National Freedom Day is an observance in the United States
that honors President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of a
resolution that proposed the 13th amendment of the
nation’s constitution on February 1, 1865.  

TUKWILA, Wash. — The Tukwila Police Department gave a round-
of a-paws to a police dog who retired after seven years on Thursday.

A party was thrown for Apollo at the police station, replete with
balloons, cake and other treats.
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William O’Connell, whose extensive TV and film acting credits in
the 1960s and ’70s included a memorably villainous role on Star
Trek and a string of adversaries in the films of his frequent
collaborator Clint Eastwood, died January 15 at his home in
Sherman Oaks, CA.

William O’Connell with William Shatner in Star
Trek Episode 39: Journey To Babel (11-17-1967)

William O’Connell
(May 12, 1929 – January 15, 2024)

Debris from the space shuttle Columbia streaks across the
sky over Tyler, Texas.

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia brook up while
entering the atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew
members on board.

The Columbia‘s 28th space mission, designated STS-107, was
originally scheduled to launch on January 11, 2001, but was
delayed numerous times for a variety of reasons over nearly
two years. Columbia finally launched on January 16, 2003, with
a crew of seven. Eighty seconds into the launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the shuttle’s propellant tank and hit the
edge of the shuttle’s left wing.

The Space Shuttle Columbia crew, left to right. Front row:
Rick Husband, Kalpana Chawla, William McCool. Back row: David Brown, Laurel Clark, Michael Anderson and Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon. (AP file)

The crew of the space shuttle Columbia on the day of launch.

Accident investigators reconstructed space shuttle Columbia from recovered debris.

February 1, 1978: Antislavery crusader and Civil War veteran
Harriet Tubman became the first African American woman to
appear on a U.S. postage stamp, the first in the Post Office’s
Black Heritage Series. Tubman’s appearance on stamps was
emblematic both of the progress made in recognizing African

Americans’ contributions to American history and the ongoing
effort to put abolitionists on equal footing with slaveowners in
the nation’s historical canon.

Harriet Tubman (born Araminta Ross)
(c. March 1822– March 10, 1913)