Today in History - History - February 1st

1992Denis Potvin's #5 becomes 1st number retired by NY Islanders

1965Martin Luther King Jr. & 700 demonstrators arrested in Selma Ala

1923Fascists Voluntary Militia forms in Italy under Benito Mussolini

1992Barry Bonds signs baseball's highest single year contract ($4.7 mil)

1865General Sherman's march through South Carolina begins

1587Queen Elizabeth I of England signs death warrant for Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots

1327Teenaged Edward III is crowned King of England, but the country is ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.

196048th Australian Mens Tennis: Rod Laver beats N Fraser (57 36 63 86 86)

1669French King Louis XIV limits freedom of religion

2004Super Bowl XXXVIII: New England Patriots beat Carolina Panthers, 32-29 at the Reliant Stadium MVP: Tom Brady, New England, QB

1968Lisa Marie Presley Keough Jackson, Memphis Tenn, daughter of Elvis

1901Clark Gable, Cadiz Ohio, American actor (Gone With the Wind)

1931Boris Yeltsin, Ural Mts USSR, president of Russian SSR

1902Langston Hughes, Joplin, Missouri, American poet (Weary Blues) and playwright (Mulatto)

1918Muriel Spark, Edinburgh Scotland, novelist (Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)

1895John Ford, Maine, director (Stagecoach, Air Mail, Quiet Man)

1948Rick James (James Ambrose Johnson Jr), Buffalo New York, American funk musician

1882Louis St. Laurent, Compton Quebec, (L) 12th Canadian PM (1948-57)

1840Novelist Alexandre Dumas (37) weds actress Ida Ferrier

1997Retired MLB player Johnny Bench (49) weds stockbroker Elizabeth Benton

1944Piet Mondrian, abstract painter (Composition in Blue), dies at 71

1851Mary Shelley, novelist (Frankenstein), dies of a brain tumour at 53