February Events Through History

February Events

2:American Heart Month.
2:American History Month (Massachusetts).
2:Black Heritage Month.
2:Black History Month.
2:Canned Food Month.
2:Creative Romance Month.
2:Great American Pies Month.
2:Human Relations Month.
2:Humpback Whale Awareness Month.
2:International Friendship Month.
2:Liferhythms and Health Month.
2:Marfan Syndrome Awareness Month.
2:National Blah Buster Month.
2:National Cat Health Month.
2:National Cherry Month.
2:National Children’s Dental Health Month.
2:National Condom Month.
2:National “Develop Your Self-Esteem” Month.
2:National Embroidery Month.
2:National Grapefruit Month.
2:National Macadamia Nut Month.
2:National Meat Month.
2:National Snack Food Month.
2:New Zealand Farm Raised Venison Month.
2:Return Shopping Carts to the Supermarket Month.
2:Shape Up With Pickles Time.
2:Virginia Reading Month.
: Events depending on weekdays
M(2/7) :Lincoln’s Birthday (Delaware, Oregon) (first Monday).
R(2/7) :No Talk Day (first Thursday).
U(2/7) :Homstrom (Switzerland) (first Sunday).
F(2/8) :Arbor Day (Arizona) (Friday after 2/1).
M(2/21):Family Day (Alberta, Canada) (third Monday).
M(2/21):George Washington’s Birthday (third Monday).
M(2/21):Presidents’ Day (third Monday).
F(2/28):French Fry Friday (fourth Friday).
U(2/29):World Champion Snowmobile Waterskipping (last Sunday).
: Normal events
2/1 :Be An Encourager Day.
2/1 :National Freedom Day.
2/1/1709 :Alexander Selkirk (basis for “Robinson Crusoe”), rescued.
2/1/1790 :US Supreme Court first convened (New York).
2/1/1851 :Mary Shelley, novelist (“Frankenstein”), died.
2/1/1865 :General Sherman began his march through South Carolina.
2/1/1878 :George Cruikshank, English illustrator (Dickens’ books), died.
2/1/1887 :Hollywood, California registered as a town.
2/1/1898 :First automobile insurance policy issued (Travellers, Hartford).
2/1/1918 :Gregorian calendar replaced the Julian calendar in Russia.
2/1/1920 :First completely protected armored commercial car put into
:service.
2/1/1949 :RCA Victor unveiled the 45 rpm record system.
2/1/1953 :First president to be baptized after taking office (Eisenhower).
2/1/1957 :Bart J. Bok became director of Australia’s Commonwealth
:Observatory.
2/1/1959 :William F. Hoppe, US billiards player, died.
2/1/1960 :Greensboro sit-in (four black students at Woolworth’s refused
:service).
2/1/1964 :US postmarks stopped telling the time.
2/1/1966 :LSD became federally regulated.
2/1/1968 :Viet Cong began an offensive against Hue.
2/1/1979 :Forces led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over Iran.
2/1/1979 :Patricia Hearst released from prison.
2/1/1982 :”Late Night with David Letterman” debuted.
2/2 :Bonza Bottler Day.
2/2 :Groundhog Day.
2/2/1536 :Buenos Aires founded.
2/2/1804 :George Walton, Signer of US Declaration of Independence, died.
2/2/1811 :Fort Ross, California established.
2/2/1848 :Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California to the US.
2/2/1876 :National Baseball League formed (Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, New
:York, Philadelphia, Saint Louis, Louisville, and Hartford).
2/2/1884 :Wendell Phillips, American women’s suffrage leader, died.
2/2/1912 :Frederick Law parachuted from the Statue of Liberty’s torch.
2/2/1912 :Grand Central Terminal opened (New York).
2/2/1922 :William Desmond Taylor, movie director, found shot to death.
2/2/1923 :Leaded gasoline first commercially available.
2/2/1925 :Dogsled teams reached Nome, Alaska with serum for diphtheria
:epidemic.
2/2/1933 :Hitler ordered dissolution of the Reichstag (German Parliament).
2/2/1942 :Last wartime automobile produced.
2/2/1943 :Battle of Stalingrad ended.
2/2/1957 :Valery Nicolas Larbaud, French novelist, died.
2/2/1959 :Buddy Holly’s last performance.
2/2/1962 :First person to ole vault 16 feet (John Uelses).
2/2/1969 :Boris Karloff (William Pratt), actor, died.
2/2/1970 :Bertrand Russell, English philosopher, died.
2/2/1971 :Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda.
2/2/1981 :US revoked bilingual teaching regulations.
2/3 :Setsubun, Change of Season or “Bean Throwing Night” (Japan).
2/3/1690 :First paper money issued in America.
2/3/1743 :Quarantine station established on Fisher’s Island (near
:Philadelphia).
2/3/1855 :Calcutta Railway opened.
2/3/1870 :15th Amendment to the US Constitution (right to vote) ratified.
2/3/1912 :Owney “the Killer” Madden, gangster, began his career.
2/3/1913 :16th Amendment to the US Constitution passed (Income Tax).
2/3/1924 :Thomas Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, died.
2/3/1947 :A Black news correspondent was first admitted to the US
:Congressional News Gallery.
2/3/1959 :Charles Hardin (Harden?) “Buddy” Holly, rock ‘n’ roll pioneer,
:killed.
2/3/1959 :J.P. Richardson (“The Big Bopper”) killed.
2/3/1959 :Richard Valenzuela (“Ritchie Valens”) killed.
2/3/1966 :Luna 9 (USSR) made first softlanding on Moon.
2/3/1970 :Muhammad Ali announced his retirement.
2/3/1984 :Birth of first baby conceived by embryo transplant (Long Beach,
:California).
2/3/1984 :STS-10 (US), Space Shuttle Challenger, launched.
2/3/1990 :Willie Shoemaker, jockey, made his final ride.
2/3/1991 :US First class postage increased to $.29.
2/3/1994 :First Russian cosmonaut launched in a US spacecraft (Sergei K.
:Krikalev).
2/4 :Independence Day (Sri Lanka).
2/4/1854 :”Republican” first proposed as the name for a new political party.
2/4/1885 :Sarah Miriam Peale, US portrait painter, died.
2/4/1887 :The Interstate Commerce Act signed.
2/4/1913 :Removable automobile wheel first used.
2/4/1932 :First winter Olympic Games held in US (Lake Placid, New York).
2/4/1938 :Adolf Hitler seized control of the German army.
2/4/1941 :USO formed.
2/4/1962 :Saint Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital opened.
2/4/1969 :Bowie Kuhn unanimously selected as baseball commissioner.
2/4/1969 :Cybernet inaugurated.
2/4/1971 :Rolls-Royce declared bankruptcy.
2/4/1975 :Earthquake in Guatemala and Honduras (22,000 killed).
2/4/1976 :Major League baseball’s first free agents (Andy Messersmith and
:Dave McNally).
2/4/1977 :Elevated train jumped track and crashed into the street below in
:Chicago (11 killed, 200 injured).
2/4/1985 :Torture Abolished by UN.
2/5 :Bretzelsonndeg (Luxembourg).
2/5 :Constitution Day (Mexico).
2/5 :International Winter Ball (Canada).
2/5/1631 :Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island, arrived in Salem,
:Massachusetts.
2/5/1819 :Hannah Hoes Van Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren, died.
2/5/1825 :First periodical for mechanics published (American Mechanics’
:Magazine).
2/5/1862 :”Battle Hymn of the Repubic” printed.
2/5/1881 :Thomas Carlyle, essayist and historian, died.
2/5/1917 :Present Mexican constitution adopted.
2/5/1921 :Land purchased to construct Yankee Stadium.
2/5/1945 :US troops entered Manila.
2/5/1967 :Arusha Declaration (Tanzania).
2/5/1971 :Apollo 14 (US) made third manned landing on Moon.
2/5/1972 :US airlines began mandatory inspection of passengers and luggage.
2/5/1974 :Mariner 10 (US) made a flyby of Venus.
2/5/1974 :Patricia Hearst kidnapped by Symbionese Liberation Army.
2/5/1977 :Chama cha Mapinduzi, Tanzania’s sole political party formed.
2/5/1982 :Laker Airways declared bankruptcy.
2/5/1985 :Third Punic War (Rome vs Carthage) (149 BC to 146 BC) peace
:treaty signed.
2/6 :New Zealand Day.
2/6/1685 :James II became English Sovereign.
2/6/1778 :US signed a military treaty with France (next one with NATO –
:1949).
2/6/1788 :Massachusetts became the 6th US state.
2/6/1804 :Joseph Priestly, English chemist and discoverer of Oxygen, died.
2/6/1816 :Charter to build first railroad granted (John Stevens, Hoboken,
:NJ).
2/6/1840 :Treaty of Waitangi (Waitangi, Chatham Islands, New Zealand).
2/6/1865 :Robert E. Lee appointed Confederate General in Chief.
2/6/1933 :20th Amendment to the US Constitution took effect.
2/6/1935 :Monopoly invented.
2/6/1939 :”The Big Sleep” published.
2/6/1943 :General Dwight D. Eisenhower named commander of Allied forces in
:North Africa.
2/6/1947 :”The Brasher Doubloon” is released.
2/6/1952 :Elizabeth II became English Sovereign.
2/6/1952 :King George VI died.
2/6/1959 :US first successfully test-fired a Titan ICBM.
2/6/1963 :4th magnitude nova in constellation Hercules discovered (Elis
:Dahlgren, Sweden).
2/6/1964 :Britain and France announced they would build a railroad tunnel
:under the English Channel.
2/6/1964 :Cuba cut water supply to Guantanemo Naval Base.
2/6/1971 :Apollo 14 (US) left lunar surface.
2/6/1974 :Grenada declared independent.
2/6/1978 :Blizzard of ’78 (New England).
2/6/1987 :No-smoking rules took effect in federal buildings.
2/6/1989 :Barbara Tuchman died.
2/6/1991 :Danny Thomas, actor, died.
2/6/1991 :Salyut 7 (USSR) re-entered Earth’s atmosphere (11:15 EST).
2/6/1993 :Arthur Ashe, tennis player, died. (1992?)
2/7 :Independence Day (Grenada).
2/7 :National Hangover Awareness Day.
2/7/1778 :Daniel Boone captured by Indians (Blue Licks, Kentucky).
2/7/1823 :Ann Ward Radcliffe, English novelist (“The Romance of the
:Forest”), died.
2/7/1827 :First US ballet company debuted (Bowery Theater, New York).
2/7/1877 :American Guernsey Cattle Club organized.
2/7/1889 :Astronomical Society of the Pacific’s first meeting (E.S. Holden
:president).
2/7/1894 :Adolphe Sax (Antoine Joseph Sax), saxophone inventor, died.
2/7/1904 :Fire in Baltimore (> 1500 buildings destroyed).
2/7/1938 :Harvey Samuel Firestone, US industrialist, died.
2/7/1940 :British railroads nationalized.
2/7/1943 :Shoe rationing announced in US.
2/7/1948 :General Dwight D. Eisenhower, US Army Chief of Staff, resigned.
2/7/1956 :Autherine Lucy, first black admitted to University of Alabama,
:expelled.
2/7/1964 :The Beatles arrived in New York to start their first US tour.
2/7/1974 :Grenada won independence from Britain.
2/7/1977 :Soyuz 24 (Russian) launched.
2/7/1979 :First digitally recorded rock album (Steven Stills).
2/7/1981 :Nine year old boy arrested in $100 bank robbery with toy gun.
2/7/1984 :Two US astronauts performed the first untethered space walk.
2/7/1986 :Jean-Claude Duvalier, Haiti’s President-for-Life, fled Haiti.
2/7/1990 :The Soviet Union’s Communist Party agreed to competition from
:alternative political parties.
2/8 :Ha-Ri-Ku-Yo (Japan).
2/8 :National Women and Girls in Sports Day.
2/8/1587 :Mary Stuart, queen regent of Scotland, beheaded.
2/8/1612 :Samuel Butler, satirical poet (“Hudibras”), baptised.
2/8/1693 :College of William and Mary founded.
2/8/1725 :Peter the Great, Russian Czar, died.
2/8/1735 :First opera produced in the Colonies performed (Charleston, South
:Carolina).
2/8/1781 :Richard Stockton, signer of US Declaration of Independence, died.
2/8/1802 :Banjo clock patented (Simon Willard).
2/8/1865 :Boxing declared illegal in Missouri.
2/8/1886 :First visit by the Boston Visiting Nurse Association (Amelia
:Hodgkiss).
2/8/1887 :Dawes Act passed (Indians living apart from the tribe granted
:citizenship).
2/8/1894 :Enforcement Act repealed.
2/8/1904 :Russo-Japanese War began.
2/8/1910 :Boy Scouts of America chartered (William D. Boyce, Chicago).
2/8/1915 :”The Birth of a Nation” premiered.
2/8/1918 :”Stars and Stripes” first published.
2/8/1924 :First execution by gas in US (Gee Jon, Nevada).
2/8/1936 :Charles Curtis, 21st US vice president, died.
2/8/1940 :Every tenth person shot in two Polish villages near Warsaw.
2/8/1973 :Max Yasgur, New York state dairy farmer, died.
2/8/1974 :Three Skylab astronauts returned to earth after an 84-day orbital
:flight.
2/8/1984 :Winter Olympic games (Sarajevo) began.
2/8/1985 :Arabsat-1, League of Arab States communications satellite,
:launched.
2/8/1985 :Brasilsat-1, Brazilian communications satellite, launched.
2/8/1991 :Silvio Conte, Massachusetts Congressman, died.
2/9 :Saint Maron’s Day (Lebanon).
2/9/1822 :American Indian Society organized.
2/9/1825 :John Quincy Adams elected president by the US House of
:Representatives.
2/9/1870 :US Weather Bureau established.
2/9/1876 :Appalachian Mountain Club founded.
2/9/1881 :Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Russian author, died.
2/9/1909 :US Congress prohibited importation of opium.
2/9/1913 :Remarkable meteoric procession observed (central Canada to
:Bermuda).
2/9/1943 :Battle of Guadalcanal ended.
2/9/1950 :Joseph McCarthy charged the US State Department was infested with
:communists.
2/9/1964 :Beatles appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show” (73.7 million viewers).
2/9/1971 :Appalachian Trail route published in the Federal Register.
2/9/1971 :Earthquake shook Los Angeles (64 killed).
2/9/1981 :Bill Haley died.
2/9/1984 :Yuri Andropov, Soviet President, died.
2/9/1991 :William Dunfey, founder of Dunfey Hotels, died.
2/10/1495:Aberdeen University founded.
2/10/1670:William Congreve, dramatist (“The Way of the World”), baptised.
2/10/1763:Treaty of Paris signed (ending the Seven Years War).
2/10/1799:John Fries began Fries Rebellion (protesting US taxes).
2/10/1840:Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
2/10/1846:Westward migration of Mormons began.
2/10/1862:Elizabeth Siddal Rossetti, wife of poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti,
:died of an overdose of laudanum.
2/10/1863:Charles Sherwood Stratton (a.k.a. General Tom Thumb) married
:Lavinia Warren.
2/10/1863:Fire Extinguisher patented (Alanson Crane).
2/10/1887:First actor to perform in two cities on the same day (Nathaniel
:Carr Goodwin, Boston and New York).
2/10/1897:The New York Times first used “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
2/10/1899:Treaty of Paris signed (ended Spanish American War).
2/10/1902:J.N. Krieger, German Selenographer, died.
2/10/1912:Joseph Lister, English MD (founder of aseptic surgery), died.
2/10/1923:Wilhelm Konrad Roentgen, German scientist who discovered X-rays,
:died.
2/10/1932:Edgar Wallace, prolific English author, died.
2/10/1939:Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (a.k.a. Pope Pius XI) died.
2/10/1942:First WWII Medal of Honor awarded (Alexander Ramsey “Sandy”
:Nininger, Jr).
2/10/1942:US auto industry shut down and converted to military production.
2/10/1949:”Death of a Salesman” opened.
2/10/1962:Francis Gary Powers, U-2 spy plane pilot, returned to US in
:exchange for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
2/10/1964:Two Australian warships collided off New South Wales (82 killed).
2/10/1966:Billy Rose (William S. Rosenberg), theatrical producer, died.
2/10/1967:25th Amendment to the US Constitution ratified.
2/10/1992:Alex Haley, author (“Roots”), died.
2/11 :Inventor’s Day.
2/11 :Kigen Setsu, National Foundation Day (Japan).
2/11 :National Day (Iran).
2/11 :Youth Day (Cameroon).
2/11 :White Shirt Day.
2/11/-660:Emperor Jimmu ascended to the Japanese throne.
2/11/1650:Rene Descartes, French philosopher and mathematician, died.
2/11/1812:First Gerrymandering took place (Governor Elbridge Gerry,
:Massachusetts).
2/11/1858:Virgin Mary appeared to three girls at Lourdes, France (including
:(Saint) Bernadette Soubirous).
2/11/1861:President-elect Abraham Lincoln set out from Springfield Illinois
:for Washington DC.
2/11/1879:Honore Daumier, French painter and caricaturist, died.
2/11/1929:Lateran Treaty (independence of Vatican City) signed.
2/11/1937:General Motors agreed to recognize the UAW as bargaining agent
:for its workers.
2/11/1945:Conference at Yalta ended.
2/11/1960:Jack Paar walked off the set for 18 days.
2/11/1963:Sylvia Plath, poet, killed herself.
2/11/1965:First bombing raids on North Vietnam madeby US and South Vietnam.
2/11/1966:Last day of JOSS service at RAND Corporation.
2/11/1970:Osumi, first Japanese satellite, launched.
2/11/1972:First snomobile to exceed 125 mph (Yvon Duhamel).
2/11/1973:Elisabeth Achelis, proposed each year begin Sunday, died.
2/11/1977:World’s largest lobster caught off Nova Scotia (44 pounds 6
:ounces).
2/11/1978:China lifted a ban on Aristotle, Shakespeare, and Dickens.
2/11/1986:Frank Herbert, author (“Dune”), died.
2/11/1990:First Soviet commercial satellite mission launched.
2/11/1990:Nelson Mandela freed (4:14 local time).
2/11/1994:Neil Bonnett, NASCAR driver, died.
2/11/1994:William Conrad, actor, died.
2/12 :Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday (US).
2/12 :Burgsonndeg (Luxembourg).
2/12 :Georgia Day (Georgia).
2/12 :Pyidaungsa Day (Burma).
2/12/1733:General James Edward Oglethorpe landed at what is now Savannah.
2/12/1789:Ethan Allen, US Revolutionary War hero, died.
2/12/1793:Fugitive slave law enacted.
2/12/1804:Immanuel Kant, philosopher, died.
2/12/1839:”Aroostook War” (Maine vs. New Brunswick) began.
2/12/1877:Alexander Graham Bell publicly demonstrated the telephone
:(between Boston and Salem, Massachusetts).
2/12/1921:US Army opened first airway.
2/12/1924:First performance of “Rhapsody in Blue.”
2/12/1935:Georges August Escoffier, inventor of peche Melba, died.
2/12/1942:Grant Wood, US artist, died.
2/12/1947:Sikhote-Alin meteorite fell in Eastern Siberia.
2/12/1961:Patrice Lumumba, former Congolese premier, killed.
2/12/1961:Venera 1 (USSR) (first flyby of Venus) launched.
2/12/1973:First American POW’s in North Vietnam were released (116).
2/12/1980:40 million acre wildlife refuge created in Alaska.
2/12/1983:James Hubert “Eubie” Blake, composer (“I’m Just Wild About
:Harry”), died.
2/12/1985:Safetypup, created by National Child Safety Council, first used.
2/13 :Lego National Build-off.
2/13 :Margaret Ann Day (for pity of those so named – may change to
:Margeux for the day).
2/13/1635:Oldest public school in US founded (Boston Latin School).
2/13/1689:William and Mary became English Sovereigns.
2/13/1741:First magazine in US published (“American Magazine, or A Monthly
:View of the Political State of the British Colonies”).
2/13/1799:First US state insurance regulation enacted.
2/13/1818:George Rogers Clark, American soldier and frontiersman, died.
2/13/1866:Jesse James’ first bank robbery (Clay County Savings Bank,
:Liberty, Missouri).
2/13/1914:Alphonse Bertillon, inventor of Bertillon ID system, died.
2/13/1917:Mata Hari arrested as a German spy.
2/13/1945:Soviet forces captured Budapest.
2/13/1974:Alexander Solzhenitsyn expelled from Russia.
2/13/1980:Apollo Computer Inc. incorporated.
2/13/1984:Konstantin U. Chernenko succeeded Yuri Andropov as Soviet
:Communist Party leader.
2/14 :National Have a Heart Day.
2/14 :Race Relations Day.
2/14 :Saint Valentine’s Day (Australia, Canada, Europe, US).
2/14 :Viticulturists’ Day (Bulgaria).
2/14/269 :St. Valentine killed (Rome).
2/14/1571:Benvenuto Cellini, sculptor and autobiographer, died.
2/14/1779:James Cook, English sea captain and explorer, died.
2/14/1844:Lake Tahoe spotted (John C. Fremont).
2/14/1849:First president in office to have his photo taken (Polk).
2/14/1859:Oregon became the 33rd US state.
2/14/1864:Sherman destroyed Meridian, Mississippi.
2/14/1876:Patents for telephone filed (Bell and Gray).
2/14/1884:Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, first wife of Theodore Roosevelt,
:died.
2/14/1886:First trainload of oranges left Los Angeles for eastern markets.
2/14/1891:William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War General, died.
2/14/1895:”The Importance of Being Ernest,” by Oscar Wilde, premiered.
2/14/1903:US Department of Commerce and Labor created.
2/14/1912:Arizona became the 48th US state.
2/14/1920:The League of Women Voters was founded (Chicago).
2/14/1921:Skeezix Wallet, comic strip character (“Gasoline Alley”), found
:on doorstep.
2/14/1929:Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre (Chicago).
2/14/1933:Eight day bank holiday declared in Michigan to avert financial
:panic.
2/14/1945:Bombing of Dresden.
2/14/1962:Jacqueline Kennedy conducted a TV tour of the White House.
2/14/1963:Syncom 1 (US) (first geosynchronous satellite) launched.
2/14/1969:Vito Genovese, New York organized crime leader, died.
2/14/1972:Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s “Grease” opened on Broadway.
2/14/1972:Luna 20 (USSR) launched.
2/14/1975:Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, English author and humorist, died.
2/14/1978:First “micro on a chip” patented (Texas Instruments).
2/14/1980:Solar Maximum Mission Observatory (US).
2/14/1988:Frederick Loewe, broadway composer (“My Fair Lady”), died.
2/14/1989:Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salmon
:Rushdie.
2/14/1991:Carrie White, world’s oldest person (according to Guinness, 117),
:died.
2/15 :Buddha’s Death Celebrated (Japan).
2/15 :Kamakura (“Snow Cave Festival”) (Japan).
2/15 :Lupercalia.
2/15 :Maine Memorial Day (Massachusetts).
2/15 :Spanish War Memorial Day (Massachusetts).
2/15/1764:Saint Louis founded.
2/15/1804:New Jersey became the last Northern state to abolish slavery.
2/15/1820:William Ellery, signer of the US Declaration of Independence,
:died.
2/15/1842:First adhesive postage stamps introduced (New York).
2/15/1879:Female attorneys allowed to argue cases before the US Supreme
:Court.
2/15/1898:US battleship Maine exploded (Havana harbor, 9:40 pm).
2/15/1921:First US statue to women, by a woman dedicated (Suffrage
:Monument, Washington, DC).
2/15/1929:Melville Elijah Stone, American journalist, died.
2/15/1932:Minnie Maddern Fiske, American theater actress, died.
2/15/1933:Giuseppe (Joe) Zangara tried to assassinate Franklin Roosevelt
:(killed Anton J. Chermak instead).
2/15/1946:ENIAC demonstrated.
2/15/1949:Submarine jet propulsion device patented (Fritz Zwicky).
2/15/1958:Dick Clark took over as host of “The Saturday Night Beechnut
:Show.”
2/15/1970:Chicago Seven convicted of contempt of court.
2/15/1972:15,007,034th VW Beetle (new world production record) built.
2/15/1978:Leon Spinks became heavyweight champion (beat Muhammad Ali).
2/15/1982:Ocean Ranger (oil-drilling rig) sank off Newfoundland (84 killed).
2/15/1984:Ethel Merman (Ethel Agnes Zimmermann), singer, died.
2/15/1988:Richard P. Feynman, physicist and author, died.
2/15/1989:Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan.
2/16 :Makha Bucha Day (Thailand).
2/16/1751:”Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,” by Thomas Gray,
:published.
2/16/1804:Stephen Decatur burned US frigate in Tripoli.
2/16/1862:Fort Donelson (near Nashville) surrendered to U.S. Grant.
2/16/1868:The Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks was organized.
2/16/1918:Lithuania declared its independence.
2/16/1923:Tutankhamen’s (“King Tut”) actual burial chamber opened.
2/16/1937:Nylon patented (DuPont Corp. – developed by Wallace H. Carothers).
2/16/1948:First daily newsreel broadcast presented.
2/16/1949:Chaim Weizmann inaugurated as first Israeli president.
2/16/1959:Fidel Castro sworn in as Cuba’s leader.
2/16/1960:Billy Sullivan announced his new team’s name as the Patriots.
2/16/1961:Explorer IX (US) launched.
2/16/1965:Pegasus I (US) launched.
2/16/1965:Principal photography on “Thunderball” began (France).
2/16/1968:First 911 emergency telephone system went into operation
:(Haleyville, Alabama).
2/16/1989:A tank burst at a sugar factor in Gering, Nebraska (1.2 million
:gallons of molasses).
2/17 :Bonten Festival (Japan).
2/17 :National Youth Workout Day.
2/17/1673:Jean Baptiste Poquelin (a.k.a. Moliere), French actor and
:dramatist, died.
2/17/1790:US government got its first loan.
2/17/1801:Thomas Jefferson chosen as the third President by the US House.
2/17/1817:Gas-burning street lights first installed in US (Baltimore).
2/17/1856:Heinrich Heine, German author, died.
2/17/1865:Columbia (South Carolina) occupied by Union troops.
2/17/1865:Fort Sumter returned to Union control after a year and a half
:siege.
2/17/1867:First ship passed through Suez Canal.
2/17/1897:PTA founded.
2/17/1904:”Madame Butterfly” premiered.
2/17/1909:Geronimo (Goyathlay), Apache leader, died.
2/17/1913:International Exhibit of Modern Art held (New York).
2/17/1919:Sir Wilfred Laurier, Canadian statesman, died.
2/17/1932:”Baby Face” Nelson escaped prison.
2/17/1933:First issue of “News-Week” (later “Newsweek”) published.
2/17/1944:Film version of “Phantom Lady” released.
2/17/1947:Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.
2/17/1960:Elvis Presley received his first gold album (“Elvis”).
2/17/1971:First municipal veterinary hospital opened (Los Angeles, W.E.
:Ziegler).
2/17/1972:Richard Nixon left for Peking.
2/17/1974:Robert Preston landed a helicopter on the White House lawn after
:buzzing cars on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.
2/17/1981:Largest corporate losses in US history reported (Chrysler Corp.).
2/17/1982:Thelonius Monk, jazz musician, died.
2/17/1985:Third permanent artificial heart installed (Murray Haydon,
:Louisville, Kentucky).
2/17/1986:Johnson and Johnson suspended production of all non-prescription
:drugs.
2/18 :Democracy Day (Nepal).
2/18 :Independence Day (Gambia).
2/18/1546:Martin Luther, Augustinian monk and founder of Protestantism,
:died.
2/18/1564:Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti-Simoni, Italian painter and
:sculptor, died.
2/18/1678:”The Pilgrim’s Progress,” by John Bunyan, published. (9/28?)
2/18/1688:First formal protest against slavery in US (Society of Friends,
:Germantown, Pennsylvania).
2/18/1859:”Temporary insanity” defense first used in America (Dan Sickles).
2/18/1861:Jefferson Davis chosen as president of the Confederacy.
2/18/1865:Charleston, South Carolina captured by Union naval forces.
2/18/1885:”Huckleberry Finn,” by Mark Twain, published.
2/18/1894:Anna Ella Carroll, US writer, died.
2/18/1898:Frances Elizabeth Caroline Willard, founder of Women’s Christian
:Temperance Union, died.
2/18/1902:Charles Lewis Tiffany, US jeweler, died.
2/18/1930:First recorded flight of a cow in an airplane (Elm Farm Ollie).
2/18/1930:Pluto discovered (Clyde Tombaugh).
2/18/1942:Japanese internment order signed (Franklin Roosevelt).
2/18/1957:Henry Norris Russell, US astrophysicist, died.
2/18/1970:Five of the Chicago 7 found guilty.
2/19/1856:Tintype camera patented (H.L. Smith).
2/19/1864:Knights of Pythias founded.
2/19/1878:Thomas Edison patented first gramophone.
2/19/1881:Kansas enacted alcohol prohibition law.
2/19/1897:Charles Blondin, first to walk across Niagara Falls on a
:tightrope, died.
2/19/1901:Seeberg Observatory, Gotha, Germany destroyed by fire.
2/19/1922:Ed Wynn became the first big name in show business to sign for a
:regular radio show.
2/19/1942:Detention of Japanese-Americans legalized.
2/19/1945:US Marines landed on Iwo Jima.
2/19/1949:First Bollingen Prize of poetry awarded (Ezra Pound).
2/19/1951:Andre Gide, French novelist (“The Counterfeiters”), died.
2/19/1963:”The Feminine Mystique” (by Betty Friedan) published.
2/19/1965:Bell Jet Pack stunt (“Thunderball”) performed.
2/19/1982:The DeLorean Motor Co. went into receivership.
2/19/1983:”Wah Mee Massacre” (Seattle, Washington).
2/19/1984:The Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia ended.
2/19/1985:Elizabeth Julesberg, author of “Dick and Jane” books, died.
2/19/1986:Adolfo Celi, actor, died.
2/19/1986:MIR space station (USSR) launched. (2/20?)
2/20/1725:First scalping of American Indians by white men.
2/20/1809:The US Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government
:was no greater than that of any individual state in the Union.
2/20/1835:Earthquake recorded in Valdivia in Darwin’s diary.
2/20/1878:Giocchino Vincenzo Pecci, 256th pope, elected.
2/20/1895:Frederick Douglass (Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey),
:American journalist, died.
2/20/1920:Admiral Robert E. Peary, Arctic explorer, died.
2/20/1933:US Congress proposed repeal of prohibition.
2/20/1935:First woman set foot on Antarctica (Mrs. Karoline Mikkelson).
2/20/1936:”Follow the Fleet,” starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers,
:released.
2/20/1938:Anthony Eden resigned as British Foreign Secretary.
2/20/1962:Mercury Friendship 7 (US) (first American to orbit earth – Glenn)
:launched.
2/20/1966:Chester Nimitz, US naval officer, died.
2/20/1971:US National Emergency Warning Center erroneously ordered radio
:and TV stations off the air.
2/20/1972:Walter Winchell, US journalist, died.
2/20/1980:Alice Roosevelt Longworth died.
2/20/1985:Clarence Nash (voice of Donald Duck) died.
2/20/1986:Mir Space Station (USSR) launched. (2/19?)
2/20/1994:Derek Jarman, director (“Edward II”), died.
2/21 :Martyrs Day (Bangladesh).
2/21/1677:Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher, died.
2/21/1828:First newspaper in an Indian language publication (“Cherokee
:Phoenix”).
2/21/1866:First woman graduated from dental school (Lucy Hobbs).
2/21/1878:First telephone directory published (New Haven Telephone Co., 50
:subscribers).
2/21/1885:Washington Monument dedicated.
2/21/1902:Dr. Harvey Cushing undertook his first brain operation.
2/21/1916:Battle of Verdun began (1 million casualties).
2/21/1919:Mary Edwards Walker, first female US Army surgeon, died.
2/21/1925:New Yorker Magazine first published.
2/21/1931:Camera exposure meter invented (W.N. Goodwin Jr).
2/21/1934:Cesar Augusto Sandino, Nicaraguan guerrilla leader, killed.
2/21/1947:Polaroid instant camera first demonstrated.
2/21/1961:2.5 mile wide ice floe off Nantucket.
2/21/1965:Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), Black Muslim leader, assassinated.
2/21/1975:John Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, and John Ehrlichman sentenced to
:prison.
2/21/1986:Worst floods in Northern California history (21,000 evacuated).
2/21/1988:Jimmy Swaggart confessed he was guilty of an unspecified sin.
2/21/1991:Margot Fonteyn (Margaret Hookman), ballerina, died.
2/22 :Cat Day (Japan).
2/22 :Independence Day (Saint Lucia).
2/22 :Lithuanian Independence Day.
2/22/1512:Amerigo Vespucci, Italian navigator, died.
2/22/1630:Indians introduced popcorn to English colonists.
2/22/1631:First public thanksgiving celebrated.
2/22/1775:First US joint stock company (American Manufactory of Woolens,
:Linens, and Cottons) offered shares at 10 pounds.
2/22/1787:J.H. Schroeter began surveying the lunar surface.
2/22/1819:Florida ceded to US (Spain).
2/22/1827:Charles Wilson Peale, American portrait painter, died.
2/22/1860:Shoemakers in Lynn, Massachusetts strike.
2/22/1865:Tennesse abolished slavery.
2/22/1879:First Woolworth’s opened (Utica, New York).
2/22/1945:”Hercule Poirot” premiered on Mutual Radio Network.
2/22/1960:S.A. Mitchell, US astronomer, died.
2/22/1972:Richard Nixon arrived in Peking.
2/22/1973:Elizabeth Bowen, novelist (“The Death of the Heart”), died.
2/22/1973:Israeli fighter planes shot down a Libyan commercial airliner
:(106 killed).
2/22/1980:Oskar Kokoschka, artist, playwright, teacher, and humanitarian,
:died.
2/22/1984:David “the bubble boy” died.
2/22/1987:Andy Warhol died.
2/23 :National Day (Brunei Darussalam).
2/23 :National Holiday (Guyana).
2/23/1778:Baron von Steuben joined Continental Army.
2/23/1781:George Taylor, signer of Declaration of Independence, died.
2/23/1792:Joshua Reynolds, English portrait painter, died.
2/23/1813:First cotton mill founded with all operations under one roof
:(Boston Manufacturing Co., Waltham, Massachusetts).
2/23/1821:John Keats, British poet, died.
2/23/1836:Siege of Alamo began.
2/23/1847:Battle of Buena Vista.
2/23/1848:John Quincy Adams, 6th US president, died.
2/23/1901:Nova Persei attained maximum light (magnitude +0.2).
2/23/1913:Federal Income Tax created (after Wyoming became the 36th state
:to approve the 16th amendment).
2/23/1917:Soviet workers’ and peasants’ army founded.
2/23/1927:US Federal Radio Commission established.
2/23/1930:Check protecting device patented (G.L. McCarthy).
2/23/1942:A Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery near Santa Barbara.
2/23/1945:Flag planted on Iwo Jima.
2/23/1954:First field testing of polio vaccine (Pittsburgh).
2/23/1955:Dashiell Hammett said “Communism to me is not a dirty word.”
2/23/1956:Intense solar flare.
2/23/1960:Ebbetts Field (Brooklyn, New York) torn down.
2/23/1970:Guyana became a republic.
2/23/1971:Lt. Calley confessed and implicated Captain Medina.
2/23/1991:Ground war vs. Iraq began. (2/24?)
2/24 :Independence Day (Estonia).
2/24/1582:Pope Gregory XIII corrected the Julian calendar.
2/24/1785:John Adams appointed minister to England.
2/24/1803:Marbury vs. Madison.
2/24/1815:Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat, died.
2/24/1825:Dr. Thomas Bowdler, self-appointed censor, died.
2/24/1867:House of Representatives voted to impeach Andrew Johnson.
2/24/1922:Henri Landru, “Bluebeard”, executed (France). (2/25?)
2/24/1938:First nylon bristle filament production for toothbrushes.
2/24/1942:First broadcast made of The Voice of America.
2/24/1944:Douglas William Johnson died.
2/24/1945:US troops liberated Manila from the Japanese.
2/24/1946:Juan Peron elected president of Argentina.
2/24/1955:Cole Porter’s “Silk Stockings” opened on Broadway.
2/24/1974:Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda discovered WWII was over.
2/24/1980:US Olympic hockey win.
2/24/1983:Dow Jones Industrial average at 1,100.
2/24/1983:Tennessee Williams, playwright, choked to death on a medicine
:bottle cap.
2/24/1990:Malcolm Forbes, capitalist and magazine owner, died.
2/24/1990:Tony Conigliaro, baseball player, died.
2/24/1991:US and UN ground offensive began against Iraq. (2/23?)
2/24/1994:Dinah Shore, singer, died.
2/25 :National Holiday (Kuwait).
2/25 :Revolution Day (Suriname).
2/25/1723:Sir Christopher Wren, English architect and astronomer, died.
2/25/1836:Six shooter patented (Samuel Colt).
2/25/1864:Anna Symmes Harrison, wife of William Henry Harrison, died.
2/25/1870:First black to take a seat in Congress (Hiram R. Revels,
:Mississippi).
2/25/1901:US Steel Corp., first billion dollar enterprise, formed (J.P.
:Morgan).
2/25/1914:John Tenniel, English illustrator of “Alice’s Adventures in
:Wonderland,” died.
2/25/1922:Henri Landru, “French Bluebeard,” beheaded. (2/24?)
2/25/1928:Television license first issued (Washington DC).
2/25/1953:Leonard Bernstein’s “Wonderful Town” opened on Broadway.
2/25/1964:Cassius Clay became heavyweight champion (beat Sonny Liston).
2/25/1965:Nat “King” Cole, jazz singer, died.
2/25/1967:US warships began shelling Vietnam.
2/25/1969:Mariner 6 (US) launched.
2/25/1973:Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music” opened on Broadway.
2/25/1979:Soyuz 32 (Russia) launched.
2/25/1990:Communist rule in Nicaragua ended.
2/26/1732:First mass heard in Philadelphia Catholic Church (only Catholic
:Church built in 13 colonies before the Revolution).
2/26/1773:Construction authorized for Walnut Street jail (Philadelphia)
:(first solitary).
2/26/1813:Robert R, Livingston, administered the oath of office to George
:Washington, died.
2/26/1815:Napoleon started his 100 day re-conquest of France.
2/26/1848:”The Communist Manifesto,” by Karl Marx, published.
2/26/1914:First long-distance phone conversation via underground cable.
2/26/1919:Grand Canyon National Park established.
2/26/1935:German Luftwaffe began operations.
2/26/1979:Last total solar eclipse in Continental US until 2017.
2/26/1985:Farmers and South Dakota Legislature converged on Washington to
:demand economic relief for farmers. (2/27?)
2/26/1986:First US Poet Lauriate selected (Robert Penn Warren).
2/26/1992:Jean Yawkey, Boston Red Sox owner, died.
2/26/1993:Terrorist bombing underneath the World Trade Center (New York).
2/27 :Independence Day (Dominican Republic).
2/27/1189:King Richard “The Lionhearted” crowned.
2/27/1781:Last of the 13 colonies (Maryland) approved the “Articles of
:Confederation.”
2/27/1787:Last Battle of Shay’s Rebellion.
2/27/1826:Wilhelm von Biela discovered the comet which bears his name.
2/27/1844:Nicholas Biddle, US lawyer, diplomat, statesman, and financier,
:died.
2/27/1869:15th Amendment to the US Constitution (blacks vote) was passed.
2/27/1883:First cigar rolling machine patented (Oscar Hammerstein).
2/27/1906:Samuel Pierpont Langley, American astronomer and physicist, died.
2/27/1919:American Association for the Hard of Hearing formed.
2/27/1922:US Supreme Court upheld the right of women to vote.
2/27/1933:Nazis set fire to the German parliament building (Reichstag).
2/27/1939:US Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.
2/27/1942:Battle of the Java Sea.
2/27/1950:22nd Amendment to the US Constitution ratified (two term
:president).
2/27/1972:Shanghai Communique (Nixon and Chou En-Lai).
2/27/1977:John Dickson Carr, “locked room” mystery writer, died.
2/27/1982:Wayne Williams convicted of murdering two of 28 young blacks
:(Atlanta).
2/27/1983:Indoor mile record set (Eammon Coghlan, 3:49.78).
2/27/1985:Farmers converged in Washington DC to demand economic relief.
:(2/26?)
2/27/1985:Henry Cabot Lodge, ex-envoy, died.
2/27/1987:First meeting of what was to become the Association of Shareware
:Professionals held.
2/27/1991:Kuwait City liberated from the Iraqis.
2/27/1992:Lillian Gish, actress, died.
2/28 :Kalevala Day (Finland).
2/28/1692:Salem witch hunt began.
2/28/1835:Elias Loennrot published “Kalevala.”
2/28/1844:USS Princeton explosion.
2/28/1849:First gold seekers arrived in San Francisco.
2/28/1854:First meeting of a group which would become the Republican Party.
2/28/1916:Henry James, novelist, died.
2/28/1940:First televised basketball game (New York).
2/28/1942:Japanese forces landed in Java.
2/28/1947:Chinese Nationalist police beat an old woman selling blackmarket
:cigarettes prompting massive rebellion on Taiwan.
2/28/1951:The US Senate crime investigating committee reported that at
:least two major crime syndicates were operating in the US.
2/28/1971:Liechtenstein rejected women’s suffrage.
2/28/1972:”French Connection” drug bust occurred (Marseilles).
2/28/1977:First killer whale born in captivity (Marineland, Los Angeles).
2/28/1978:Lead banning in paint in US went into effect.
2/28/1983:Last episode of MAS*H.
2/28/1986:Olof Palme, Swedish Prime Minister, assassinated.
2/28/1993:US Beureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms agents raided a cult
:compound near Waco, Texas.
2/29 :Bachelors Day (Leap Day).
2/29 :Leap Year Day.
2/29/992 :Oswald died.
2/29/1692:Tituba and Sara Good accused of witchcraft.
2/29/1704:French and Indian raid (Deerfield, Massachusetts – 47 killed, 120
:abducted).
2/29/1868:Benjamin Disraeli became British Prime Minister for the first
:time.
2/29/1916:German U-boat commanders ordered to attack merchant ships without
:warning.
2/29/1940:First Academy Award won by a black movie star (Hattie McDaniel –
:”Gone With the Wind”).
2/29/1968:Discovery of “pulsar” announced (Jocelyn Burnell).
2/29/1984:Roland Culver, British actor, died.