February 17th

Born on this date:

• Hal Holbrook, academy-award-nominee for best supporting actor for his role in "Into the Wild" and one of my favorite actors is 83. Born Harold Rowe Jr. in 1925.
• Chaim Potok, born as Herman Harold Potok in 1929, died July 23, 2002. I read two of his novels, "The Chosen" and "The Promise" many-many years ago.
• Jim Brown, born in 1936, is 72. He was selected as the 4th greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN.
• Gene Pitney was born on this date in 1940. He died April 5, 2006. He's one of my favorite singers from the early 1960s. "Town Without Pity", "Only Love Can Break A Heart", and of course "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance".
• Becky Wiseman, family historian and genea-blogger, has reached the big six-oh milestone today. The best is yet to come!
• Lou Diamond Phillips, actor, probably best known for his role as Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie "La Bamba" was born in 1962, he's 46 today.
• Michael Jordan, named the top athlete of the 20th century, is 45 today. He was born in 1963.

And just a few of the "historical" events that occurred on this date:

• 1801 - The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. Jefferson was elected president and Burr became vice president.
• 1817 - The first gaslit streetlights appeared on the streets of Baltimore, MD.
• 1864 - The Confederate submarine Hunley sank the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.
• 1865 - Columbia, the capital city of South Carolina, was destroyed by fire as Major General William Tecumseh Sherman marches through with his army.
• 1876 - Julius Wolff was credited with being the first to can sardines.
• 1878 - In San Francisco, California, the first large city telephone exchange opened. It had 18 phones.
• 1909 - Apache chief Geronimo died of pneumonia at age 80, while still in captivity at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
• 1913 - The Armory Show opened at the 69th Regiment Armory in New York City. The full-scale exhibition was of contemporary paintings and was organized by the Association of Painters and Sculptors.
• 1919 - Germany signed an armistice giving up territory in Poland.
• 1924 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle. He did it with a time of 52-2/5 seconds in Miami, Florida.
• 1933 - "Newsweek" was first published.
• 1933 - Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after Chic Young’s popular strip first debuted.
• 1938 - The first color television was demonstrated at the Dominion Theatre in London.
• 1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. U.S. forces won the battle on February 22nd.
• 1945 - General MacArthur's troops landed on Corregidor in the Philippines.
• 1947 - The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.
• 1960 - The Everly Brothers signed with Warner Brothers Records in a 10-year contract worth $1 million.
• 1966 - Brian Wilson began recording the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations."
• 1971 - James Taylor made his prime-time television debut on ABC's "Johnny Cash Show."
• 1976 - Bette Midler was awarded the "Woman of the Year" award from Harvard's University's Hasty Pudding Theatrical Society.
• 1985 - U.S. Postage stamp prices were raised from 20 cents to 22 cents for first class mail.
• 1996 - The 400th episode of "Saturday Night Live" aired on NBC.
• 1996 - World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer "Deep Blue" in Philadelphia, PA.

The above list was compiled from these webpages:

• http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history?tihMonth=February&tihDay=17
• http://www.on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/feb17.htm
• http://www.440.com/twtd/today.html