the news
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February 12, 1994: The Scream Vanishes
50 Seconds in Oslo On February 12, 1994, during the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, four men broke into the National Gallery in Oslo. They left with Norway’s most precious cultural treasure: Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” The entire operation took 50 seconds. It was almost too perfect. While the world watched ski…
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February 11, 2020: The World Learns a New Word—COVID-19
The Naming On February 11, 2020, in Geneva, the World Health Organization gave the world a name for something it had been fearing for weeks. The disease caused by the novel coronavirus—first detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019—would officially be called COVID-19. The virus itself received the scientific designation SARS-CoV-2. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,…
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February 10, 1996: Deep Blue Makes History Against Kasparov
The First Crack in the Armor On February 10, 1996, in Philadelphia, something happened that had never happened before. A machine defeated a reigning world chess champion in a tournament game under standard time controls. Garry Kasparov, the undisputed king of chess, the man who had held the world title for over a decade, lost…
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February 9, 1964: The Beatles Conquer America on The Ed Sullivan Show
73 Million People Hold Their Breath On February 9, 1964, at 8:00 PM EST, television history was made. Four young men from Liverpool—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr—stepped onto the stage of CBS Studio 50 in New York City to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. What followed wasn’t just a performance.…
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February 8, 1974: The Skylab 4 Crew Returns to Earth After 84 Days in Space
The Longest Goodbye On February 8, 1974, at 11:16 AM EST, three tired men splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, 176 miles southwest of San Diego. Commander Gerald Carr, Science Pilot Edward Gibson, and Pilot William Pogue had spent 84 days, 1 hour, and 16 minutes in orbit—longer than any humans before them. When they…
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February 7, 1978: Ashton Kutcher Is Born
From Iowa to Hollywood On February 7, 1978, Christopher Ashton Kutcher was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Raised in a conservative Catholic family in the small town of Homestead, young Ashton seemed an unlikely candidate for Hollywood stardom. He worked odd jobs—roofing, lawn care, factory work at General Mills—to help support his family after his…
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February 6, 2018: SpaceX Falcon Heavy Makes Its Maiden Flight
The Most Spectacular Launch in Decades On February 6, 2018, at 3:45 PM EST, a new era in space exploration began with a roar that shook Cape Canaveral. SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, the most powerful rocket launched since the Saturn V moon rockets of the 1970s, lifted off from Launch Complex 39A—the same pad that had…
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February 5, 2016: Steven Joyce Gets Hit by a Flying Dildo
An Unusual Form of Political Protest On February 5, 2016, New Zealand’s Minister for Economic Development, Steven Joyce, was in the middle of a press conference at Waitangi when something unexpected flew through the air and struck him square in the face. It wasn’t a shoe, an egg, or a tomato—it was a bright pink…
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February 4, 2004: Facebook Is Founded
The Dorm Room Revolution On February 4, 2004, a 19-year-old Harvard sophomore named Mark Zuckerberg launched a website from his dorm room in Kirkland House. He called it “TheFacebook”—a social network for Harvard students to connect, share photos, and check each other’s relationship status. Zuckerberg wasn’t the first to create a social networking site, but…
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February 3, 1984: Elizabeth Holmes Is Born
The Birth of a Silicon Valley Myth On February 3, 1984, Elizabeth Holmes was born in Washington, D.C. to a well-connected family—her father was a vice president at Enron (a fact that would later seem prophetic), and her mother was a congressional committee staffer. Forty years later, she would be serving an 11-year prison sentence…