THIS DATE IN HISTORY

On Doug's website, he posted about The History Channel website having a deal where you could find out what happend on your birthday in history. His dates and happening were pretty cool so I had to check it out myself. I have to admit, I have some good ones:

FEBRUARY 8TH

1692: Teenage girls are declared to be under the spell of a witch
Abigail Williams and Betty Parris are declared by a doctor to be "under an evil hand," precipitating a series of sensational accusations in the town of Salem, Massachusetts.

1915: Birth Of A Nation Opens
D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation, a landmark film in the history of cinema, premieres at Clune's Auditorium in Los Angeles.

1587: Mary Queen of Scots beheaded
After 19 years of imprisonment, Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England for her complicity in a plot to murder Queen Elizabeth I.

1725: Peter the Great dies
On February 8, 1725, Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, dies and is succeeded by his wife, Catherine.

1904: The Russo-Japanese War begins
Following the Russian rejection of a Japanese plan to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan launches a surprise naval attack against Port Arthur, a Russian naval base in China. The Russian fleet was decimated.

1924: First execution by lethal gas
The first execution by lethal gas in American history is carried out in Carson City, Nevada. The executed man was Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese gang who was convicted of murdering a rival gang member.

1887: Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act
In a well-meaning but ultimately flawed attempt to assimilate Native Americans, President Grover Cleveland signs an act to end tribal control of reservations and divide their land into individual holdings.