Feb 1 2003 The space shuttle Columbia breaks up at 8am CST during reentry over Texas. All seven crew members are lostFeb 1 1994 An oil pipeline near the Russian city of Usinsk bursts spilling between 200,000 and 300,000 tons of hot crude oil onto the Arctic permafrost. Feb 1 1992 Bert Parks, eternal host of Miss America Pageant, dies Feb 1 1984 The Hewlett-Packard HP75D handheld BASIC computer with barcode reader was introduced Feb 1 1979 Forces led by Khomeini take over Iran Feb 1 1977 Over a hundred people die in blizzards in the North East Feb 1 1976 Werner Karl Heisenberg, mathematician and physicist known for his Uncertainty Principle, dies at the age of 74 Feb 1 1968 A major Vietcong offensive against Hue Feb 1 1966 Buster Keaton, comedian and film actor, dies Feb 1 1954 First TV soap, 'Secret Storm', first airs Feb 1 1944 Piet Mondrian, abstract painter, co-founder of the De Stijl group, dies Feb 1 1942 Vidkun Quisling is made premier of Norway Feb 1 1941 U-boats adopted a new cipher system codenamed Triton by adding an additional rotor to their enigma machines. The new cipher would not be broken until the end of the year Feb 1 1935 Water begins backing up at Hoover Dam Feb 1 1924 The Soviet Union recognizes the British government Feb 1 1922 Prince Yamagata, military leader and prime minister of Japan, dies Feb 1 1903 Sir George Gabriel Stokes, British mathematician and physicist, dies Feb 1 1893 Thomas Edison finishes constructing his motion picture studio in West Orange, New Jersey Feb 1 1878 George Cruikshank, illustrator and caricaturist, dies Feb 1 1873 Matthew Fontaine Maury, American oceanographer who wrote 'The Physical Geography of the Sea', dies Feb 1 1865 Mt Etna in Sicily erupts Feb 1 1851 Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, author of Frankenstein, dies Feb 1 1840 A massacre of Jews begins in Damascus after a Greek priest disappears Feb 1 1650 Rene Descartes, philosopher and mathematician, dies
Birthdays
Feb 1 1965 Brandon Lee, martial arts expert and son of Bruce Lee Feb 1 1954 Billy Mumy, actor who played Will Robinson in the TV series 'Lost in Space' Feb 1 1937 Don Everly, of the Everly Brothers Feb 1 1931 Boris Yeltsin, Russian president Feb 1 1908 George Pal, film director known for special effects, is born in Hungary Feb 1 1904 Sidney Joseph Perelman, American author Feb 1 1902 Langston Hughes, poet Feb 1 1901 Clark Gable, actor Feb 1 1895 John Ford, film maker
