15T11:05:40Z")
**February 15, 1992** : Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer (aka The Milwaukee Cannibal) is sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison. On November 28, 1994, Dahmer was beaten to death by Christopher Scarver, a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution. ---
**Author:** ![Bicycle\_Bill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bicycle_bill/32/6208_2.png) [@Bicycle\_Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bicycle_Bill)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2022, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2176 "2022-02-15T11:22:20Z")
**February 15, 1898:** At approximately 9:45 PM (local time) this date, the 6680-ton battleship _USS Maine_ is destroyed by an unexplained explosion while in harbor in Havana, Cuba, kiling 266 members of its approximately 355-man crew. Initially reports placed the blame on Spain, greatly increasing tensions between that country and the US; after further investigation the explosion was officially declared as “of unknown causes” but suspected an underwater mine, which did little to alleviate the suspicion that it was done by the Spanish and would eventually lead to the Spanish-American War. _ **-“BB”-** _ ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2022, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2177 "2022-02-16T05:59:22Z")
**February 16, 1923** : Howard Carter unseals the burial chamber of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2022, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2178 "2022-02-17T05:17:12Z")
**February 17, 1801** : An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the United States, and Burr Vice President, by the United States House of Representatives. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2022, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2179 "2022-02-18T06:53:19Z")
**February 18, 1930** : Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft, and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2022, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2180 "2022-02-19T07:06:55Z")
**February 19, 1942** : President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps. And _34 years_ later, **February 19, 1976** : Executive Order 9066 is rescinded by President Gerald Ford. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2022, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2181 "2022-02-20T08:26:24Z")
**February 20, 1962** : John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2022, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2182 "2022-02-21T11:10:23Z")
**February 21, 1918** : The last Carolina parakeet dies in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2022, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2183 "2022-02-22T05:34:35Z")
**February 22, 1997** : Scottish scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/2184 "2022-02-23T21:21:35Z")
**February 23, 1898** : Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing “J’accuse”, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=108) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=110)