1587
Feb 1, Elizabeth I, Queen of England, signed the Warrant of Execution for Mary Queen of Scots.

1878
Feb 1, Hattie Caraway, first woman elected to the U.S. Senate, was born.

1915
Feb 1, San Francisco’s Police Commission appointed Mrs. Blanche Payson as the city’s first special police woman, following her request and letter of introduction from William Pinkerton.

1919
Feb 1, “There she is..." The first Miss America was crowned on this day, not in Atlantic City, but in New York City. Edith Hyde was not, the judges found, a Miss. She was a Mrs. Mrs. Tod Robbins, the mother of two children.

1939
Feb 1, Contralto Marian Anderson was denied a performance at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, who owned the place. She performed instead on Easter Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial at the invitation of the Dept. Of the Interior.

1979
Feb 1, Newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, whose prison sentence for bank robbery had been commuted by President Jimmy Carter, left a federal prison at Pleasanton near SF. She later published "Every Secret Thing."

1987
Feb 1, Sala Burton (b.1925), US Representative from California (1983-1987), died of colon cancer in Washington, DC. She served as president of the San Francisco Democratic Women's Forum from 1957 to 1959. Burton was succeeded by Nancy Pelosi.

2002
Feb 1, Danielle van Dam (7) went missing from Sabre Springs, her San Diego suburban home. David Westerfield (49), a neighbor, was arrested Feb 22 after her blood was found on his clothing and in his motor home. Her body was found Feb 27 some 25 miles northeast of San Diego at Dehesa. Westerfield was convicted of her kidnapping and murder on Aug 21 and was sentenced to death Jan 3, 2003.

2007
Feb 1, Ecuador’s government named Lorena Escudero (41) to be defense minister, to take over after the first female to hold the office was killed in a helicopter accident.

2008
Feb 1, In Iraq 2 female suicide bombers blew themselves up in separate attacks on Baghdad pet bazaars, killing at least 68 people and wounding dozens. The attacks were the deadliest in the Iraqi capital since 30,000 more American troops flooded into the center of the country last spring. The next day officials raised the death toll to at least 99, including 62 people killed at the central al-Ghazl market and 37 others killed about 20 minutes later across town. PM al-Maliki said the suicide bombers were both mentally disabled and that their suicide vests were remotely controlled.


2010 Feb 1, In Iraq a female suicide bomber mingling among Shiite pilgrims in northern Baghdad detonated an explosives belt, killing at least 54 people on the outskirts of the Shiite neighborhood of Shaab.