Today is Sunday, Feb. 1, the 32nd day of 2004. There are 334 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
One year ago, on Feb. 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up during re-entry, killing all seven crew members: Cmdr. Rick Husband; pilot William McCool; payload Cmdr. Michael Anderson; Indian-born engineer Kalpana Chawla; David Brown; Laurel Clark; and Ilan Ramon, the first Israeli in space.
On this date:
In 1861, Texas voted to secede from the Union.
In 1893, inventor Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio, his "Black Maria," in West Orange, N.J.
In 1920, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police came into existence.
In 1943, one of America's most highly decorated military units of World War II, the 442d Regimental Combat Team, made up almost entirely of Japanese Americans, was authorized.
In 1946, Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary general of the United Nations (news - web sites).
In 1960, four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they'd been refused service.
In 1968, during the Vietnam War, Saigon's police chief (Nguyen Ngoc Loan) executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head in a scene captured in a famous news photograph.
In 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini received a tumultuous welcome in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.
In 1979, newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, whose prison sentence for bank robbery had been commuted by President Carter, left a federal prison near San Francisco.
In 1991, 35 people were killed when a US Air jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane on a runway at Los Angeles International Airport.
Ten years ago: Jeff Gillooly, Tonya Harding (news - web sites)'s ex-husband, pleaded guilty in Portland, Ore., to taking part in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan (news - web sites). Gillooly struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding.
Five years ago: With the promise of huge federal surpluses, President Clinton (news - web sites) proposed a $1.7 trillion budget for fiscal 2000. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against Clinton.
One year ago: At least 50 people were killed in a Zimbabwe train collision. Former Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng died in Modesto, Calif., at age 84.
Today's Birthdays: Actor Stuart Whitman is 76. Former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin is 73. Singer Don Everly is 67. Actor Garrett Morris is 67. Singer Ray Sawyer (Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show) is 67. Actor Sherman Hemsley is 66. Bluegrass singer Del McCoury is 65. Jazz musician Joe Sample is 65. Comedian Terry Jones is 62. Singer Rick James is 52. Actor-writer-producer Bill Mumy is 50. Rock musician Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) is 50. Rock singer Exene Cervenka (X) is 48. Princess Stephanie of Monaco is 39. Country musician Dwayne Dupuy (Ricochet) is 39. Actress Sherilyn Fenn is 39. Lisa Marie Presley is 36. Jazz musician Joshua Redman is 35. Rock musician Patrick Wilson (Weezer) is 35. Rock musician Ron Welty is 33. Rapper Big Boi (Outkast) is 29. Actor Jarrett Lennon is 22.
Thought for Today: "A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled to, and less than that no man shall have." — President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919).
