This day in history...

On January 27, 1944, Soviet troops push back German troops encircling the city of Leningrad, ending the "900 day siege" (actually ending it at 872 days). The Germans invading northwest Russia had gone into siege mode September 8, 1941, after failing to take the city outright. More than 650,000 residents would perish over the next year, many from starvation. Water operations over nearby Lake Lagonda became the only way to breach the German lines, being used to evacuate thousands until the army was finally able to mount a massive resupply operation (below) about two weeks before finally breaking the siege.


On January 27, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issues General Order 1, directing all land and sea forces to advance against opposing Confederate forces on February 22. Lincoln was becoming a self taught authority on warfare, and felt a general advance would simply overwhelm Confederate forces....somewhere. In reality, the only command that needed this order was George McClellan, who despised Lincoln and was showing no enthusiasm for fighting an aggressive campaign. McClellan had enough political allies in Congress to get away with ignoring the order, but in the West, General Ulysses S. Grant was spurred to attack and capture Forts Donelson and Henry in Tennessee.


On January 27, 1996, Serbian-born tennis star Monica Seles beats Anke Huber of Germany in the finals of the Australian Open, her first Grand Slam championship in 4 years. Seles was the number one-ranked player in world with 7 Grand Slam titles to her credit on April 30, 1993 when she was stabbed in the back while resting between sets at a tournament in Germany. Her attacker, Gunter Parche, was an obsessed fan of German player and former number one ranked Steffi Graf, and believed by putting Seles out of commission, Graf would easily regain the number one ranking. Seles did not compete for two years, also battling PTSD and an eating disorder while recovering from her injury. On her return to competition in August 1995, the WTA re-instated her as co-number one ranked alongside Graf. Although she never regained her pre-injury level, Seles would win the '98 US Open, her ninth and final Grand Slam, before retiring from Tour competition in 2003.

 

On January 28, 1981, President Ronald Reagan signs an executive order mandating an end to price controls on petroleum products. Price controls had been established following the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, and were just one of many contributing factors to the "energy crisis" of the late 70's. President Jimmy Carter signed an EO ending price controls in summer of 1979, but it was not to go into effect until the fall of '81. Reagan's EO put Carter's EO into immediate effect, and the effect was indeed immediate. With the free market back in control, oil prices dropped so quickly that by June, the New York Times would write that an "oil glut" had arrived. Despite this, gas prices never again dropped to pre-1973 levels.


On January 28, 814, Charlemagne, co-Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, dies in bed of pleurisy and is buried in Aachen (Germany) Cathedral that same day. King of the Franks since 768, King of the Lombards since 774, father of the Carolingian Dynasty and Holy Roman Emperor since 800, Charlemagne is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Europe", having united most of western Europe under one rule. He also converted many tribes he campaigned against to Christianity. He has been canonized and beatified by the Roman Catholic Church, though he was never elevated to sainthood. Originally interred in a marble sarcophagus that is now in the Aachen Cathedral treasury, he was re-interred in a gold and silver tomb in 1215 by Emperor Frederick II.


On January 28, 1938, German race driver Rudolph Caracciola takes a modified Mercedes Benz W125 Rekordwagen onto Autobahn A5 between Frankfurt and Darmstadt and gets her up to 432.7 kph (268.9 mph), a land speed record for public roads that still exists to this day. Caracciola raced for Mercedes (and briefly for Alfa Romeo), winning 11 titles. He is still the record-holder for most wins in the German Grand Prix with 6, and is considered perhaps the greatest sports car racer of the pre-WWII era. His attempts to return to racing following the war (including a qualifying attempt for the 1946 Indy 500) met with failure, and he died in 1959.

 

On February 9, 1621, 1986, Halley's Comet becomes visible to the naked eye on earth. Halley's Comet is the only naked eye short-period comet (orbiting period of less than 200 years), and as such is the only naked eye comet that can appear twice in a human life time. Orbiting every 75-76 years, it will next be visible on earth in mid-2061.


On February 9, 1942 the SS Normandie, the largest and one of the fastest ocean liners afloat, catches fire and capsizes alongside its pier in New York Harbor. The Normandie had been a successful trans-Atlantic liner since its launch in 1942. It was docked in NYC when the French government surrendered to Germany in 1940, and the American government placed it in "protective custody" to prevent its falling into German hands. She was in the process of being converted to a troop ship when she burned, the fire likely sparked by a welder's torch. She was refloated but the fire damage was too bad to continue the conversion. The Normandie was broken up for scrap in 1946.


On February 9, 1960, Adolph Coors III, heir to the Colorado brewery, is kidnapped on the drive from his home in Morrison, CO to the brewery in Golden. He was never seen alive again. Seven months later, his clothes were found in a dump in Sedalia, Colorado and a short time and short distance away, his body was discovered, shot to death. Eyewitness accounts of the kidnapping and other physical evidence (including a ransom note) led police to Jim Corbett, a Fulbright scholar who had been living in the area under an alias for nine years. He had killed an Air Force non-com in a fight and imprisoned, but escaped in 1951. The FBI printed and distributed 1.5 million wanted posters of Corbett, eventually tracking him to Vancouver, Canada. He spent 17 years in prison and died in 2009.

 

On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War. Also known as the Seven Years' War, the conflict was between the British and French (with native American assistance) over incursions by the French into New World territories already claimed by the British. Although the French had early success, the British would prevail. The Treaty forced France to give up all claims in Canada and Upper Florida, and to hand over the Louisiana territory to the Spanish. The results also left the 13 British colonies virtually impervious to intrusions from other European powers. (below: the French surrender Montreal)


On February 10, 1957, Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the "Little House" series of children's books chronicling Frontier American life, dies in Missouri at age 90. Born in a log cabin in Wisconsin in 1867, Wilder lived much of her early life in the territorial midwest before statehood, such as the Dakotas, Iowa and Minnesota. Her first book, "Little House in the Big Woods" was published in 1932 and was autobiographical of her childhood. The book was a financial success, and 7 more followed (a ninth book, and collections of her letters and personal writings, were published posthumously). The "Little House" books have been translated into dozens of languages and inspired the hit TV series "Little House on the Prairie", which ran 1974-82. Her long-time home in Missouri is now a museum.


On February 10, 1996 in Philadelphia, world chess champion Garry Kasparov loses the first of 6 games to Deep Blue, an IBM computer designed specifically for chess. Games between computers and grandmasters have been played before, but this is the first time man and machine meet under tournament rules: each player has two hours to complete the first 40 moves, two hours for the next 20 moves, and one more hour to complete the game. The Russian-born Kasparov, world champion since 1985 and considered by many to be the best ever, would rally to win 3 of the next 5 games and a $400,000 prize. The following year, an enhanced version of Deep Blue would beat Kasparov 2-1-3.

 

On February 11, 1945, President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin conclude a week-long meeting in Yalta, a Black Sea resort in the Ukraine. With the Axis near defeat, the Yalta Conference focused mostly on post-war issues. Germany would be demilitarized and divided into 4 zones of occupation (administered by the big 3 nations and France). The Soviets would maintain authority over the eastern European nations it liberated, but agreed to allow free elections (it would renege and those nations would fall totally under communist influence) and Stalin agreed to declare war on Japan (which he did not do until the day before the U.S. dropped its second atomic bomb on Nagasaki). The Americans and Brits would oversee the transition of western European nations to democracy and plans to establish the United Nations were finalized. Roosevelt and Churchill would be heavily criticized after the war for giving Stalin too much.


On February 11, 1990 in Tokyo, 42-to-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas knocks out previously undefeated Mike Tyson to win the world's boxing heavyweight championship. Douglas entered the fight with a 29-4-1 record, but few noteworthy victories; his losses included a TKO against Tony Tucker with the vacant IBF title on the line. Tyson, by contrast, was approaching legendary status: 37-0 with 34 KO's or TKO's, 23 of those coming in the first 2 rounds. Douglas, nevertheless, managed to do what all others before him could not, take advantage of the powerful but short Tyson's reach disadvantage (12 inch difference between the two), wearing down the champ while avoiding his powerful haymakers for 7 rounds. Tyson connected and knocked Douglas down in the 8th (Tyson would later complain the count was slow), but Buster recovered and put Tyson on the canvas for the first time in his career in the tenth, achieving the KO. The win was Douglas' moment in the sun; he would lose the unified title 8 months later to Evander Holyfield in his first defense and never get it back.


On February 11, 2012, pop music superstar Whitney Houston drowns in the bathtub of her Beverly Hill Hilton suite. She was 48 years old. An autopsy attributed heart disease and cocaine found in her system as contributing factors. Winner of 22 American Music Awards (the record for a woman at the time) and 6 Grammys, Houston burst onto the pop scene in 1983 after renowned producer Clive Davis discovered her singing in a NYC night club. Her self-titled debut album would sell 25 million copies, triggering a string of commercial successes. A tumultuous marriage to bad rep-singer Bobby Brown in 1992 started her on a downward public image spiral, though she continued to have commercial successes until her death.