This Week in American History

• Feb. 24. On this day in 1978, the Yuba County Five disappear after attending a California State University basketball game. Several days after they disappeared, their car was found on a remote dirt road in the Plumas National Forest. Investigators determined the car was in working condition and could have easily been pushed from the snow bank in which it was found. In June, after the snow melt, the bodies of four of the young men were found near a backpackers trailer camp, one in a trailer and remains of the other three in the woods. One still remains missing. The five young men suffered from mild intellectual disabilities.

• Feb. 25. Today in 1933, the USS Ranger is launched at Newport News, Virginia. Ranger was America’s first purpose-built aircraft carrier when the battleship supporters still ruled the Navy. She saw action during World War II in the Atlantic. Decommissioned in 1946, she would be sold for scrap in 1947.

• Feb. 26. On this day in 1979, the Superliner railcar begins service with Amtrak. The Superliner is a bilevel railroad passenger car and includes coaches, dining cars, lounges and sleeping cars. They replaced the old single-level design railroad cars.

• Feb. 27. Today in 1951, the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution was passed, officially limiting the President to two terms. President George Washington had set a precedent for only serving two terms which lasted until President Franklin Roosevelt was elected to four consecutive terms. Fifty-four joint resolutions to repeal the 22nd Amendment have failed since it was passed. There are people who feel as though Senators and Congressmen should be held to the same two-year limitation.

• Feb. 28. In 1918, Mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel is born in Brooklyn, New York. His parents relatively poor Jewish immigrants, Siegel becomes involved in organized crime at a young age and is a boyhood friend of fellow gangster Al Capone. Siegel will be murdered on June 20, 1947, shot multiple times with an M-1 carbine while at his home. No arrests are ever made and the murder is never solved. At the time, there was little doubt that it was a mob hit.

• Mar. 1. On this day in 1910, a severe blizzard has dropped an incredible volume of snow in northeastern King County, Washington. The snow is followed by warm rain and thunderstorms resulting in a huge avalanche – a mass of snow estimated at 10 feet high, half a mile long and a quarter-mile wide. The avalanche struck a Great Northern Railway train at the Wellington depot, carrying the train about 150 feet and into the Tye River Valley. Ninety-six people are killed with another 23 suffering various injuries. It will be over 20 weeks later before the final bodies can be recovered. The depot would be closed and the town later abandoned.

• Mar. 2. Today in 1949, the B-50 Superfortress “Lucky Lady” lands in Fort Worth, Texas, completing the first non-stop around-the-world flight in just over 94 hours. The airplane was an extensively modified B-29 Superfortress. The fuselage of Lucky Lady is on display at the Planes of Fame Museum in Chino, California.

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