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Your teeth are OK but your gums will have to come out What happened on February 20 Please support our Sponsors - They help us keep this site Alive! 1472 Orkney and Shetland annexed to the crown of Scotland as security for the dowry of Princess Margaret, daughter of Christian 1, King of Norway and Denmark, and wife of James 111 of Scotland. 1525 Swiss & German mercenaries desert François I's army 1547 Edward VI of England crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey. 1613 Gerard Reynst appointed Dutch Governor-General of East-Indies 1653 Defeat of Dutch fleet under Admiral Van Tromp by Admiral Blake off Portsmouth 1673 First recorded wine auction held (London) 1710 Johan Willem Friso becomes viceroy of Groningen Netherlands 1725 10 sleeping Indians scalped by whites in New Hampshire for £100/scalp bounty 1732 Estates of Holland ratifies Treaty of Vienna 1768 First American chartered fire insurance company receives charter (Pennsylvania) 1792 The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington. 1792 US postal service created; postage 6¢-12½¢, depending on distance 1810 Andreas Hofer, Tyrolean patriot and leader of rebellion against Napoleon's forces, was executed. 1811 Austria declares bankruptcy 1816 Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville debuts at Teatro Argentina, with a fiasco. 1816 Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville" premieres in Rome 1823 English Captain James Weddell reaches 74º 15' S, 1520 km from South Pole 1831 Polish revolutionaries defeat Russians in battle of Growchow 1832 Charles Darwin visits Fernando Noronha in Atlantic Ocean 1835 Concepcin, Chile is destroyed by an earthquake 1835 Concepción, Chile destroyed by earthquake 1839 Anti-duelling law was passed by US Congress 1846 British occupy Sikh citadel of Lahore 1856 John Rutledge, Liverpool-New York steamer, hits iceberg; many die 1861 Dept of Navy of Confederacy forms 1864 Battle of Olustee 1864 Civil War Battle of Olustee, Florida 1869 Tennessee Governor W C Brownlow declares martial law in Ku Klux Klan crisis 1872 Hydraulic electric elevator patented by Cyrus Baldwin 1872 In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens. 1872 Luther Crowell patents a machine that manufactures paper bags 1872 Metropolitan Museum of Art opens in New York City. 1872 Silas Noble & JP Cooley patents toothpick manufacturing machine 1873 The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California. 1877 First cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg KY 1887 Germany, Austria-Hungary & France end Triple Alliance 1895 Abolitionist Frederick Douglass dies in Washington, D.C. 1895 Congress authorizes a US mint at Denver CO 1899 Illinois Tel & Tel granted franchise for Chicago freight tunnel system 1901 First territorial legislature of Hawaii convenes 1901 The legislature of Hawaii Territory convenes for the first time. 1902 Heavy surf breaks over Seal Rocks & damages Sutro Baths, San Francisco 1909 Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro 1913 King O'Malley drives in the first survey peg to mark commencement of work on the construction of Canberra. 1917 Ammunitions ship explodes in Archangelsk harbor, about 1,500 die 1919 French premier Clemenceau injured during assassination attempt 1920 Robert E. Peary, Arctic explorer, dies. 1921 Riza Khan Pahlevi seizes control of Iran 1922 Vilnius, Lithuania, agrees to separate from Poland 1927 Golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath 1929 American Samoa organized as a territory of US 1931 California gets the go-ahead by the U.S. Congress to build the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. 1931 Congress allows California to build Oakland-Bay Bridge 1932 Japanese troops occupy Tunhua China 1935 Karoline Mikkelson is first woman on Antarctica 1938 UK Foreign Secretary Eden resigns, says PM Chamberlain appeased Germany 1941 First transport of Jews to concentration camps leave Plotsk Poland 1941 Nazis order Polish Jews barred from using public transportation 1941 Romania breaks relations with Netherlands 1942 Lieutenant E H O'Hare single-handedly shoots down 5 Japanese heavy bombers. Becomes America's first World War II flying ace. 1943 Allied troops occupy Kasserine pass in Tunisia 1943 American movie studio executives agree to allow the Office of War Information to censor movies. 1943 New volcano Paracutin erupts in farmer's corn patch (México) 1943 Phil Wrigley & B Rickey charter All-American Girls Softball League 1943 The Parcutin volcano begins to form in Paricutn, Mxico. 1944 Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers 1944 HMS WARWICK, sunk off Trevose Head, north Cornwall, south west England by 1 torpedo from German U-413. 1944 U.S. warplanes begin bombing German manufacturing plants during WWII. 1944 US takes Eniwetok Island 1944 World War II: "Big Week" ended with American bomber raids on Nazi aircraft manufacturing centers. 1947 Chemical mixing error causes explosion that destroys 42 blocks in Los Angeles CA 1947 Lord Mountbatten appointed as last viceroy of India 1947 State of Prussia ceases to exist 1948 Czechoslovakia's non-communist minister resigns 1952 "African Queen" opens at Capitol Theater in New York NY 1952 Emmett Ashford becomes the first African-American umpire in organized baseball by being authorized to be a substitute umpire in the Southwestern International League. 1954 General Zahedi wins election in Persia 1959 The Avro Arrow program to design and manufacture supersonic jet fighters in Canada is cancelled by the Diefenbaker government amid much political debate. 1962 John Glenn becomes the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth, aboard the spacecraft Friendship Seven. 1962 Mercury program: While aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn orbits the earth three times in 4 hours, 55 minutes, becoming the first American to orbit the earth. 1964 Number one hit on UK music charts - The Bachelors - Diane 1965 Beatles record "That Means a Lot" 1965 Ranger 8 crashes into the moon after a successful mission of photographing possible landing sites for the Apollo program astronauts. 1965 Ranger 8 makes hard landing on the Moon, returns photos, other data 1966 Author Valery Tarsis banished in USSR 1968 John Cleese (Monty Python) marries Connie Booth 1968 State troopers used tear gas to stop demonstration at Alcorn A & M 1971 Major General Idi Amin Dada appoints himself President of Uganda 1971 National Emergency Center erroneously orders US radio & TV stations to go off the air; The mistake wasn't resolved for 30 minutes 1974 Cher files for separation from husband Sonny Bono 1974 The S-3A Viking ASW aircraft was officially introduced in the Navy in ceremonies at NAS North Island VS-41 accepted the first aircaraft 1975 Margaret Thatcher elected leader of British Conservative Party 1975 Visitor posting - Adrianne Michelle Crouse entered the world and brought immeasurable joy to her parents! - USA 1976 The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization disbands. 1978 4th People's Choice Awards Star Wars, Carol Burnett & Bob Hope 1978 Egypt announces it is pulling its diplomats out of Cyprus 1983 Japan launches Tenma satellite to study x-rays (450/570 km) 1986 Mike Tyson sexually harasses a woman in Albany NY 1987 Bomb blamed on Unabomber explodes by computer store in Salt Lake City 1987 David Hartman quits ABC's "Good Morning America," after 11 years 1987 Unabomber: In Salt Lake City, in the USA, a bomb explodes in a computer store. 1988 500 die in heavy rains in Rio de Janeiro Brazil 1988 Brian Boitano wins Olympics gold medal in figure skating at Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta 1988 Number one hit on UK music charts - Kylie Minogue - I Should Be So Lucky 1988 Peter Kalikow purchases New York Post from Rupert Murdoch for $37.6 million 1989 Total eclipse of the Moon 1991 A gigantic statue of Albania's long-time dictator, Enver Hoxha, is brought down in the Albanian capital, Tirana, by mobs of angry protesters. 1991 Visitor posting - Eli Mirkin is born - USA 1992 Orthodox patriarch Shenouda III visits Netherlands 1992 Visitor posting - Zackarias Sjostrom was born - Sweden 1992 Ross Perot says he'll run for President on Larry King Show 1994 3 Afghans take 70 Pakistani children hostage 1994 Pope John Paul II demands juristic discrimination of homosexuals 1995 Visitor posting - Austin Gebhardt was born - USA 1997 Visitor posting - China Guignard is born - USA 1998 American figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold-medalist at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. 1998 Tara Lipinski wins Olympics figure skating gold medal 1998 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan lands in Baghdad, for peace negotiations 1998 Visitor posting - February 20 1998 Rebecca was born (: 1999 Fifteen-year-old U.S. figure skater Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold medal winner in Winter Olympics history, as she wins the ladies figure skating category at Nagano, Japan. 1999 Visitor posting - Erin Kathleens Birthday - USA 2002 In Reqa Al-Gharbiya, Egypt, a fire on a train injures over 65 and kills at least 370. 2005 Spain becomes the first country to vote in a referendum on ratification of the proposed Constitution of the European Union, passing it by a substantial margin, but on a low turnout. 2008 Visitor posting - Kim agrees to go out with Jacob and they fall in love - USA 2010 Visitor posting - HAPPY 13TH BIRTHDAY JUSTIN!!!! 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