February 1: What Happened on This Day in History (High_school Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1709 - Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being shipwrecked on a desert island, inspiring the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.
2. 1790 - In New York City, the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
3. 1884 - The first volume (A to Ant) of the Oxford English Dictionary is published.
4. 1893 - Thomas A. Edison finishes construction of the first motion picture studio, the Black Maria in West Orange, New Jersey.
5. 1946 - Trygve Lie of Norway is picked to be the first United Nations Secretary General.
6. 1957 - Felix Wankel's first working prototype (DKM 54) of the Wankel engine runs at the NSU research and development department Versuchsabteilung TX in Germany
7. 1960 - Four black students stage the first of the Greensboro sit-ins at a lunch counter inGreensboro, North Carolina.
8. 1968 - Canada's three military services, the Royal Canadian Navy, the Canadian Army and the Royal Canadian Air Force, are unified into the Canadian Forces.
9. 1972 - Kuala Lumpur becomes a city by a royal charter granted by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong of Malaysia.
10. 2003 - Space Shuttle Columbia on mission STS-107 disintegrates during reentry into the Earth's atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts aboard.
11. Famous Birthdays: Leila Denmark (American pediatrician), Clark Gable (American actor), Langston Hughes (American poet and author), Emilio G. Segrè (Italian physicist, Nobel Prize laureate), Daniel M. Tani (American engineer and astronaut)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: January 31

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: February 2

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.