A Blast from the Past

Today is Feb. 8.

Mary, Queen of Scots, was beheaded on this date in 1587 after being charged with conspiring to murder England's Queen Elizabeth I. Mary Stuart was, more or less, a victim of the political intrigues and the religious conflicts that stemmed from the Reformation and Henry VIII's split from the Roman Catholic Church.

This also wasn't a good day for disc jockeys when, in 1960, Congress opened hearings into "payola" -- with Alan Freed and Dick Clark among those accused of accepting bribes to play records on the air. Clark escaped the inquiry with his reputation intact, but Freed did not. He ended up pleading guilty to charges of commercial bribery and never worked in radio again. It was a sad end to the career of the man credited with coining the phrase "rock 'n' roll."

And on this date in 1993, General Motors announced it was suing NBC-TV, contending the network rigged a demonstration crash showing a GM pickup truck with "sidesaddle" fuel tank exploding into flames. "Sidesaddle" meant the gas tank was located outside the vehicle frame -- making it, according to critics, more prone to leaks and fire in the event of an accident.

In 2002 sports, the Winter Olympic Games got under way in Salt Lake City, Utah.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.