A riot brook out in Harlem when local residents suspect that a
Black boy has been beaten, and possibly killed, by a white
business owner. Although the rumors turn out to be false,
the riot highlighted the struggles of Harlem’s historically Black community against discrimination during the Great Depression.
Many modern scholars consider the 1935 Harlem riot the first
modern race riot.
At 12:18 p.m., a terrorist bomb exploded in a parking garage of
the World Trade Center in New York City, leaving a massive,
multi-story crater and causing the collapse of several steel-
reinforced concrete floors in the vicinity of the blast.
Although the terrorist bomb failed to critically damage the main
structure of the skyscrapers, six people were killed and more
than 1,000 were injured, many severe.
The World Trade Center itself suffered more than $500 million in
damage. After the attack, authorities evacuated 50,000 people
from the buildings, hundreds of whom were suffering from
smoke inhalation. The evacuation lasted the whole afternoon.
Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines’ invasion of Iwo Jima,
was launched. Iwo Jima was a barren Pacific island guarded
by Japanese artillery, but to American military minds, it was
prime real estate on which to build airfields to launch bombing
raids against Japan, only 660 miles away.
When the American flag was finally raised on Iwo Jima, the
memorable image was captured in a famous photograph that
later won the Pulitzer Prize.
Ralph Dale Earnhardt (April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001)
Dale Earnhardt is widely regarded as one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history and was named as one of the NASCAR’s 50
Greatest Drivers class in 1998.
On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst, the 19-year-old granddaughter
of newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped
from her apartment in Berkeley, Cal, by three armed strangers.
Her fiancé, 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.
Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst was identified by the FBI
as taking part in the robbery of a San Francisco bank in this
April 1974 photo.
Patricia Campbell Hearst will be 71 years young on
February 20th.
