Boston, MA.
Challenging position where my skills, professional experience, organization, leadership, strategic thinking, creativity, energy, passion, competitive nature will enable me to define opportunities and personal development.
Email: bernd.janet@verizon.net

Jacksonville, East Brunswick, FL.
13 years experience with collection, recovery, re-marketing and legal on commercial loans and leases. Expertise with distressed portfolios, Six Sigma trained. Willing to relocate.
Email: RichardB12364@aol.com

West Hartford, CT.
Credit/ Collections /Rental Management in leasing & construction fields. Looking for stable company that will appreciate my 20+ years of experience.
Email: losterastringban@aol.com

---- statement and Board approval of discount rate requests of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco:

“The Federal Open Market Committee decided today (Wednesday, 2/02/2005) to raise its target for the federal funds rate by 25 basis points to 2-1/2 percent.

“The Committee believes that, even after this action, the stance of monetary policy remains accommodative and, coupled with robust underlying growth in productivity, is providing ongoing support to economic activity. Output appears to be growing at a moderate pace despite the rise in energy prices, and labor market conditions continue to improve gradually. Inflation and longer-term inflation expectations remain well contained.

“The Committee perceives the upside and downside risks to the attainment of both sustainable growth and price stability for the next few quarters to be roughly equal. With underlying inflation expected to be relatively low, the Committee believes that policy accommodation can be removed at a pace that is likely to be measured. Nonetheless, the Committee will respond to changes in economic prospects as needed to fulfill its obligation to maintain price stability.

“Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Alan Greenspan, Chairman; Timothy F. Geithner, Vice Chairman; Ben S. Bernanke; Susan S. Bies; Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.; Edward M. Gramlich; Jack Guynn; Donald L. Kohn; Michael H. Moskow; Mark W. Olson; Anthony M. Santomero; and Gary H. Stern.

“In a related action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved a 25-basis-point increase in the discount rate to 3-1/2 percent. In taking this action, the Board approved the requests submitted by the Boards of Directors of the Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Richmond, Atlanta, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Dallas, and San Francisco.”

“USbancorp has offered to forgive 90% of remaining lease payments for New Yorkers with approval of the NY AG.”

“I'm in NC. We did not receive an invoice this month from USBancorps. We called, finally spoke to someone who said "sit tight don't make any more payments & you'll be contacted regarding settlement". Our AG office has actively pursued LC's of customers in NC.”

“An ex-norv. customer posted that USB stopped sending invoices in Michigan, she called and she was told "no more payments required, we are settling with the AG office in Mich.and will contact you regarding the settlement offer". Our NJ lawyer (in the group action) said we are fortunate to be with an LC such as USB who is offering settlements." So this is all I know. USB told us this morning they will be going state by state offering settlements. We're taking it as good news. Something about offering a per cent of the balance owed after July, 2004.”

Nat'l Acct. Mgr: Looking for acct mgr's w/limited leasing exp. and good comm. skills. Good commission plan w/emerging company. Send responses & resumes to info@access-capital.org or call 866-434-7555, ext 7838

Middle Market Sales Rep.: exp. sales reps throughout country for middle market leasing/financing. Must have min.5-years exp. in “hard assets” ranging from 100K -$1.0MM generated from vendor and /or direct sources. Excel. benefits, base salary and commission program. Resumes to amandell@eqcorp.com .

About the Company: A rapidly expanding Middle Market Leasing / Finance Company located in CT. Equilease Financial Services, Inc

First option is OPEN the file without saving it. You can see how this works, then decide if you want to “save” and have it as an executable file.

In the open mode, it works, but once you exit, the application is no longer available. You have to install it each time you want to use it.

The second option is to “SAVE “the “.EXE” on to your computer. You will have the application available to use any time, until you decide to delete the program.

Netbank reported a net loss of $17.7 million or $.38 per share for the fourth quarter, compared with net income of $10.0 million or $.21 per share during the same period a year ago. For the year, net income totaled $4.2 million or $.09 per share, compared with $50.5 million or $1.04 per share for 2003. Current period results include a provision expense against the company's Commercial Money Center, Inc. (CMC) lease receivables totaling $29.0 million, pre-tax, or $.38 per share, after-tax.

The company recorded a $29.0 million provision against its CMC lease receivables during the quarter. Management booked the additional provision after two other banks announced CMC-related settlements in November.CMC Lease portfolio Exposure

Average earning assets 248,299 $ 260,726 $ 274,416 $ 287,692 $ 302,161 $ 281,249 $

While Washington Mutual withdrew from the equipment leasing sector, they are continuing to expand their physical presence. In December, 2003, CIT purchased their financial division portfolio. Then the first of the year, they announced the closure of the 53 commercial locations will occur between August 20th and October 29 th with from 850 to 1,000 employees let go. The following 14 states are affected: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington, and late last year announced they were exiting the equipment leasing business, letting their sales executives go.

Today, they expand their consumer based operation with announced plans to add 250 more retail banking stores to its nationwide network of approximately 1,940 this year. In addition, the company is updating another 200 existing stores during the year to give its retail network a more consistent look and feel nationwide.

Looking more like a “savings and loan, “ their patented branch concept has no high counters and encourage casual clothes, no ties, often associated with the banking industry. In many branches, causally dress customer service representatives, such as at Wal-Mart, greet customers and guide them to the appropriate service area.

Washington Mutual currently operates more than 2,400 retail banking, mortgage lending, commercial banking and financial services offices throughout the nation.

This trend follows the exit of American Express, as well as United Parcel Service, and others who have decided to concentrate on their main business than the mercurial commercial sector, particularly the equipment leasing marketplace that has more than its share of difficulties with fraud and misrepresentation the last few years.

Amtrak is in trouble again. Congress didn't give Amtrak the money Amtrak says it needs to solve many of its problems. Recently the majority of members of the Amtrak Reform Council, which went out of business a couple of years ago, returned to Washington to make a plea to Congress to consider the reforms which the Council had recommended. (I was a member of the Council). Among the reforms was a call for public/private partnerships.

One member of the Council, Jim Coston, has formed a company that could be the basis for public/private relationships not only with Amtrak but with many of the commuter agencies around the nation. Coston's company is called New Trains Leasing System and is an exciting step in the right direction for solving at least a part of the problem we have with under-funded rail operations.

For years we have had public/private partnerships in the automobile and airline industries. A brilliant paper on the subject by Coston's associate, Fritz Plous, points out that the Highway Trust Fund has not always been able to pay for highway projects. The Highway Trust Fund is paid for by, in effect, a user fee. You buy gasoline to ride on the highways and the fee (tax) you pay per gallon of gas fills the coffers of the Trust Fund.

Unfortunately, there are often cost overruns that the Trust Fund will not pay for. Even then local and state governments must come up with at least 10% of the entire project cost and these projects can run into the billions of dollars.

The entire air traffic control system is funded by the Federal Government. If it had not been, and the airlines were forced to add that cost to the price of a ticket, none but a few elite millionaires would be able to afford to fly…and they probably would have their own aircraft.

Despite what truly can be called a public/private partnership most airlines are near bankruptcy. In fact, since the end of World War II, when flying became popular, few airlines have made money even in prosperous times. There are reasons for that, and Southwest Airlines, the only major airline not to take a government bailout after 9/11, has shown that the business can be profitable but, of course, it still is subsidized.

The point is that both highway and air transportation are subsidized. Yet the public perception is that in the case of highways the user fees take care of everything. Airlines are seen as private companies and the government's contribution to their ability to carry lots of people largely is forgotten or ignored.

As Plous points out in his paper, “The other reason large losses are accepted in the civil aviation and highway system is that the financing of these systems were [sic] ingeniously designed to make sure that whatever possibilities for profit were identified in the system, those possibilities could be exploited and realized by private entrepreneurs.”

Plous highlights the very successful trucking industry, which has been encouraged by not only the construction of highways but by undercharging user fees to the trucking industry. The government, he says, has “encouraged the growth of a large, diversified, and for the most part, economically successful trucking industry which in turn has enabled millions of entrepreneurs to succeed in businesses of their own which depend on a strong trucking industry for their success.”

Plous goes on to make the case for true public/private partnerships in several aspects of rail operations in this country today. The first is the rail fleets themselves. Amtrak and most commuter lines are starved for capital and long-term leasing (30 to 50 years) will enable them to get more cars on the road (in many places demand is significantly increasing) without waiting for a reluctant Congress or state legislatures to come up with the money.

The second is maintaining rail equipment. The same companies which finance the fleet can be responsible for maintaining it at costs often lower then government owned facilities.

Next is real estate and infrastructure. Many of the facilities for maintaining trains are owned by Amtrak or the state transit authorities. These buildings can be sold for cash or new trains and can be leased back, thus putting new flexibility in the hands of the rail operators.

The next, and this applies primarily to Amtrak, are the on-board food and beverage services. This is one of the most costly aspects of operating long-distance trains. As Plous points out, “If food service cars were privately owned, the operator, not Amtrak, would be free to operate the cars with its own employees and provision them with products of its own choosing from vendors able to meet its higher standards.” Plous points out that the Maine Department of Transportation already employs non-Amtrak employees on its four daily Portland-to-Boston roundtrips for food service and is using a private caterer in Portland to furnish the food, which has been met with “great public acceptance.”

Finally, there are ticketing and reservations. Maine has dispensed with the national ticketing system that Amtrak maintains and for which every state agency using Amtrak to run its trains gets charged. With the ability to order most tickets online without the benefit of a railroad ticket agent there is no reason to maintain this costly overhead, especially for state agencies.

In his paper Fritz Plous says that Amtrak remains in many ways not only a typical state-owned corporation, modeled on the now obsolete mid-20th Century European-Socialist template, but also to a large extent modeled on the even more obsolete private-American railroad model. Plous points out that Amtrak must be tied to government in order to maintain its privileged access to America's privately owned freight railroads. If it weren't for the law that allows Amtrak access passenger trains would be put on a siding for hours while freight trains had priority of passage. The connection with government also helps the passenger train industry obtain insurance at reasonable rates. For these reasons, Plous says, “these essential resources cannot be unbundled from Amtrak or from Government.”

He concludes, “a great deal of Amtrak can -- and should -- be unbundled, and most of the unbundled components can be successfully relocated in the private sector. The first and most important of these -- and the key to the successful unbundling of all the others to follow -- is the ownership of the next generation of American Passenger cars. Amtrak and the states cannot provide them. The rapid development of a privately owned fleet of railroad passenger cars for lease to Amtrak and the states that sponsor Amtrak trains must be the first priority in ‘Amtrak Reform.'”

Plous is exactly right. Further, his associate Jim Coston is in a position to do something about this situation. Whether it is Coston's company or some other company, Congress should insist before it gives another dime to Amtrak that Amtrak begin to negotiate with a private company for the next generation of rail cars which can be leased by Amtrak at a fraction of the cost of ownership. The clock is ticking on Amtrak reform.

ST. PETERSBURG, FL,–-Cyence International Inc., a leading provider of Web-based software solutions for the banking, manufacturing, and equipment finance industries, is pleased to announce the addition of Wes Dean to its leadership team. Dean will serve as Chief Operating Officer (COO), managing the day-to-day operations of Cyence, including the production of the company's software products and their delivery and deployment to customers.

Dean fills the opportunity created when the company promoted veteran executive and past COO Greg McIntosh to the position of President and CFO for Cyence International. In his new post, McIntosh will continue to direct the financial aspects of the company's operations and provide executive oversight for the company overall.

“The arrival of Wes gives us added strength in executive management throughout the US and Canada,” says Peter Hyne, Chief Executive Officer of Cyence. “He has a seasoned perspective on the leasing industry and will be a major asset as we continue to build technology solutions and define process improvements for our customers.”

Dean has over 20 years of experience in executive-level management, software development management, and sales leadership across a diverse range of industries. Most recently, he served as Chief Operations officer for CapitalStream, where he was responsible for the company's operations in providing enterprise front office automation software products for financial institutions.

Before joining CapitalStream, Dean served as founder and CEO for Signature Technology Solutions (STS), a leading provider of banking software solutions, supply chain management consulting, CRM consulting, and custom software development services. Before STS, he served as the Vice President of Software Operations for S1 Corporation, where he led the development and deployment of the company's flagship products in the Internet-based banking marketplace.

“Over the past two years, Cyence has emerged as the clear market dominator—through its high-performance technology, excellent choice in business partners, and commitment to research and development,” Dean says. “I look forward to applying the knowledge I've gained to help Cyence expand its industry leadership--and help our customers proactively manage business challenges through our innovative products and services.”

Cyence International Inc. is a leading provider of Web Services software solutions for the world's banking, manufacturing, and equipment finance markets. Its software solutions, ExpressOS™ and ExpressCS™, imbed industry best practices and enable real-time, online collaboration in the end-to-end finance process.

From Origination to Credit Adjudication, Document Management to Auditing, Funding, and Booking, the Cyence solution has everything needed to streamline financial transactions and achieve operational excellence.
For more information, visit
www.cyence.com.

Edmunds.com Reports True Cost of Incentives: Japanese Manufacturers Achieve Record Market Share as Industrywide, Incentives Level Off

SANTA MONICA, Calif., / -- Edmunds.com (http://www.edmunds.com), the premier online resource for automotive information, reported today that the average manufacturer automotive incentive in the United States was $2,408 per vehicle sold in January 2005, up $43, or 1.8%, from January 2004, and down $104, or 4.2%, from December 2004.

Edmunds.com's monthly True Cost of Incentives(SM) (TCI(SM)) report takes into account all of the manufacturers' various United States incentives programs, including subvented interest rates and lease programs as well as cash rebates to consumers and dealers. To ensure the greatest possible accuracy, Edmunds.com bases its calculations on sales volume, including the mix of vehicle makes and models for each month, as well as on the proportion of vehicles for which each type of incentive was used.

Overall, combined incentives spending for domestic Chrysler, Ford and General Motors nameplates averaged $3,286 per vehicle sold in January, down $41 from December 2004. This is the fourth consecutive month that Chrysler and Ford have decreased incentives. Chrysler lowered incentives spending by $140 to $3,185 per vehicle sold in January, and gained 1.0% market share, capturing 14.0% of the U.S. market. Ford decreased incentives spending by $91 to $2,833 per vehicle sold in January, while its market share fell by 0.1% to 17.3%. General Motors decreased incentives spending in January by $141 to $3,648 per vehicle sold in January, while its market share dropped by 2.5% to 24.7%.

In January 2005, Korean automakers decreased incentives spending by $286 to an average of $1,567 per vehicle sold, the group's lowest level since November 2003. European automakers increased incentives spending by $35 to average $1,816 per vehicle sold and Japanese automakers increased incentives spending by $2 to average $1,078 per vehicle sold in January.

From December to January, Japanese manufacturers gained 1.3% and Korean manufacturers gained 0.3% market share while European manufacturers lost 0.9%, totaling 32.3%, 4.1% and 6.4%, respectively. This was a record high for the Japanese manufacturers. In the same period, domestic manufacturers lost market share, declining from 57.6% to 57.0%.

"Honda, Nissan and Toyota consistently gain market share when Chrysler, Ford and General Motors decrease their incentive spending," observed Dr. Jane Liu, Vice President of Data Analysis for Edmunds.com.

Comparing all brands in January, Mini spent the least on incentives with $63, while Porsche spent only $77 and Scion spent $106 per vehicle sold. At the other end of the spectrum, Lincoln was the biggest spender at $5,224 in January, followed by Cadillac at $4,755 and Pontiac at $4,471 per vehicle sold. Looking at incentives expenditures as a percentage of MSRP for each brand, Pontiac spent the most, 18.2%, while Porsche spent the least, 0.1%.

Among vehicle segments, in January, large SUVs offered the highest average incentives, $4,169 per vehicle sold, while sports cars had the lowest average incentives per vehicle at $1,115. Looking at incentives expenditures as a percentage of MSRP for each segment, large cars were the highest, 12.0%, while sports cars were the lowest, 4.0%.

Midsize SUVs have lost the most market share since January 2004, decreasing from 13.8% to 12.0%, while large cars have gained the most market share during that period, up from 4.8% to 6.3% of the new vehicle market.

Edmunds.com's TCI(SM) is a comprehensive monthly report that measures automobile manufacturers' cost of incentives on vehicles sold in the United States. These costs are reported on a per vehicle basis for the industry as a whole, for each manufacturer, for each make sold by each manufacturer and for each model of each make. TCI covers all aspects of manufacturers' various incentives programs (except volume and similar bonus programs), including dealer cash, manufacturer rebates and consumer savings from subvented APR and lease programs (including subvented lease residual values used in manufacturer leasing programs). Data for the industry, the manufacturers and the makes are derived using weighted averages and are based on actual monthly sales and financing activity.

Edmunds.com is the premier online resource for automotive information. Its comprehensive set of data, tools and services, including Edmunds.com True Market Value(R) pricing, is generated by Edmunds.com Information Solutions and is licensed to third parties. For example, the company supplies content for the auto sections of NYTimes.com, AOL, About.com, iVillage,com and IGN.com, provides weekly data to Automotive News and delivers monthly data reports to Wall Street analysts. Edmunds.com was named "best car research" site by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "most useful Web site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM) and was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites as reported by The Wall Street Journal. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif. and maintains a satellite office outside Detroit.

COLUMBUS, GaSynovus (NYSE - "SNV"), the Columbus, Georgia-based diverse financial services company, today announced that James H. Blanchard, Synovus' Chief Executive Officer, has been elected to a three-year term as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Bankers Association (ABA).

ABA is the nation's largest bank trade association, representing community, regional and money center banks and bank holding companies, savings associations, trust companies and savings banks. The association provides educational benefits and programs for its members and the public, represents the industry in Washington, and speaks for the industry in the press. The ABA board is the association's governing body between annual conventions.

"The financial services industry must continually improve our ability to control risk on all levels, streamline our industry-wide collection and return processes and increase our ability to protect our customers from fraud," said Blanchard. "The ABA provides an excellent network of knowledgeable financial services professionals who are focused on key industry issues. I am honored to represent Synovus, our region and our entire industry as a part of its preeminent trade association."

Blanchard began his service with Synovus in June 1970 when he was selected as the top executive at Columbus Bank and Trust Company. His tenure has spanned the periods of greatest growth in the company's history. He rallied support for the passing of the multi-bank holding company bill in 1976 by the Georgia Legislature, and under his leadership, CB&T Bancshares became the first bank holding company in Georgia to acquire other banks under the new law. He also played an instrumental role in establishing TSYS in 1983, which now provides payment processing for more than 300 million consumers worldwide and is more than 80 percent owned by Synovus.

Blanchard serves as director on several boards including BellSouth Corporation, The Georgia Department of Economic Development, Sea Island Company, Georgia Research Alliance, Georgia Chamber of Commerce and Columbus Bank and Trust Company. He also serves as Chairman of the Executive Committee and a Director of TSYS. He is a member of The University of Georgia Dean's Advisory Board for the Terry College of Business, The Trust for Public Land Chattahoochee River Land Protection Campaign Committee, The Carter Center Board of Councilors, Morehouse School of Medicine Board of Visitors and The University of Georgia Campaign Steering Committee. Blanchard is Past Chairman of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Former Chair of BITS (formerly Bankers Information Technology Secretariat) and Former Director of the Financial Services Roundtable.

Blanchard earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from The University of Georgia in 1963, and earned his law degree from The University of Georgia in 1965. He was the first Georgia executive outside the greater Atlanta area chosen as Georgia Trend magazine's "Most Respected CEO" in 1997. Georgia Trend magazine also honored him as "Georgian of the Year" for 2003 and one of the "100 Most Influential Georgians" in 2004. In 1996, Blanchard received the Honorary Doctor of Business Administration Degree from the University of South Carolina and, in 1998, received the Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree from LaGrange College. In 2004, Blanchard received the Harvard Business School Club of Atlanta Community Leadership Award and was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from Columbus State University.

Synovus (NYSE:"SNV") is a diversified financial services holding company with over $25 billion in assets based in Columbus, Georgia. Synovus provides integrated financial services including banking, financial management, insurance, mortgage and leasing services through 40 banks and other Synovus offices in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee; and electronic payment processing through an 81-percent stake in TSYS (NYSE:"TSS"), the world's largest third-party processor of international payments. Synovus has been named one of "The 100 Best Companies To Work For" in America by FORTUNE magazine, and has been recognized in its Hall of Fame for consecutive appearances on the list since its inception in 1998. In 2004, Synovus was also named as one of "America's Most Admired Companies." See Synovus on the Web at www.synovus.com.

Unicyn Financial announces addition of Dan Croft as Senior V.P.
of Practice Acquisition Financing Division

Closter, New Jersey, Unicyn Financial Corp., a leading originator of health care and commercial leases and loans, has announced the addition of Daniel J. Croft to the Unicyn senior team.

Dan comes with extensive experience with HPSC, Inc. and later GE Healthcare Financial Services providing practice acquisition financing services to the health care marketplace. Dan operated as sales manager within the Atlanta office for GE. Dan will bring strategic leadership and a strong network to enhance Unicyn's expansion into this growing marketplace.

Patrick McGahren, President of Unicyn Financial related, “We are happy to announce the addition of Dan as our leader of this segment. We have completed an exhaustive search effort that has yielded us a well known industry leader. We are looking forward to the contributions Dan will have on the growth of Unicyn”.

Dan Croft related, “I am excited for the opportunity to help Unicyn expand their business further into this competitive market. The marketplace needs flexibility in addressing the complex needs of buyers and sellers in the practice acquisition marketplace and having the strength of their own balance sheet and lines for approving credits coupled with the ability to syndicate transactions to broaden our credit appetite is the right solution for the market today”.

Unicyn is a tenured yet progressive Independent Financial Services Company located in New Jersey that has been in business for 24 years. The company currently provides leasing and loans for the health care and commercial markets in the small ticket and lower middle market areas. The company maintains branch offices in Chicago, Michigan, Texas and Atlanta. The company's strength is their ability to perform for vendors and end users with their financial resources that combine self-funding capabilities with strong syndications expertise. For more information, contact Patrick McGahren at 201-767-5800, ext. 301 http://www.unicyn.com

CONTACT:
Patrick McGahren
Unicyn Financial Corp.
Phone Number: 201-767-5800
Fax Number: 201-767-5587
E-mail: patrick@unicyn.com

    1690-Massachusetts established a provincial bank and issued money in denominations from two shillings to five pounds to pay the soldiers who served in the war with Quebec. This was the first instance of issuing “paper money.” Until 1690, the North American colonies had dealt primarily in coinage. Silver and gold were rather rare, so colonists generally used unofficial coins, or “decrepit coppers.” Boston-based silversmiths John Hull and Robert Sanderson did operate their own mint between 1652 and 1682, issuing silver shillings and three and sixpence pieces, but save for a few ill-fated experiments, paper money was hardly tried or used. Other colonies and states soon also issued paper money without any basis, so that in 1780 the ratio of paper to silver was 40 to 1.
    1737- Elizabeth Graeme Ferguson birthday- writer whose primary fame rests on being a go-between on behalf of the British with revolutionary forces at the behest (or insistence) of her husband, a loyalist.. In October 1777 Ferguson's husband prevailed upon her to carry from the Reverend Jacob Duché to General George Washington a letter urging Washington to surrender. Washington chided her for her part in the episode. She later carried to Joseph Reed, Pennsylvania delegate to the Continental Congress and aide to Washington, an offer of 10,000 guineas for help in obtaining peace terms advantageous to Britain. Ferguson's role in these proceedings brought her trouble. Her husband had already been attainted and proscribed, and late in the war Graeme Park was confiscated. Although it was restored to her in 1781, she lost it through financial reverses in 1791. Her last years were difficult. She died near the Graeme Park estate in Pennsylvania on February 23, 1801.
http://search.eb.com/women/articles/
Ferguson_Elizabeth_Graeme.html
    1787 - Shays' Rebellion, an uprising of Massachusetts farmers led by Daniel Shays, ended with defeat at Petersham. Starting on August 29 the previous year, Shay began building his following. On January 25, Shays led 1100 men in an attempt to seize the arsenal in Springfield, Mass. State militia commanded by Gen. William Shepherd routed the insurgents. The uprising had been caused by the harsh economic conditions faced by Massachusetts farmers, who sought reforms and the issuance of paper money. The insurgents were taken completely by surprise on the morning of February 3 rd in Petersham. General Benjamin Lincoln had marched his troops through a snowstorm the previous night. The farmers scattered, and the rebellion was ended. Most of the insurgents took advantage of a general amnesty and surrendered. Shays and a few other leaders escaped for a while. The Supreme Judicial Court soon sentenced fourteen of the rebellion's leaders, including Shays, to death for treason. They were later pardoned by the newly elected Governor John Hancock. Only two men, John Bly and Charles Rose of Berkshire County, were hung for their part in the Rebellion. A new Massachusetts Legislature in Boston began to undertake the slow work of reform. February 6, 1788 Massachusetts would become the sixth state to ratify the US Constitution and become the sixth state of the Union.
http://www.sjchs-history.org/shays.html
    1793 -- Lucretia Mott born Nantucket, Massachusetts. Abolitionist and feminist.
One of the strongest voices for the rights of women and blacks in the US was Lucretia Coffin Mott, a birthright Quaker who lived most of her life in Philadelphia, the center of American Quakerism. The event that triggered her involvement in women's rights activity was richly ironic She was an accredited delegate to an international antislavery convention in London, along with five other US women. The men in charge apparently saw nothing wrong with excluding all women from an assembly dedicated to advancing the rights of blacks. It was on the sidewalk outside the convention where Mott started her long association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, together they were instrumental in establishing the basis for women's suffrage. She was a peacemaker between groups with different priorities, and campaigned (dressed in Quaker grey) for human rights into her 85th year. Her incisive, challenging mind, a clear sense of her mission, and a level-headed personality made her a natural leader and a major force in her time.
—Bleedster G. Armour Van Horn, Twisted History
http://www.mott.pomona.edu/mott1.htm
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blmott.htm
    1807-Birthday of Confederate General Joseph Johnston, born near Farmville, VA, and died March 21,1891 at Washington, DC. One of the most brilliant officers of the CSA, but known for having many differences with President Jefferson Davis who wanted to run the war from his office. Johnston's troops were never directly defeated and he holds the record of most victories when he was in command.
    1809 - Illinois Territory, including present-day Wisconsin, was established.
    1811-Birthday of Horace Greely, newspaper editor, born at Amherst, NH. Founded of the “New York Tribune” and one of the organizers of the Republic Party. Greely was an outspoken opponent of slavery. Best remembered for his saying, “Go West, young man.” Died No 29, 1872 at New York City.
    1821- Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor in the United States. After her graduation in 1849, she went to Paris to study which was then the world's foremost medical center, but Paris doctors proved as intolerant as their American colleagues. They would not permit her to study as a doctor. She was forced to enter a large maternity hospital as a student midwife. Because of an infection she contracted there, she lost the sight of one eye. When she returned to New York City in 1850, no hospital would allow her to practice there. Using funds donated by women - mostly Quakers, she and her sister opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, the first clinic for women examined and treated by women. After the Civil War, she returned to her native Britain where she continued to practice medicine. Died May 31, 1910.
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_blackwell_eliz.htm
    1841-Nauvoo Legion chartered: created by Illinois Charter and comprised of 5,000 Mormon men under the command of Lieutenant General Joseph Smith, the Nauvoo Legion was considered the “largest trained soldiery in the US except for the US Army.”
    1862 - Thomas Edison printed the "Weekly Herald" and distributed it to passengers on a train traveling from Port Huron and Detroit, Michigan. It was the first newspaper printed on a train. He called it the “Weekly Herald” and it was a single sheet of approximately seven by eight inches, printed on both sides.
    1862 – Birthday of George Tilyou creator of Steeplechase Amusement Park, Coney Island.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/coney/peopleevents/pande04.html
    1865-President Abraham Lincoln and his Secretary of State, William Seward, met to discuss peace with Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens and others at Hampton Roads, VA. The meeting, which took place on board the ship “River Queen,” lasted four hours and produced no positive results. The Confederates sought an armistice first and discussion of reunion later, while Lincoln was insistent that the recognition of Federal authority must be the first step toward peace. New York Tribune editor and abolitionist Horace Greeley provided the impetus for the conference when he contacted Francis Blair, a Maryland aristocrat and presidential adviser. Greeley suggested that Blair was the "right man" to open discussions with the Confederates to end the war. Blair sought permission from Lincoln to meet with Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and he did so twice in January 1865. Blair suggested to Davis that an armistice be forged and the two sides turn their attention to removing the French-supported regime of Maximilian in Mexico. This plan would help cool tensions between North and South by providing a common enemy, he believed. Meanwhile, the situation was becoming progressively worse for the Confederates in the winter of 1864 and 1865. In January, Union troops captured Fort Fisher and effectively closed Wilmington, North Carolina, the last major port open to blockade runners. Davis conferred with his vice president, Alexander Stephens, and Stephens recommended that a peace commission be appointed to explore a possible armistice. Davis sent Stephens and two others to meet with Lincoln at Hampton Roads, Virginia. The meeting convened on February 3. Stephens asked if there was any way to stop the war and Lincoln replied that the only way was "for those who were resisting the laws of the Union to cease that resistance." The delegation underestimated Lincoln's resolve to make the end of slavery a necessary condition for any peace. The president also insisted on immediate reunification and the laying down of Confederate arms before anything else was discussed. In short, the Union was in such an advantageous position that Lincoln did not need to concede any issues to the Confederates. Robert M.T. Hunter, one of the delegation, commented that Lincoln was offering little except the unconditional surrender of the South. After less than five hours, the conference ended and the delegation left with no concessions. April 9, at Appomattox Court House, VA., Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Gen. Grant. The Civil War was virtually ended. Unfortunately President Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington, DC, April 14. The war continued and on May 10, Jefferson Davis was captured at Irwinville, GA, by a contingent of Gen. James H. Wilson's cavalry, led by Lt. Col. Benjamin Pritchard. and on May 29 th President Johnson issued a proclamation of amnesty.
    1870-The 15 th Amendment granted that the right of citizens to vote shall not be denied on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude.
    1874-Birthday of Gertrude Stein, avant-garde expatriate American writer, perhaps best remembered for her poetic declaration (in 1912): “Rose is a rose is a rose,” while living in Oakland, California. Born at Allegheny, PA, died at Paris, France, July 27,1946. She lived most of her life in France with her lifelong companion Alice Tolkas. Her word repetitions challenged readers to explore the various and deeper meanings of words such as "A rose is a rose is a rose." Coined the phrase "the lost generation” and used the word "gay” for the first time in literature. Renowned collector of modern French art.
    1880-Theodore Roosevelt declares his love for young Alice Lee of Boston, MA.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/feb03.html
    1882 -- Docking in New York, Oscar Wilde is asked by customs if he has anything to declare; he replies: "Nothing but my genius."
1894-Birthday of Norman Rockwell, American artist and illustrator especially noted for his realistic and homey magazine cover for the “Saturday Evening Post.” Born at New York, NY, he died at Stockbridge, MA, Nov 8, 1978.
    1895-Birthday of vocalist Frankie “Half-Pint” Jaxon, Montgomery, AL
http://www.redhotjazz.com/jaxon.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000046G0/
inktomi-musicasin-20/002-1958450-0644835
    1895-Birthday of trumpet paler Kid Valentine, Reserve, LA
http://www.musica.co.uk/musica/screen__ARTISTDB/shop__MUS/
artist__Valentine,~'Kid'~Thomas~(1).htm
http://www.thejukejoint.com/amcd-049.html
http://www.arhoolie.com/titles/346.shtml
http://www.rainerjazz.com/Interpreten/Thomas_Kid_001.htm
http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/jazzitoria/moose.htm
    1898-Birthday of Lil Hardin Armstrong, pianist, singer, orchestra leader in Chicago, had her own band in 1920's, also played with King Oliver. Married Louis Armstrong who played in HER band in 1925 (divorced 1938),. Led all-women and all-men bands, toured Europe, and was the house musician for Decca records. Born Memphis, Tennessee. Lil studied music at Fisk University, the Chicago College of Music and the New York College of Music where she earned her doctorate in 1929. Lil also studied fashion and in 1942, she staged her own fashion show in New York City. Lil's first job in the music field was playing sheet music at Jones's Music Store in Chicago in 1917. In 1920 Lil formed her own band at the Dreamland Cafe and in 1921 she joined King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band where she met Louis Armstrong. Lil and Louis married on February 5, 1924. Lil became the driving force behind Louis career. She taught him to read music and wrote the music for many of the tunes he composed. She was the feature singer with Louis' Hot Five and Hot Seven bands. Lil and Louis separated in 1931 and they divorced in 1938 although they remained close friends until they died. During the 1930s Lil led several other recording groups, including the Hot Shots and the New Orleans' Wanderers. Lil also starred in Broadway shows including "Shuffle Along" and "Hot Chocolates." During the late 1930's Lil recorded for Decca Records. She moved back to Chicago in the early 1940s and performed as a soloist in Chicago nightclubs including the Tin Pan Alley Club, the Mark Twain Lounge and the Garrick Stage Bar. She also made several European tours during this period. Lil continued to cut records until 1963 and stayed active in music all her life. Lil Hardin Armstrong died of a massive heart attack on August 27, 1971 while playing the "St. Louis Blues" during a Louis Armstrong Memorial Concert just a short two months after Louis, himself passed on. She was 73 years old.
http://www.redhotjazz.com/lil.html
http://www.duke.edu/~rmc5/lil.htm
http://www.washboardwailers.nl/lil2.html
http://www.meister.u-net.com/dixie/lil_hardin.htm
http://www.heptune.com/lyrics/artists/hardinli.html
http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_126.htm
http://www.multirace.org/firstday/stamp84.htm
    1899 -16º F (-27º C), Minden LA (state record)
    1903-Jack Johnson, first Black heavyweight champion, wins the “Negro Heavyweight Title.”
http://www.famoustexans.com/jackjohnson.htm
http://espn.go.com/sportscentury/features/00014275.html
http://cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/jjohn.htm
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000027GU/
inktomi-musicasin-20/002-1958450-0644835 http://www.siteofthewest.com/search/historical/personalities/
jack_johnson/index.shtml
    1907-Birthday of James Michener, American author, born at New York, NY. Best known for massive, detailed novels, many of which were born in his workshop with assistants and researchers. His “Tales of the South Pacific” was the basis for the popular “South Pacific.” A prolific author, his other works include Sayonara, Iberia, Hawaii, Centennial and Texas. Died at Austin, TX, Oct 17, 1997.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/michene.htmHis
    1910 -- Mary Harris "Mother" Jones addresses Milwaukee brewery workers. Mother Jones spent two months working alongside women bottle-washers in one of the breweries during a period when she was not on the United Mine Workers payroll. Her report on their working conditions went like this:
"Condemned to slave daily in the wash-room in wet shoes and wet clothes, surrounded with foul-mouthed, brutal foremen . . . the poor girls work in the vile smell of sour beer, lifting cases of empty and full bottles weighing from 100 to 150 pounds, in their wet shoes and rags, for they cannot buy clothes on the pittance doled out to them. . . . Rheumatism is one of the chronic ailments and is closely followed by consumption . . . An illustration of what these girls must submit to, one about to become a mother told me with tears in her eyes that every other day a depraved specimen of mankind took delight in measuring her girth and passing comments."
    1912 -- 32,000 textile mill workers now involved in the "Bread and Roses" strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. The Bread and Roses strike began last month and lasts for over nine weeks. Despite collusion by government and mill owners and their goons, strikers will not waver, even when 18-year-old Syrian worker John Rami is killed, when Annie Welzenbach and her two teenage sisters are arrested and dragged from their beds in the middle of the night, or when 200 police draw their clubs on February 19th and go after 100 women pickets, knocking them to the ground and beating them.
http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/Lawrence.html
    1917 - Downtown Miami, FL, reported an all-time record low of 27 degrees.
    1919 - The first meeting of the League of Nations took place in Paris.
    1919-Birthday of trumpet player Eugene “Snooky” Young, Dayton, O
http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/bio/0,,512643,00.html?
artist=Snooky+Young
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/young_snooky/bio.jhtml
http://www.theiceberg.com/artist/26086/snooky_young/
    1922 -Fatty Arbuckle trial ends in hung jury Comic actor and director Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's trial ends in a hung jury on this day in 1922. Arbuckle, who worked with Charlie Chaplin and launched Buster Keaton's career, was accused of manslaughter after the death of starlet Virginia Rappe. Rappe died of a ruptured bladder several days after the 350-pound Arbuckle allegedly sexually assaulted her at a wild drinking party in San Francisco. After two hung juries, Arbuckle was acquitted, but his films were banned and withdrawn from circulation. He directed two features and several short films under the pseudonym William Goodrich. Arbuckle died in 1933 at the age of 46.
    1927-Bix Biederbecke and Tram record “Singin' the Blues,” Okeh 40772.
    1927 - United States President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, "to bring order out of this terrible chaos." The president was speaking about the nation's then unregulated radio stations.
    1928 – Birthday of Frankie Vaughn (Abelson) (singer: Garden of Eden, Tower of Strength)
    1929 – Birthday of Russell Arms (singer: Your Hit Parade)
    1930 - United States President Herbert Hoover appointed Charles Evans Hughes to be the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
    1931 -- US: The Arkansas state legislature passes a motion to pray for the soul of H. L. Mencken after he calls the state "the apex of moronia."
http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html
http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/photos/assets/photos/1047.jpg
    1933-- Birthday of alto sax player John Handy
(My late father's favorite sax player. He and violinist Mike
White would visit my late father often. He helped them
get jobs on TV and for events early in their career.)
http://www.johnhandy.com/
http://www.saxworx.com/handybio.htm
http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/handy_john_1_/bio.jhtml
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=B6658
Abraham Lincoln Observance, Oregon, annually on the first Monday in February
    1935-Birthday of guitarist Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Houston, TX, died May 18, 1996.
http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Johnny%20Guitar%20Watson.html http://www.rockabillyhall.com/JohnnyWatson.html
http://www.cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/9605/18/watson/
    1935-Birthday of singer Sugar Boy Williams ( Jody Williams )
http://www.joes-corner.de/chicago2001/photos_jody1.htm
http://ottawa-bluesfest.ca/view_artist_profile.php?artistID=60
http://www.bluesbeforesunrise.com/bbssetlist022402.html
    1939 -- The Baltimore Museum of Art exhibit Contemporary Negro Art opens. The exhibit, which will run for 16 days, will feature works by Richmond Barth, Aaron Douglas, Archibald Motley, Jr., and Jacob Lawrence's Toussaint L'Ouverture series.
http://sheldon.unl.edu/HTML/ARTIST/Lawrence_J/SSII.html
    1940-Birthday of pro football Hall of Fame quarterback Francis Asbury “Fran” Tarkenton, Richmond, VA.
    1941-Jimmy Dorsey Band records, “Amapola,” Decca 3692.
    1941-Birthday of Hall of Fame golfer Carol Mann, born Buffalo, NY.
    1943- The Allied troopship S.S. Dorchester was torpedoed by a German sub and went down with a loss of 600 lives. As it sank, four chaplains gave up their lifejackets to shipmates, thereby also perishing in the icy waters. The bravery of Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed), Rev. George Lansing Fox (Methodist), Father John Washington (a Catholic priest) and Alexander David Goode (a Jewish rabbi) led Congress afterward to mark February 3rd as "Four Chaplains Day."
http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chaplains.html
    1945-Birhday of broadcaster and Po Football Hall of Fame quarterback Robert Allen “Bob” Griese.
    1945-Birthday of tuba player Bob Stewart, Sioux Falls, SD
http://www.centrohd.com/biogra/s1/bob_stewart_b.htm
http://www.view.com/stewart-bio.html
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Bu2jx7i8jg7or
    1946—Top Hits
Symphony - The Freddy Martin Orchestra (vocal: Clyde Rogers)
I Can't Begin to Tell You - Bing Crosby with the Carmen Cavallaro Orchestra
Let It Snow - Vaughn Monroe
Guitar Polka - Al Dexter
    1947-North America's Coldest Record Temperature: at Snag, in Canada's Yukon Territory, a temperature of 81 degrees below zero ( Fahrenheit) was recorded, a record low for all of North America.
    1947 - The temperature at Tanacross, AK, plunged to a record 75 degrees below zero.
    1947 – Birthday of American author Paul Auster, born Newark, New Jersey.
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/slas/harman/auster.html
    1950 - The Ames Brothers, Ed, Gene, Joe and Vic, reached #1 on the pop music charts for the first time, with "Rag Mop". The brothers had many successes in their recording career: "You You You" [1953], "The Man with the Banjo" and "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" [1954], "Tammy" and "Melody d'Amour" [1957]. Ed Ames was formerly with the Russ Morgan band, after the brothers broke up in the late 1950s, he went on to have a successful television and recording career. In the 1960s, he recorded the hits "My Cup Runneth Over" and "Who Will Answer". On television, he played Mingo on "Daniel Boone". Ed is remembered for one of the "Tonight Show's" funniest moments when he competed with host, Johnny Carson, in a hand axe-tossing contest. Mingo won with hilarious consequences still shown in every celebration of "The Tonight Show".
    1951 - For the sixth time, Dick Button won the United States figure skating title.
    1951 - Tennessee Williams' play, "The Rose Tattoo", opened on Broadway.
    1953 - Marine archeologist Jacques Cousteau became renowned worldwide for documenting his deep sea explorations. His first and most-lasting work, The Silent World, was published on this date. He attracted world attention when he salvaged a 1,000-pound Roman freighter near Marseilles. While in the French navy, he and engineer Emil Gargon invented the aqualung. However, Cousteau is best known for his documentaries and book.
    1954—Top Hits
Oh! My Pa-Pa - Eddie Fisher
Secret Love - Doris Day
Make Love to Me - Jo Stafford
Bimbo - Jim Reeves
    1956-Autherine Lucy becomes the first Black student at the University of Alabama. She was suspended four days later following a riot and expelled on February 29.
http://www.rochester.k12.mn.us/jm/teacherpages/dastutz/
civrigthsper1/chanellet.htm
http://www.osm.ua.edu/corolla/100yrs/27.html
http://www.datelinealabama.com/article/2002/11/21/3352_alumni_art.php3
    1956 -- Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash hold a recording session at Sun Studios in Memphis. The sessions are later named the "Million Dollar Quartet.”
    1957-Birthday of Marlon Riggs , Fort Worth, Texas,
Fearless American filmmaker, black activist, AIDS martyr, died 1964.
http://www.colorado.edu/journals/standards/V5N1/marlonintro.html
http://www.colorado.edu/journals/standards/V5N1/riggs_release.html
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/RiggsInterview.html
    1959—The anniversary of the death of rock-and-roll legend Charles Hardin “Buddy” Holly. Many of his songs came from a wire recording he made in his apartment, that were put onto records after his death. “ The Day the Music Died” singer Don McLean's song, American Pie, “ is the date on which Holly was killed in a plane crash in a cornfield near Mason City, IA, along with J.P. Richardson, “ The Big Bopper,” and Richie Vallens, “That' Be the Day.” Holly was born September 7, 1936, at LubbockTX. While on a concert tour, rock and roll singers Buddy Holly, age 22, Ritchie Valenz, age 17, and J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, age 24, died when the airplane they were traveling in crashed only minutes after takeoff into a cornfield near Mason City, Iowa. The plane's pilot was not certified to fly by instruments, which was what he attempted to do. It was determined that he could not see the stars nor the lights below because of the visual obstruction of falling snow, and he misread the instrument panel. When the artists failed to arrive in Fargo for the concert, the then-unknown Bobby Vee took Buddy Holly's place. He greatly influenced rock groups and singers that came later, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and Bob Dylan. Valenz had just recorded two back-to-back hits, Donna and La Bamba. The tragic news of the three young entertainers' deaths devastated the world. Holly was buried in his home town of Lubbock, Texas, and more than 1,000 people attended the funeral. Holly, just 22, had started singing country music with high school friends but switched to rock and roll after opening for various rock singers, including Elvis Presley. By the mid-1950s, Holly and his band had a regular radio show and had toured internationally, playing hits like "Peggy Sue," "Oh, Boy!," "Maybe Baby," and "Early in the Morning." Holly wrote all his own songs, and much of his work was released after his death, influencing such artists as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney. Another crash victim, J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, 28, had started out as a disk jockey but began writing songs during his two years in the army. He wrote songs for other artists, including "Running Bear," a chart-climbing song recorded by singer Johnny Preston. The most famous work performed by Richardson himself was the rockabilly "Chantilly Lace," which made the Top 10. He developed a stage show based on his radio persona, "The Big Bopper." The third crash victim was Ritchie Valens, born Richard Valenzuela, who was only 17 when the plane went down but had already scored a No. 2 hit with the ballad "Donna." He had also hit No. 22 with "La Bamba," an upbeat number based on a traditional Mexican wedding song. In 1987, Valens' life was portrayed in the movie La Bamba, and the title song, performed by Los Lobos, became a No. 1 hit. Singer Don McLean memorialized Holly, Valens, and Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit "American Pie," which was rerecorded by Madonna in 2000
    1962—Top Hits
Peppermint Twist - Joey Dee & The Starliters
Can't Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley
Norman - Sue Thompson
Walk on By - Leroy Van Dyke
    1965-African-American Geraldine McCullough wins Widener Gold Medal for Sculpture.
http://www.it.famu.edu/afroam/Black_History/Culture/Art/
Geraldine_McCullough/geraldine_mccullough.html
    1968-The Beatles record Paul McCartney's song "Lady Madonna" at EMI's Abbey Road studios. They accomplished this in just three takes.
    1969- John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hire Allen Klein as the Beatles' business manager. Paul McCartney dissents and the hiring is contributing factor to the group's breakup.
    1970—Top Hits
I Want You Back - The Jackson 5
Venus - The Shocking Blue
Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
A Week in a Country Jail - Tom T. Hall
    1971- country singer Lynn Anderson was awarded a gold record for her recording of Joe South's "Rose Garden," which topped both the country and pop charts.
    1973-President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act into law.
    1973 -- Convicted mass-murderer Juan V. Corona sentenced to 25 terms of life imprisonment (which, it was stipulated, he was to serve consecutively).
    1978—Top Hits
Baby Come Back - Player
Short People - Randy Newman
Stayin' Alive - Bee Gees
Out of My Head and Back in My Bed - Loretta Lynn
    1978- It's the 19th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death. It's also the day on which his birthplace in Lubbock, Texas had been scheduled for demolition by the Lubbock Building Department. The Department had no idea the house had any association with the town's most famous son. However a few days ago, a man bought the place, moved it intact, outside the city limits and fixed it up so his family could move in. He too, did not know the significance of the house and became the man who save Buddy Holly's birthplace by accident.
    1978- "Dead Man's Curve," a made-for-TV-movie about surf-rock singer Jan & Dean, airs on ABC-TV. Jan and Dean were classmates at University High School, West Los Angeles, California.
    1979-A sold-out crowd packs into the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, for a concert commemorating the 20th anniversary of the place crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Wolfman Jack hosts with featured performances by Del Shannon, Jimmy Clanton and the Drifters. Disco was in. By the way, She is the first female artist to have three number one solo singles in one year ("MacArthur Park," "Hot Stuff" and "Bad Girls") and she is the only artist to have three number one double albums in a row ("Live And More," "Bad Girls," and "On The Radio").
http://www.delafont.com/music_acts/Donna-Summer.htm
http://www.discomusic.com/
    1982- the city of Memphis declared "Bar-Kays Day" in honor of the band that began as Otis Redding's backup group. Several members of the Bar-Kays died in the 1967 plane crash that killed Redding, but the group survived to have such hits as "Soul Finger" and "Shake Your Rump to the Funk."
    1986 - The United States Weather Bureau officially named January of 1986 the warmest January since 1953. The average temperature in United States for that month was 31989, on the 30th anniversary of Buddy Holly's death, Bobby Vee and the Crickets played a memorial concert before 1,700 fans in Fargo, North Dakota. Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper were on their way to Fargo when their plane crashed. It was Vee who took Holly's place in Fargo the night of the tragedy. It was the beginning of his career, and Vee went on to place 38 hits on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. 8 degrees.
    1986—Top Hits
That's What Friends are For - Dionne & Friends
Burning Heart - Survivor
I'm Your Man - Wham!
Just in Case - The Forester Sisters
    1988 - Arctic air continued to invade the central U.S. The temperature at Midland TX plunged from a record high of 80 degrees to 37 degrees in just three hours. Morning lows in the higher elevations of Wyoming were as cold as 38 degrees below zero. Heavy snow blanketed southwestern Colorado, with 16 inches reported at Steamboat Springs.
    1989 - A winter storm brought heavy snow and high winds to the western U.S. Up to three feet of snow blanketed the Sierra Nevada of California, and buried parts of northeastern Washington State under three feet of snow in five days. High winds across Washington State reached 75 mph, with gusts to 105 mph. The morning low of 29 degrees below zero at Casper WY was a record for the month of February. Wisdom MT hit 53 degrees below zero. Missoula MT reported a wind chill reading of 85 degrees below zero.
    1990 - Thunderstorms developing ahead of a cold front produced severe weather over the central Gulf coast states during the afternoon and evening hours. Thunderstorms spawned seven tornadoes in Alabama, including one which touched down north of Birmingham injuring fifteen people and causing nearly three million dollars damage. A tornado at Margaret injured eleven persons and caused a million dollars damage
    1990- Quebec teen heartthrob Roch Voisine (ROCK VWAH-ZINN') won the best international French-language album award at a ceremony in Paris. His album "Helene" was at the top of the French chart at the time.
    1990 - Jockey Willie Shoemaker raced for the 40,352nd and last time. He finished fourth at the Santa Anita Racetrack aboard 7-10 favorite "Patchy Groundfog". Shoemaker won 1100 stakes and 8,833 wins (a world record that stood until Laffit Pincay Jr. topped it in 1999) in 40,350 races. In 42 years, Shoemaker won 11 Triple Crown races, including four Kentucky Derbies, five Belmont Stakes, and three Preakness Stakes; 1,009 stakes races; and 10 national money titles. He earned more than $123 million in purses, about $10 million of which went into his pocket. (Shoemaker's life took a tragic turn on April 8, 1991, when he was left paralyzed from the neck down after an auto accident.)
    1995 - Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins became the first woman space-shuttle pilot this day as the space shuttle "Discovery" (STS-63) blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. Wearing a scarf that belonged to Amelia Earhart and carrying the pilot's license of early endurance flight champion Bobbi Trout, as well as items belonging to members of the Women Air force Service Pilots who ferried military aircraft in the U.S. during WWII (and died) and from the women who applied and passed initial tests in NASA's Mercury program in the 1950's, but were turned down because of their sex, Lt. Colonel Eileen Collins, 38, lifted off from Cape Canaveral in the co-pilot's seat, as the first woman to pilot an American space craft. An Air Force test pilot, she was selected for the NASA space program in 1990, the first woman chosen as a space shuttle pilot. In December 1994, two more women were chosen.
http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/whos_
who_level2/collins.html
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/collins.html
http://www.undelete.org/military/astronauts.html
    1996 - Rap artist Queen Latifah was stopped by a California Highway Patrol officer and arrested for reportedly possession of a concealed, loaded handgun, possession of marijuana, and speeding as she was traveling west on Interstate 10. Pending the results of a sobriety test, she could also face DUI charges. The Grammy-winning singer was known for her anti-drug and anti-violent messages in her music, and was a popular actress on the television sitcom Living Single . She is perhaps best known now for her role in the movie “Chicago.”
    1996-The first American serviceman killed during the Bosnia conflict was Sergeant First Class Donald Allen Dugan of Ridgeway, OH, a member of the peacekeeping force organized by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that entered Bosnia-Hercegovina in December, 1995. Dugan was killed in an explosion in Sarajevo, Bosnia. The cause of the explosion was not determined.
    1996-Blues Traveler's "Run-Around" was on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart for the 46th straight week, breaking the record held by Tag Team's "Whoomp! (There It Is)" and Crystal Waters' "100 Per Cent Pure Love."
    1998-Winger Dino Ciccarelli of the Florida Panthers became the ninth player in NHL history to score 600 regular-season goals. Ciccarelli tallied in the third period of a game against the Detroit Red Wings. The power-play goal earned Florida a 1-1 tie.
    1998- Attorneys general subpoena Microsoft The antitrust suit against Microsoft expanded as attorneys general from several states issued new subpoenas regarding Microsoft's business practices in the pending launch of Windows 98. Microsoft's battle with the government during the next year would reveal secret deals with online providers, hardball tactics for promoting Internet Explorer, and other questionable practices. The government claimed such practices were ruthless and anticompetitive, but Microsoft called them just plain good business. However, Microsoft won on one point this day: An appeals judge agreed to suspend the investigation of a "special master"-an expert on Internet law-to whom Microsoft objected.
    2001 - The XFL (Xtreme Football League) debuted. The league was created by Vince McMahon, mastermind behind the WWF (World Wrestling Federation). What was promoted as “Football the Way It Was Meant to Be Played” soon faded into painful memories for TV viewers and fans. The WWF apparently thought that it could pull in millions of wrestling fans to support the league, but was shocked when it discovered that actual football fans were the major supporters of the XFL, and these football fans were turned off by the wrestling-show influence on the games.
    2002-XXXVI-As possibly the biggest underdog in SB history (14 points), the Patriots won the hearts of much of America by shutting down the "greatest show on turf" St. Louis Rams and then kicking a filed goal on the final play of the game with the final outcome 20-17. After struggling to a 5-11 record in 2000, they began this season 1-3 and lost their starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, to injury.
But backup Tom Brady replaced him and eventually led the team to nine straight wins, including the Super Bowl. February 1,2003, Adam Vinatieri repeated his Super Bowl performance of two years ago, nailing a 41-yard field goal with nine seconds to play to give the Patriots a 32-29 Super Bowl win over the Carolina Panthers.

Super Bowl XXXIX February 6, 2005 Alltel Stadium Jacksonville, Florida
Super Bowl XL February 5, 2006 Ford Field Detroit, Michigan