The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show

Today in History

• With no candidate receiving a majority of electoral votes, the US House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President of the United States (1825)
• Jefferson Davis is elected provisional president of the Confederate States of America (1861)
• The game of volleyball (originally “Mintonette”) is invented by William G. Morgan (1895)
• US Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the US Department of State of being filled with Communists (1950)
• The Beatles make their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, watched by 73 million viewers across the US (1964)
• The US sends its first troops to Vietnam without calling it an “advisory” or “training” assignment (1965)
• Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame (1971)
• Apollo 14 returns to Earth after the third Moon landing 91971)
• Halley’s Comet appears in the inner Solar System (1986)
• The element Copernicum (atomic number 112) is created in a German ion accelerator. It has a half-life of 29 seconds (1996)

Birthdays

• Thomas Paine, pamphleteer (1737)
• William Henry Harrison, 9th US President (1773)
• Hyrum Smith, Mormon leader (1800)
• Larry Semon, actor and filmmaker (1889)
• Ronald Colman, actor (1891)
• Alberto Vargas, pin-up artist (1896)
• Brian Donlevy, actor (1901)
• Carmen Miranda, actress and singer (1909)
• Ernest Tubb, country musician (1914)
• Kathryn Grayson, actress and soprano (1922)
• Brendan Behan, Irish poet and rebel (1923)
• Frank Frazetta, painter and illustrator (1928)
• Roger Mudd, television journalist and anchor (1928)
• Garner Ted Armstrong, evangelist (1930)
• Carole King, singer-songwriter (1942)
• Joe Pesci, actor (1943)
• Alice Walker, novelist (1944)
• Mia Farrow, actress (1945)
• Mookie Wilson, baseball player (1956)
• Travis Tritt, country musician (1963)
• Tom Hiddleston, actor (1981)

Deaths

• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, novelist (1881)
• Sophie Tucker, singer (1966)
• Gabby Hayes, actor (1969)
• Percy Faith, composer and conductor (1976)
• Sergey Ilyushin, aircraft designer (1977)
• Bill Haley, singer-songwriter (1981)
• Yuri Andropov, Soviet leader (1984)
• William Fulbright, US Senator (1995)
• Princess Margaret, royal sister (2002)
• Freddie Laker, airline entrepreneur (2006)
• Ian Richardson, actor (2007)

Holidays and Celebrations

• National Bagel Day (US)
• National Pizza Day (US)
• St. Maroun’s Day (Lebanon)
• Toothache Day (in honor of Saint Apollonia, patron saint of dentistry, who had all her teeth pulled out under torture)

February 9 is the 40th day of the year. There are 325 days (326 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.