Today in History - History - February 17th

1969Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash record an album; it was never released.

1859Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Un Ballo in maschera" premieres in Napoli

1836HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin leaves Tasmania

1904Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madama Butterfly," premieres in Milan

1976Richard Hadlee takes 7-23 v India, his 1st match-winning spell

1941Joe Louis KOs Gus Dorazio in 2 for heavyweight boxing title

1932Irving Berlin's musical "Face the Music," premieres in NYC

1995Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson takes unpaid leave due to baseball strike

1837Charles Lyell makes his presidential address to the Geographical Society, London and announces that Richard Owen has concluded from Darwin's fossils that extinct species were related to current species in the same locality

1621Myles Standish is elected as the first commander of the Plymouth Colony

1955Mo Yan, Chinese novelist

1972Billie Joe Armstrong, Oakland California, singer/musician (Green Day)

1963Michael Jordan, NBA guard/forward (Chicago Bulls) and sports superstar

1981Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress

1950Natural history broadcaster David Attenborough (24) weds Jane Elizabeth Ebsworth Oriel

1955Novelist J. D. Salinger (36) weds Claire Douglas

1909Geronimo [one who yawns], Apache chief, dies at 79

1918Wilfrid Laurier, Canadian PM (1896-1911), dies