99 years ago – In 1924, the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company was renamed the International Business Machines Corporation . . . IBM.

94 years ago – In 1929, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre went down.  Al Capone’s hit-men . . . two of whom were dressed in police uniforms . . . walked into a Chicago garage owned by rival gang leader Bugs Moran, lined up seven of his boys against a brick wall and gunned them down.

92 years ago – In 1931, the horror classic “Dracula”, starring Bela Lugosi, was released on Valentine’s Day . . . because in a twisted way, it can kind of be looked at as a love story. 

(The 1992 flick “Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, starring Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder, is much better as a love story . . . but somewhat boring for a horror movie.)

56 years ago – In 1967, Aretha Franklin recorded her signature song, “Respect“.

48 years ago – In 1975, a judge ruled that the theme song to “The Mickey Mouse Club“ could NOT be used as the background music to an ORGY SCENE in “The Life and Times of Xaviera Hollander“.

47 years ago – In 1976, ELO‘s “Evil Woman“ peaked at #10 on the pop chart.

46 years ago – In 1977, The B-52s gave their debut performance at a Valentine’s party in Athens, Georgia.

36 years ago – In 1987, Bon Jovi hit #1 with “Livin’ on a Prayer“.

35 years ago – In 1988, U.S. Olympic speed skater Dan Jansen had the worst day of his life.  On the day of the race, his sister died of leukemia.  It rattled him enough that he tripped on the first turn, spilling across the ice.  He fell in the next race, too.  He didn’t medal at the 1992 Olympics . . . but finally won Gold in 1994.

34 years ago – In 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini issued a “fatwa,” calling on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie because of his “blasphemous” novel “The Satanic Verses“. 

Rushdie was awesome on “Curb Your Enthusiasm“ . . . “Fatwa-sex is the best sex there is!”

31 years ago – In 1992, “Wayne’s World“ opened in theaters.  Mike Myers is Wayne Campbell.  Dana Carvey is Garth Algar.  Alice Cooper is God . . . and “WE’RE NOT WORTHY!“

20 years ago – In 2003, “Daredevil” was released, starring Ben Affleck as Daredevil, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin, and Colin Farrell as Bullseye.

18 years ago – In 2005, YouTube was launched from San Bruno, California.  It was created by three former PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim.  Google bought it in November 2006 for $1.65 billion.

Fun Fact:  Jawed Karim uploaded the first YouTube video “Me at the zoo“.  After viewing the first YouTube video, it’s hard to believe that Jawed Karim is a YouTube genius.  But he did pocket $66 million from YouTube’s sale to Google.

13 years ago – In 2010, Doug Fieger of The Knack lost his battle with cancer.  He was only 57.  Fieger was the co-writer and lead singer of The Knack’s 1979 debut smash “My Sharona“.  It spent six weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100.

12 years ago – In 2011, IBM supercomputer Watson began dominating past “Jeopardy!” champions Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings on a three-day special.  The final tally was Rutter $21,600 | Jennings $24,000 | Watson $77,147.

Watson’s win earned IBM the $1 million grand prize . . . and respect for its progressive development of artificial intelligence.

Five years ago – In 2018, Parkland, Florida was devastated by the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.  An expelled student opened fire on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. 

In less than four minutes, he’d murdered 17 people and wounded 17 others. When he stopped firing, he hid his weapon, and tried to escape by blending in with the crowd.  He pled guilty to all charges.

Four years ago – In 2019, Kanye West hired Kenny G and his soothing saxophone to serenade Kim Kardashian in a room filled with single-stem roses.