Today is Sunday, Feb. 8, the 39th day of 2026. There are 326 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Feb. 8, 1949, Roman Catholic Cardinal József Mindszenty was sentenced to life in prison for his opposition to the fascist and later communist Hungarian governments; released during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, he sought asylum at the U.S. Embassy when the Soviet Union invaded, living there for 15 years. Mindszenty left Hungary in 1971 and died in exile in Vienna in 1975.

Also on this date:

In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in England after she was implicated in a plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.

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In 1693, a charter was granted for the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg in the Virginia Colony.

In 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian Navy at Port Arthur (now Dalian, China), marking the start of the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1910, the Boy Scouts of America organization was incorporated by William D. Boyce, who drew inspiration from the British Boy Scout movement.

In 1924, the first U.S. execution using lethal gas took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Chinese immigrant Gee Jon was put to death for a murder conviction.

In 1936, the first NFL draft was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia.

In 1960, work began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located on Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles.

In 1968, three Black students were killed and 28 wounded as state troopers opened fire on demonstrators at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg in the aftermath of protests over a whites-only bowling alley. The event would become known as the Orangeburg Massacre.

In 1971, NASDAQ, the world’s first electronic stock exchange, held its first trading day.

In 1993, an Iranian airliner with 132 people on board collided with an air force jet after takeoff from Tehran and exploded, leaving no survivors.

In 2013, a massive two-day snowstorm began dumping up to 3 feet (1 meter) of snow around the U.S. Northeast, causing widespread power outages and leavening several people dead. The storm struck some areas with hurricane-force winds and coastal flooding.

In 2020, a soldier angry about a land dispute went on a 16-hour shooting rampage in Thailand, killing at least 29 people and wounding dozens. Police and military personnel hunted the gunman overnight and shot him dead.

Today’s birthdays:

Composer-conductor John Williams is 94.
Broadcast journalist Ted Koppel is 86.
Actor Nick Nolte is 85.
Comedian Robert Klein is 84.
Actor-rock musician Creed Bratton is 83.
Actor Mary Steenburgen is 73.
Author John Grisham is 71.
Hockey Hall of Famer Dino Ciccarelli is 66.
Rock singer Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe) is 65.
Basketball Hall of Famer Alonzo Mourning is 56.
Actor Seth Green is 52.
Actor William Jackson Harper is 46.
Actor-comedian Cecily Strong is 42.
Hip-hop artist Anderson Paak is 40.
Professional surfer Bethany Hamilton is 36.
Actor Kathryn Newton is 29.

In his 20 years in the business, Eric Church has never failed to surprise. He’s a savvy guy unafraid to take risks and challenge his audience, which aren’t exactly typical traits for Nashville.

Still, much of the capacity crowd at Church’s Saturday night concert at St. Paul’s Grand Casino Arena was not prepared for the inventive, majestic and thrilling show the 48-year-old from North Carolina delivered.

After more than 20 minutes of selections from Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” and “Wish You Were Here” played over the loudspeakers, Church emerged from the darkness with “Hands of Time,” the opening track of his latest album “Evangeline vs. the Machine.” And Church wasn’t alone. Horn and string sections sat at either end of the stage with eight backup singers on risers between them. With Church’s own band in tow, that meant two dozen musicians on stage.

“Evangeline vs. the Machine,” Church’s eighth album, is unlike anything else in his catalog and leans heavily into dramatic prog rock and brooding symphonic pop with Church dabbling in falsetto vocals. Ain’t nobody else in mainstream country making anything that sounds like this.

Clearly Church is proud of the record — which includes seven original songs and, of all things, a cover of Tom Waits’ “Clap Hands” — as he performed it in full. Playing 40 minutes of perhaps unfamiliar material before getting to the hits sounds challenging and, to be sure, some of the more lubricated audience members sat in stunned silence.

But Church and company delivered such an impressive and immersive wall of sound, it was tough not to embrace what he was doing. The towering “Darkest Hour” soared thanks to powerful vocals from his longtime band member Joanna Cotten. “Evangeline” came across like a late-’60s/early-’70s Rolling Stones ballad, which Church seemed to acknowledge with his occasional dips into Mick Jagger-esque squeals.

The most conventional and weakest track on the record, the rollicking “Rocket’s White Lincoln” still packed a punch thanks to the deft interplay between the horns, strings and Church’s band. Again, no one else in the genre is doing anything like this.

After the last notes of “Clap Hands,” Church rolled out crowd-pleasing hit after crowd-pleasing hit and some of his extra players stuck around to help bring new life to the likes of “Desperate Man,” “Sinners Like Me,” “Mr. Misunderstood,” “Springsteen” and “Stick That in Your Country Song.” He turned his 2010 breakthrough hit “Smoke a Little Smoke” into a medley with a take on “Proud Mary” that saw Cotten stepping into Tina Turner territory.

It was such an unusual and exciting show, one can’t help but wonder where Church goes from here. It’ll be difficult to top this one.

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If it isn’t Wisconsin, it’s not likely to be good news for the Minnesota men’s hockey team this season.

The Gophers were swept by Ohio State this weekend after a 2-1 loss to the Buckeyes at 3M Arena at Mariucci Saturday night.

A second-period goal by Brody Lamb was sandwiched by Buckeyes tallies in the first and third period to send the hosts to yet another loss on its home ice.

Minnesota put 29 shots on Ohio State goaltender Sam Hillebrandt, but came up empty except for Lamb’s wrister from inside the face-off circle. Gophers netminder Luca Di Pasquo made 16 saves.

The Buckeyes (10-15-1 overall, 6-10 Big Ten) inched closer to Gophers (10-18-1, 6-12) in the conference standings, with a trip to cellar-dwelling Notre Dame coming up next weekend.

The Gophers travel to South Bend, Ind. for back-to-back games against the Irish starting Friday night at 6 p.m. Both Friday’s and Saturday’s games will be televised on Peacock.

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The United States team of Minnesotans Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin suffered its first setbacks of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Saturday, defeated 6-4 by Great Britain and 6-5 in an extra end by South Korea in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy.

The afternoon loss to the British team wasn’t necessarily surprising, as Team GB is undefeated and now already qualified for the semifinals with two matches to spare. However, the Korea game required a highly complicated shot in the eighth end just to force an extra end against a team that lost its first five games by a combined score of 43-18.

Still, the Americans (4-2) are tied for second in the 10-team field with three matches to go and control their own destiny toward making the semifinals on Monday night.

The Great Britain game started badly, as the Americans needed to do damage control to prevent their opponents from scoring more than two in the first end, and then gave up a steal of one.

Thiesse, who had the best shooting percentage of any player over the first three days of competition, made a great shot for three to tie the game in the fifth end.

The British regained the lead with one in the sixth and extended it after Thiesse’s attempted double takeout hit at the wrong angle to conclude end seven and gave them a steal of one.

With the penultimate stone in the eighth, Dropkin went for a big takeout to remove all or some of four British stones in the scoring area and missed wide, leading to their eventual concession.

In the evening match against Korea, the US fell behind in similar fashion, allowing a point in the first and a steal of one in the second.

In a low-scoring game, the Americans went to the eighth end down 5-2. With the last stone of regulation, Thiesse triggered a three-part collision that netted the Americans the points they needed to tie it but one Korean stone remained just close enough to prevent a walk-off win for Team USA.

The Koreans had the hammer in the extra end and after Thiesse’s last stone went too deep, Korea had a simple shot down the middle to score the winning point and earn their first win in the tournament.

The Americans will regroup for a 7:35 a.m. CST match vs. 2-4 Estonia, to be followed by what could be a vital matchup with 4-3 Sweden at 12:05 p.m. CST.

With two-thirds of the round-robin complete, the US has a full-game lead over fifth-place Switzerland and Canada, both teams Thiesse and Dropkin have defeated. The round-robin concludes Monday morning in Italy with Thiesse and Dropkin facing defending champions Italy.

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