Today in History - History - February 8th

1986The crime film "A Better Tomorrow", starring Yun Fat Chow, premieres in Hong Kong

1945Paul Brown agrees to coach the new American football expansion team in Cleveland, which would later be named the Cleveland Browns after their coach

1994Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack a car

1952Elizabeth II is proclaimed Queen of the United Kingdom

1991Roger Clemens signs record $5,380,250 per year Red Sox contract

1895Tchaikovsky/Petipa's "Swan Lake," premieres in Petersburg

1807Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon's forces and Russian Empire - 1st battle Napoleon isn't victorious

1926Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio becomes Walt Disney Studios

1942Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort

1915D. W. Griffith's silent film "Birth of a Nation" opens at Clune's Auditorium in LA - first 12-reel film in America

1920Lana Turner, Wallace Idaho, actress (Survivors, Falcon Crest)

1894Billy Bishop [William Bishop], Owen Sound, Ontario, Canadian First World War flying ace

1931James Dean, Marion IN, stage/film actor (Giant, Rebel Without a Cause)

1960Dino Ciccarelli, Sarnia Ontario, NHL right wing (Minnesota North Stars, Washington Capitals)

1955John Grisham, writer (Client, Firm, Pelican Brief)

1820William Tecumseh Sherman, Major General (Union Army), died in 1891

1985Director Martin Scorsese (42) weds producer Barbara De Fina (35)

2001MLB outfielder David Justice (34) weds model Rebecca Villalobos

1725Peter the Great [Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov], Tsar of Russia (1682-1725) dies of uremia at 52

1956Connie Mack, baseball manager (Phila A's, 1901-50), dies at 93

1985William Lyons, British automobile manufacturer, dies at 84

1932[Vincent] Mad Dog Coll, mobster, killed by Dutch Schultz gang at 23