This Date In History

[fire283]

Jan 27, 1967  Cape Kennedy (Canavaveral) FL

Flash fire in command module of Appollo 1 during launch pad test
claims lives of Astronauts Ed White (USAF), Gus Grissom (USAF), and Ed Chaffee (USN).

[Geezer]

Jan 27, 1967  Cape Kennedy (Canavaveral) FL

Flash fire in command module of Appollo 1 during launch pad test
claims lives of Astronauts Ed White (USAF) and Ed Chaffee (USN).

and Gus Grissom...


Birthdays:
1850 - Edward J. Smith     Captain of the RMS Titanic
1952 - Billy "White Shoes" Johnson

Deathdays:
1910 - Thomas Crapper    English inventor of the .....
1993 - Andre the Giant

[Geezer]

January 28, 1915
An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
January 28, 1980
USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa FL and capsizes killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

January 28, 1986
Space Shuttle Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Birthdays:
1936 - Alan Alda
1950 - Barbi Benton

Deathdays:
1986 - Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik,Francis Scobee, Michael Smith, Greg Jarvis

[fire283]

Jan. 28, 1973

Cease fire takes effect in Vietnam War.

Jan. 28, 1994

Phila. PA. - Firefighters John Redmond (L-11) and Vencent Acey (R-1)
killed in apparent flashover in basement of the Rising Sun Baptist
Church at 745 S. 12th St.

[Geezer]

January 29, 1886
Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

Birthdays:
1880 - W.C. Fields
1954 - Oprah Winfrey

Deathdays:
1977 - Freddie Prinze
2007 - Barbaro

[Geezer]

January 30, 1933
Adolph Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.
(I wonder who the second choice was?)
January 30, 1968
The Tet Offensive begins.

Birthdays:
1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt
1930 - Gene Hackman
1941 - Richard Cheney
1951 - Phil Collins

Deathdays:
1836 - Betsy Ross
1948 - Orville Wright
1951 - Ferdinand Porsche
2006 - Coretta Scott King

[Geezer]

Sorry I'm late...

January 31, 1945
US Army Private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the Civil War.
January 31, 1961
Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 - Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.
January 31, 2001
In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi and acquits another Libyan for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 which blew up over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

Birthdays:
1919 - Jackie Robinson
1947 - Nolan Ryan

Deathdays:
2002 - Francis Gabreski    American fighter ace


February 1, 1920
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin operations.
February 1, 1978
Roman Polanski skips bail and flees the UN to France after pleading guilty to charges of having sex with a 13-year-old girl.
February 1, 2003
Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates during reentry, killing all seven astronauts aboard.

Birthdays:
1931 - Boris Yeltsin
1948 - Rick James

Deathdays:
2003 - Michael Anderson, David Brown, Kalpana Chawla, Laurel Clark, Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Ilan Ramon


February 2, 1653
New Amsterdam (later renamed The City of New York) is incorporated.
February 2, 1974
The F-16 Fighting Falcon flies for the first time.  (Humor me - personal interest; and to those of us who worked on it back in the early days, it will always be the Viper.)

Birthdays:
1895 - George Halas
1947 - Farrah Fawcett

Deathdays:
1969 - Boris Karloff

[Geezer]

February 3, 1959
The Day The Music Died.  A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa kills Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson.

Birthdays:
1894 - Norman Rockwell
1940 - Fran Tarkenton
1945 - Bob Griese

Deathdays:
1959 - Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. Richardson, Roger Peterson


February 4, 1789
George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the US Electoral College.

Birthdays:
1902 - Charles Lindbergh
1948 - Alice Cooper
1965 - Jerome Brown

Deathdays:
1983 - Karen Carpenter
1987 - Liberace

[Geezer]

February 5, 0062
Earthquake knocks the snot out of Pompeii, Italy.

Birthdays:
1934 - Hank Aaron
1942 - Roger Staubach
1947 - Darrell Waltrip

Deathday:
2009 - Richard Zachar          Rest easy, Dad.

[Geezer]

February 6, 1978
The Blizzard of '78 hits with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4" an hour.

Birthdays:
1895 - Babe Ruth
1911 - Ronald Reagan
1945 - Bob Marley
1962 - Axl Rose

Deathdays:
1993 - Arthur Ashe

[Geezer]

February 7, 1904
A fire in Baltimore destroys over 1,500 buildings in 30 hours.
February 7, 1990
Collapse of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

Birthdays:
1804 - John Deere
1962 - Garth Brooks

Deathdays:
1979 - Dr. Joseph Mengele
1999 - Bobby Troop        Dr. Joe Early

[Geezer]

February 8, 1910
The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.
February 8, 1998
First female ice hockey game in Olympic history: Finland 6, Sweden 0.

Birthdays:
1820 - William Tecumseh Sherman
1931 - James Dean

Deathdays:
1956 - Connie Mack
2007 - Anna Nicole Smith

[Geezer]

February 9, 1964
The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan show.

Birthdays:
1946 - Vince Papale
1961 - John Kruk
1963 - Travis Tritt
1982 - Jameer Nelson

Deathdays:
1973 - Max Yasgur
1981 - Bill Haley
1984 - Yuri Andropov

[Geezer]

February 10, 1863
The fire extinguisher is patented.

Birthdays:
1906 - Lon Chaney, Jr.
1950 - Mark Spitz
1955 - Greg Norman
1963 - Lenny Dykstra

Deathday:
2008 - Roy Scheider    "We're going to need a bigger boat!"

[xchief]

I know this is over a week late, but let's not forget two of the most significant incidents the Delaware County Fire Service history:

1. January 31, 1975, the Corinthos in Marcus Hook burned or 6 days and claimed 29 lives. It was fought by 54 volunteer fire companies from 3 states

2. February 2, 1978, the toxic chemical dump fire in Chester that burned for a few days and, so far, has claimed as many as 40 emergency responders due to illness from chemical exposure.