“Emancipation,” by Thomas Nast

Today in History

• President Abraham Lincoln signs the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery (1865)
• The first volume of the Oxford English Dictionary is published (1884)
• Thomas Edison finishes construction of the Black Maria, the first motion picture studio (1893)
• Russia switches from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar (1918)
• Vidkun Quisling is appointed president of German-occupied Norway (1942)
• The Voice of America begins broadcasting (1942)
• Civil Rights Movement: The first Greensboro sit-in takes place when four black students sit at a segregated lunch counter and refuse to leave until served(1960)
• The Beatles have their first US number one hit with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1964)
• Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after fifteen years in exile (1979)
• The Space Shuttle Columbia breaks up during reentry, killing all seven aboard (2003)

Birthdays

• Victor Herbert, operetta composer (1959)
• Charles Nordhoff, author (1887)
• John Ford, filmmaker (1894)
• Clark Gable, actor (1901)
• Langston Hughes, poet (1902)
• S. J. Perelman, humorist (1904)
• George Pal, filmmaker (1908)
• Richard Hooker, author of M*A*S*H (1924)
• Boris Yeltsin, Russian president (1931)
• Don Everly, singer-songwriter with the Everly Brothers (1937)
• Garrett Morris, comedian (1937)
• Sherman Hemsley, actor (1938)
• Fritjof Capra, physicist and author (1939)
• Terry Jones, filmmaker, member of Monty Python (1942)
• Rick James, singer-songwriter (1948)
• Sherilyn Fenn, actress (1965)
• Lisa Marie Presley, singer-songwriter, daughter of Elvis Presley (1968)
• Pauly Shore, comedian (1968)

Deaths

• Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein (1851)
• Philip Francis Nowlan, creator of Buck Rogers (1940)
• Piet Mondrian, painter (1944)
• Hedda Hopper, gossip columnist (1966)
• Buster Keaton, actor and filmmaker (1966)
• Werner Heisenberg, physicist (1976)
• Herb Caen, columnist (1997)
• Ed Koch, New York City mayor (2013)
• Maximilian Schell, actor (2014)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Abolition of Slavery Day (Mauritius)
• Air Force Day (Nicaragua)
• Federal Territory Day (Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, Malaysia)
• Heroes Day (Rwanda)
• Imbolc (Ireland, Scotland, Isle of Man, and various northern hemisphere neopagan groups)
• Memorial Day of the Republic (Hungary)
• National Freedom Day (US)
• World Hijab Day

February 1 is the 32nd day of the year. There are 333 days (334 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.