At 2:00 p.m. on Friday, February 16, 1968, history was
made. That’s when state Rep. Rankin Fite made the
first call to 911 in the nation.

U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill answers the first 911 call at the
Haleyville (Ala.) police station with “Hello.” Directly
behind him is Bull Connor, head of the state’s Public
Service Commission, and B.W. Gallagher, president
of the Alabama Telephone Co.

February 16, 1968 saw the first official "911" call placed in the
United States. Now taken for granted as first course of action
in the event of emergency by nearly all of the nation’s 327
million people, 911 is a relatively recent invention and was
still not standard across the United States for many years
after its adoption by Congress.

As telephones became common in U.S. households, fire
departments around the country recommended establishing
a single, simple number to be dialed in the event of a fire or
other emergency.

The red phone used to make the first call to 911.

On this day in 1950, Cinderella made a bibbidi, bobbidi de-boo
in theaters. In the ads to market the film, Cinderella promised
to “Put a smile in your heart… and laughter in your dreams.”

You’ll take it to your heart, not only because it’s the greatest
love story ever told — though that’s reason enough if you’ve
ever been in love. But because it’s so full of the wonderful fun,
hilarious characters, singable songs — the sheer enchantment
that comes only from Disneyland.”

On February 15, 1903, toy store owner and inventor Morris
Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window,
advertising them as Teddy bears.

Michtom had earlier petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt
for permission to use his nickname, Teddy.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
(October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919)

  2015

The guitar destroyed by Kurt Russell’s character was not a prop
but an antique 1870s Martin guitar lent by the Martin Guitar
Museum. According to sound mixer Mark Ulano, the guitar was
supposed to have been switched with a copy to be destroyed,
but this was not communicated to Russell; everyone on the set
was "pretty freaked out" at the guitar’s destruction, and actress
Jennifer Jason Leigh’s reaction was genuine, though "Tarantino
was in a corner of the room with a funny curl on his lips, because
he got something out of it with the performance."

Museum director Dick Boak said that the museum was not told
that the script included a scene that called for a guitar being s
mashed, and determined that it was irreparable.

The insurance remunerated the purchase value of the guitar
and as a result of the incident, the museum no longer lends
props to film productions.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Kurt Russell will be 74 in March.

Director Quentin Tarantino.

On February 15, 1961, the entire 18-member U.S. figure skating
team was killed in a plane crash in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium.

The team was on its way to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

Among those killed in the crash was 16-year-old Laurence Owen,
who had won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in the ladies’ division the previous month.

She was featured on the February 13, 1961, cover of Sports
Illustrated, which called her the “most exciting U.S. skater.”

Shortly after the 1961 crash, the U.S. Figure Skating Memorial
Fund was established; to date, it has provided financial
assistance to thousands of elite American skaters.