This Week in History

JANUARY 29

Sunshine Hastings was born.

1886 – Karl Benz received a patent for the first successful gasoline-driven car.

1936 – Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson were the first players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

JANUARY 30

Terence Moriarty was born.

1948 – Gandhi was assassinated.

1972 – British troops opened fire on civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland, sparking

the “Bloody Sunday” massacre.

JANUARY 31

Lori Healey-Wasson was born.

1865 – The House of Representatives approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the

U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery.

1940 – The first social security check was issued to Ida Fuller for $22.54.

FEBRUARY 1

Maryellen Galvin was born.

Eileen McDade was born.

2003 – The space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it tried to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere after a 16-day mission in space. All seven members of the crew were lost.

2004 – Janet Jackson’s famous “wardrobe malfunction” occurred at Super Bowl XXXVIII.

FEBRUARY 2

Sandy Livingston was born.

Denise Auerbach was born.

Joe Fox was born.

Terrence Sullivan was born.

1887 – The first gathering at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. to wait for the groundhog’s shadow occurred.

1943 – Nazi troops surrendered in the World War II Battle of Stalingrad.

FEBRUARY 3

Anthony George was born.

Jeanne Jamin was born.

1870 – The 15th Amendment (black suffrage) passed.

1959 – Rock singers, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and Big Bopper died in a plane crash.

FEBRUARY 4

Thomas O’Callaghan was born.

Frankie Cullen was born.

Mike Lee was born.

1789 – George Washington and John Adams were elected the president and vice president of the United States.

2004 – The Massachusetts Supreme Court declared that gays had the right to marry.