Today in History for 4th February 2018:
Historical Events
1855 – Soldiers shoot Jewish families in Coro, Venezuela
1861 – Confederate constitutional convention meets for 1st time; Jefferson Davis elected President of Confederacy (US Civil War)
1939 – Glenn Cunningham (top miler) says 4-min mile beyond human effort
1974 – Chimpanzee Nim Chimsky signs his 1st word, at 2½ months
1991 – Baseball’s Hall of Fame board of directors vote 12-0 to bar Pete Rose, due to his betting on games while a player and manager
2004 – Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room
Famous Birthdays
1842 – Georg Brandes, [Morris Cohen], Danish literary historian and critic
1904 – Predrag Milosevic, composer
1906 – Primo Carnera, Italian boxer (champ-1933)
1937 – Collin Wilcox, Highlands NC, actor (To Kill a Mocking Bird)
1972 – Giovanni Silva De Oliveira, Brazilian footballer
1972 – Kelvin Anderson, CFL running back (Calgary Stampeders)
Famous Deaths
1816 – Meingosus Gaelle, composer, dies at 63
1895 – Faustina Hasse Hodges, composer, dies at 71
1968 – Neal Cassady, American writer (b. 1926)
2006 – Myron Waldman, American animator (b. 1908)
2007 – Jules Olitski, Ukrainian-born American abstract painter and sculptor (b. 1922)
2016 – Leslie Bassett, American classical composer (Variations for Orchestra – Pulitzer Prize 1966), dies at 93