What Happened On This Day – February 1
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2003Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on its way back to Earth
All 7 astronauts were killed in the disaster.
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1979Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran after 15 years in exile
His triumphant return marked the beginning of the Iranian Revolution.
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1968Eddie 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.
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1960Four 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.
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1884The first fascicle of the “Oxford English Dictionary” is published
The book contained entries A to Ant.
Births On This Day,
February 1
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1946Elisabeth Sladen
English actress
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1931Boris Yeltsin
Russian politician, 1st President of Russia
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1901Clark Gable
American actor
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1894John Ford
American director
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1552Edward Coke
English judge, politician
Deaths On This Day,
February 1
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2002Hildegard Knef
German actress
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1981Geirr Tveitt
Norwegian composer
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1976Werner Heisenberg
German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate
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1966Buster Keaton
American actor, director, producer
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1851Mary Shelley
English author