Today in History

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Feb. 8, the 39th day of 2022. There are 326 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 8, 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.

On this date:

In 1693, a charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in the Virginia Colony.

In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated.

In 1922, President Warren G. Harding had a radio installed in the White House.

In 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.

In 1952, Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed her accession to the British throne following the death of her father, King George VI.

In 1960, work began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles.

In 1965, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663, a DC-7, crashed shortly after takeoff from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport; all 84 people on board were killed. The Supremes’ record “Stop! In the Name of Love!” was released by Motown.

In 1968, three Black 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.

In 1971, NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock exchange, held its first trading day.

In 1973, Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to investigate the Watergate scandal, including its chairman, Democrat Sam J. Ervin of North Carolina.

In 2007, model, actor and tabloid sensation Anna Nicole Smith died in Hollywood, Florida, at age 39 of an accidental drug overdose.

In 2020, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said a 60-year-old U.S. citizen who’d been diagnosed with the coronavirus had died on Feb. 5 in Wuhan; it was apparently the first American fatality from the virus.

Ten years ago: Washington state lawmakers voted to approve same-sex marriage.

Five years ago: The Senate confirmed Sen. Jeff Sessions to be attorney general, 52-47, despite fierce Democratic opposition to the Alabama Republican over his record on civil rights and immigration. Britain’s House of Commons gave its final approval to a bill authorizing the government to start exit talks with the European Union, despite fears by opposition lawmakers that the U.K. was setting out on a rocky path to Brexit with a sketchy roadmap.

One year ago: In legal briefs filed on the eve of Donald Trump’s historic second impeachment trial, lawyers for the former president insisted that he was not guilty of inciting a violent mob at the Capitol to try to overturn the election; prosecutors said Trump must be convicted for this “most grievous constitutional crime” even after leaving the White House. Anthony Sowell, 61, died in prison while awaiting execution for killing 11 women and hiding their remains in and around his Cleveland home. Mary Wilson, one of the original members of the 1960s Motown group the Supremes, died at her Nevada home at 76. Longtime NFL coach Marty Schottenheimer died in North Carolina at 77. Electric automaker Tesla said it had invested around $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and planned to soon begin accepting the digital currency as payment.

Today’s Birthdays: Composer-conductor John Williams is 90. Broadcast journalist Ted Koppel is 82. Actor Nick Nolte is 81. Comedian Robert Klein is 80. Actor-rock musician Creed Bratton is 79. Singer Ron Tyson is 74. Actor Brooke Adams is 73. Actor Mary Steenburgen is 69. Author John Grisham is 67. Retired NBA All-Star and College Basketball Hall of Famer Marques Johnson is 66. Actor Henry Czerny is 63. Rock singer Vince Neil (Motley Crue) is 61. Former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa P. Jackson is 60. Movie producer Toby Emmerich is 59. Actor Missy Yager is 54. Actor Mary McCormack is 53. Basketball Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning is 52. Actor Susan Misner is 51. Dance musician Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo (Daft Punk) is 48. Actor Seth Green is 48. Actor Joshua Morrow is 48. Rock musician Phoenix (Linkin Park) is 45. Actor William Jackson Harper is 42. Actor Jim Parrack is 41. Folk singer-musician Joey Ryan (Milk Carton Kids) is 40. Actor-comedian Cecily Strong is 38. Rock musician Jeremy Davis is 37. Hip-hop artist Anderson.Paak is 36. Actor Ryan Pinkston is 34. NBA star Klay Thompson is 32. Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton is 32. Actor Karle Warren is 30.

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