Feb 17 1989 Scientists announce that chlorofluorocarbons are probably responsible for creating the 'hole in the ozone layer' over the North Pole Feb 17 1985 Standard U.S. letter postage goes to $.22 Feb 17 1982 Thelonius Monk, jazz pianist, dies Feb 17 1979 Chinese troops attack Vietnam along most of their 480 mile long border. The Chinese refer to this as a pedagogical war Feb 17 1964 The Supreme court issues its 'one man, one vote' ruling, saying congressional districts within each state must be roughly equal in population Feb 17 1960 Russia and Peru sign their first trade accord Feb 17 1960 Martin Luther King Jr. is arrested in a bus boycott in Alabama Feb 17 1959 The first weather satellite, Vanguard II, is launched Feb 17 1955 Britain announces it now has the ability to make Hydrogen Bombs Feb 17 1947 The Voice of America starts broadcasting to the U.S.S.R. Feb 17 1945 Allied forces under General MacArthur land at Corregidor in the Philippines Feb 17 1937 10 workers fall to their deaths during the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge when they and the scaffolding they were on went through the safety net that hung under the bridge Feb 17 1935 Thirty one prisoners escape an Oklahoma jail after murdering a guard Feb 17 1933 The first issue of Newsweek magazine is published Feb 17 1925 The New Yorker magazine goes on sale for the first time. It costs 15 cents a copy Feb 17 1919 Germany signs an armistice giving up lands in Poland Feb 17 1909 Geronimo, Apache chief, dies of pneumonia at age 80 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma Feb 17 1876 First sardine canned Feb 17 1865 Columbia, South Carolina is burned as Confederates move out and the Sherman's Union troops move in Feb 17 1864 The Confederate submarine Hunley sinks the USS Housatonic in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina Feb 17 1856 Heinrich Heine, author, dies Feb 17 1801 The U.S. House of Representatives breaks an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson as president Feb 17 1800 Giordano Bruno, a Dominican monk and proponent of scientific method, dies by being burned at the stake because he believed that the known planets circled the sun, that the stars were like our sun, and could be surrounded by planets that might be inhabited.

Feb 17 1972 Denise Richards, actress Feb 17 1963 Michael Jordan, basketball player Feb 17 1962 Lou Diamond Phillips, actor Feb 17 1954 Rene Russo, actress Feb 17 1925 Hal Holbrook, actor Feb 17 1912 Andre Norton, Grand Dame of Science Fiction and author of over 130 novels, is born in Cleveland, Ohio Feb 17 1908 Walter Lanier 'Red' Barber, baseball announcer for the Cincinnati Reds, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees Feb 17 1902 Marion Anderson, American contralto Feb 17 1890 Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, considered by many to be one of the founders of modern statistics, is born in London, England Feb 17 1874 Thomas J. Watson, Sr., founder of IBM Feb 17 1864 Andrew Barton 'Banjo' Paterson, Australian poet and journalist Feb 17 1856 Frederick Eugene Ives, inventor, pioneer of halftone photoengraving process and color photography