SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1965, the United States landed about 3,500 Marines
in South Vietnam. They were the first U.S. combat troops to land 
there.
    
    
    
    
    
   

Russia’s "February Revolution" began on this day in 1917 with
rioting and strikes in St. Petersburg. The revolution was called
the "February Revolution" due to Russia’s use of the Old Style
calendar.

Lenin during the Russian Revolution.

On this day in 1852, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry (below) 
(1794-1858) of the United States Navy arrived in Japan. He had
been sent there by U.S. President Millard Fillmore to induce the
Japanese government to establish diplomatic relations with the
United States.

Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999)

Nicknamed "Joltin’ Joe" and "The Yankee Clipper", Joe DiMaggio
was a baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career
in Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees. He is perhaps
best known for his 56-game hitting streak (May 15 – July 16, 1941),
a record that still stands. DiMaggio was a three-time Most Valuable
Player Award winner and an All-Star in each of his 13 seasons.

       1954

ROSS SIMPSON

The Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building in Berlin, was set
afire on this day in 1933. The Nazis accused Communist for the
fire.

Firemen surveying the ruins following the Reichstag fire.

President George H.W. Bush announced live on television on this
day in 1991, "Kuwait is liberated."

    1963

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor  (27 February 1932 – 23 March 2011)

Better known as Liz Taylor, she was a glamorous movie actress who
starred in numerous films during Hollywood’s Golden Age. She was
in 11 films with Richard Burton, including Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf? (1966). She made her motion picture debut at the age of nine
in Universal’s There’s One Born Every Minute (1942). 

Fred McFeely Rogers (March 20, 1928 – February 27, 2003)

Fred Rogers was a popular television personality, musician, puppeteer,
writer, and producer, as well as a Presbyterian minister. He was famous
for creating, hosting, and composing the theme music for the educational preschool television series Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–2001),
which featured his kind-hearted, grandfatherly personality, and the
directness to his young audiences.

SANDY KOZEL

On this day in 1945, the 28th Regiment of the Fifth Marine Division of
the U.S. Marines reached the top of Mount Surabachi. A photograph
of these Marines raising the American flag was taken by Associated
Press photographer Joe Rosenthal (below).

Joe Rosenthal poses on top of Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima.

Joseph John Rosenthal
(October 9, 1911 – August 20, 2006)

During the Persian Gulf War on this day in 1991, ground forces
crossed the border of Saudi Arabia into the country of Iraq. Less
than four days later the war was over due to the surrender or
withdraw of Iraqi forces.

Iraqi troops emerge from heavily protected bunker to surrender
to gun-toting Saudi soldiers. 

Scottish scientists cloned the first mammal, a sheep
called “Dolly”.

From left: The comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

At the Staples Center in Los Angeles on this day in 2000, Carlos
Santana received a record-tying eight Grammy’s. Michael Jackson 
set the record back in 1984 when he won awards for "Thriller."

BRIAN THOMAS

During World War II on this day in 1945, about 30,000 U.S. Marines
landed on Iwo Jima.

On this day in 1942, President Roosevelt signed an executive order
giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans.

On February 19, 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, a city
in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose
that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.

The monument to Nicolaus Copernicus in Warsaw.

Deng Xiaoping of China died on t his day in 1997 at the age of
92. He was the last of China’s major revolutionaries.

William "Smokey" Robinson Jr. is 78 years old today.

Singer Smokey Robinson was with The Miracles who helped define
the Motown sound. He also played with The Five Chimes until 1972
and pursued a solo career. He released such popular songs as "A
Quiet Storm," "Tears of a Clown," "You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me,"
and "I Second That Emotion."

In Flemington, New Jersey on this day in 1935, a jury found Bruno Richard Hauptmann (center) guilty of the kidnapping and death of
the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Hauptmann was
later executed for the crimes.

During World War II, Allied aircraft began bombing the German city
of Dresden on this day in 1945.

Dresden WW2 bombing raids killed 25,000 people.

On this day in 1984, Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be
general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party’s Central
Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.

English singer-songwriter, and record producer Peter Brian Gabriel
is 68 years old today.

Gabriel rose to fame as the original lead singer and flautist of the progressive
rock band Genesis. After leaving Genesis in 1975, he launched a successful 
solo career with "Solsbury Hill" as his first single.

Waylon Arnold Jennings (June 15, 1937 – February 13, 2002)

From left: Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Buddy Holly.

Waylon Jennings played bass guitar for his friend Buddy Holly during the
Winter Tour in 1959. The above picture was taken the night before Buddy
died along with Richie Valens and J.P. ( Big Bopper) Richardson when their
plane crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa. Tommy Allsup died January 11, 2017
after complications from hernia surgery at age 85. He was the last surviving
member of Buddy Holly’s ‘’touring’’ Crickets on the Winter Dance Party.

Waylon Jennings (left) with Buddy Holly in a
Grand Central Station Photo booth, January
1959.