A U.S. Marine Corps Hawk air defense missile battalion is deployed to Da
Nang. President Johnson (below) had ordered this deployment to provide protection for the key U.S. airbase there.

This was the first commitment of American combat troops in South Vietnam
and there was considerable reaction around the world to the new stage of
U.S. involvement in the war.

Lyndon Baines Johnson (August 27, 1908 – January 22, 1973)

Hawk missile launchers at Da Nang Airfield in 1965.

Robert Conrad (born Conrad Robert Falk)
(March 1, 1935 – February 8, 2020)

Conrad died from heart failure in Malibu, California today. He is best
known for his role in the 1965–69 CBS television series The Wild Wild
West.

Original NBC release: September 23, 1976 – April 6, 1978.

Orson Bean  (Dallas Frederick Burrows)
(July 22, 1928 – February 7, 2020)

Orson Bean was a film, television, and stage actor, and a comedian, writer,
and producer. He appeared frequently on televised game shows from the
1960s through the 1980s and was a long-time panelist on the television
game show To Tell the Truth. He was a favorite of Johnny Carson,
appearing on The Tonight Show over 200 times. On February 7, 2020,
while walking near Venice Boulevard and Shell Avenue, in Venice, Los
Angeles, Bean was struck by two drivers, with the second vehicle striking
him fatally.

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.