Historical Events
1076 – Pope Gregory VII excommunicates Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV (for the 1st time)
1872 – 1st US state bird refuge authorized (Lake Merritt, California)
1929 – St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed, allegedly on Al Capone’s orders
1968 – WHKY TV channel 14 in Hickory, NC (IND) begins broadcasting
1980 – US launches Solar Maximum Mission Observatory to study solar flares
2002 – Fishing vessel Tullaghmurray Lass sinks off the coast of Kilkeel, County Down, Northern Ireland killing three members of the same family on board
Famous Birthdays
1895 – Max Horkheimer, German philosopher and sociologist (Dialectic of Enlightenment, Eclipse of Reason), born in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, Germany (d. 1973)
1926 – (Alexander) “Bobby” Kok, Boer-British classical and session cellist (BBC Symphony; George Harrison – “When We Was Fab”), born in Brakpan, Union of South Africa, (d. 2015)
1943 – Griselda Blanco ‘Cocaine Godmother’, Colombian drug lord, born in Cartagena, Colombia (d. 2012)
1958 – Perry Stephens, German actor (Loving, All My Children), born in Frankfurt, Germany
1972 – Erika Rachael Schwarz, Miss America (Louisiana-2nd-1997), born in Folsom, Louisiana
1983 – Rhydian Roberts, Welsh Singer (X Factor runner up), born in Sennybridge, United Kingdom
Famous Deaths
1760 – François Colin de Blamont, French composer, dies at 69
1870 – St. John Richardson Liddell, American Civil War Confederate General, dies at 54
1884 – Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1st wife of Theodore Roosevelt, dies of Bright’s disease at 22
1955 – Charles Cuvillier, French composer of operetta (The Naughty Princess), dies at 77
1994 – Andrei Chikatilo, Soviet-Russian serial killer who murdered at least 52 women and children between 1978 and 1990, executed by a single gunshot at 57
2010 – Dick Francis, British jockey and detective writer (Whip Hand, High Stakes), dies at 89