Today in History
Today’s highlights:
On Feb. 8, 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death.
On this date:
1587: Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1862: The Civil War Battle of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, ended in victory for Union forces led by Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside.
1910: The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.
1922: President Warren G. Harding
had a radio installed in the White House.
1952: Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed her accession to the British throne following the death of her father, King George VI.
1968: Three college students were killed in a confrontation between demonstrators and highway patrolmen at South Carolina State University in Orangeburg in the wake of protests over a whites-only bowling alley. The science-fiction film “Planet of the Apes,” starring Charlton Heston, had its world premiere in New York.
1971: NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock exchange, held its first trading day.
1973: Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal, including its chairman, Sen. Sam J. Ervin, D-N.C.
1976: Martin Scorsese’s violent urban drama “Taxi Driver,” starring Robert De Niro, was released by Columbia Pictures.
1989: One hundred forty-four people were killed when an American-chartered Boeing 707 filled with Italian tourists slammed into a fog-covered mountain in the Azores.
1992: The XVI Olympic Winter Games opened in Albertville, France.
1993: General Motors sued NBC, alleging that “Dateline NBC” had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that 1973to-87 GM pickups were prone to fires in side impact crashes. NBC settled the lawsuit the following day and apologized for its “unscientific demonstration.”
Ten years ago: Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop superstar in Los Angeles Superior Court. Murray was convicted in 2011 and served two years in jail.
Five years ago: A riot erupted outside a major soccer stadium in Egypt, with a stampede and fighting between police and fans killing at least 19 people.
One year ago: A fire swept through the sleeping quarters of an academy for a Brazilian professional soccer club, killing 10 teenage players. A second woman accused Virginia Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, saying he had raped her 19 years earlier while they were both students at Duke University.