On February 8, 1943, Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal, leaving the
island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. The American
victory paved the way for other Allied wins in the Solomon Islands.

Guadalcanal is the largest of the Solomons, a group of 992 islands and atolls,
347 of which are inhabited, in the South Pacific Ocean. The Solomons, which
are located northeast of Australia and have 87 indigenous languages, were discovered in 1568 by the Spanish navigator Alvaro de Mendana de Neyra
(1541-95). In 1893, the British annexed Guadalcanal, along with the other
central and southern Solomons. The Germans took control of the northern Solomons in 1885, but transferred these islands, except for Bougainville
and Buka (which eventually went to the Australians) to the British in 1900.

    
Japanese POWs.

TIM MAGUIRE

On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from London
Heathrow landed at New York’s Kennedy Airport—and “Beatlemania”
arrives. It was the first visit to the United States by the Beatles, a
British rock-and-roll quartet that had just scored its first No. 1 U.S.
hit six days before with “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” At Kennedy,
the “Fab Four”—dressed in mod suits and sporting their trademark
pudding bowl haircuts—were greeted by 3,000 screaming fans who
caused a near riot when the boys stepped off their plane and onto
American soil.

Country/Pop singer Troyal Garth Brooks is 58 years old today.

The first organized immigration of freed slaves to Africa from the
United States departs New York harbor on a journey to Freetown,
Sierra Leone, in West Africa.

The first organized immigration of freed slaves to Africa from the United
States departed New York harbor on a journey to Freetown, Sierra Leone,
in West Africa. The immigration was largely the work of the American
Colonization Society, a U.S. organization founded in 1816 by Robert
Finley to return freed American slaves to Africa. However, the expedition
was also partially funded by the U.S. Congress, which in 1819 had
appropriated $100,000 to be used in returning displaced Africans,
illegally brought to the United States after the abolishment of the slave
trade in 1808, to Africa.

The program was modeled after British’s efforts to resettle freed slaves
in Africa following England’s abolishment of the slave trade in 1772.

Kirk Douglas (Issur Danielovitch Demsky)
(December 9, 1916 – February 5, 2020)

Kirk Douglas made his film debut in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers
(1946) with Barbara Stanwyck. Douglas soon developed into a leading
box-office star throughout the 1950s, known for serious dramas,
including westerns and war movies. During his career, he appeared
in more than 90 movies. Douglas was known for his explosive acting
style, which he displayed as a criminal defense attorney in Town
Without Pity (1961).

Postcard photo of the Southern Pacific’s “Sunset Limited” train as it traveled between Los Angeles and San Francisco, c. 1910s.

The Southern Pacific Railroad completed its transcontinental “Sunset Route”
from New Orleans to California, consolidating its dominance over rail traffic
to the Pacific.

One of the most powerful railroad companies of the 19th century, the “Espee”
(as the railroad was often called) originated in an ambitious plan conceived in
1870 by the “Big Four” western railroad barons: Collis P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford and Mark Hopkins. A year earlier, the Big Four’s
western-based Central Pacific had linked up with the eastern-based Union
Pacific in Utah, creating the first transcontinental American railway. With
that finished, the “Big Four” began to look for ways to increase their control
over West Coast shipping, and decided to focus their efforts on extending
the California-based Southern Pacific southward.

Early 20th-century postcard of the “Sunset Express” train passing
through Yuma, Arizona.