- Today is Monday, Feb. 8, the 39th day of 1999. There are 326
days left in the year.
- On Feb. 8, 1837, for the only time in history, the U.S. Senate chose
the vice president of the United States, selecting Richard Mentor
Johnson after no candidate received a majority of the popular vote.
- In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War began.
- In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated and chartered.
- In 1915, D.W. Griffith's film "The Birth of a Nation" premiered in
Los Angeles.
- In 1918, "The Stars and Stripes," the weekly newspaper of the
American Expeditionary Forces, was published for the first time.
- In 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place
at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
- In 1926, Walt Disney Studios formed.
- In 1936, the Philadelphia Eagles made University of Chicago halfback
and Heisman Trophy winner Jay Berwanger the first player ever
selected in the NFL draft.
- In 1942, Congress advised President Roosevelt that, in light of the
attack on Pearl Harbor two months earlier, Americans of Japanese
descent should be locked up en masse so they couldn't oppose the
U.S. war effort.
- In 1960, the House of Representatives Special Subcommittee on
Legislative Oversight opened hearings on disc jockey "payola."
- In 1963, in the NFL, the Dallas Texans transferred to Kansas City
and became the Chiefs.
- In 1964, a speech by U.S. Representative Martha Griffiths in
Congress on sex discrimination resulted in civil rights protection
for women being added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
- In 1969, the last edition of Saturday Evening Post was published.
- In 1973, Senate leaders named seven members of a select committee to
investigate the Watergate scandal, including the chairman, Democrat
Sam J. Ervin Jr. of North Carolina.
- In 1990, "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney was suspended by CBS
for racial remarks attributed to him by a gay magazine.
- In 1993, General Motors sued NBC, alleging that the "Dateline NBC"
program had rigged two car-truck crashes to show that 1973-87 GM
pickups were prone to fires in side impact crashes.
- In 1996, the NFL and the city of Cleveland agreed on terms for the
relocation of the Cleveland Browns. Art Modell could take his NFL
franchise to Baltimore, but he had to leave the Browns' name behind.
- One year ago: California Gov. Pete Wilson asked President Clinton
to declare almost half the counties in the state a federal disaster
area, following six days of fierce rainstorms.
*Happy Birthday*
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- Dino Ciccarelli, 39, hockey player
- Gary Coleman, 31, actor, "Diff'rent Strokes"
- John Grisham, 44, author
- Robert Klein, 57, comedian
- Ted Koppel, 59, news anchor/journalist
- Jack Lemmon, 74, actor
- Mary McCormack, 30, actress, "Murder One," "Private Parts"
- Alonzo Mourning, 29, NBA center
- Vince Neil, 38, singer/musician, Motley Crue
- Nick Nolte, 58, actor
- Mary Steenburgen, 46, actress, "Parenthood"
- John Williams, 67, conductor/composer