Today in History - History - February 1st

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

1953"You Are There" with Walter Cronkite premieres on CBS television

1982"Late Night With David Letterman" debuts on NBC-TV, Bill Murray is first guest

1669French King Louis XIV limits freedom of religion

1978Harriet Tubman is 1st black woman honored on a US postage stamp

1968Former US VP Richard Nixon announces candidacy for president

1923Fascists Voluntary Militia forms in Italy under Benito Mussolini

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

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

1965Peter Jennings, 26, becomes anchor of ABC's nightly news

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

1840Novelist Alexandre Dumas (37) weds actress Ida Ferrier

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

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