Robert C. Baker(founded Cornell University’s Institute of Food Science and Marketing. He was responsible for many innovations including chicken nuggets and chicken hot dogs)β
Peter Tomarken(game show host)β
William Hurt(actor
)β
Events
Harvard University was named for clergyman John Harvardβ
Halley’s Comet reached perihelionβ
The planet Uranus was discovered by English astronomer Sir William Herschelβ
First political cartoon depicting βUncle Samβ publishedβ
Confederate Congress agreed on the recruitment of slaves into the army (U.S. Civil War)β
Chester Greenwood patented earmuffsβ
Eadweard Muybridge’s Zoopraxiscope, an early movie projector, debuted in Londonβ
Tennessee banned teaching evolutionβ
The discovery of Pluto, the ninth planet, was officially announced on this date, which was Percival Lowell’s birthday. Lowell was founder of Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Clyde W. Tombaugh discovered Pluto on February 18, 1930. (Much later, Pluto’s planet designation changed!)β
Hitler took formal possession of Vienna (WWII)β
The Viet Minh began a successful siege of the French-held Dien Bien Phu in Vietnamβ
Oil discovered in Prudhoe Bay in Alaskaβ
U.S. Apollo 9 splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after a 10-day flight testing the lunar moduleβ
The Common Market officially inaugurated the new European Monetary Systemβ
Irving King Jordan, Jr., became the first deaf president of Gallaudet Universityβ
Solar flare caused power grid failure of Hydro-Quebec in Canadaβ
Moscow’s newspaper, Pravda, announced that it was suspending publicationβ
UFOs seen over Arizona, Nevada, and Sonora, Mexicoβ
For 15 minutes, Luciano Pavarotti took in bravos after the night’s performance of Tosca at the Metropolitan Opera. It was his final night of staged opera; the end of a career that began 43 years earlier. It was the biggest farewell ovation at the Met since soprano Leonie Rysanek said goodbye in January 1996.β
Twenty-five year old Dallas Seavey became the youngest winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Raceβ
Roman Catholic cardinals elected the church’s first South American leader, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He took the name Pope Francis I.β
Weather
Three-day blizzard, Saratoga, New York, 58 inches snowβ
Seventy-three inches of snow depth at Woodstock, Vermontβ
Blizzard in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine dumped 3 feet of snowβ
High of 83 degrees F in New York Cityβ
East coast blizzard dumped heavy snow: 25 inches in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; 27 inches in Albany, New York; and 13 inches in Birmingham, Alabamaβ