This Week in History: Feb. 7-13, 2024

Feb. 7- 1812: Author Charles Dickens is born in Landport, Portsmouth, England. 1904: The “Great Fire of Baltimore” begins, leveling 1,500 structures and damaging over 1,000 more; over $100 million of property lost. 1992: 12 countries sign the Maastricht Treaty, forming the European Union (EU).

Feb. 8– 1587: Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded, convicted of plotting to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I. 1915: The film “Birth of a Nation” premieres in Los Angeles. 1931: American actor James Dean is born in Marion, IN. He would die in 1955 before reaching his 25th birthday. 1971: The NASDAQ stock market index debuts.

Feb. 9– 1895: William Morgan presents a sport he called “Mintonette” at Springfield College in Massachusetts. It would later become known as Volleyball. 1950: Sen. Joseph McCarthy makes first claim that over 200 active Communist Party members worked at the U.S. State Department. 1964: The rock-and-roll band known as “The Beatles” appeared on American television for the first time. More than 73 million viewers tuned in to The Ed Sullivan Show to watch their debut. They loved them – yah, yah, yah.

Feb 10– 1720: Edmond Halley appointed Astronomer Royal at England’s Greenwich Observatory. 1942: Band leader Glenn Miller earns the first “Gold Record” for selling more than 1 million copies of “Chattanooga Choo Choo.” 1993: Oprah Winfrey’s interview of singer Michael Jackson draw more than 90 million viewers. 1996: IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer defeats reigning world champion Gary Kasparov in a game of chess. (Kasparov rebounded to take the competition 4-2).

Feb. 11– 1847: American inventor Thomas Edison is born in Milan, OH. 1945: The “Big 3” (Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin) meet in Yalta, Ukraine to discuss plans for the end of WW II. 1990: South Africa’s Nelson Mandela is released from prison after 27 years.

Feb. 12– 1809: Future U.S. President Abraham Lincoln is born in a log cabin near Hodgenville, KY. 1994: Thieves steal Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” from Norway’s National Museum, as the Winter Olympics began in nearby Lillehammer. 1999: 42nd U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton’s impeachment trial ends with his acquittal by the U.S. Senate.

Feb. 13– 1866: Notorious American outlaw Jesse James robs his first bank, stealing $15,000 from a bank in Clay County, MO. 1945: Allied planes begin bombing Dresden, Germany, eventually destroying most of the city and killing an estimated 22,000 people. 2019: NASA’s Opportunity rover’s mission ends: its final data transmission is translated as “My battery is low and it’s getting dark,” inspiring countless tweets and works of art in tribute.