February 15 in Pop Culture History
1758 – Mustard was first advertised for sale in America, by Benjamin Jackson, in Philadelphia, PA.
1764 – The city of St. Louis was established in Spanish Louisiana (now in Missouri, USA).
1898 – An explosion sank the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard, sparking the Spanish-American war.
1903 – The first Teddy Bear was introduced in Brooklyn, NY.
1932 – George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on The Guy Lombardo Show on CBS radio.
1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, was formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
1950 – Disney’s Cinderella cartoon feature opened in theaters. It was one of the biggest films of the year, and was theatrically re-released several time s- 1957, 1965, 1973, 1981 and 1987.
1953 – The first American to win the women’s world figure skating championship was 17-year-old Tenley Albright.
1958 – # 1 Hit February 15, 1958 – March 21, 1958: Elvis Presley – Don’t / I Beg Of You
1961 – The whole 18-member U.S. figure skating team was killed in a plane crash in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium. The team was on its way to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia.
1965 – The flag we know today, the red and white maple leaf was designed as the new flag of Canada. Prior to that, the official flag was Britain’s Union Jack.
1975 – # 1 Hit February 15, 1975 – February 21, 1975: Linda Ronstadt – You’re No Good
1986 – # 1 Hit February 15, 1986 – February 29, 1986: Whitney Houston – How Will I Know
1992 – Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced in Milwaukee to life in prison.
2003 – It was estimated that between 8,000,000-30,000,000 people in 600 cities worldwide… the protest of the Iraq War was the largest protest in the history of the world.
2005 – YouTube was activated online.
2013 – A meteor exploded in the sky over Russia’s Ural Mountains, near Chelyabinsk, shattering glass and setting off car alarms for miles. Also, asteroid DA14 came with 18,000 miles of Earth.
