On February 17, 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected the third
president of the United States. He served until 1809. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one political
party to another in the United States. Jefferson had previously
served as the second vice president under John Adams.
On February 17, 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle came off
the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for
more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model
T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927.
After more than 60 years and over 21 million vehicles produced, the
last original Beetle rolled off the line in Puebla, Mexico, on July 30,
2003.
From the Sunday, Feb. 18, 1968 issue of the "Daily Northwest Alabamian"– state Rep. Rankin Fite placing the first-ever 911
call from the mayor’s office–that’s Mayor James Whitt behind him.
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. A similar system had been implemented in
the United Kingdom decades earlier, in 1936, when the code
999 was chosen for emergency telegraph and phone
communications.
Sander Lloyd "Sandy" Nelson
(December 1, 1938 – February 14, 2022)
Nelson lived in Boulder City, Nevada, where he continued
to experiment with music on keyboards and piano. He
died Monday at age 83.
September, 1961
Destined to become one of the state’s major exports, the first
trainload of oranges grown by Southern California farmers left
Los Angeles via refrigerator cars of the transcontinental railroad.
