Moments in Time: Untethered Spacewalk
The History Channel
On Feb. 2, 1925, musher Gunnar Kaasen and his 13 dogs successfully delivered an antitoxin serum to Nome, Alaska, which was dealing with a widespread diptheria outbreak, in a relay spanning 674 miles in five and a half days and in temperatures as low as 85 degrees below zero.
On Feb. 3, 1780, Barnett Davenport murdered Caleb Mallory, in whose house he was a boarder, along with Mallory's wife, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, in their home. One of post-Revolution America's most famous crimes, it contributed to a change in the way the country viewed lawbreakers.
On Feb. 4, 1703, 47 samurai were forced to display the ultimate act of loyalty to the regional Japanese lord they had followed by committing seppuku -- ritually disemboweling themselves -- for the crime of killing the official who had ordered the forced suicide of said lord.
On Feb. 5, 2003, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell gave a speech to the United Nations outlining America's case that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and making an argument for the invasion that would take place the following month. Unfortunately, some of his talking points were either incorrect or misleading, and Powell later described the speech as a blot on his record.
On Feb. 6, 1998, a judge reinstated schoolteacher Mary Kay Letourneau's suspended sentence and returned her to prison for seven years after she was caught violating a no-contact order with her former student, Vili Fualaau, when she was found in a parked car with the boy.
On Feb. 7, 1984, Navy captain Bruce McCandless II became the first human to perform an untethered spacewalk while in orbit 170 miles above the earth, maneuvering freely with a jet pack of his own design after exiting the Challenger space shuttle.
On Feb. 8, 1994, actor Jack Nicholson approached Robert Blank's car while they were stopped at a red light in North Hollywood, accused Blank of cutting him off in traffic, and then bashed Blank's roof and windshield with a golf club. Charges were dropped after Nicholson apologized and the two reached an undisclosed settlement that included a reported $500,000 check from Nicholson.
(c) 2026 King Features Synd., Inc.