On February 7, 1964, Pan Am Yankee Clipper flight 101 from
London Heathrow lands 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.

Tony Dungy (68) of the Indianapolis Colts became the first Black
NFL head coach to win a Super Bowl (XLl). The victory marked
the first time a Black head coach had reached the National
Football League’s championship game—one that featured not
just one, but two Black head coaches.        

    
Hall of Fame head coach and NBC Football analyst Tony
Dungy.

On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter
of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped
from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by three armed men.

Her fiancee, Steven Weed, was beaten and tied up along with a
neighbor who tried to help. Witnesses reported seeing a struggling Hearst being carried away blindfolded, and she was put in the trunk
of a car. Neighbors who came out into the street were forced to take cover after the kidnappers fired their guns to cover their escape.

Three days later, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small
U.S. leftist group, announced in a letter to a Berkeley radio station
that it was holding Hearst as a “prisoner of war.” Four days later,
the SLA demanded that the Hearst family give $70 in foodstuffs to
every needy person from Santa Rosa to Los Angeles. This done,
said the SLA, negotiation would begin for the return of Patricia
Hearst.

Patricia Campbell Hearst will turn 70 on February 20th.

On this day in history, February 3, 1870, the 15th Amendment is ratified, granting Black males
the right to vote.