Today in History: February 15

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NASSAU, BAHAMAS – On this day in Bahamian history in 1920, former Director of Education Rodney Ezekiel Bain was born in Mastic Point, Andros.

The son of politician and Member of Parliament Ezekiel Samuel Bain, he was a lifelong educator whose goal was to improve The Bahamas education over five decades. During his tenure as Director of Education, he was involved in major planning and development programs within the ministry. He died in 1980.

The Rodney E. Bain building in Nassau was named after him.

Then in 1958, the Hobby Horse Hall Race Track was destroyed by fire.

The track which had been in existence since 1792 was located in what is now Cable Beach on New Providence.

In 1973, an armed home invasion and kidnapping occurred at the home of Royal Bank of Canada Manager Robert Spencer in Freeport, Grand Bahama.

The Spencer’s four-year-old daughter, Andrea, was kidnapped and held for a $250,000 ransom. She was reunited with her parents two days later after being spotted by American tourists near an abandoned church in Pine Ridge.

One week later, Police Constable Spurgeon Alexander Dames and former policeman Leroy McLean were arrested for the kidnapping and were later convicted and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Then in 1997, the body of senator and cabinet minister Charles ‘Chuck’ Virgil was found in a well field behind The Bahamas Electricity Corporation on Soldier Road.

A police investigation concluded that Virgil, who had been missing for two days was attacked outside his West Bay Street condominium and forced into his car during a robbery.

Ellison Smith and Anthony Evans were charged and convicted in 1999.

On this day in 2012 alarming allegations against then former Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell came to light in the senate after the tabling of a secret cable written by a senior official in the United States Embassy in Nassau just days before the 2007 general election.

In the cable, an official in the consular division of the MoFA accused the minister of accepting kickbacks for visas.