This Day…

1930 – “The Blue Angel” starring Marlene Dietrich in her breakthrough role premieres in Germany.

1867 – The United States buys Alaska from Russia.  The territory at the north-western tip of North America cost only $7.2 million.

1920 – Actor Douglas Fairbanks (36) marries actress Mary Pickford (28).

1916 – British author of “The Lord of the Rings”, J.R.R. Tolkien marries Edith Mary Bratt at St. Mary Immaculate Roman Catholic Church, Warwick

1922 – British magistrates in India sentence Mahatma Gandhi to 6 years imprisonment for disobedience.

1826 – The first railroad in the U.S. was chartered. It was the Granite Railway in Quincy, MA.

1854 – Republican Party formally organized in Ripon, Wisconsin.

1846 – 1st US woman telegrapher, Sarah G Bagley, Lowell, Massachusetts.

1953 – Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz signed a contract worth $8,000,000 to continue the “I Love Lucy” TV show through 1955.

1929 – St Valentine’s Day Massacre in Chicago, 7 gangsters killed, allegedly on Al Capone‘s orders.