Today in History for 17th February 2023

[CoM Moderators]

Historical Events

1621 - Myles Standish is elected as the first commander of the Plymouth Colony
1905 - Frances Willard becomes 1st women honored in National Statuary Hall
1954 - WAST (now WNYT) TV channel 13 in Albany-Troy, NY (NBC) 1st broadcast
1995 - Colin Fergusson found guilty of killing 6 people on the Long Island Rail Road in NY
1995 - Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due to baseball strike
2021 - South Africa, Africa's worst-affected country begins COVID-19 vaccinations with the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine in Cape Town

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Famous Birthdays

1796 - Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician (d. 1866)
1821 - Lola Montez, Irish dancer and courtesan, born in Grange, Ireland (d. 1861)
1850 - Anton Urspruch, German composer, born in Frankfurt (d. 1907)
1895 - Anita Stewart, American silent film actress (South of Hell Mountain), producer, and mystery novelist, born in Brooklyn, NYC (d. 1961)
1913 - Oskar Danon, Yugoslav conductor (Belgrade Opera, 1944-65), born in Sarajevo, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Bosnia and Herzegovina) (d. 2009)
1963 - Larry the Cable Guy [Daniel Lawrence Whitney], American comedian (Blue Collar Comedy Tour), born in Pawnee City, Nebraska

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Famous Deaths

1841 - Ferdinando Carulli, Italian classical guitar composer (Méthode, Op. 27), dies at 71
1924 - Henry Bacon, American architect (Lincoln Memorial), dies at 57
1976 - Jean Servais, Belgian actor (Le Plaisir, Every Man is My Enemy), dies from heart failure at 65
1982 - Lee Strasberg, Austrian acting coach and actor (The Godfather: Part II, Somewhere in the Night), dies at 80
2013 - Mindy McCready, American country singer, commits suicide by gunshot at 37
2019 - Ethel Ennis, American jazz singer (If Women Ruled The World), dies of a stroke at 86

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