Notable Birthdays for February 8
William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-1891) - Prominent General for the Union Army
Thomas Selfridge (1882-1908) - Pilot and first person to die in a plane crash.
Lonnie Johnson (1899-1970) - Musician and the first to play an electrically amplified violin.
Chester Carlson (1906-1968) - Physicist who invented the Xerography (a dry copying process).
Bill Finger (1914-1974) - Author and co-creator of the Batman character.
Lana Turner (1921-1995) - Considered a cultural icon during the Golden Age of Hollywood.
James Dean (1931-1955) - Actor who is considered one of the most influential figures in Hollywood.
Nick Nolte (1941-Still Living) - Acclaimed actor known for his roles in The Prince of Tides, Another 48 Hours, and A Walk In the Woods.
Valerie Thomas (1943-Still Living) - Inventor of the illusion transmitter which was an image processing systems used in the early years of NASA.
John Grisham (1955-Still Living) - Award-winning author.
Vince Neil (1961-Still Living) - Lead singer for Mötley Crüe.
Gary Coleman (1968-2010) - Child actor known for his role as Arnold in Diff'rent Strokes.
Bethany Hamilton (1990-Still Living) - Surfer who survived a shark attack.
Memorable Events for February 8
1837 - Richard Johnson becomes the first and only VP selected by the U.S. Senate.
1855 - The Smithsonian Institution Building opens to the public in Washington, D.C.
1865 - Martin Robison Delany becomes the first Black major in U.S. Army.
1883 - Louis Waterman begins experimenting to invent the fountain pen.
1887 - The Dawes Act, which authorized President to divide Native American tribal land into individual allotments, is enacted.
1898 - John Ames Sherman receives the patent for the first envelope folding & gumming machine.
1910 - William D. Boyce created The Boy Scouts of America.
1918 - The Stars & Stripes armed forces newspaper publishes for the first time.
1924 - The first state execution by gas chamber takes place in NV.
1926 - The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio becomes Walt Disney Studios.
1942 - Congress advises President Roosevelt that Japanese Americans should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the war effort.
1971 - The NASDAQ stock market index opens.
