TIM MAGUIRE

On this day in 1964, Pan Am flight 101 was greeted by over 5,000
Beatles fans as it arrived at New York’s JFK airport, bringing The
Beatles to the U.S. for the first time.

Ramzi Yousef, a Pakistani national who planned and carried out
the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six people
and injured 1,000 others, was arrested on this day in 1995.

Hussein bin Talal (November 14, 1935 – February 7, 1999)

Hussein was King of Jordan from the abdication of his father,
King Talal, on 11 August 1952, until his death from cancer in
1999.

Charles John Huffam Dickens (February 7, 1812 – June 9, 1870)

Charles Dickens was a prolific and highly influential 19th century British
author, who penned such acclaimed works as ‘Oliver Twist,’ ‘A Christmas
Carol,’ ‘David Copperfield’ and ‘Great Expectations.’

singer/songwriter Troyal Garth Brooks is 56 years old today.

According to the RIAA, Garth Brooks is the best-selling solo albums artist
in the U.S. with 148 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and
is second only to the Beatles in total album sales overall. He is also one of 
the world’s best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 170 million records. Brooks was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame October
21, 2012. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2011. 

MIKE GRACIA

Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004)

Ronald Reagan served as the 40th President of the United States
from 1981 to 1989. Prior to the presidency, he was a Hollywood
actor and union leader before serving as the 33rd Governor of
California from 1967 to 1975.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton formally declared that she was
a candidate for a U.S. Senate seat from the state of New York on
this day in 2000.

George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George)  
(December 14, 1895 – February 6, 1952)

Britain’s King George VI died on this day in 1952. His daughter,
Elizabeth II, succeeded him.

George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948)

Babe Ruth was a professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball  spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "The
Bambino" and "The Sultan of Swat", he began his MLB career as a stellar
left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, but achieved his greatest fame
as a slugging outfielder for the New York Yankees.

Robert Nesta Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981)

Bob Marley was a Jamaican singer-songwriter who became an
international musical and cultural icon, blending mostly reggae,
ska and rocksteady in his compositions.

Marley died of skin cancer at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in Miami
(now University of Miami Hospital), aged 36. The spread of cancer
to his lungs and brain caused his death. His final words to his son
Ziggy were… "Money can’t buy life”.

Bob Marley Statue at Celebrity Park, Kingston, Jamaica.

ROSS SIMPSON

On this day in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed the
enlargement of the U.S. Supreme Court. The plan failed.

On February 8, 1937, the Senate Judiciary Committee met to
consider President Roosevelt’s request.

On this day in 1994, white separatist Byron De La
Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, MS, of the
1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers
(pictured below).

Medgar Wiley Evers
(July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963)

William Seward Burroughs II
(February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997)

Burroughs was a writer and artist, a primary figure of the
Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author whose
influence is considered to have affected a range of popular
culture as well as literature. He wrote eighteen novels and
novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections
of essays.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was a comedy and variety 
show television series hosted by the Smothers Brothers (below)
and initially airing on CBS from on this day in 1967 to 1969.

Richard Remick Smothers and Thomas Bolyn Smothers lll.

Henry Louis Aaron is 84 years old today.

Hank Aaron, nicknamed "Hammer" or "Hammerin’ Hank", is a retired
American Major League Baseball right fielder who is currently the senior
vice president of the Atlanta Braves. He played 21 seasons for the Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves in the National League (NL) and two seasons
for the Milwaukee Brewers in the American League, from 1954 through
1976. Aaron held the MLB record for career home runs for 33 years, and
he still holds several MLB offensive records. He hit 24 or more home runs
every year from 1955 through 1973, and is one of only two players to hit
30 or more home runs in a season at least fifteen times. In 1999, The
Sporting News ranked Aaron fifth on its "100 Greatest Baseball Players"
list.

BRIAN THOMAS

During World War II on this day in 1945, U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet
leader Josef Stalin began a conference at Yalta to outline plans
for Germany’s defeat.

On this day in 1997, a civil jury in California found O.J. Simpson liable 
in the death of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. Goldman’s parents were awarded $8.5 million in compensatory
damages.

Ron Goldman’s father Fred, sister Kim, and stepmother Patty are pictured during OJ’s trial.

Patricia (Patty) Hearst was kidnapped in Berkeley, CA, by the Symbionese Liberation Army on this day in 1974.

Patty Hearst (right) and Donald DeFreeze rob a San Francisco bank
on April 15, 1974.

On December 11, 2003, the Massachusetts Senate put forward legislative
language creating civil unions for same-sex couples to the SJC, asking if
it satisfied the court’s requirements. On February 4, 2004, the court replied
that it was unacceptable to allow different-sex couples marriages but same-
sex couples only civil unions, that the distinction between marriage and civil
unions constituted unconstitutional discrimination, even if the rights and obligations attached to each were identical. It called the difference between
the terms marriage and civil union "a considered choice of language that
reflects a demonstrable assigning of same-sex, largely homosexual, couples
to second-class status."

On May 17, 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to legalize gay marriage.

A 7.4 earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras on this day in 1976 
killed more than 22,000 people.

Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)

The Congressional Gold Medal presented August 15, 1930, to Charles Lindbergh by President Herbert Hoover.

BRIAN THOMAS

Buddy Holly (22), Ritchie Valens (17), the Big Bopper (28) and pilot
Roger Peterson died in a plane crash in Iowa on this day in 1959.

Crash site memorial north of Clear Lake, Iowa.

The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made
by the Soviet space vehicle Luna 9 (above) on this day in 1966.

Eileen Marie Collins is a retired NASA astronaut and a retired United States
Air Force colonel. A former military instructor and test pilot, Collins was the
first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle on this day
in 1995 aboard STS-63. She was awarded several medals for her work. She
has logged 38 days 8 hours and 20 minutes in outer space. Collins retired
on May 1, 2006, to pursue private interests.

On this day in 2003, Phillip Harvey Spector became notorious for the murder of the actress Lana Clarkson (below). He was convicted of
murder in second degree.

Recently released prison mugshots of Phil Spector (AP).

Hundreds of people were feared drowned in the Red Sea on this day
in 2006 after an Egyptian ferry carrying 1,400 passengers and crew
sank in rough weather in one of the worst shipping disasters in the
world. Rescuers found at least 200 survivors in lifeboats and were
brought ashore.

Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978)

Norman Rockwell was a 20th-century American author, painter and illustrator
whose works have a broad popular appeal in the U.S. for their reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the cover illustrations that
depict everyday life he created for The Saturday Evening Post magazine over
nearly five decades.

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
(February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847)

Born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early romantic period. Mendelssohn wrote symphonies, concertos, oratorios, piano music and chamber music. His best-known works include his Overture and incidental music for A Midsummer
Night’s Dream, and the Italian Symphony.