This week in history 2/14/22 to 2/18/22

Lily Harris
February 17, 2022

This week in history

2/14/22

  • 1931 The original “Dracula” film starring Bela Lugosi as the titular vampire, is released
  • 1962 US 1st lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducts White House tour on TV
  • 1966 Wilt Chamberlain breaks NBA career scoring record at 20,884 points
  • 1967 “Respect” single recorded by Aretha Franklin (Billboard Song of the Year 1967)
  • 2019 JP Morgan is the first bank to create its own crypto-currency JPM Coin

2/15/22

  • 399 BC Philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death by the city of Athens for corrupting the minds of the youth of the city and for impiety
  • 1842 1st adhesive postage stamps in the US (private delivery company), NYC
  • 1950 Walt Disney’s animated film “Cinderella” premieres in Boston
  • 2004 46th Daytona 500: Dale Earnhardt Jr. wins exactly 6 years to the day after his father Dale Earnhardt Sr. won his first and only Daytona 500 in 1998
  • 2005 YouTube, an Internet site on which videos may be shared and viewed by others, is launched in the United States

2/16/22

  • 1659 1st known cheque written (£400), now on display at Westminster Abbey
  • 1861 Abraham Lincoln stops his train at Westfield on his way to Washington to thank 11-year old Grace Bedell in person for her advice to grow a beard to gain more votes
  • 1909 1st subway car with side doors goes into service (NYC)
  • 1914 1st airplane flight from LA to SF
  • 1991 US female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding

2/17/22

  • 1936 The world’s first superhero, The Phantom, a cartoon strip by Lee Falk, makes his first appearance in comics
  • 1972 Sales of the Volkswagen Beetle model exceed those of Ford Model T
  • 1985 3rd person to receive an artificial heart (Murray Haydon)
  • 2014 “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” premieres on NBC
  • 2020 Amazon boss Jeff Bezos pledges $10 billion to help fight climate change

2/18/22

  • 1879 Sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi is awarded a patent for his design for the Statue of Liberty

  • 1944 15-year-old Joe Nuxhall signs a contract to play baseball with the Cincinnati Reds just one day after playing in a high school basketball game; debuts later that year
  • 2001 FBI agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for spying on the Soviet Union. He is ultimately convicted and sentenced to life in prison
  • 2013 $50 million worth of diamonds is stolen in an armed robbery at Brussels Airport, Belgium
  • 2021 NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully lands at Jezero Crater, Mars, on a mission to find microfossils