February 8th
Today in America's Present Past
1693 | William & Mary College is charted in Williamsburg, Virginia.
1735 | First opera performance in the Americas conducted in Charleston, South Carolina.
1820 | General William Tecumseh Sherman was born.
1837 | POTUS: Richard Johnson was the first vice president chosen by the U.S. Senate.
1850 | Indian Wars: Provo River massacre.
1855 | The Smithsonian “Castle” opens to the public for the first time in Washington, D.C.
1873 | General John White Geary died.
1876 | Indian Wars: The Great Sioux War starts.
1877 | Explorer Charles Wilkes died.
1882 | Aviator Thomas Selfridge was born.
1887 | Congress: Passage of the Dawes Act.
1894 | Film director King Vidor was born.
1894 | Congress: Repeal of Reconstruction’s “Enforcement Act.”
1910 | William D Boyce incorporates the Boy Scouts of America.
1911 | Poet Elizabeth Bishop was born.
1918 | “Stars & Stripes,” a US military publication, begins operations.
1919 | Civil Rights: “Red Summer race riots” in Blakeley, Georgia.
1921 | Actress Lana Turner was born.
1924 | First coast-to-coast radio broadcast of a speech - General John Joseph Carty speech.
1924 | Outlaw Jon Gee executed.
1925 | Civil Rights: Marcus Garvey enters federal prison.
1925 | Actor Jack Lemmon was born.
1931 | Actor James Dean was born.
1932 | Outlaw Mad Dog Coll murdered.
1934 | The Export-Import Bank incorporates in Washington, D.C.
1936 | Civil Rights: First Native American Vice-President Charles Curtis died.
1941 | SCOTUS: Justice Willis Van Devanter died.
1941 | Actor Nick Nolte was born.
1944 | Civil Rights: Harry McAlpin started as the first African-American journalist accredited to the White House.
1955 | Author John Grisham was born.
1959 | Intelligence pioneer William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan died.
1960 | Congress: Opens an investigation into “payola” in the music industry.
1965 | Vietnam War: Democrat President Lyndon Johnson deploys the first U.S. combat troops.
1968 | Civil Rights: Orangeburg Massacre at South Carolina State University.
1968 | Actor Gary Coleman was born.
1972 | American wrestler “Big Show” was born.
1974 | Actor Seth Green was born.
1977 | Civil Rights: Publisher Larry Flynt sentenced on obscenity charges.
1978 | Congress: U.S. Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.
1995 | J. William Fulbright died.
2007 | Model Anna Nicole Smith died.
2020 | Actor Robert Conrad died.
2023 | Musician Burt Bacharach died.