National Freedom Day Day 32 of 2010 333 days left in this year

February 1st, 1980: The first Hawaiian born astronaut -  Ellison Onizuka – begins his secret three-day mission aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. He was the expert in charge of placing a secret eavesdropping satellite over the Soviet Union. Onizuka returned to earth on February 3, the mission a success.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — February 1st

• 1790: U.S. Supreme Court convenes for first time (in New York City)
• 1861: Texas votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederacy
• 1862: Julia Howe publishes “Battle Hymn of the Republic”
• 1893: Thomas Edison completes the world’s first movie studio (West Orange NJ)
• 1906: The first federal penitentiary building is completed (Leavenworth Kansas)
• 1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is established
• 1951: The first telecast of atomic explosion
• 1960: Four African American college students stage the first civil rights sit-in, at Greensboro Woolworth, refusing to move from a Woolworth’s lunch counter after being refused service
• 1972: The first scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) is introduced (costs $395)
• 1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile
• 1979: Patricia Hearst is released from a San Francisco prison for bank robbery
• 1982: “Late Night with David Letterman” premieres on NBC-TV
• 1991: South African President F W de Klerk, publicly states he will repeal all apartheid laws
• 1999: The Morse code “SOS” is officially retired (replaced by the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System)
• 2003: The space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven crew members.
• 2004: Singer Janet Jackson’s entire breast was briefly exposed during a duet with Justin Timberlake during the Super Bowl halftime show. Timberlake later referred to the incident as a “wardrobe malfunction.”
• 2006: French and German newspapers republished caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in what they called a defense of freedom of expression, sparking fresh anger from Muslims.
• 2008: Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two women killed nearly 100 people in Baghdad.

BORN ON THIS DAY — February 1st

• 1859: Victor Herbert,  composer
• 1895: John Ford, film director
• 1901: Clark Gable, actor
• 1902: Langston Hughes, poet/author/translator
• 1904: S.J. Perelman, author/humorist
• 1918: Muriel Spark, novelist
• 1926: Stuart Whitman,  actor
• 1928: Tom Lantos, US congressman (D-CA)
• 1931: Boris Yeltsin,   Russian president
• 1937: Don Everly,  singer
• 1937: Garrett Morris,  comedian
• 1943: Terry Jones, comedian (Monty Python)
• 1952: Rick James,  rock/soul/funk vocalist
• 1954: Mike Campbell, guitarist (Tom Petty & Heartbreakers)
• 1965: Brandon Lee,  actor
• 1968: Lisa Marie Presley (Elvis’ daughter)
• 1970: Pauly Shore, comedian
• 1971: Michael C. Hall, actor

DIED ON THIS DAY — February 1st

• 1966: Buster Keaton [Joseph Francis], US comic (General), dies at 69
• 1966: Hedda Hopper [Elda Furry], US gossip columnist, dies at 75
• 1976: Werner C Heisenberg physicist (Nobel 1932, field theory), dies at 74
• 1977: Edmond [Moore] Hamilton US, sci-fi author (Danger Planet), dies at 72
• 1979: Mort Marshall actor (Cully-Dumplings), dies at 60
• 1986: Dick James Beatles’ music publisher (1962-70), dies in London at 58
• 1991: James G MacDonald cartoon voice (Mickey Mouse), dies at 84
• 1997: Herb Caen columnist, dies of lung cancer at 80
• 2003: Crew of the STS-107 Mission (Space Shuttle Columbia disaster):
  * Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959)
  * David Brown (b. 1956)
  * Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961)
  * Laurel Clark (b. 1961)
  * Rick D. Husband (b. 1957)
  * Willie McCool (b. 1961)
  * Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)