February 8th

~~This Day in History: 
-- This day in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded for allegedly attempting to steal the throne from her sister, Elizabeth I. This was a key moment in Elizabeth's reign, for it most secured for England a monarch that believed in relative religions freedom.

-- This day in 1943, the Americans secured the island of Guadalcanal from the Japanese during World War II. This was one of the biggest and key battles in the Pacific Theatre. It took nearly six months and several thousand American lives to secure it. For the Japanese, it took 25,000 lives to defend it...unsuccessfully.

-- This day in 1958, Bobby Fischer became the youngest International Grand Master in chess history, having a perfect score of 11, 0. He was not even 14 years of age.


~~Random Fact of the Day:

“The Star Spangled Banner,” by Francis Scott Key, was originally a poem titled “The Defense of Fort McHenry,”