February 2

The 2nd in 1709 saw the rescue of Alexander Selkirk from an island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago, where he had been marooned for more than almost six years. While Daniel Dafoe may have used the Selkirk story as the basis for his novel Robinson Crusoe, it was Russell Johnson who used it as the foundation of his screenplay for the epic tale of adventure Gilligan’s Island. Selkirk became a castaway in 1703, when in the employ of the pirate William Dampier on board the vessel St. George. He began his years of solitude when Dampier grew tired of Selkirk’s constant complaining and left him on the island. Selkirk was left with a musket, gunpowder, carpenter's tools, a knife, a Bible and his clothing. Selkirk was left to suffer the privations of a solitary life with no high-speed internet connection and extremely poor cell phone service.

February 1

When you consider the six flags that have flown over Texas, it is needless to say that the State of Texas had a bit of a difficult birth. Texas declared its independence of Spain on March 2, 1836 and fought a war to insure that independence; a war that they won on April 21 of the same year. On December 29, 1845, President James K. Polk signed a bill admitting Texas as the 28th state of the United States of America. On February 1, 1861, after being in the United States for less than 16 years, Texas seceded from the Union to become a slave state. Apparently, the State of Texas was then, as it remains today, a state of confusion.
The six flags over Texas were the flags of Spain, France, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and, for the time being, the United States of America.
Spaniard Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to set foot in Texas when he was shipwrecked on November 6, 1528.

January 31

The first satellite successfully launched and placed in an Earth orbit was Russia’s Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957. The second satellite to reach orbital altitude and remain there was America’s Satellite 1958 Alpha, also known as Explorer 1, which had been launched on the 31st in 1958.

January 30

Oliver Cromwell had a rough go of it for a while. While he may have died on September 3, 1658, he did not rest easily in the grave. On the 30th in 1661, his body was exhumed from its crypt in Westminster Abbey. Once out in the fresh air, after being decapitated, his body was hung in chains at the village of Tyburn. After a bit of airing, his body was thrown into a conveniently located pit. His head however was placed on a pole and was then put on display outside of Westminster Abbey until 1685.

January 29

There are times, when young love is in full flower, that the two paramours just have to get out of town and venture onto life’s highway on their own. Young lovers and serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate, after leaving a trail of blood and bodies across the mid-west finally ran out of highway on the 29th in 1958. Starkweather was executed on June 25, 1959. Fugate was 14 years old at the time of the killing spree. She was paroled in 1976 after serving 18 years for her role in the murders. The couple murdered eleven people in Nebraska and Wyoming. Robert Colvert was the first. Caril Ann’s mother and stepfather and her two-year-old sister, Betty Jean were next followed by August Meyer, C. Lauer and Clara Ward and their maid. Finally they murdered Merle Collison, Robert Jensen, and Carol King.

January 28

If you ever want to get an idea of just how big America is, simply take a train ride from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It is a great trip, but I should warn you that you must be extremely fond of trains. Trans-continental train service in the United States became possible on May 10, 1869, when the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific railroads were joined at Promontory Summit, Utah. However, the first trans-continental train trip was made by the Panama Railway across the tiny Isthmus of Panama on the 28th in 1855.

January 27

Speaking of Rangers hitting their mark, Operation Ranger was the name given to the fourth in a series of above ground nuclear tests that were conducted in the Nevada desert. On the 27th in 1951 test Able was conducted in which a nuclear weapon rated at 1 megaton was detonated by the Air Force (yes, ours). The bomb was dropped from a B-50 bomber. I imagine that the good people of Las Vegas, which had become a very popular destination for people wishing to watch the mushroom clouds from the tests, were pleased that the bombardier hit his target.