GMT

Today in History: February 8

1587 Mary, Queen of Scots is beheaded in Fotheringhay Castle for her alleged part in the conspiracy to usurp Elizabeth I.

1861 Delegates from seceded states adopt a provisional Confederate Constitution.

1887 Congress passes the Dawes Act, which gives citizenship to Indians living apart from their tribe.

1910 The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.

1924 The gas chamber is used for the first time to execute a murderer.

1943 British General Orde Wingate leads a guerrilla force of "Chindits" against the Japanese in Burma.

1952 Elizabeth becomes Queen of England after her father, King George VI, dies.

1971 South Vietnamese ground forces, backed by American air power, begin Operation Lam Son 719, a 17,000 man incursion into Laos that ends three weeks later in a disaster.

1990 CBS television temporarily suspends Andy Rooney for his anti-gay and ant-black remarks in a magazine interview.

Born on February 8

1820 William T. Sherman, Union general in the American Civil War.

1828 Jules Verne, French novelist, one of the first writers of science fiction (Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea).

1834 Dmitri Ivanovich Medeleyev, Russian chemist, developed the periodic table of elements.

1931 James Dean, film actor and 1950s teenage icon (Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Giant).


JOTD
BECOMING IRISH

Seven-year-old Mohammad entered his classroom in Dublin on the first day of school..
"What's your name?", asked the teacher.
"Mohammad," he replied.
"You're in Ireland now," replied the teacher, "so from now on you will be known as Mick."
Mohammad returned home after school. "How was your day, Mohammad?" his mother asked. "My name is not Mohammad. I'm in Ireland and now my name is Mick." "Are you ashamed of your name?" his mother asked. "Are you trying to dishonor your parents, your heritage, your religion? Shame on you!" And his mother beat the shite out of him. Then she called his father, who beat the shite out of him again.
The next day Mohammad returned to school.
The teacher saw all his fresh bruises.
"What happened to you, Mick?" she asked.
"Well, shortly after becoming an Irishman, I was attacked by two fricking Muslims