* On Feb. 10, 1535, notwithstanding the winter chill and in a form of protest that was, unsurprisingly, ridiculed by both Protestants and Catholics, a small group of Anabaptists ran stark naked through the streets of Amsterdam, shouting that they “had been sent from God to communicate the naked truth to the godless.”
* On Feb. 9, 1861, Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were respectively elected to six-year terms as the Provisional President and Provisional Vice President of the Confederate States of America, after running without opposition.
* On Feb. 11, 1916, American feminist and anarchist Emma Goldman was arrested and imprisoned for violating the Comstock Act just before she was scheduled to deliver a public lecture on birth control, which she argued was essential to women’s social, economic and sexual freedom.
* On Feb. 6, 1952, England’s King George VI passed away, making his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, Queen Elizabeth II. The sovereign received the news from her husband, Prince Philip, while on a trip to Kenya, which was immediately cut short as she prepared to assume her new role.
* On Feb. 7, 1964, the music world would never be quite the same after the Beatles arrived in New York for their first visit to the U.S., where thousands of nearhysterical fans waited to greet them at Kennedy Airport. During their appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” they whipped up an even greater frenzy, with 73 million viewers watching on their TVs at home.
* On Feb. 8, 2008, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair, which was the only execution method used in that state, represented a violation of human dignity and was consequently unconstitutional, adding that electrocution “has proven itself to be a dinosaur more befitting the laboratory of Baron Frankenstein than the death chamber.”
* On Feb. 12, 2014, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, a sinkhole estimated at about 30 feet deep and 40 feet wide opened under the National Corvette Museum, swallowing eight of the rare sports cars. The building suffered no structural damage and remained open, and though damaged, the vehicles were returned to display and remain a popular attraction.
(c) 2023 King Features Synd., Inc.
