On this day...

1788 First US steamboat patent issued, by Georgia to Briggs & Longstreet
1790 Supreme Court convenes for the first time (NYC)
1793 Patent granted Ralph Hodgson, NY, for oiled silk & linen
1814 Lord Byron's "The Corsair" sells 10,000 copies on day of publication
1840 Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, first in US, incorporated
1860 First rabbi to open House of Representatives, Morris Raphall of NYC
1862 Julia Howe publishes "Battle Hymn of the Republic"
1865 13th amendment approved (National Freedom Day)
1865 General Sherman's march through South Carolina begins
1867 Bricklayers start working 8-hour days
1893 Thomas Edison complete's worlds first movie studio (West Orange NJ)
1898 First auto insurance policy in US issued, by Travelers Insurance Co
1906 First federal penitentiary building completed, Leavenworth, Kansas
1914 NY Giants & Chicago White Sox play an exhibition baseball game in Egypt
1920 First commercial armored car introduced, St Paul, Minn
1926 Land at Broadway & Wall Street sold at a record $7 per sq inch
1934 Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss desolves all political parties but his
1935 James T. Farrell finishes his "Studs Lonigan" trilogy
1937 Stapleton, Staten Island becomes a customs-free port
1951 First telecast of atomic explosion
1951 First X-ray moving picture process demonstrated
1953 "General Electric Theater" premiers on CBS TV; Reagan later hosts
1953 "You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premiers on CBS television
1954 Soap opera "The Secret Storm" premiers
1957 First black pilot (PH Young) on a US scheduled passenger airline
1958 First US satellite (Explorer I) launched
1958 Egypt & Syria announce plans to merge into United Arab Republic
1960 4 students stage first civil rights sit-in, at a Greensboro, NC, Woolworth store
1961 First full-scale test of US Minuteman ICBM is successful
1963 Nyasaland (now Malawi) becomes self-governing
1965 Martin Luther King, Jr., & 700 demonstrators arrested in Selma, Alabama
1968 Vince Lombardi resigns as coach of the Green Bay Packers
1970 Stalled commuter train rammed by express in Argentina, 139 die
1972 First scientific hand-held calculator (HP-35) introduced ($395)
1974 "Good Times" (spinoff from "Maude") premiers on CBS TV
1976 "Rich Man, Poor Man" mini-series premiers on ABC TV
1976 Sonny & Cher resume TV show, despite real-life divorce
1977 Heavy blizzard in New England claims 100 lives
1977 Hillsdale High School defeats Person High School 2-0 in basketball
1979 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile
1979 Patricia Hearst is released from a SF prison for bank robbery
1980 Soap opera "Love of Life" ends a 28 year run
1984 Daniel Stern becomes NBA commissioner
1987 163 day strike against Deere & Co ends, workers accept wage freeze
1991 President F. W. de Klerk, says he would repeal all apartheid laws
1991 US Air & commuter jet collide at LA Airport killing 32
1992 Barry Bonds signs baseball's highest single year contract ($4.7 million)

Birthdays which occurred on February 1st:

1552 Sir Edward Coke, England, jurist/politician (defended common law)
1763 Thomas Campbell, founder (Church of Disciples in America)
1801 Thomas Cole, US, romantic landscape painter (Hudson River School)
1844 Granville Stanley Hall, US, psychologist
1859 Victor Herbert, Dublin Ireland, composer (Babes in Toyland)
1874 Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Austria, poet/dramatist/essayist
1884 Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russia, novelist/playwright (We)
1889 Gertrude Caton-Thompson, British archaeologist
1895 John Ford, director (Stagecoach, Air Mail, Quiet Man)
1901 Clark Gable, actor
1902 Langston Hughes, poet/translator (The Weary Blues)
1904 S.J. Perelman, author/humorist (Around the World in 80 Days)
1915 Sir Stanley Matthews, first British soccer player to be knighted
1918 Muriel Spark, Scotland, novelist (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
1926 Stuart Whitman, SF Calif, actor (Cimarron Strip)
1927 Galway Kinnell, Providence RI, author (Body Rags, Book of Nightmares)
1929 Stuart Whitman, actor (Capt Apache, Ransom, Revenge)
1931 Boris Yeltsin, Ural Mts USSR, president of Russian SSR
1931 Madeline Berthod, Switzerland, downhill skier (Olympic-gold-1956)
1932 John Hart, Denver Colo, newsman (CBS News Retrospective, NBC News)
1934 Bob Shane, vocalist (Kingston Trio-Scarlet Ribbons)
1937 Don Everly, Brownie Ky, singer (Everly Bros-Wake Up Little Susie)
1937 Garrett Morris, New Orleans La, comedian (Saturday Night Live)
1937 Ray Sawyer [Dr. Hook], Ala, vocalist (Dr. Hook-When You're in Love)
1938 Sherman Hemsley, Philadelphia, actor (All in the Family, Jeffersons, Amen)
1942 Bibi Besch, Vienna Austria, actress (Star Trek II, The Beast Within)
1943 Terry Jones, Wales, comedian (Monty Python)
1943 Tina Sloan, NY, actress (Lillian-Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow)
1952 Rick James [James Johnson], rock/soul/funk vocalist (Super Freak)
1954 Billy Mumy, actor (Will Robinson-Lost in Space, Dear Brigitte)
1954 Mike Campbell, guitarist (Tom Petty & Heartbreakers-Breakdown)
1965 Brandon Lee, Emerson Colo, actor (Showdown in Little Tokyo)
1965 Princess Stephanie, Marie Elisabeth of Monaco, rocker (Stephanie)
1965 Sherilyn Fenn, Detroit, actress (Two Moon Junction, Twin Peaks)
1968 Lisa Marie Presley Keough, (Elvis' daughter)

Deaths which occurred on February 1st:

1851 Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein," dies at 53
1908 King Carlos I, of Portugal & son, killed by mob
1968 Lawson Little, amateur golfer (US & Brit Opens 1934,35)
1974 Lynda Ann Healy, first Ted Bundy murder victim, abducted in Seattle
1975 Richard Wattis, actor (Dick & the Duchess, Liberace), dies at 62
1979 Mort Marshall, actor (Cully-Dumplings), dies at 60
1980 Jack Bailey, TV host (Queen for a Day), dies at 72
1988 Heather O'Rourke, "Poltergeist" star dies at 12 of intestinal ailment