This Week in History, Feb 10 - Feb 16

Feb 10, 1996
Kasparov loses chess game to computer. After three hours, world chess champion Gary Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, as Kasparov bested Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. An estimated 6 million people worldwide followed the action on the Internet.

Feb 11, 1990

A total of 1,104 people died in Mexico last month for offenses connected with the actions of organized crime, according to a joint statement from several government agencies.

EFE News Agency reports that this number represents a decrease of 35 deaths (3.07%) from the previous month's level, so says documents released by the Presidency, the Ministries of Interior, Defense and Navy, the Attorney General and the Federal Police.

A winter blizzard packing hurricane-force winds pummeled the northeast, including City Island on Saturday. The NE storm left at least 4 dead and around 600,000 customers without power and caused the disruption of thousands scheduled flights.

Blizzard warnings were in effect for the northeastern coast, including the New York City and the entire metropolitan area, the National Weather Service said.

One billion people worldwide are preparing to celebrate the year of the SNAKE.

On February 10, 2013 the Asian Lunar New Year will be celebrated by many Asian countries, including China, Taiwan, Vietnam and Korea. The Lunar New Year is represented by a cycle of 12 years, each year denoted by a different animal zodiac.

For Chinese, which is the largest Asian population that celebrates this holiday in North America, the Lunar New Year is also known as the Spring Festival, and it would signal to farmers in China that they must begin preparation for the sowing of their fields.

30 inches of snow had reportedly fallen on central Connecticut by early this morning and areas of southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire had an accumulation of at least 2 feet or more of snow.

Airlines cancelled more than 5,300 flights so far and New York City's three major airports as well as Boston's Logan Airport closed down.

Two major storms of the century only half a year apart? You can call them storms of historic proportions.. You can call it dangerous, but do not call it hype.

The politicians are telling people this is a dangerous storm because it is. These are serious life-threatening storms.

Thankfully, the science of meteorology has improved significantly over the years and forecasters have seen these coming.

But what's up with these politicians using visible sign language interpreters and practically ignoring other languages?