Moments in Time – January 26, 2022

#Middlebury

• On Feb. 13, 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. The Copernican theory conflicted with the teachings of the powerful Roman Catholic Church.
• On Feb. 8, 1936, University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger, the first Heisman Trophy winner, is picked No. 1 overall in the NFL draft. However, Berwanger never played for any NFL team because he had too many demands, which teams refused to meet. Instead the college star became a foam rubber salesman.
• On Feb. 9, 1942, the largest and most luxurious ocean liner on the seas at that time, France’s Normandie, catches fire while in the process of being converted for military use by the United States. It was to become a troop transport but ended up at the bottom of New York Harbor.
• On Feb. 7, 1962, President John F. Kennedy issues an executive order broadening the United States’ restrictions on trade with Cuba. The embargo, which effectively restricts all trade between Cuba and the United States, has lapsed several times, notably under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama.
• On Feb. 11, 1970, at the Kagoshima Space Center in Japan, the Ohsumi, Japan’s first satellite, is successfully launched into an orbit around Earth. The achievement made Japan the world’s fourth space power, after the Soviet Union in 1957, the United States in 1958, and France in 1965.
• On Feb. 10, 1996, after three hours, world chess champion Garry Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer. Kasparov was ultimately victorious when he bested Deep Blue with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize.
• On Feb. 12, 2002, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. The trial ended without a verdict when Milosevic was found dead from an apparent heart attack in his prison cell.

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