This day in .....

18 January 1896 An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.

X-ray generator

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19 November 1953 Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

Lucy Goes to the Hospital

16th episode of the 2nd season of I Love Lucy

"Lucy Goes to the Hospital" is an episode of the 1950s American television show I Love Lucy in which the title character, Lucy Ricardo, gives birth to a baby boy after a chaotic sequence of events. Twelve hours before the original broadcast on January 19, 1953, the actress who played Lucy, Lucille Ball, had given birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr. by cesarean section. The episode had actually been filmed on November 14, 1952.

The episode was the culmination of an unprecedented pairing of the fictional pregnancy of Lucy with the real-life pregnancy of Ball; "real-time pregnancy was fictively narrated for the first time on American television."^[1] (This may not entirely be true, since Mary Kay and Johnny is also reputed to have written the pregnancy of its star Mary Kay Stearns into the script; that more obscure series has since been mostly destroyed, making it difficult to verify.)^[2]

When the episode premiered on January 19, 1953, 73.9% of all American homes with television sets tuned in, amounting to 44 million viewers watching the episode, a record until September 9, 1956, when Elvis Presley appeared for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show, at CBS, which drew a share of 82.6%, a figure unrivaled since.^[3] It received higher ratings than the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, which received 29 million viewers, the day afterward.^[4] According to the Indian newspaper The Telegraph, scripts for the episode were reviewed by a rabbi, a minister, and a priest in order to make sure it would not be offensive.

The cover story of Newsweek on January 19, 1953 was about the episode (which had not yet been aired when the issue went to press). The first issue of TV Guide, dated April 3, 1953, featured a cover photo of newborn Desi Arnaz, Jr., captioned as "Lucy's $50,000,000 Baby".^[5]

Numerous stories were published about the sex of the baby, which was kept secret until the episode aired; when Ball actually had a boy as Lucy did in the script, headlines proclaimed "Lucy sticks to script: a boy it is!" (New York Daily Mirror), "TV was right: a boy for Lucille" (New York Daily News), and "What the Script Ordered" (Life magazine).^[3]

1. ^ Berlant, Lauren (2002). The Queen of America Goes to Washington City. Duke University Press. p. 133. ISBN 0822319241. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
2. ^ snopes.com/radiotv Snopes.com: "Early to Bed"
3. ^ ^{a b} Landay, Lori (2010). I Love Lucy. Wayne State University Press. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-8143-3261-0. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
4. ^ Sanders, Coyne Stephen & Gilbert, Tom (1993). Desilu: The Story of Lucile Ball and Desi Arnaz. Quill, an imprint of William Morrow and Company. p. 69. ISBN 0-688-13514-5. Retrieved August 25, 2011.
5. ^ Fiftiesweb.com

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20 January 1987 Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.

Terry Waite

English humanitarian (born 1939)

Sir Terence Hardy Waite KCMG CBE (born 31 May 1939^[1]) is an English humanitarian and author.

Waite was the Assistant for Anglican Communion Affairs for the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, in the 1980s. As an envoy for the Church of England, he travelled to Lebanon to try to secure the release of four hostages, including the journalist John McCarthy. He was himself kidnapped and held captive from 1987 to 1991.^[2]

After his release he wrote Taken on Trust (1994), a memoir about his experiences, and became involved in humanitarian causes and charitable work.

1. ^ "Hostage Waite Gets Belated Birthday Wish". Los Angeles Times. 9 June 1989. Retrieved 12 December 2015. Friends and colleagues of Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite on Thursday sent him a belated birthday wish published in the independent newspaper An Nahar. Waite, who was kidnapped in Lebanon two and a half years ago, spent his 50th birthday on May 31 in captivity
2. ^ "Kidnapped Waite returns to Beirut". BBC News. 9 December 2012. Retrieved 13 March 2020.

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21 January 1793 After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.

Louis XVI of France

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• Louis XVI

• From a page move: This is a redirect from a page that has been moved (renamed). This page was kept as a redirect to avoid breaking links, both internal and external, that may have been made to the old page name.

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22 January 1905 Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

Bloody Sunday (1905)

1905 protest in St. Petersburg, Russia

For other events of the same name, see Bloody Sunday (disambiguation).

Bloody Sunday or Red Sunday^[1] (Russian: Кровавое воскресенье, tr. Krovavoye voskresenye, IPA: [krɐˈvavəɪ vəskrʲɪˈsʲenʲjɪ]) was the series of events on Sunday, 22 January [O.S. 9 January] 1905 in St Petersburg, Russia, when unarmed demonstrators, led by Father Georgy Gapon, were fired upon by soldiers of the Imperial Guard as they marched towards the Winter Palace to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.

Bloody Sunday caused grave consequences for the Tsarist autocracy governing Imperial Russia: the events in St. Petersburg provoked public outrage and a series of massive strikes that spread quickly to the industrial centres of the Russian Empire. The massacre on Bloody Sunday is considered to be the start of the active phase of the Revolution of 1905. In addition to beginning the 1905 Revolution, historians such as Lionel Kochan in his book Russia in Revolution 1890–1918 view the events of Bloody Sunday to be one of the key events which led to the Russian Revolution of 1917.

1. ^ A History of Modern Europe 1789–1968 by Herbert L. Peacock m.a.

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23 January 1961 The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator Ant?nio de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown.

Santa Maria hijacking

1961 hijack of Portuguese ship

The Santa Maria hijacking was carried out on 22 January 1961^[1][2] when Portuguese and Spanish political rebels seized control of a Portuguese passenger ship, aiming to force political change in Portugal. The action was also known as Operation Dulcinea, the code name given by its chief architect and leader, Portuguese military officer, writer and politician Henrique Galvão, who had been exiled in Caracas, Venezuela since 1959. After United States naval intervention, the ship arrived in Brazil, and the hijacking ended on 2 February when the rebels were given political asylum there.^[1][3]

1. ^ ^{a b} "The Log of the Santa Maria: 12 Days Off Course – the Chronicle of a Cruise With a Big, Exciting Difference". Globe and Mail. Toronto. 1961-02-03. p. 13.
2. ^ "Portugal's Santa Maria". Archived from the original on 1998-02-09. Retrieved 2019-01-19.
3. ^ Tad Szulc (1961-02-03). "Beg Galvao to Accept Asylum: Brazilian Marines Board Ship After Crew Scrambles Ashore: May Seize Ship In Owner's Name: Only 30 Rebels". Globe and Mail. Toronto. New York Times service. p. 1.

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24 January 1848 California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

California Gold Rush

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25 January 1924 The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.

1924 Winter Olympics

Multi-sport event in Chamonix, France

The 1924 Winter Olympics, officially known as the I Olympic Winter Games (French: I^ers Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Chamonix 1924 (Arpitan: Chamôni 1924), were a winter multi-sport event which was held in 1924 in Chamonix, France. Originally held in association with the 1924 Summer Olympics, the sports competitions were held at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, and Haute-Savoie, France between 25 January and 5 February 1924.^[2] The Games were organized by the French Olympic Committee, and were originally reckoned as the "International Winter Sports Week." With the success of the event, it was retroactively designated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as "the first Olympic Winter Games".^[3][4]

The tradition of holding the Winter Olympics in the same year as the Summer Olympics would continue until 1992, after which the current practice of holding a Winter Olympics in the second year after each Summer Olympics began.

Although figure skating had been an Olympic event in both London and Antwerp, and ice hockey had been an event in Antwerp, the winter sports had always been limited by the season. In 1921, at the convention of the IOC in Lausanne, there was a call for equality for winter sports, and after much discussion it was decided to organize an "international week of winter sport" in 1924 in Chamonix.

1. ^ Fuller, L. K. (2018). Female Olympian and Paralympian Events. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 2. ISBN 978-3-319-76792-5.
2. ^ "1924 Winter Olympics – Medals, Posters and Bobsleighs". My Art Deco Style. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
3. ^ "Winter Games given stamp of approval". olympic.org. Archived from the original on 12 December 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
4. ^ Elman, Leslie G. (4 February 2014). "10 historic Winter Olympic wonderlands". CNN. Archived from the original on 5 March 2020. Retrieved 16 March 2021.

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26 January 1992 Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

Boris Yeltsin

President of Russia from 1991 to 1999

"Yeltsin" redirects here. For the name, see Yeltsin (name).

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin^[a] (Russian: Борис Николаевич Ельцин, IPA: [bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn] ^ⓘ; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.

Yeltsin was born in Butka, Ural Oblast. He grew up in Kazan and Berezniki. After studying at the Ural State Technical University, he worked in construction. After joining the Communist Party, he rose through its ranks, and in 1976 he became First Secretary of the party's Sverdlovsk Oblast committee. Yeltsin was initially a supporter of the perestroika reforms of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He later criticized the reforms as being too moderate, and called for a transition to a multi-party representative democracy. In 1987 he was the first person to resign from the Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which established his popularity as an anti-establishment figure. In 1990, he was elected chair of the Russian Supreme Soviet and in 1991 was elected president of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR), becoming the first popularly-elected head of state in Russian history. Yeltsin allied with various non-Russian nationalist leaders, and was instrumental in the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December of that year. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the RSFSR became the Russian Federation, an independent state. Through that transition, Yeltsin remained in office as president. He was later reelected in the 1996 election, which was claimed by critics to be pervasively corrupt.

He transformed Russia's command economy into a capitalist market economy by implementing economic shock therapy, market exchange rate of the ruble, nationwide privatization, and lifting of price controls. Economic downturn, volatility and inflation ensued. Amid the economic shift, a small number of oligarchs obtained a majority of the national property and wealth, while international monopolies came to dominate the market. A constitutional crisis emerged in 1993 after Yeltsin ordered the unconstitutional dissolution of the Russian parliament, leading parliament to impeach him. The crisis ended after troops loyal to Yeltsin stormed the parliament building and stopped an armed uprising; he then introduced a new constitution which significantly expanded the powers of the president. After the crisis, Yeltsin governed the country in a rule by decree until 1994, as the Supreme Soviet of Russia was absent. Secessionist sentiment in the Russian Caucasus led to the First Chechen War, War of Dagestan, and Second Chechen War between 1994 and 1999. Internationally, Yeltsin promoted renewed collaboration with Europe and signed arms control agreements with the United States. Amid growing internal pressure, he resigned by the end of 1999 and was succeeded as president by his chosen successor, Vladimir Putin, whom he had appointed prime minister a few months earlier. He kept a low profile after leaving office and was accorded a state funeral upon his death in 2007.

Domestically, he was highly popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, although his reputation was damaged by the economic and political crises of his presidency, and he left office widely unpopular with the Russian population. He received praise and criticism for his role in dismantling the Soviet Union, transforming Russia into a representative democracy, and introducing new political, economic, and cultural freedoms to the country. Conversely, he was accused of economic mismanagement, corruption, and sometimes of undermining Russia's standing as a major world power.
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27 January 2011 Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.

Yemeni Revolution

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28 January 1986 Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission ? Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster

1986 inflight breakup of U.S. Space Shuttle

Not to be confused with Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated 46,000 feet (14 km) above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 a.m. EST (16:39 UTC). It was the first fatal accident involving an American spacecraft while in flight.^[1][2]

The mission, designated STS-51-L, was the 10th flight for the orbiter and the 25th flight of the Space Shuttle fleet. The crew was scheduled to deploy a communications satellite and study Halley's Comet while they were in orbit, in addition to taking schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe into space under the Teacher In Space program. The latter task resulted in a higher-than-usual media interest in and coverage of the mission; the launch and subsequent disaster were seen live in many schools across the United States.

The cause of the disaster was the failure of the primary and secondary redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the shuttle's right solid rocket booster (SRB). The record-low temperatures on the morning of the launch had stiffened the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints. Shortly after liftoff, the seals were breached, and hot pressurized gas from within the SRB leaked through the joint and burned through the aft attachment strut connecting it to the external propellant tank (ET), then into the tank itself. The collapse of the ET's internal structures and the rotation of the SRB that followed threw the shuttle stack, traveling at a speed of Mach 1.92, into a direction that allowed aerodynamic forces to tear the orbiter apart. Both SRBs detached from the now-destroyed ET and continued to fly uncontrollably until the range safety officer destroyed them.

The crew compartment, human remains, and many other fragments from the shuttle were recovered from the ocean floor after a three-month search-and-recovery operation. The exact timing of the deaths of the crew is unknown, but several crew members are thought to have survived the initial breakup of the spacecraft. The orbiter had no escape system, and the impact of the crew compartment at terminal velocity with the ocean surface was too violent to be survivable.

The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the Space Shuttle program. President Ronald Reagan created the Rogers Commission to investigate the accident. The commission criticized NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes that had contributed to the accident. Test data since 1977 demonstrated a potentially catastrophic flaw in the SRBs' O-rings, but neither NASA nor SRB manufacturer Morton Thiokol had addressed this known defect. NASA managers also disregarded engineers' warnings about the dangers of launching in cold temperatures and did not report these technical concerns to their superiors.

As a result of this disaster, NASA established the Office of Safety, Reliability, and Quality Assurance, and arranged for deployment of commercial satellites from expendable launch vehicles rather than from a crewed orbiter. To replace Challenger, the construction of a new Space Shuttle orbiter, Endeavour, was approved in 1987, and the new orbiter first flew in 1992. Subsequent missions were launched with redesigned SRBs and their crews wore pressurized suits during ascent and reentry.

1. ^ Lotito, Jennifer. "3 Leadership Lessons From The Challenger Space Shuttle Disaster". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 28, 2024. Retrieved January 28, 2024.
2. ^ "Challenger explosion was 38 years ago today; Naples' readers recall event". Naples Daily News. Archived from the original on January 28, 2024. Retrieved January 28, 2024.

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29 January 2015 Malaysia has officially declared the disappearance of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 an accident and its passengers and crew presumed dead.

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

Passenger aircraft flight that disappeared in 2014

Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370)^[a] was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned destination, Beijing Capital International Airport in China.^[1] It has not been determined what caused its disappearance.

The crew of the Boeing 777-200ER, with registration mark 9M-MRO, last communicated with air traffic control (ATC) around 38 minutes after takeoff when the flight was over the South China Sea. The aircraft was lost from ATC's secondary surveillance radar screens minutes later, but was tracked by the Malaysian military's primary radar system for another hour, deviating westward from its planned flight path, crossing the Malay Peninsula and Andaman Sea. It left radar range 200 nautical miles (370 km; 230 mi) northwest of Penang Island in northwestern Peninsular Malaysia.

With all 227 passengers and 12 crew aboard presumed dead, the disappearance of Flight 370 was the deadliest incident involving a Boeing 777, the deadliest of 2014, and the deadliest in Malaysia Airlines' history until it was surpassed in all three regards by Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down while flying over Ukraine four months later on 17 July 2014.

The search for the missing airplane became the most expensive search in the history of aviation. It focused initially on the South China Sea and Andaman Sea, before a novel analysis of the aircraft's automated communications with an Inmarsat satellite indicated that the plane had traveled far southward over the southern Indian Ocean. The lack of official information in the days immediately after the disappearance prompted fierce criticism from the Chinese public, particularly from relatives of the passengers, as most people on board Flight 370 were of Chinese origin. Several pieces of debris washed ashore in the western Indian Ocean during 2015 and 2016; many of these were confirmed to have originated from Flight 370.

After a three-year search across 120,000 km² (46,000 sq mi) of ocean failed to locate the aircraft, the Joint Agency Coordination Centre heading the operation suspended its activities in January 2017. A second search launched in January 2018 by private contractor Ocean Infinity also ended without success after six months.

Relying mostly on analysis of data from the Inmarsat satellite with which the aircraft last communicated, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) proposed initially that a hypoxia event was the most likely cause given the available evidence, although no consensus has been reached concerning this theory among investigators. At various stages of the investigation, possible hijacking scenarios were considered, including crew involvement, and suspicion of the airplane's cargo manifest; many disappearance theories regarding the flight have also been reported by the media.

The Malaysian Ministry of Transport's final report from July 2018 was inconclusive. It highlighted Malaysian ATC's failures to attempt to communicate with the aircraft shortly after its disappearance. In the absence of a definitive cause of disappearance, air transport industry safety recommendations and regulations citing Flight 370 have been implemented to prevent a repetition of the circumstances associated with the loss. These include increased battery life on underwater locator beacons, lengthening of recording times on flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders, and new standards for aircraft position reporting over open ocean.

1. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference USAToday_2014-03-08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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30 January 1982 Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner".

Elk Cloner

Microcomputer virus

Elk Cloner is one of the first known microcomputer viruses that spread "in the wild", i.e., outside the computer system or laboratory in which it was written.^[1][2][3][4] It attached itself to the Apple II operating system and spread by floppy disk. It was written around 1982 by programmer and entrepreneur Rich Skrenta as a 15-year-old high school student, originally as a joke, and put onto a game disk.

1. ^ "Prank starts 25 years of computer security woes". CTV. Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2008-01-07.
2. ^ "Elk Cloner". Retrieved 2010-12-10.
3. ^ "Top 10 Computer Viruses: No. 10 - Elk Cloner". Retrieved 2010-12-10.
4. ^ "List of Computer Viruses Developed in 1980s". Retrieved 2010-12-10.

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31 January 2007 Suspects are arrested in Birmingham in the UK, accused of plotting the kidnap, holding and eventual beheading of a serving Muslim British soldier in Iraq.

2007 plot to behead a British Muslim soldier

2007 criminal plot in England

The 2007 plot to behead a British Muslim soldier was a plot in Birmingham, England, to kidnap and behead a British Muslim soldier in order to undermine the morale of the British Army and inhibit its recruitment of Muslims. The instigator, Parviz Khan, admitted the plot and was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve at least 14 years. Another of the accused was found guilty of failing to report the plot and four others were sentenced to up to seven years for supplying equipment to Pakistan-based militants fighting coalition forces in Afghanistan.^[1]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBCLife was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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1 February 2004 Janet Jackson's breast is exposed during the half-time show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to Federal Communications Commission censorship guidelines.

Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy

2004 controversy over broadcast indecency

The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, which was broadcast live on February 1, 2004, from Houston, Texas, on the CBS television network, is notable for a moment in which Janet Jackson's right breast and nipple—adorned with a nipple shield—was exposed by Justin Timberlake to the viewing public. The incident, sometimes referred to as Nipplegate or Janetgate, led to an immediate crackdown and widespread discourse on perceived indecency in broadcasting.

The halftime show was produced by MTV and was focused on the network's Choose or Lose campaign (the year 2004 was a presidential election year in the United States). The exposure was broadcast to a total audience of 150 million viewers. Following the incident, the National Football League (NFL) excluded MTV, which had also produced the halftime show for Super Bowl XXXV, from future halftime shows. In addition, CBS parent company Viacom and its co-owned subsidiaries, MTV and Infinity Broadcasting, enforced a blacklist of Jackson's singles and music videos on many radio formats and music channels worldwide. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) fined CBS for an indecency violation of $27,500 and increased it to $325,000. They eventually fined CBS a record $550,000 for the incident, but that fine was ultimately voided by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011, and a case to reinstate the fine was refused in 2012.^{[citation needed]}

The incident was ridiculed both within the United States and abroad, with a number of commentators opining that it was a planned publicity stunt. The next week, Timberlake apologized at the Grammy Awards ceremony, saying Jackson's nipple was accidentally exposed and was meant to be covered by a bright red brassiere. Some American commentators, including Jackson herself, argued it was being used as a means to distract the public from the ongoing Iraq War. The increased regulation of broadcasting raised concerns regarding censorship and free speech in the United States. YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim credits the incident with leading to the creation of the video sharing website. The scandalous incident also made Janet Jackson the most-searched person and term of 2004 and 2005, and it broke the record for "most-searched event over one day." It also became the most-watched, recorded, and replayed television moment in TiVo history and "enticed an estimated 35,000 new [TiVo] subscribers to sign up." The term "wardrobe malfunction" was coined as a result of the incident, and eventually added to the Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

In April 2021, celebrity stylist Wayne Scot Lukas claimed that the incident was planned by Timberlake, who sought to upstage his ex-girlfriend Britney Spears' MTV Video Music Awards appearance at which she kissed Madonna.^[1] This version of events was bolstered by USA Today, which reported in 2018 that Lukas was seen purchasing a sunburst nipple shield the weekend prior to the Super Bowl while allegedly stating to the artist he purchased it from, "OK, watch the halftime show...There's going to be a surprise at the end." In 2015, Lukas had stated that he was not aware of what happened with Timberlake.^[2] In the Hulu documentary Malfunction: The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson, released in November 2021, former Superbowl director Beth McCarthy Miller and producer Salli Frattini confirmed that Timberlake was informed of the new choreography by Jackson's team 20 minutes before show time after flying into Houston.^[3]

1. ^ Milton, Josh (April 12, 2021). "Justin Timberlake 'insisted' on Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction to upstage Britney Spears". Yahoo! News. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
2. ^ Acken, Lori (July 9, 2015). "Nat Geo's The 2000s: A New Reality—Janet Jackson's Super Bowl stylist Wayne Scot Lukas tells us what really down". Channel Guide Mag. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
3. ^ "The New York Times Presents | The Dressing Down of Janet Jackson". YouTube. Retrieved November 19, 2021.

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2 February 1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day is observed.

Groundhog Day

Popular North American tradition

For the film, see Groundhog Day (film). For other uses, see Groundhog Day (disambiguation).

Groundhog Day (Pennsylvania German: Grund'sau dåk, Grundsaudaag, Grundsow Dawg, Murmeltiertag; Nova Scotia: Daks Day^[1][2][3]) is a tradition observed regionally in the United States and Canada on February 2 of every year. It derives from the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day and sees its shadow, it will retreat to its den and winter will go on for six more weeks; if it does not see its shadow, spring will arrive early. In 2024, an early spring was predicted.^[4]

While the tradition remains popular in the 21st century, studies have found no consistent association between a groundhog seeing its shadow and the subsequent arrival time of spring-like weather.^[5]

The weather lore was brought from German-speaking areas where the badger (German: Dachs) is the forecasting animal. It is related to the lore that clear weather on the Christian festival of Candlemas forebodes a prolonged winter.

The Groundhog Day ceremony held at Punxsutawney in western Pennsylvania, centering on a semi-mythical groundhog named Punxsutawney Phil, has become the most frequently attended ceremony. Grundsow Lodges in Pennsylvania Dutch Country in the southeastern part of the state observe the occasion as well. Other cities in the United States and Canada also have adopted the event.

1. ^ Poteet, Lewis J. (2008) [1975], The South Shore Phrase Book, Hantsport: Methuen, ISBN 9780595311941
2. ^ Chambers, Jack (2004) [1988], Canadian English: Origins and Structures (New, revised, and expanded ed.), Hantsport: Lancelot Press, ISBN 9780595311941, archived from the original on August 2, 2020, retrieved December 26, 2017
3. ^ Wilson, Harry (1959). The dialect of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia: a study of the English of the county, with reference to its sources, preservation of relics, and vestiges of bilingualism (PhD thesis). University of Michigan. p. 52. Retrieved February 3, 2024.
4. ^ "Did the groundhog see his shadow? See results of Punxsutawney Phil's 2024 winter forecast". USA TODAY. Retrieved February 2, 2024.
5. ^ Lewis, Tanya (February 2, 2017). "Groundhog Day: How Often Does Punxsutawney Phil Get It Right?". Live Science. Archived from the original on February 8, 2017.

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3 February 998 Cavalese cable car disaster: a United States military pilot causes the death of 20 people when his low-flying plane cuts the cable of a cable-car near Trento, Italy.

Cavalese cable car disaster (1998)

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4 February 2004 Facebook, a mainstream online social networking site, is founded by Mark Zuckerberg.

Facebook

Social-networking service owned by Meta Platforms

This article is about the social media service. For its owner, formerly known as Facebook, Inc., see Meta Platforms.

Not to be confused with Face book or The World Factbook.

Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes, its name derives from the face book directories often given to American university students. Membership was initially limited to Harvard students, gradually expanding to other North American universities. Since 2006, Facebook allows everyone to register from 13 years old, except in the case of a handful of nations, where the age limit is 14 years.^[6] As of December 2022^[update], Facebook claimed almost 3 billion monthly active users.^[7] As of October 2023, Facebook ranked as the 3rd most visited website in the world, with 22.56% of its traffic coming from the United States.^[8][9] It was the most downloaded mobile app of the 2010s.^[10]

Facebook can be accessed from devices with Internet connectivity, such as personal computers, tablets and smartphones. After registering, users can create a profile revealing information about themselves. They can post text, photos and multimedia which are shared with any other users who have agreed to be their friend or, with different privacy settings, publicly. Users can also communicate directly with each other with Messenger, join common-interest groups, and receive notifications on the activities of their Facebook friends and the pages they follow.

The subject of numerous controversies, Facebook has often been criticized over issues such as user privacy (as with the Cambridge Analytica data scandal), political manipulation (as with the 2016 U.S. elections) and mass surveillance.^[11] Facebook has also been subject to criticism over psychological effects such as addiction and low self-esteem, and various controversies over content such as fake news, conspiracy theories, copyright infringement, and hate speech.^[12] Commentators have accused Facebook of willingly facilitating the spread of such content, as well as exaggerating its number of users to appeal to advertisers.^[13]

1. ^ "Facebook Interface Languages". Facebook (Select your language). Archived from the original on January 26, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
2. ^ "Facebook Reports First Quarter 2022 Results". Facebook Investor Relations. March 31, 2022. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
3. ^ "Our History". Facebook. Archived from the original on November 15, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
4. ^ Clarke, Gavin (February 2, 2010). "Facebook re-write takes PHP to an enterprise past". The Register. Situation Publishing. Archived from the original on May 28, 2020. Retrieved March 23, 2017.
5. ^ Levin, Sam (July 3, 2018). "Is Facebook a publisher? In public it says no, but in court it says yes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on February 21, 2021. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
6. ^ "How do I report a child under the age of 14 on Facebook in South Korea, Spain or Quebec, Canada?". Facebook. Archived from the original on October 13, 2023. Retrieved October 9, 2023.
7. ^ "Meta Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2022 Results". Meta Investor Relations – Facebook. February 1, 2023. Archived from the original on October 31, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
8. ^ "Top Websites Ranking – Most Visited Websites in January 2023". similarweb. Archived from the original on February 10, 2022. Retrieved August 8, 2022.
9. ^ "facebook.com". similarweb.com. Archived from the original on November 12, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
10. ^ Miller, Chance (December 17, 2019). "These were the most-downloaded apps and games of the decade". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Retrieved December 17, 2019.
11. ^ Cadwalladr, Carole; Graham-Harrison, v (May 24, 2018). "Facebook accused of conducting mass surveillance through its apps". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 14, 2021. Retrieved October 9, 2020.
12. ^ Mahdawi, Arwa (December 21, 2018). "Is 2019 the year you should finally quit Facebook?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 28, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
13. ^ Claburn, Thomas (August 17, 2018). "Facebook flat-out 'lies' about how many people can see its ads – lawsuit". The Register. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved November 18, 2020.

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17 February 1933 Newsweek magazine is first published.

Newsweek

Weekly magazine based in New York City

For the 1978–1989 Australia North Queensland current affairs television program, see Newsweek (TV program).

Newsweek is a weekly news magazine. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, Newsweek was widely distributed during the 20th century and had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev Pragad, the president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis who sits on the board; they each own 50% of the company.^[7]

Revenue declines prompted The Washington Post Company to sell the publication in August 2010, to the audio pioneer Sidney Harman a purchase price of one dollar and an assumption of the magazine's liabilities.^[8] Later in the year, Newsweek merged with the news and opinion website The Daily Beast, forming The Newsweek Daily Beast Company. Newsweek was jointly owned by the estate of Harman and the diversified American media and Internet company IAC.^[9][10] Newsweek continued to experience financial difficulties leading to the cessation of print publication and a transition to an all-digital format at the end of 2012.

In 2013, IBT Media acquired Newsweek from IAC; the acquisition included the Newsweek brand and its online publication, but did not include The Daily Beast.^[11] IBT Media, which also owns the International Business Times, rebranded itself as Newsweek Media Group, and in 2014, relaunched Newsweek in both print and digital form.

In 2018, IBT Media split into two companies, Newsweek Publishing and IBT Media. The split was accomplished one day before the District Attorney of Manhattan indicted Etienne Uzac, the co-owner of IBT Media, on fraud charges.^[12][13][14]

Under Newsweek's current co-owner and CEO, Dev Pragad, it is profitable growing 20-30% per year : between May 2019 and May 2022, its monthly unique visitors rose from about 30 million to 48 million, according to Comscore. Pragad became CEO in 2016; readership has grown to 100 million readers per month, the highest in its 90-year history.^[15][16] The operations of the company were researched by the Harvard Business School; they published a case study in 2021.^[17]

1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kelly_20180306 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Elliott_Obit_20080929 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
3. ^ Cite error: The named reference JonMeacham_dot_com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
4. ^ Cite error: The named reference DevPragad_HBS_Interview was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference KingsCollege_2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kelly_20150306 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
7. ^ Newsweek shareholders resolve litigation Archived September 16, 2023, at the Wayback Machine. newsweek.com.
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference nytsale was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference merger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. ^ "The Daily Beast and Newsweek confirm merger". The Spy Report. November 12, 2010. Archived from the original on November 16, 2010. Retrieved November 12, 2010.
11. ^ Cite error: The named reference ibtpr was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
12. ^ "DA Vance Announces Indictment of Newsweek and Christian Media Chiefs in Long-Running $10 Million Fraud Probe". Manhattan District Attorney's Office. October 11, 2018. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved July 19, 2021.
13. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
14. ^ Cite error: The named reference PressRelease2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
15. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ Cite error: The named reference :4 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
17. ^ Applegate, Linda M.; Srinivasan, Surja (February 14, 2022) [October 18, 2021]. "Newsweek: Driving a Digital First Strategy". Harvard Business School Case Study. Archived from the original on October 24, 2023. Retrieved October 17, 2023.

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18 February 1954 The first Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles.

Church of Scientology

American organization and business

This article is about the institution behind Scientology. For the ideology itself, see Scientology.

The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement.^[7] The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business.^[13] In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court.^{[14][15]: 168} The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013.^[16] The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect.^[17][18] In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult.^[19] In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.^[20]

The Church of Scientology International (CSI) is officially the "Mother Church", and is responsible for guiding the other Scientology centers.^[15]: 172 Its international headquarters are located at the Gold Base in Riverside County, California.^[21]: 275 The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is the organization that owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard.^[6]

All Scientology management organizations are controlled exclusively by members of the Sea Org, which is a legally nonexistent paramilitary organization for the "elite, innermost dedicated core of Scientologists".^[6][22] David Miscavige is described by the Scientology organization as the highest-ranking Sea Org officer, and is referred to by the organization as its captain.

1. ^ ^{a b} Behar, Richard (May 6, 1991). "The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power". Time. Archived from the original on June 18, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2019.
2. ^ Kent, Stephen (2001). "Brainwashing Programs in The Family/Children of God and Scientology". In Zablocki, Benjamin; Robbins, Thomas (eds.). Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field. University of Toronto Press. pp. 349–358. ISBN 9780802081889.
3. ^ ^{a b} Anderson, Kevin Victor (1965). Report of the Board of Enquiry into Scientology (Report). State of Victoria, Australia. p. 179. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 29, 2018. Retrieved June 30, 2019. In reality it is a dangerous medical cult. Alternative link
4. ^ ^{a b} Edge, Peter W. (2006). Religion and law: an introduction. Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-3048-7.
5. ^ ^{a b} Hunt, John; de Puig, Luis; Espersen, Ole (February 5, 1992). European Council, Recommendation 1178: Sects and New Religious Movements (Report). Council of Europe. Retrieved June 30, 2019. It is a cool, cynical, manipulating business and nothing else.
6. ^ ^{a b c} Urban, Hugh B. (2015). New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Univ of California Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0520281172.
7. ^ ^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]}
8. ^ "Scientology (Written answer)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Commons. July 25, 1968. col. 189–191W.
9. ^ Cottrell, Richard (1999). Recommendation 1412: Concernant les activités illégales des sectes (Report). Conseil d'Europe.
10. ^ "Church of Scientology". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Lords. December 17, 1996. col. 1392–1394.
11. ^ Hubbard and another v. Vosper and another, 1 All ER 1023 (Court of Appeal November 19, 1971).
12. ^ RE B & G (Minors: Custody), F.L.R. 493 (Court of Appeal September 19, 1984).
13. ^ ^{[1][3][4][5][8][9][10][11][12]}
14. ^ United States v. Heldt, 668 F.2d 1238 (United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit October 2, 1981).
15. ^ ^{a b} Cite error: The named reference urban was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. ^ "Scientology's fraud conviction upheld in France". The Daily Telegraph. London. AFP. October 17, 2013. Archived from the original on May 30, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
17. ^ "Hubbard's Church 'Unconstitutional': Germany Prepares to Ban Scientology – SPIEGEL ONLINE". Der Spiegel. December 7, 2007. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
18. ^ "National Assembly of France report No. 2468". assemblee-nationale.fr. Archived from the original on December 25, 2018. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
19. ^ Cite error: The named reference lobs was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. ^ Weird, Sure. A Cult, No. Archived November 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Washington Post By Mark Oppenheimer, August 5, 2007
21. ^ Cite error: The named reference reitman was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
22. ^ Cite error: The named reference nrmarlia2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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19 February 2002 NASA's Mars Odyssey space probe begins to map the surface of Mars using its thermal emission imaging system.

2001 Mars Odyssey

NASA orbiter for geology and hydrology

2001 Mars Odyssey is a robotic spacecraft orbiting the planet Mars. The project was developed by NASA, and contracted out to Lockheed Martin, with an expected cost for the entire mission of US$297 million. Its mission is to use spectrometers and a thermal imager to detect evidence of past or present water and ice, as well as study the planet's geology and radiation environment.^[4] The data Odyssey obtains is intended to help answer the question of whether life once existed on Mars and create a risk-assessment of the radiation that future astronauts on Mars might experience. It also acts as a relay for communications between the Curiosity rover, and previously the Mars Exploration Rovers and Phoenix lander, to Earth. The mission was named as a tribute to Arthur C. Clarke, evoking the name of his and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.^[5][6]

Odyssey was launched April 7, 2001, on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and reached Mars orbit on October 24, 2001, at 02:30 UTC (October 23, 19:30 PDT, 22:30 EDT).^[7]

On May 28, 2002 (sol 210), NASA reported that Odyssey's GRS instrument had detected large amounts of hydrogen, a sign that there must be ice lying within a meter of the planet's surface, and proceeded to map the distribution of water below the shallow surface.^[8] The orbiter also discovered vast deposits of bulk water ice near the surface of equatorial regions.^[9]

By December 15, 2010, it broke the record for longest serving spacecraft at Mars, with 3,340 days of operation.^[10][11] Odyssey has also served as the primary means of communications for NASA's Mars surface explorers in the past decade, up to the Curiosity rover. It currently holds the record for the longest-surviving continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, ahead of the Pioneer Venus Orbiter (served 14 years^[12]) and the Mars Express (serving over 20 years), at 22 years, 5 months and 30 days. As of October 2019^[update] it is in a polar orbit around Mars with a semi-major axis of about 3,800 km or 2,400 miles. It is estimated to have enough propellant to function until the end of 2025.^[13]

1. ^ "2001 Mars Odyssey". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
2. ^ "2001 Mars Odyssey". NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive. Retrieved 2022-11-29.
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Makovsky, A.; Barbieri, A.; Tung, R. (October 2002). Odyssey Telecommunications (PDF) (Report). p. 7.
4. ^ "Mars Odyssey Goals". NASA JPL.
5. ^ "Mars Odyssey: Overview". JPL, CIT. Archived from the original on 2011-09-19.
6. ^ "It's "2001 Mars Odyssey" for NASA's next trip to the red planet" (Press release). NASA. Archived from the original on 2021-04-18.
7. ^ "2001 Mars Odyssey Quick Facts". 2001 Mars Odyssey. NASA/JPL. Retrieved 2021-01-22.
8. ^ "January, 2008: Hydrogen Map". Lunar & Planetary Lab at The University of Arizona. Archived from the original on 2008-10-13. Retrieved 2015-06-30.
9. ^ Equatorial locations of water on Mars: Improved resolution maps based on Mars Odyssey Neutron Spectrometer data (PDF). Jack T. Wilson, Vincent R. Eke, Richard J. Massey, Richard C. Elphic, William C. Feldman, Sylvestre Maurice, Luıs F. A. Teodoroe. Icarus, 299, 148–160. January 2018.
10. ^ "NASA's Odyssey Spacecraft Sets Exploration Record on Mars". Press Releases. JPL, NASA. December 15, 2010. Archived from the original on 2011-04-25.
11. ^ Howell, Elizabeth (July 23, 2018). "Mars Odyssey: Record-Breaking Mission to Mars". space.com. Retrieved 2024-03-13.
12. ^ "Pioneer Venus 1: In Depth". NASA Solar System Exploration. NASA.
13. ^ "Engineers Keep an Eye on Fuel Supply of NASA's Oldest Mars Orbiter". JPL. NASA. March 15, 2023. Retrieved 2023-03-15.

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20 February 1978 The last Order of Victory is bestowed upon Leonid Brezhnev.

Order of Victory

Soviet military award

Award

The Order of Victory (Russian: Орден «Победа», romanized: Orden "Pobeda") was the highest military decoration awarded for World War II service in the Soviet Union, and one of the rarest orders in the world. The order was awarded only to Generals and Marshals for successfully conducting combat operations involving one or more army groups and resulting in a "successful operation within the framework of one or several fronts resulting in a radical change of the situation in favor of the Red Army."^[1] The Order of Victory is a standalone decoration awarded specially for service in World War II; unlike other awards such as the Hero of the Soviet Union, it does not belong to any order of ranking. In the history of the Soviet Union, the award had been awarded twenty times to twelve Soviet leaders and five foreign leaders, with one revocation. The last living recipient was King Michael I of Romania, who died on 5 December 2017.

1. ^ "Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 8, 1943" (in Russian). Legal Library of the USSR. 1943-11-08. Retrieved 2012-02-25.

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21 February 1878 The first telephone directory is issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

Telephone directory

Book that lists phone numbers of people and businesses

"Telephone book", "Phone book", and "White pages" redirect here. For the film, see The Telephone Book. For a contact list, see Contact list. For other uses, see White pages (disambiguation).

A telephone directory, commonly called a telephone book, telephone address book, phonebook, or the white and yellow pages, is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory. Its purpose is to allow the telephone number of a subscriber identified by name and address to be found.

The advent of the Internet, search engines, and smartphones in the 21st century greatly reduced the need for a paper phone book.^[1][2] Some communities, such as Seattle and San Francisco, sought to ban their unsolicited distribution as wasteful, unwanted and harmful to the environment.^[3][4]

The slogan "Let Your Fingers Do the Walking" refers to use of phone books.^[1]

1. ^ ^{a b} "Phone books used as truck fuel in Fla". The New York Post. 15 June 1992. p. 9.
2. ^ By 1992 one phone company, which had collected 58,000 tons of old phone books, recycled them by converting them to fuel for some of their trucks.
3. ^ Yellow Pages ruling endangers SF ban, Heather Knight, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 October 2012; retrieved 19 March 2013
4. ^ Appeals court rules against Seattle's curbs on yellow pages, Emily Heffter, Seattle Times, 15 October 2012; retrieved 19 March 2013

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22 February 1959 Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.

Daytona 500

Auto race held in Daytona, Florida, United States

This article is about the stock car race. For the motorcycle race, see Daytona 200. For the song by Ghostface Killah, see Daytona 500 (song).

Preview warning: Page using Template:Infobox motor race with unknown parameter "Last race."

The Daytona 500 is a 500-mile-long (805 km) NASCAR Cup Series motor race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is the first of two Cup races held every year at Daytona, the second being the Coke Zero Sugar 400, and one of three held in Florida, with the annual fall showdown Dixie Vodka 400 being held at Homestead south of Miami. From 1988 to 2019, it was one of the four restrictor plate races on the Cup schedule. The inaugural Daytona 500 was held in 1959 coinciding with the opening of the speedway and since 1982, it has been the season-opening race of the Cup series.^[1]

The Daytona 500 is regarded as the most important and prestigious race on the NASCAR calendar, carrying by far the largest purse.^[2] Championship points awarded are equal to that of any other NASCAR Cup Series race. It is also the series' first race of the year; this phenomenon is unique in sports, which tend to have championships or other major events at the end of the season rather than the start. From 1995–2020, U.S. television ratings for the Daytona 500 have been the highest for any auto race of the year, surpassing the traditional leader, the Indianapolis 500 which in turn greatly surpasses the Daytona 500 in in-track attendance and international viewing; however, in 2021 the Indianapolis 500 surpassed the Daytona 500 in TV ratings and viewership.^[3][4] The 2006 Daytona 500 attracted the sixth largest average live global TV audience of any sporting event that year with 20 million viewers.^[5]

The race serves as the final event of Speedweeks and is also known as "The Great American Race" or the "Super Bowl of Stock Car Racing".^[6][7][8] Since its inception, the race has been held in mid-to-late February. From 1971 to 2011, and again since 2018, the event has been as associated with Presidents Day weekend,^[9] taking place on the third Sunday of February and since 2022, it was held on the same day that the NBA All-Star Game was held and one week after the Super Bowl. On eight occasions, the race has been run on Valentine's Day.

Since 1997, the winner of the Daytona 500 has been presented with the Harley J. Earl Trophy in Victory Lane, and the winning car is displayed in race-winning condition for one year at Daytona 500 Experience, a museum and gallery adjacent to Daytona International Speedway.

1. ^ Chad Culver (2014). Dover International Speedway: The Monster Mile. Arcadia Publishing. p. 127. ISBN 978-1467121378.
2. ^ "Culture, Class, Distinction"Bennett, Tony. Culture, Class, Distinction. Routledge (2009) Disaggregating cultural capital. English translation ISBN 0-415-42242-6 (hardcover).
3. ^ Staff, The Athletic. "Daytona 500 posts record-worst TV rating, in part due to rain delay". The Athletic. Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 2021-10-20.
4. ^ "Indy 500 viewership highest in five years". June 2, 2021. Archived from the original on October 20, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
5. ^ "World's most watched TV sports events: 2006 Rank & Trends report". Initiative. 2007-01-19. Archived from the original on 2007-02-08. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
6. ^ "A History of the Daytona 500". TicketCity. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
7. ^ Crossman, Matt (February 22, 2015). "Daytona 500 Magic Hour: Best 60 minutes in sports". NASCAR. Archived from the original on November 25, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
8. ^ Briggs, Josh (10 February 2009). "How Daytona Qualifying Works". HowStuffWorks. Archived from the original on November 25, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
9. ^ "Your Gateway to Knowledge". Knowledge Zone. Retrieved 2024-01-31.

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23 February 1896 The Tootsie Roll is invented.

Tootsie Roll

Chocolate-like candy

This article is about the candy. For the manufacturer of the candy, see Tootsie Roll Industries. For the hip-hop song, see Tootsee Roll.

Tootsie Roll (/ˈtʊtsi/) is a chocolate-flavored candy that has been manufactured in the United States since 1907. The candy has qualities similar to both caramels and taffy without being exactly either confection.^[3] The manufacturer, Tootsie Roll Industries, is based in Chicago, Illinois. It was the first penny candy to be individually wrapped in America.^[4]

Tootsie Roll Industries (name adopted in 1966) is one of the largest candy manufacturers in the world. Over 65 million Tootsie Rolls are made daily.^[5] According to the company website, the original recipe calls for the inclusion of the previous day's batch, "a graining process that Tootsie continues to this day."^[6]

1. ^ United States Food and Drug Administration (2024). "Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels". Retrieved March 28, 2024.
2. ^ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Committee to Review the Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium (2019). Oria, Maria; Harrison, Meghan; Stallings, Virginia A. (eds.). Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US). ISBN 978-0-309-48834-1. PMID 30844154.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
3. ^ Kawash, Samira (February 1, 2010). "Chocolate? Tootsie Rolls". Candy Professor. Archived from the original on March 9, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2014.
4. ^ Fernandez, Manny (August 7, 2010). "Let Us Now Praise the Great Men of Junk Food". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved November 16, 2023.
5. ^ "Unwrapped 2.0: How Tootsie Rolls Are Made". youtube.com. Food Network. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
6. ^ "About Tootsie Rolls". Tootsie.com. Retrieved February 18, 2023.

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24 February 1942 The Battle of Los Angeles: A false alarm led to an anti-aircraft barrage that lasted into the early hours of February 25.

Battle of Los Angeles

Anti-aircraft shelling during WWII against an imagined invader

For the armed civilian resistance to the 1846 invasion of Los Angeles, California by United States Marines, see Siege of Los Angeles. For the studio album by Rage Against the Machine, see The Battle of Los Angeles (album). For other uses, see Battle of Los Angeles (disambiguation).

The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, is the name given by contemporary sources to a rumored attack on the continental United States by Imperial Japan and the subsequent anti-aircraft artillery barrage which took place from late 24 February to early 25 February 1942, over Los Angeles, California.^[1][2][3] The incident occurred less than three months after the U.S. entered World War II in response to the Imperial Japanese Navy's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and one day after the bombardment of Ellwood near Santa Barbara on 23 February. Initially, the target of the aerial barrage was thought to be an attacking force from Japan, but speaking at a press conference shortly afterward, Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox called the purported attack a "false alarm". Newspapers of the time published a number of reports and speculations of a cover-up to conceal an actual invasion by enemy airplanes.

When documenting the incident in 1949, the United States Coast Artillery Association identified a meteorological balloon sent aloft at 1:00 am as having "started all the shooting" and concluded that "once the firing started, imagination created all kinds of targets in the sky and everyone joined in".^[4] In 1983, the U.S. Office of Air Force History attributed the event to a case of "war nerves" triggered by a lost weather balloon and exacerbated by stray flares and shell bursts from adjoining batteries. As an example of incompetence, the incident was derisively referred to as the "Battle of Los Angeles" or the "Great Los Angeles Air Raid".^[5]

1. ^ "The Battle of Los Angeles". Military Museum. Retrieved 6 November 2015.
2. ^ Caughey, John; Caughey, LaRee (1977). Los Angeles: biography of a city. University of California Press. p. 364. ISBN 978-0-520-03410-5. great los angeles air raid.
3. ^ Farley, John E. (1998). Earthquake fears, predictions, and preparations in mid-America. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0-8093-2201-5. Retrieved 17 May 2010.
4. ^ Murphy, Col. John G. (May–June 1949). "Activities of The Ninth Army AAA – L.A. 'Attacked'" (PDF). Antiaircraft Journal, the United States Coast Artillery Association. LXXXII (3): 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 November 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2016.
5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lotchin was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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25 February 1336 Four thousand defenders of Pilenai commit mass suicide rather than be taken captive by the Teutonic Knights.

Teutonic Order

Medieval military order

This article is about the religious order. For the state, see State of the Teutonic Order. For the historical novel, see The Knights of the Cross. For the film, see Knights of the Teutonic Order (film).

Military unit

The Teutonic Order is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society c. 1190 in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem was formed to aid Christians on their pilgrimages to the Holy Land and to establish hospitals. Its members have commonly been known as the Teutonic Knights, having historically served as a crusading military order for supporting Catholic rule in the Holy Land and the Northern Crusades during the Middle Ages, as well as providing military protection for Catholics in Eastern Europe.

Purely religious since 1810, the Teutonic Order still confers limited honorary knighthoods.^[2] The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order, a Protestant chivalric order, is descended from the same medieval military order and also continues to award knighthoods and perform charitable work.^[3]

1. ^ "Deutscher Orden: Brüder und Schwestern vom Deutschen Haus St. Mariens in Jerusalem". www.deutscher-orden.at.
2. ^ Redazione. "La Santa Sede e gli Ordini Cavallereschi: doverosi chiarimenti (Seconda parte)".
3. ^ Riley-Smith, Jonathan Simon Christopher (1999). The Oxford History of the Crusades. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0192853646. Teutonic knights are still to be found only in another interesting survival, Ridderlijke Duitse Orde Balije van Utrecht (The Bailiwick of Utrecht of the Teutonic Order). Like the Hospitaller Bailiwick of Brandenburg, this commandery turned itself into a noble Protestant confraternity at the time of the Reformation.

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26 February 1935 Adolf Hitler orders the Luftwaffe to be re-formed, violating the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.

Treaty of Versailles

One of the treaties that ended World War I

See also: Rue Nitot, Paris Peace Conference (1919-1920), and Diplomatic history of World War I

This article is about the Treaty of Versailles of 28 June 1919, at the end of World War I. For other uses, see Treaty of Versailles (disambiguation).

The Treaty of Versailles^[i] was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate treaties.^[ii] Although the armistice of 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, and agreed certain principles and conditions including the payment of reparations, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Germany was not allowed to participate in the negotiations before signing the treaty.

The treaty required Germany to disarm, make territorial concessions, extradite alleged war criminals, agree to Kaiser Wilhelm being put on trial, recognise the independence of states whose territory had previously been part of the German Empire, and pay reparations to the Entente powers. The most critical and controversial provision in the treaty was: "The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies." The other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles. This article, Article 231, became known as the "War Guilt" clause.

Critics including John Maynard Keynes declared the treaty too harsh, styling it as a "Carthaginian peace", and saying the reparations were excessive and counterproductive. On the other hand, prominent Allied figures such as French Marshal Ferdinand Foch criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently. This is still the subject of ongoing debate by historians and economists.

The result of these competing and sometimes conflicting goals among the victors was a compromise that left no one satisfied. In particular, Germany was neither pacified nor conciliated, nor was it permanently weakened. The United States never ratified the Versailles treaty and made a separate peace treaty with Germany, albeit based on the Versailles treaty. The problems that arose from the treaty would lead to the Locarno Treaties, which improved relations between Germany and the other European powers. The reparation system was reorganized and payments reduced in the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan. Bitter resentment of the treaty powered the rise of the Nazi Party, and eventually the outbreak of a second World War.

Although it is often referred to as the "Versailles Conference", only the actual signing of the treaty took place at the historic palace. Most of the negotiations were in Paris, with the "Big Four" meetings taking place generally at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Quai d'Orsay.

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1. ^ Slavicek 2010, p. 114.
2. ^ Slavicek 2010, p. 107.
3. ^ Boyer et al. 2009, p. 153.

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