1st February - Definition and Overview

February 1 is the 32nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. There are 333 days remaining, (334 in leap years).

Events

• 1662 - The Chinese pirate Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.
• 1713 - The Kalabalik or Tumult in Bendery results from the Ottoman sultan's order that his unwelcome guest, King Charles XII of Sweden, be seized.
• 1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat.
• 1790 - In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
• 1793 - France declares war on the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
• 1796 - The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
• 1814 - Mayon Volcano, in the Philippines, erupts, killing around 1,200 people; most devastating eruption of Mayon Volcano.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Texas secedes from the United States.
• 1862 - Julia Ward Howe's Battle Hymn of the Republic is published for the first time (Atlantic Monthly).
• 1880 - First edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
• 1884 - Edition one of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
• 1893 - Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio (West Orange, New Jersey).
• 1896 - The opera La Bohème premieres (Turin).
• 1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal and his son, Prince Luis Filipe are killed in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon.
• 1913 - New York City's Grand Central Terminal opens as the world's largest train station.
• 1918 - Russia adopts the Gregorian Calendar.
• 1919 - The first Miss America is crowned (New York City).
• 1920 - The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
• 1924 - United Kingdom recognizes USSR.
• 1929 - Frenchman Charles Rigoulet is the first weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.
• 1943 - World War II: Vidkun Quisling appointed Premier of Norway by the Nazi occupiers.
• 1946 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
• 1958 - Merger of Egypt and Syria to form the United Arab Republic, which lasted until 1961.
• 1960 - Four black students stage a sit-in at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
• 1968 - Vietnam War: A Viet Cong officer is executed by Nguyen Ngoc Loan a South Vietnamese National Police Chief. The execution was videotaped and photographed and helped sway public opinion against the war.
• 1974 - In Sao Paulo, Brazil, a fire in a 25-story office building kills 189 and injures 293. Kuala Lumpur declared a Federal Territory.
• 1978 - Director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13-year-old girl.
• 1979 - Convicted bank robber Patty Hearst is released from prison after her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter.
• 1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini is welcomed back into Tehran, Iran after nearly 15 years of exile.
• 1982 - Senegal and Gambia form a loose confederation known as Senegambia.
• 1992 - The Chief Judicial Magistrate of Bhopal court declares Warren Anderson, ex-CEO of Union Carbide, a fugitive under Indian law for failing to appear in the Bhopal Disaster case.
• 1994 - In Portland, Oregon Tonya Harding's ex-husband Jeff Gillooly pleads guilty for his role in attacking figure skater Nancy Kerrigan.
• 1995 - Manic Street Preachers lyricist Richey James Edwards goes missing from the Embasy Hotel in London, UK.
• 1996 - Communications Decency Act is passed by the U.S. Congress
• 1999 - North Dakota Public Radio is launched.
• 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts onboard.
• 2004 - At least 244 people trampled to death in a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.
• 2004 - Super Bowl XXXVIII: The New England Patriots defeat the Carolina Panthers, 32-29. During the half-time show Janet Jackson's right breast is bared.

Births

• 1690 - Francesco Maria Veracini, composer (d. 1768)
• 1761 - Christian Hendrik Persoon, mycologist (d. 1836)
• 1844 - G. Stanley Hall, psychologist (d. 1844)
• 1859 - Victor Herbert, composer (d. 1924)
• 1874 - Hugo von Hofmannsthal, lyricist, dramatist, narrator, and essayist (d. 1929)
• 1882 - Louis Stephen St. Laurent, twelfth Prime Minister of Canada (d. 1973)
• 1887 - Charles Nordhoff, author (d. 1947)
• 1894 - John Ford, director, producer (d. 1973)
• 1894 - James P. Johnson, pianist, composer (d. 1955)
• 1901 - Clark Gable, actor (d. 1960)
• 1902 - Langston Hughes writer (d. 1967)
• 1904 - S. J. Perelman, humorist, author (d. 1979)
• 1906 - Hildegarde, actress, singer
• 1907 - Günter Eich, lyricist (d. 1972)
• 1908 - George Pál, director, producer (d. 1980)
• 1909 - George Beverly Shea, Canadian singer
• 1918 - Dame Muriel Spark, author
• 1922 - Renata Tebaldi, Italian soprano (d. 2004)
• 1925 - Alfred Grosser, political scientist and publicist
• 1928 (or 1928 or 1929) - Stuart Whitman, American actor
• 1931 - Boris Yeltsin, Russian president 1991-1999
• 1935 - Dieter Kühn, narrator, dramatist and essayist
• 1937 - Don Everly, musician
• 1937 - Garrett Morris, comedian
• 1938 - Sherman Hemsley, comedian, actor
• 1940 - Bibi Besch, Austrian-American actress (d. 1996)
• 1942 - Terry Jones, actor, writer (Monty Python's Flying Circus)
• 1946 - Bart Braverman, American actor
• 1947 - Jessica Savitch, journalist (d. 1983)
• 1948 - Rick James, American musician, composer (d. 2004)
• 1952 - Rick James, musician (d. 2004)
• 1954 - Bill Mumy, actor, musician
• 1956 - Exene Cervenka, musician (X)
• 1965 - Sherilyn Fenn, actress
• 1965 - Brandon Lee, actor (d. 1993)
• 1965 - Princess Stephanie of Monaco
• 1965 - Sherilyn Fenn, American actress
• 1966 - Michelle Akers, American soccer player
• 1968 - Lisa Marie Presley, actress
• 1968 - Pauly Shore, comedian
• 1969 - Gabriel Batistuta, Argentine football player
• 1969 - Joshua Redman, American jazz musician
• 1971 - Jill Kelly, erotic actress
• 1971 - Zlatko Zahovič, Slovenian football player
• 1975 - Big Boi, American musician (Outkast)
• 1978 - Julie Roberts, country music singer

Deaths

• 1691 - Pope Alexander VIII (b. 1610)
• 1793 - William Wildman Shute Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)
• 1851 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
• 1908 - King Carlos I of Portugal (b. 1863)
• 1928 - Hughie Jennings, Baseball Hall of Famer (b. 1869)
• 1944 - Piet Mondriaan, Dutch painter (b. 1872)
• 1957 - Friedrich Paulus, German general
• 1966 - Hedda Hopper, American gossip columnist (b. 1885)
• 1966 - Buster Keaton, American actor (b. 1895)
• 1976 - Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics
• 1980 - Jack Bailey, American television announcer
• 1981 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
• 1981 - Donald Wills Douglas, Sr., American aircraft manufacturer
• 1988 - Heather O'Rourke, child actress (b. 1975)
• 1997 - Herb Caen, American newspaper columnist (b. 1916)
• 1997 - Marjorie Reynolds, American actress
• 1999 - Paul Mellon, American philanthropist
• 2002 - Hildegard Knef, German actress, singer, writer (b. 1925)
• 2002 - Irish McCalla, American actress, model
• 2003 - The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia, astronauts: Michael P. Anderson (b. 1959), David Brown (b. 1956), Kalpana Chawla (b. 1961), Laurel Clark (b. 1961), Rick D. Husband (b. 1957), Willie McCool (b. 1961), Ilan Ramon (b. 1954)
• 2003 - Mongo Santamaria, percussionist, band leader, Latin jazz musician
• 2005 - John Vernon, Canadian actor

Holidays and observances

• St. Brigid of Kildare -one of the three patron saints of Ireland, the others being St. Patrick and St. Columcille.
• Imbolc - the first day of Spring in Ireland (Irish Calendar), one of the eight solar holidays in the Wheel of the Year.
• 2003 - Chinese New Year - Year of the Ram.

January 31 - February 2 - January 1 - March 1 -- listing of all days