I'm not dead yet.

It's the second day of the Chinese New Year. The second day of the Chinese New Year is for married daughters to visit their birth parents. Traditionally, daughters who have been married may not have the opportunity to visit their birth families frequently. On the second day, the Chinese pray to their ancestors as well as to all the gods. They are extra kind to dogs and feed them well as it is believed that the second day is the birthday of all dogs.

Here is your Today in History -

February 8, 1587 -
After some nineteen years in prison, Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded. She had spent the last hours of her life in prayer and also writing letters and her will. She expressed a request that her servants should be released. She also requested that she should be buried in France. The scaffold that was erected in the great hall was three feet tall and draped in black. It was reached by 5 steps and the only things on it were a disrobing stool, the block, a cushion for her to kneel on, and a bloody butcher's axe that had been previously used on animals. At her execution she removed a black cloak to reveal a deep red dress—the liturgical colour of martyrdom in the Catholic Church.



The execution was badly carried out. It is said to have taken three blows to hack off her head. The first blow struck the back of her head, the next struck her shoulder and severed her subclavian artery, spewing blood in all directions. She was alive and conscious after the first two blows. The next blow took off her head, save some gristle, which was cut using the axe as a saw.




Various improbable stories about the execution were later circulated. One which is thought to be true is that, when the executioner picked up the severed head to show it to those present, it was discovered that Mary was wearing a wig. The headsman was left holding the wig, while the late queen's head rolled on the floor. Another well-known execution story concerns a small dog owned by the queen, which is said to have been hiding among her skirts, unseen by the spectators. Following the beheading, the dog rushed out, terrified and covered in blood. It was taken away by her ladies-in-waiting and washed, but it did not survive the shock. All of this must have been a pretty sight.



On February 8, 1861, the southern states which had seceded from the United States agreed to reunite in The Confederate States of America. This caused the Civil War, a period of unprecedented bloodshed in American history, which surely could have been avoided through a rigorous U.N. regimen of plantation inspections.

February 8, 1924 -
Gee Jong is the first man to die in the gas chamber, at Nevada State Prison in Carson City. A pound of sodium cyanide crystals was lowered into a vessel of diluted sulfuric acid, producing hydrogen cyanide gas which asphyxiated Jong. "At first there is evidence of extreme horror, pain, and strangling. The eyes pop. The skin turns purple and the victim begins to drool." And this was the humane alternative to hanging.

February 8, 1960 -
Beer heir Adolph Coors III (who was ironically allergic to beer), killed after a failed kidnapping attempt in Colorado. By October, Joseph Corbett Jr. is arrested in Canada after an national manhunt. I guess Mr. Corbett didn't get his deposit back.

February 8, 1990 -
After "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney expresses his view that "blacks have watered down genes because the less intelligent ones are the ones that have the most children", he is suspended for a month by CBS. Rooney claims the remarks are fabricated.


February 8, 1994 -
During an argument Jack Nicholson destroys the windshield of a car with a golf club, screaming "You cut me off!" Charges were dismissed on May 2 after the matter was settled privately. Nicholson did this one month before he was to host the annual Los Angeles Police-Celebrity Golf Tournament. D'oh!



And so it goes.