What Happened On This Day – February 1
2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on its way back to Earth
All 7 astronauts were killed in the disaster.
1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile
His triumphant return marked the beginning of the Iranian Revolution.
1968 Eddie Adams takes one of the Vietnam War's best-known pictures
The image of the execution of a Vietcong officer in Saigon helped build opposition to the war.
1960 Four black students start the Greensboro sit-ins
Their refusal to leave a “whites only” lunch counter was a milestone in the fight against racial segregation in the United States.
1884 The first fascicle of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published
The book contained entries A to Ant.
Births On This Day – February 1
1946 Elisabeth Sladen
English actress
1931 Boris Yeltsin
Russian politician, 1st President of Russia
1901 Clark Gable
American actor
1894 John Ford
American director
1552 Edward Coke
English judge, politician
Deaths On This Day – February 1
2002 Hildegard Knef
German actress
1981 Geirr Tveitt
Norwegian composer
1976 Werner Heisenberg
German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
1966 Buster Keaton
American actor, director, producer
1851 Mary Shelley
English author