THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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January 30

1781 Maryland finally ratifies Articles of Confederation

1920 Japan's Mazda founded

1816 Nathaniel Banks born

1968 Tet Offensive shakes Cold War confidence

1948 Gandhi assassinated in New Delhi

2000 Plane crashes off Ivory Coast

1649 King Charles I executed for treason

1835 Shots fired in the House of Representatives

1945 Burma supply route cleared

197 Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland

1930 Gene Hackman born

1945 Michael Dorris is born

1923 Sidney Bechet's first record

1933 The Lone Ranger debuts on Detroit radio

1835 Andrew Jackson narrowly escapes assassination

1882 FDR is born

1994 Dan Jansen skates world-record 500 meters

1971 Operation Dewey Canyon II begins

1933 Adolf Hitler is named chancellor of Germany

1943 RAF launches massive daytime raid on Berlin

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January 31

 

1950 Truman announces development of H-bomb

1752 Gouverneur Morris is born

2007 Cars.com names most memorable TV cars

1865 House passes the 13th Amendment

1990 First McDonald’s opens in Soviet Union

1990 The McMartin Preschool trials

1953 Flood wreaks havoc in Europe

1606 The death of Guy Fawkes

1917 Germany resumes submarine warfare

1968 Viet Cong attack U.S. Embassy

1971 Apollo 14 departs for the moon

1974 Samuel Goldwyn dies

1923 Norman Mailer is born

1937 American composer Phillip Glass is born

1872 Author Zane Grey is born

1995 Clinton authorizes loan to Mexico

1988 Doug Williams leads Redskins to Super Bowl victory

1968 Viet Cong attack U.S. Embassy

1972 North Vietnam presents nine-point peace proposal

1917 Germans unleash U-boats

1945 The execution of Pvt. Slovik

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February 1

1884 Oxford Dictionary debuts

1781 Davidson College namesake killed at Cowan’s Ford

2004 Ford GT makes TV debut in Super Bowl ad

1861 Texas secedes

1951 U.N. condemns PRC for aggression

1974 Serial killer Ted Bundy strikes again

2003 Columbia mission ends in disaster

1790 First session of the U.S. Supreme Court

1908 Portuguese king and heir assassinated

1979 Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran

1887 Official registration of Hollywood

1814 “The Corsair” by Lord Byron is published

1896 Puccini’s La bohème premieres in Turin, Italy

1885 Mormon president goes underground

2003 Bush addresses the nation after space shuttle Columbia explodes

1970 NHL goalie Terry Sawchuk posts 103rd shutout

1964 Operation Plan 34A commences

1968 Nixon announces his candidacy for president

1917 Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare

1943 Japanese begin evacuation of Guadalcanal

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February 2

Lead Story

1887 First Groundhog Day

American Revolution

1781 Nathanael Greene finds fortification at Steele’s Tavern

Automotive

1991 Hurley Haywood in quest to win fifth 24 Hours of Daytona

Civil War

1803 Albert Sidney Johnston born

Cold War

1949 United States rejects proposal for conference with Stalin

Crime

1922 Murder in Hollywood: A tale of vice and vixens

Disaster

1847 First Donner Party member dies

General Interest

1943 Battle of Stalingrad ends

1971 Idi Amin takes power in Uganda

1980 ABSCAM operation revealed

Hollywood

1996 Gene Kelly dies

2014 Actor Philip Seymour Hoffman dies at age 46

Literary

1882 James Joyce is born

Music

1979 Sid Vicious dies of a drug overdose in New York City

Old West

1812 Russians establish Fort Ross

Presidential

1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed

Sports

1876 National League of baseball is founded

Vietnam War

1962 First U.S. Air Force plane crashes in South Vietnam.

1970 Antiwar protestors sue Dow Chemical

World War I

1916 Zeppelin crashes into North Sea

World War II

1942 Quisling becomes prime minister of puppet regime in Norway

1943 Germans surrender at Stalingrad

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February 3

Lead Story

2005 Gonzales becomes first Hispanic U.S. attorney general

American Revolution

1781 Greene crosses the Yadkin with Kosciusko’s boats

Automotive

2006 “World’s Fastest Indian” makes U.S. debut

Civil War

1865 Hampton Roads Conference

Cold War

1950 Klaus Fuchs arrested for passing atomic bomb information to Soviets

Crime

1780 Early American mass murder changes common perceptions of crime

Disaster

1998 Marine jet severs ski-lift cable in Italy

General Interest

1924 Woodrow Wilson dies

1953 Cousteau publishes The Silent World

1959 The day the music died

1966 Lunik 9 soft-lands on lunar surface

1994 Clinton ends Vietnam trade embargo

Hollywood

1989 John Cassavetes dies

Literary

1820 Keats falls deathly ill

Music

1959 The Music dies in an Iowa cornfield

Old West

1889 Belle Starr murdered in Oklahoma

Presidential

1994 Clinton ends trade embargo of Vietnam

Sports

2002 New England Patriots win first Super Bowl

2008 New York Giants upset New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII

Vietnam War

1955 Diem institutes limited agrarian reforms

1970 Senate Foreign Relations Committee opens hearings

World War I

1917 U.S. breaks diplomatic relations with Germany

World War II

1944 U.S. troops capture the Marshall Islands

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February 4

 

Lead Story

1974 Patty Hearst kidnapped

American Revolution

1789 Washington unanimously elected by Electoral College to first and second terms

Automotive

1922 Ford buys Lincoln

Civil War

1861 Provisional Confederate Congress convenes

Cold War

1945 Yalta Conference foreshadows the Cold War

Crime

1974 The Symbionese Liberation Army abducts Patty Hearst

Disaster

1976 Earthquake rocks Guatemala City

General Interest

1789 First U.S. president elected

1861 States meet to form Confederacy

1969 PLO is founded

Hollywood

1938 Disney releases Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Literary

1826 The Last of the Mohicans is published

Music

1983 Karen Carpenter dies of anorexia

Old West

1961 The Misfits released by United Artists

Presidential

1789 George Washington is elected president

Sports

1959 Football great Lawrence Taylor born

Vietnam War

1962 First U.S. helicopter is shot down in Vietnam.

1965 Rumors fly about U.S.-Soviet pressure on allies in Vietnam

1972 Last Thai contingent departs South Vietnam

World War I

1915 Germany declares war zone around British Isles

World War II

1945 The Yalta Conference commences

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February 5

Lead Story

1994 Beckwith convicted of killing Medgar Evers

American Revolution

1777 Georgia constitution abolishes primogeniture and entail

Automotive

1878 The “French Henry Ford” born

Civil War

1865 Battle of Dabney’s Mill (Hatcher’s Run)

Cold War

1989 The last Soviet troops leave Kabul

Crime

1994 Medger Evers’ killer is convicted

2012 Husband of missing Utah woman kills self and two young sons

Disaster

1783 Earthquake devastates southern Italy

General Interest

1631 Roger Williams arrives in America

1917 Immigration act passed over Wilson’s veto

1917 Mexican constitution proclaimed

1937 Roosevelt announces “court-packing” plan

1988 Noriega indicted on U.S. drug charges

Hollywood

1919 United Artists created

Literary

1928 Andrew Greeley is born

Music

1957 The American Invasion begins, as Bill Haley and the Comets storm Britain

Old West

1883 Southern Pacific Railroad completes “Sunset Route”

Presidential

1826 Millard Fillmore marries Abigail Powers

Sports

1934 Hank Aaron is born

Vietnam War

1960 South Vietnam requests more support

1975 North Vietnamese begin preparations for offensive

World War I

1918 U.S. steamship Tuscania is torpedoed and sinks

World War II

1941 Hitler to Mussolini: Fight harder!

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February 6

Lead Story

1952 Elizabeth becomes queen

American Revolution

1778 Franco-American alliances signed

Automotive

2009 Honda Insight debuts as Prius competitor

Civil War

1865 John Pegram killed

Cold War

1985 The “Reagan Doctrine” is announced

Crime

1998 Infamous school teacher goes back to prison

Disaster

1958 Man United players among victims of plane crash

General Interest

1820 Freed U.S. slaves depart on journey to Africa

1928 Anastasia arrives in the United States

Hollywood

1911 Ronald Reagan born

Literary

1937 Of Mice and Men is published

Music

1998 Austrian superstar Falco dies

Old West

1891 Dalton Gang commits its first train robbery

Presidential

1911 Ronald Reagan is born

Sports

1993 Tennis great Arthur Ashe dies of AIDS

Vietnam War

1966 Johnson meets with South Vietnamese Premier

1973 ICCS take up positions

World War I

1917 German sub sinks U.S. passenger ship California

World War II

1943 Mussolini fires his son-in-law

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February 7

Lead Story

1964 Beatles arrive in New York

American Revolution

1775 Benjamin Franklin publishes “An Imaginary Speech”

Automotive

1938 Tire king Firestone dies

Civil War

1862 Confederates order reinforcements to Fort Donelson

Cold War

1990 Soviet Communist Party gives up monopoly on political power

Crime

1881 Plea bargaining gains favor in American courts

1968 Forensic evidence solves a crime

Disaster

1812 Earthquake causes fluvial tsunami in Mississippi

General Interest

1904 The Great Baltimore Fire begins

1984 First human satellite

1992 European Union treaty signed

1999 King Hussein of Jordan dies

Hollywood

1914 First appearance of “Little Tramp”

Literary

1898 Zola is brought to trial

Music

1964 The Beatles arrive on American shores

Old West

1855 Cowboy celebrity Charles Siringo is born

Presidential

2002 President George W. Bush announces plan for “faith-based initiatives”

Sports

1970 LSU star Maravich scores 69 points in single game

Vietnam War

1965 U.S. jets conduct retaliatory raids

1971 Operation Dewey Canyon II ends

World War I

1915 Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes begins

World War II

1979 The “Angel of Death” dies

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February 8

Lead Story

1943 Americans secure Guadalcanal

American Revolution

1777 Former POW Timothy Bigelow is named colonel

Automotive

1985 Jaguar founder dies

Civil War

1862 Battle of Roanoke Island

Cold War

1949 Cardinal Mindszenty of Hungary sentenced

Crime

1983 Irish race horse stolen

Disaster

1978 New England digs out after blizzard

General Interest

1587 Mary Queen of Scots beheaded

1725 Peter the Great dies

1904 The Russo-Japanese War begins

1915 Birth of a Nation opens

1924 First execution by lethal gas

Hollywood

1994 Jack Nicholson smashes windshield in episode of road rage

Literary

1955 John Grisham, author of legal thrillers, is born

Music

1990 Del Shannon dies of a self-inflicted gunshot wound

Old West

1887 Cleveland signs the Dawes Severalty Act

Presidential

1887 Cleveland signs devastating Dawes Act into law

Sports

1986 Spud Webb wins dunk contest

Vietnam War

1962 MACV established

1971 Operation Lam Son 719 begins

World War I

1918 U.S. Army resumes publication of Stars and Stripes

World War II

1943 Britain’s Indian Brigade begins guerrilla operations in Burma

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February 9

Lead Story

1971 Satchel Paige nominated to Baseball Hall of Fame

American Revolution

1776 Future New Jersey governor is promoted

Automotive

1846 Auto pioneer Wilhelm Maybach born

Civil War

1864 George Custer married

Cold War

1950 McCarthy says communists are in State Department

Crime

1960 Coors brewery heir is kidnapped

Disaster

2001 U.S. sub collides with Japanese fishing boat in Pearl Harbor

General Interest

1825 Presidential election decided in the House

1900 Davis Cup competition established

1942 Normandie burns in New York

1950 McCarthy accuses State Department of communist infiltration

Hollywood

1960 Joanne Woodward earns first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Literary

1944 Alice Walker is born

Music

1964 America meets the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show

Old West

1864 Elizabeth Bacon marries George Custer

Presidential

1773 William Henry Harrison is born

Sports

1992 Magic Johnson returns for All-Star Game

Vietnam War

1965 U.S. sends first combat troops to South Vietnam

1972 USS Constellation arrives off coast of Vietnam.

World War I

1918 Ukraine signs peace treaty with Central Powers

World War II

1942 Daylight saving time instituted

1942 The Normandie catches fire

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February 10

Lead Story

1996 Kasparov loses chess game to computer

American Revolution

1779 The Battle of Carr’s Fort

Automotive

1966 Auto safety crusader Ralph Nader testifies before Congress

Civil War

1861 Davis learns he is president

Cold War

1962 Soviets exchange American for captured Russian spy

Crime

1992 Boxing legend convicted of raping beauty queen

Disaster

1970 Avalanche buries skiers in France

General Interest

1763 The French and Indian War ends

1962 Spies swapped

1989 Brown elected chairman of the Democratic Party

Hollywood

2006 Final episode of Arrested Development airs on Fox

2014 Iconic child star Shirley Temple dies at 85

Literary

1957 Laura Ingalls Wilder, chronicler of American frontier life, dies

Music

1972 Ziggy Stardust makes his earthly debut

Old West

1846 Mormons begin exodus to Utah

Presidential

1899 Herbert Hoover marries Lou Henry

Sports

1996 Deep Blue beats Kasparov at chess

Vietnam War

1965 Viet Cong blow up U.S. barracks

1971 Journalists killed in helicopter crash

World War I

1916 U.S. secretary of war resigns

World War II

1942 Japanese sub bombards Midway

[rudywoofs (Pam) 2,868]

I love this historical kind of trivia!  Thanks for posting it, pK...

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18 hours ago, rudywoofs (Pam) said:

I love this historical kind of trivia!  Thanks for posting it, pK...

Thanks Pam

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February 11

Lead Story

1990 Nelson Mandela released from prison

American Revolution

1776 Georgia’s governor escapes imprisonment

Automotive

1937 GM signs first autoworkers contract

Civil War

1861 Lincoln leaves Springfield

Cold War

1956 Burgess and Maclean resurface

Crime

1916 Birth control pioneer arrested

Disaster

1952 Avalanches plague central Europe

General Interest

1858 Virgin Mary appears to St. Bernadette

1945 Yalta Conference ends

1970 The world’s fourth space power

Hollywood

2008 Tolkien heirs file Lord of the Rings lawsuit

Literary

1778 Voltaire is welcomed home

Music

1960 The Payola scandal heats up

2012 Pop superstar Whitney Houston dies at age 48

Old West

1805 Sacagawea gives birth to Pompey

Presidential

1945 FDR and daughter Anna leave Yalta Conference

Sports

1990 Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson

Vietnam War

1962 Farm Gate aircraft crashes

World War I

1918 Russia’s General Kaledin commits suicide

World War II

1942 The “Channel Dash”

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February 12

Lead Story

2002 Milosevic goes on trial for war crimes

American Revolution

1789 Ethan Allen dies

Automotive

2008 GM reports record loss, offers buyouts to 74,000 workers

Civil War

1828 Robert Ransom is born

Cold War

1988 Russian ships bump U.S. destroyer and cruiser

Crime

1976 Actor Sal Mineo is killed in Hollywood

Disaster

2002 Iranian jet slams into mountain

General Interest

1793 Congress enacts first fugitive slave law

1865 Garnet preaches to House on slavery and Civil War

1912 Last emperor of China abdicates

1986 Scharansky released

1999 President Clinton acquitted

Hollywood

2008 Writers’ strike ends after 100 days

Literary

1938 Judy Blume, popular young-adult author, is born

Music

1924 Rhapsody In Blue, by George Gershwin, performed for first time

Old West

1915 Lorne Greene is born

Presidential

1809 Abraham Lincoln is born

Sports

1934 Basketball great Bill Russell born

Vietnam War

1972 Cambodians launch attack to retake Angkor Wat

1973 Release of U.S. POWs begins

World War I

1915 British planes raid Belgian coast

1917 American schooner Lyman M. Law is sunk

World War II

1941 Rommel in Africa

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February 13

Lead Story

1633 Galileo in Rome for Inquisition

American Revolution

1776 Patrick Henry named colonel of First Virginia battalion

Automotive

2008 Actor Mel Gibson completes DUI probation

Civil War

1831 John Rawlins born

Cold War

1984 Chernenko becomes general secretary

Crime

1982 Serial killer strikes in Colorado

Disaster

1983 Cinema burns in Turin

General Interest

1689 William and Mary proclaimed joint sovereigns of Britain

1861 First Medal of Honor action

1945 Dresden devastated

Hollywood

2001 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon gets 10 Oscar nominations

Literary

1991 Long-lost Twain manuscript authenticated

Music

1915 ASCAP is founded

Old West

1822 Ashley advertises for western fur trappers

Presidential

1905 Teddy Roosevelt discusses America’s race problem

Sports

1998 Downhill skier Hermann Maier crashes in Olympics

Vietnam War

1965 Johnson approves Operation Rolling Thunder

1968 Additional troops ordered to South Vietnam

World War I

1920 League of Nations recognizes perpetual Swiss neutrality

World War II

1945 Firebombing of Dresden

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Happy Valentine's Day All

February 14

Lead Story

278 St. Valentine beheaded

American Revolution

1779 Patriots defeat Loyalists at Kettle Creek

Automotive

1867 Toyota patriarch born

Civil War

1864 Sherman enters Meridian, Mississippi

Cold War

1989 Sandinistas agree to free elections

Crime

1929 The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre

Disaster

2000 Tornadoes sweep through southern Georgia

General Interest

1779 Captain Cook killed in Hawaii

1929 Penicillin discovered

1929 Valentine’s Day Massacre takes place

Hollywood

1938 Hedda Hopper’s first column appears in the L.A. Times

Literary

1842 The Boz Ball celebrates Dickens

Music

1977 The B-52’s play their first gig

Old West

1886 First trainload of oranges leaves Los Angeles

Presidential

1884 Theodore Roosevelt’s wife and mother die

Sports

1988 Olympic speed skater Jansen falls after sister dies

Vietnam War

1962 Kennedy authorizes U.S. advisors to fire in self-defense

1970 Gallup Poll released

World War I

1919 Wilson presents draft covenant for League of Nations

World War II

1943 Battle of the Kasserine Pass

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February 15

1898

The Maine explodes

A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard.

One of the first American battleships, the Maine weighed more than 6,000 tons and was built at a cost of more than $2 million. Ostensibly on a friendly visit, the Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect the interests of Americans there after a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in Havana in January.

An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the ship was blown up by a mine, without directly placing the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war.

Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain’s brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898.

Within three months, the United States had decisively defeated Spanish forces on land and sea, and in August an armistice halted the fighting. On December 12, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain, officially ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire with the ceding of such former Spanish possessions as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.

In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage.›

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

 

Also on this day

American Revolution

1776

Nova Scotia governor sends word of potential American invasion

From Halifax, Canada, on this day in 1776, Governor Francis Legge reports to British headquarters in London that traitorous elements in Cumberland, Nova Scotia, have contacted American General George Washington. Washington received a letter from the Nova Scotians, in which they expressed their sympathy for the American cause, on February...Read More

Automotive

1998

Victory at last for Earnhardt at Daytona

On February 15, 1998, after 20 years of trying, racing great Dale Earnhardt Sr. finally wins his first Daytona 500, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) season opener and an event dubbed the “Super Bowl of stock car racing.” Driving his black No. 3 Chevrolet, Earnhardt recorded...Read More

Civil War

1835

Alexander Stewart Webb born

On this day in 1835, Union General Alexander Stewart Webb is born in New York City.Webb’s grandfather had fought at Bunker Hill during the American Revolution, and his father, James Watson Webb, was a prominent newspaper editor and diplomat who served as minister to Brazil during the Civil War. The...Read More

Cold War

1950

USSR and PRC sign mutual defense treaty

The Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China, the two largest communist nations in the world, announce the signing of a mutual defense and assistance treaty. The negotiations for the treaty were conducted in Moscow between PRC leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou En-lai, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin...Read More

Crime

1933

The death penalty–then and now

Giuseppe Zangara shoots Anton Cermak, the mayor of Chicago, in Miami, Florida. Zangara’s shots missed President-elect Franklin Roosevelt, who was with Cermak at the time. Cermak was seriously wounded and died on March 6. Immediately after Mayor Cermak died from the gunshot wounds, Zangara was indicted and arraigned for murder. He...Read More

Disaster

1996

Oil tanker runs aground near Wales

On this day in 1996, a supertanker, the Sea Empress, runs aground near Wales, spilling 70,000 tons of crude oil. The oil spill did not take any human lives, but severely damaged several bird sanctuaries. The Pembrokeshire coast of South Wales is an area teeming with wildlife, particularly seals and seabirds...Read More

General Interest

1942

Japan celebrates major victory in the Pacific

In one of the greatest defeats in British military history, Britain’s supposedly impregnable Singapore fortress surrenders to Japanese forces after a weeklong siege. More than 60,000 British, Australian, and Indian soldiers were taken prisoner, joining 70,000 other Allied soldiers captured during Britain’s disastrous defense of the Malay Peninsula.On December 8,...Read More

1965

Canada adopts maple leaf flag

In accordance with a formal proclamation by Queen Elizabeth II of England, a new Canadian national flag is raised above Parliament Hill in Ottawa, the capital of Canada.Beginning in 1610, Lower Canada, a new British colony, flew Great Britain’s Union Jack, or Royal Union Flag. In 1763, as a result...Read More

Hollywood

1950

Disney’s Cinderella opens

On this day in 1950, Walt Disney’s animated feature Cinderella opens in theaters across the United States. The Chicago-born Disney began his career as an advertising cartoonist in Kansas City. After arriving in Hollywood in 1923, he and his older brother Roy set up shop in the back of a real-estate...Read More

Literary

1980

Lillian Hellman sues Mary McCarthy

On this day in 1980, playwright Lillian Hellman filed a lawsuit claming $2.2 million in damages against novelist Mary McCarthy for libel. McCarthy, a sarcastic and critical novelist whose most popular novel was The Group (1963), about eight Vassar graduates, had called Hellman “a bad writer, overrated, a dishonest writer” while...Read More

Music

1984

Broadway legend Ethel Merman dies

She was as big a star as the American stage ever produced, a legend both in her own time and beyond it. She had neither the looks nor the dancing ability that typically recommended a young woman for Broadway stardom, but she had a vocal instrument that simply could not...Read More

Old West

1812

Wilson Hunt arrives at Astoria, Oregon

Having departed St. Louis more than two years earlier, Wilson Hunt and his party stumble into the fur-trading post of Astoria, Oregon. Later romanticized as the archetypal frontier hero in Washington Irving’s novel Astoria, which chronicled the early Far West fur trade, Wilson Hunt was actually a reluctant mountain man. ...Read More

Presidential

1903

First Teddy bear goes on sale

On this day in 1903, toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window, advertising them as Teddy bears. Michtom had earlier petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his nickname, Teddy. The president agreed and, before long, other toy manufacturers began...Read More

1933

FDR escapes assassination in Miami

On this day in 1933, a deranged, unemployed brick layer named Giuseppe Zangara shouts Too many people are starving! and fires a gun at America’s president-elect, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt had just delivered a speech in Miami’s Bayfront Park from the back seat of his open touring car when Zangara...Read More

Sports

1961

U.S. figure skating team killed in plane crash

On this day in 1961, the entire 18-member U.S. figure skating team is killed in a plane crash in Berg-Kampenhout, Belgium. The team was on its way to the 1961 World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Among those killed in the crash was 16-year-old Laurence Owen, who had won...Read More

1998

Dale Earnhardt wins first Daytona 500

After two decades of trying, stock-car racing great Dale Earnhardt finally wins his first Daytona 500, NASCAR’s premier event, on this day in 1998. Earnhardt was born April 29, 1951, in Kannapolis, North Carolina. His father was a race car driver and Dale dropped out of high school to pursue racing....Read More

Vietnam War

1966

DeGaulle offers to help end Vietnam War

In response to a letter from Ho Chi Minh asking that French President Charles De Gaulle use his influence to “prevent perfidious new maneuvers” by the United States in Southeast Asia, De Gaulle states that France is willing to do all that it could to end the war. As outlined...Read More

1970

Chicago Eight defense attorneys sentenced

As the jury continues to deliberate in the trial of the Chicago Eight, defense attorneys William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass and three of the defendants are sentenced to prison for contempt of court. The trial for eight antiwar activists charged with the responsibility for the violent demonstrations at the August 1968...Read More

World War I

1915

Mutiny breaks out among Indian soldiers in Singapore

In Singapore on this day in 1915, Indian soldiers launch the first large-scale mutiny of World War I. Some 800 soldiers in the Indian army’s 5th Light Infantry Brigade broke out of their barracks on the afternoon of February 15 and killed several British officers before moving on to...Read More

World War II

1942

Singapore falls to Japan

Singapore, the “Gibraltar of the East” and a strategic British stronghold, falls to Japanese forces. An island city and the capital of the Straits Settlement of the Malay Peninsula, Singapore had been a British colony since the 19th century. In July 1941, when Japanese troops occupied French Indochina, the Japanese telegraphed...Read More

 

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February 16

1923

Archaeologist opens tomb of King Tut

On this day in 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen.

Because the ancient Egyptians saw their pharaohs as gods, they carefully preserved their bodies after death, burying them in elaborate tombs containing rich treasures to accompany the rulers into the afterlife. In the 19th century, archeologists from all over the world flocked to Egypt, where they uncovered a number of these tombs. Many had long ago been broken into by robbers and stripped of their riches.

When Carter arrived in Egypt in 1891, he became convinced there was at least one undiscovered tomb–that of the little known Tutankhamen, or King Tut, who lived around 1400 B.C. and died when he was still a teenager. Backed by a rich Brit, Lord Carnarvon, Carter searched for five years without success. In early 1922, Lord Carnarvon wanted to call off the search, but Carter convinced him to hold on one more year.

In November 1922, the wait paid off, when Carter’s team found steps hidden in the debris near the entrance of another tomb. The steps led to an ancient sealed doorway bearing the name Tutankhamen. When Carter and Lord Carnarvon entered the tomb’s interior chambers on November 26, they were thrilled to find it virtually intact, with its treasures untouched after more than 3,000 years. The men began exploring the four rooms of the tomb, and on February 16, 1923, under the watchful eyes of a number of important officials, Carter opened the door to the last chamber.

Inside lay a sarcophagus with three coffins nested inside one another. The last coffin, made of solid gold, contained the mummified body of King Tut. Among the riches found in the tomb–golden shrines, jewelry, statues, a chariot, weapons, clothing–the perfectly preserved mummy was the most valuable, as it was the first one ever to be discovered. Despite rumors that a curse would befall anyone who disturbed the tomb, its treasures were carefully catalogued, removed and included in a famous traveling exhibition called the “Treasures of Tutankhamen.” The exhibition’s permanent home is the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Also on this day

American Revolution

1778

John Adams prepares to sail for France

On this day in 1778, two future presidents of the United States, John Adams and his son, 10-year-old John Quincy Adams, sit in Marblehead Harbor, off the coast of Massachusetts, on board the frigate, Boston, which is to take them to France, where John Adams will replace Silas Deane in...Read More

Automotive

1997

Jeff Gordon becomes youngest Daytona winner

On February 16, 1997, 25-year-old Jeff Gordon claims his first Daytona 500 victory, becoming the youngest winner in the history of the 200-lap, 500-mile National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) event, dubbed the “Super Bowl of stock car racing.” Driving his No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the...Read More

Civil War

1862

Capture of Fort Donelson

On this day in 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant finishes a spectacular campaign by capturing Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River in Tennessee. This battle came10 days after Grant’s capture of Fort Henry, just10 miles to the west on the Tennessee River, and opened the way for Union occupation of...Read More

Cold War

1951

Joseph Stalin attacks the United Nations

In a statement focusing on the situation in Korea, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin charges that the United Nations has become “a weapon of aggressive war.” He also suggested that although a world war was not inevitable “at the present time,” “warmongers” in the West might trigger such a conflict.Stalin’s...Read More

Crime

1894

John Wesley Hardin is pardoned

Infamous gunslinger John Wesley Hardin is pardoned after spending 15 years in a Texas prison for murder. Hardin, who was reputed to have shot and killed a man just for snoring, was 41 years old at the time of his release. Hardin probably killed in excess of 40 people during...Read More

Disaster

1983

Brush fires ravage South Australia

Brush fires rage across South Australia on this day in 1983, burning thousands of acres, killing 75 people and injuring another 800. There were 24 major fires in total across the region, in addition to scores of smaller ones. The summer of 1982-83 had been extremely hot and dry in South...Read More

General Interest

1804

The most daring act of the age

During the First Barbary War, U.S. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a military mission that famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson calls the “most daring act of the age.”In June 1801, President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates...Read More

1959

Castro sworn in

On February 16, 1959, Fidel Castro is sworn in as prime minister of Cuba after leading a guerrilla campaign that forced right-wing dictator Fulgencio Batista into exile. Castro, who became commander in chief of Cuba’s armed forces after Batista was ousted on January 1, replaced the more moderate Miro Cardona...Read More

Hollywood

1933

David O. Selznick returns to MGM

On this day in 1933, David O. Selznick becomes vice president and producer at MGM. Selznick became one of the most influential independent producers of his time. Selznick got his start working at his father’s studio, Lewis Selznick Pictures. Selznick’s older brother, Myron, also worked at the studio, becoming chief of...Read More

Literary

1944

Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ford is born

On this day in 1944, novelist Richard Ford is born in Jackson, Mississippi. The son of a traveling salesman, Ford lost his father when he was 16. He graduated from Michigan State University, where he met his wife, Kristina, who became a city planner. After a stint at law school, Ford...Read More

Music

1848

Chopin plays his final Paris concert

“Bach is like an astronomer who, with the help of ciphers, finds the most wonderful stars….Beethoven embraced the universe with the power of his spirit….I do not climb so high. A long time ago I decided that my universe will be the soul and heart of man.” This was the...Read More

Old West

1878

Silver dollars made legal

Strongly supported by western mining interests and farmers, the Bland-Allison Act—which provided for a return to the minting of silver coins—becomes the law of the land. The strife and controversy surrounding the coinage of silver is difficult for most modern Americans to understand, but in the late 19th century it was...Read More

Presidential

1786

James Monroe marries Elizabeth Kortright

On this day in history, future President James Monroe weds a 17-year-old New York beauty named Elizabeth Kortright. The 26-year-old Monroe, already a famous revolutionary and practicing lawyer, married not for money, but for love. Elizabeth’s father, once a wealthy privateer, had lost most of his fortune during the Revolutionary...Read More

Sports

1984

Bill Johnson becomes first American to win Olympic gold in downhill skiing

On February 16, 1984, Bill Johnson becomes the first American man to win an Olympic gold medal in downhill skiing, a sport long dominated by European athletes. Johnson quickly became a national hero, though his fame was short-lived, and he never again competed in the Olympics. William Dean Johnson was born...Read More

Vietnam War

1968

Tet Offensive results in many new refugees

U.S. officials report that, in addition to the 800,000 people listed as refugees prior to January 30, the fighting during the Tet Offensive has created 350,000 new refugees. The communist attack known as the Tet Offensive had begun at dawn on January 31, the first day of the Tet holiday truce....Read More

World War I

1916

Russians capture Erzerum

After five days of intense fighting, the Russian army defeats the Third Turkish Army to capture Erzerum, a largely Armenian city in the Ottoman province of Anatolia, on this day in 1916. The Central Powers considered Turkey, which entered World War I in November 1914, a valuable ally for two reasons:...Read More

World War II

1945

Bataan recaptured

On this day, the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines is occupied by American troops, almost three years after the devastating and infamous Bataan Death March. On April 3, 1942, the Japanese infantry staged a major offensive against Allied troops in Bataan, the peninsula guarding Manila Bay of the Philippine Islands. The...Read More

 

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February 17

1904

Madame Butterfly premieres

On this day in 1904, Giacomo Puccini’s opera Madame Butterfly premieres at the La Scala theatre in Milan, Italy.

The young Puccini decided to dedicate his life to opera after seeing a performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida in 1876. In his later life, he would write some of the best-loved operas of all time: La Boheme (1896), Tosca (1900), Madame Butterfly (1904) and Turandot (left unfinished when he died in 1906). Not one of these, however, was an immediate success when it opened. La Boheme, the now-classic story of a group of poor artists living in a Paris garret, earned mixed reviews, while Tosca was downright panned by critics.

While supervising a production of Tosca in London, Puccini saw the play Madame Butterfly, written by David Belasco and based on a story by John Luther Long. Taken with the strong female character at its center, he began working on an operatic version of the play, with an Italian libretto by Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica. Written over the course of two years–including an eight-month break when Puccini was badly injured in a car accident–the opera made its debut in Milan in February 1904.

Set in Nagasaki, Japan, Madame Butterfly told the story of an American sailor, B.F. Pinkerton, who marries and abandons a young Japanese geisha, Cio-Cio-San, or Madame Butterfly. In addition to the rich, colorful orchestration and powerful arias that Puccini was known for, the opera reflected his common theme of living and dying for love. This theme often played out in the lives of his heroines–women like Cio-Cio-San, who live for the sake of their lovers and are eventually destroyed by the pain inflicted by that love. Perhaps because of the opera’s foreign setting or perhaps because it was too similar to Puccini’s earlier works, the audience at the premiere reacted badly to Madame Butterfly, hissing and yelling at the stage. Puccini withdrew it after one performance. He worked quickly to revise the work, splitting the 90-minute-long second act into two parts and changing other minor aspects. Four months later, the revamped Madame Butterfly went onstage at the Teatro Grande in Brescia. This time, the public greeted the opera with tumultuous applause and repeated encores, and Puccini was called before the curtain 10 times. Madame Butterfly went on to huge international success, moving to New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 1907.

 

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Also on this day

American Revolution

1782

French and British battle in the Indian Ocean

The worldwide implications of the American War for Independence are made clear on this day in history as the American-allied French navy begins a 14-month-long series of five battles with the British navy in the Indian Ocean. Between February 17, 1782, and September 3, 1782, French Admiral Pierre Andre de Suffren...Read More

Automotive

1972

Beetle overtakes Model T as world’s best-selling car

On this day in 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line, breaking a world car production record held for more than four decades by the Ford Motor Company’s iconic Model T, which was in production from 1908 and 1927. The history of the VW Beetle dates back to...Read More

Civil War

1865

Sherman sacks Columbia, South Carolina

On this day in 1865, the soldiers from Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s army ransack Columbia, South Carolina, and leave a charred city in their wake. Sherman is most famous for his March to the Sea in the closing months of 1864. After capturing Atlanta in September, Sherman cut away...Read More

Cold War

1947

Voice of America begins broadcasts to Russia

With the words, “Hello! This is New York calling,” the U.S. Voice of America (VOA) begins its first radio broadcasts to the Soviet Union. The VOA effort was an important part of America’s propaganda campaign against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.The VOA began in 1942 as a...Read More

Crime

1906

The first “Trial of the Century”

Union leaders Bill Hayward, Charles Moyer, and George Pettibone are taken into custody by Idaho authorities and the Pinkerton Detective Agency. They are put on a special train in Denver, Colorado, following a secret, direct route to Idaho because the officials had no legal right to arrest the three union...Read More

Disaster

1993

Ferry sinks near Haiti

Approximately 900 people drown when a passenger ferry, the Neptune, overturns near Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on this day in 1993. The ferry was dangerously overloaded, and carried no lifeboats or emergency gear. The Neptune was a 150-foot boat, with three decks, that made regular trips transporting people, farm animals and some cargo...Read More

General Interest

1801

Deadlock over presidential election ends

After one tie vote in the Electoral College and 35 indecisive ballot votes in the House of Representatives, Vice President Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States over his running mate, Aaron Burr. The confusing election, which ended just 15 days before a new president was...Read More

1957

Gromyko becomes foreign minister

Andre Gromyko was installed as Soviet Foreign Minister on February 17, 1957. Gromyko was called to foreign service in 1939 and began by serving under a policy of cooperation with the Nazis before Hitler’s attack on Russia. After World War II he became an expert at Cold War diplomacy. Seen...Read More

1979

China invades Vietnam

In response to the Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia, China launches an invasion of Vietnam.Tensions between Vietnam and China increased dramatically after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. Attempting to expand its influence, Vietnam established a military presence in Laos; strengthened its ties with China’s rival, the Soviet Union;...Read More

Hollywood

1982

Lee Strasberg dies

On this day in 1982, the American director, actor and drama coach Lee Strasberg, who popularized “Method acting,” dies of a heart attack at age 80. Born in Budzanow, Poland, Strasberg immigrated to the United States in 1909 at the age of eight; he became a U.S. citizen in 1936. While...Read More

Literary

2000

Dave Eggers’ Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius debuts

On this day in 2000, “A Heartbreaking World of Staggering Genius,” 29-year-old Dave Eggers’ best-selling memoir about his experiences raising his younger brother following the cancer-related deaths of their parents, makes its debut. The critically acclaimed book became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and turned Eggers into a literary...Read More

Music

1966

Brian Wilson rolls tape on “Good Vibrations,” take one

From the very beginning, the Beach Boys had a sound that was unmistakably their own, but without resident genius Brian Wilson pushing them into deeper waters with his songwriting and production talents, songs like “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin’ U.S.A.” might have been their greatest legacy. While the rest of the...Read More

Old West

1820

Senate passes Missouri Compromise

The Senate passes the Missouri Compromise, an attempt to deal with the dangerously divisive issue of extending slavery into the western territories. From colonial days to the Civil War, slavery and western expansion both played fundamental but inherently incompatible roles in the American republic. As the nation expanded westward, the...Read More

Presidential

1801

Thomas Jefferson is elected

On this day in 1801, Thomas Jefferson is elected the third president of the United States. The election constitutes the first peaceful transfer of power from one political party to another in the United States. By 1800, when he decided to run for president, Thomas Jefferson possessed impressive political credentials and...Read More

Sports

1996

Kasparov defeats chess-playing computer

In the final game of a six-game match, world chess champion Garry Kasparov triumphs over Deep Blue, IBM’s chess-playing computer, and wins the match, 4-2. However, Deep Blue goes on to defeat Kasparov in a heavily publicized rematch the following year. Garry Kasparov, considered one of the greatest players in the...Read More

Vietnam War

1966

Taylor testifies on Operation Rolling Thunder

In testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Gen. Maxwell Taylor states that a major U.S. objective in Vietnam is to demonstrate that “wars of liberation” are “costly, dangerous and doomed to failure.” Discussing the American air campaign against North Vietnam, Taylor declared that its primary purpose was “to...Read More

1968

U.S. casualty rate reaches record high

American officials in Saigon report an all-time high weekly rate of U.S. casualties–543 killed in action and 2,547 wounded in the previous seven days. These losses were a result of the heavy fighting during the communist Tet Offensive.Read More

World War I

1915

Zeppelin L-4 crashes into North Sea

After encountering a severe snowstorm on the evening of February 17, 1915, the German zeppelin L-4 crash-lands in the North Sea near the Danish coastal town of Varde. The zeppelin, a motor-driven rigid airship, was developed by German inventor Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in 1900. Although a French...Read More

World War II

1944

U.S. troops land on Eniwetok atoll

Operation Catchpole is launched as American troops devastate the Japanese defenders of Eniwetok and take control of the atoll in the northwestern part of the Marshall Islands. The U.S. Central Pacific Campaign was formulated during the August 1943 Quebec Conference. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed on,...Read More

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February 18

1885

Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

On this day in 1885, Mark Twain publishes his famous–and famously controversial–novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Twain (the pen name of Samuel Clemens) first introduced Huck Finn as the best friend of Tom Sawyer, hero of his tremendously successful novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). Though Twain saw Huck’s story as a kind of sequel to his earlier book, the new novel was far more serious, focusing on the institution of slavery and other aspects of life in the antebellum South.

At the book’s heart is the journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on a raft. Jim runs away because he is about to be sold and separated from his wife and children, and Huck goes with him to help him get to Ohio and freedom. Huck narrates the story in his distinctive voice, offering colorful descriptions of the people and places they encounter along the way. The most striking part of the book is its satirical look at racism, religion and other social attitudes of the time. While Jim is strong, brave, generous and wise, many of the white characters are portrayed as violent, stupid or simply selfish, and the naive Huck ends up questioning the hypocritical, unjust nature of society in general.

Even in 1885, two decades after the Emancipation Proclamation and the end of the Civil War, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn landed with a splash. A month after its publication, a Concord, Massachusetts, library banned the book, calling its subject matter “tawdry” and its narrative voice “coarse” and “ignorant.” Other libraries followed suit, beginning a controversy that continued long after Twain’s death in 1910. In the 1950s, the book came under fire from African-American groups for being racist in its portrayal of black characters, despite the fact that it was seen by many as a strong criticism of racism and slavery. As recently as 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district, claiming that making Twain’s novel required high school reading made already existing racial tensions even worse.

Aside from its controversial nature and its continuing popularity with young readers, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been hailed by many serious literary critics as a masterpiece. No less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared that the book marked the beginning of American literature: “There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

 

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Also on this day

American Revolution

1776

Lord Dunmore dispatches note of “inexpressible mortification”

From Norfolk, Virginia, Royal Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, dispatches a note to William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, expressing his “inexpressible mortification” that British Major General Sir Henry Clinton had been ordered to the “insignificant province of North Carolina to the neglect of this the richest and...Read More

Automotive

2001

Dale Earnhardt killed in crash

On this day in 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., considered one of the greatest drivers in National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) history, dies at the age of 49 in a last-lap crash at the 43rd Daytona 500 in Daytona Beach, Florida. Earnhardt was driving his famous black No....Read More

Civil War

1817

Lewis Armistead born

On this day in 1817, Confederate General Lewis Armistead is born in New Bern, North Carolina. Armistead is best known for leading Pickett’s Charge at the 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania,where he was mortally wounded.Armistead’s father, Walker Keith Armistead, and his five uncles served in the military during the War...Read More

Cold War

1964

United States punishes nations for trading with Cuba

The United States cuts off military assistance to Britain, France, and Yugoslavia in retaliation for their continuing trade with the communist nation of Cuba. The action was chiefly symbolic, but represented the continued U.S. effort to destabilize the Cuban regime of Fidel Castro.The amount of aid denied was miniscule–approximately...Read More

Crime

2003

Arsonist sets fire in South Korean subway

On this day in 2003, a man ignites a gasoline-filled container inside a subway train in Daegu, South Korea. The blaze engulfed the six-car train, before spreading to another train that pulled into station a few minutes later. In all, 198 people were killed and nearly 150 others were injured. The...Read More

2011

Green River serial killer pleads guilty to 49th murder

On this day in 2011, in a Kent, Washington, courtroom, Gary Leon Ridgway pleads guilty to the 1982 aggravated, first-degree murder of his 49th victim, 20-year-old Rebecca Marrero. Marrero’s remains were found in December 2010, decades after her murder, in a ravine near Auburn, Washington. After entering his guilty plea,...Read More

Disaster

1965

Avalanche kills 26 in British Columbia

Twenty-six people are killed in a glacial slide and avalanche on this day in 1965 in British Columbia, Canada. The victims were miners who were removing copper ore from underneath a glacier. The Granduc Mining Company camp was in the town of Stewart, near the border of British Columbia and Alaska....Read More

General Interest

1856

Know-Nothings convene in Philadelphia

The American Party, also known as the “Known-Nothing Party,” convenes in Philadelphia to nominate its first presidential candidate.The Know-Nothing movement began in the 1840s, when an increasing rate of immigration led to the formation of a number of so-called nativist societies to combat “foreign” influences in American society. Roman Catholic...Read More

1930

Pluto discovered

Pluto, once believed to be the ninth planet, is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh. The existence of an unknown ninth planet was first proposed by Percival Lowell, who theorized that wobbles in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune were caused by the gravitational...Read More

1948

De Valera resigns

After 16 years as head of independent Ireland, Eamon de Valera steps down as the taoiseach, or Irish prime minister, after his Fianna Fail Party fails to win a majority in the Dail Eireann (the Irish assembly). As a result of the general election, the Fianna Fail won 68 of...Read More

1967

J. Robert Oppenheimer dies

On February 18, 1967, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the “father of the atomic bomb,” dies in Princeton, New Jersey, at the age of 62.An expert in quantum theory and nuclear physics, he was enlisted into the fledgling U.S. atomic weapons program in 1941. In 1942, the “Manhattan Project,” as the program...Read More

Hollywood

1929

First Academy Awards announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the winners of the first Academy Awards on this day in 1929. It was a far cry from the suspense, glamour and endless press coverage surrounding the Oscars today: The first award recipients’ names were printed on the back page of...Read More

Literary

1931

Toni Morrison’s birthday

Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning novelist, is born this day in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Morrison was born Chloe Anthony Wofford to a welder father and homemaker mother. She graduated from Howard University in 1953, then took a master’s in literature at Cornell. She married architect Howard Morrison and had two sons. After...Read More

Music

1959

Ray Charles records “What’d I Say” at Atlantic Records

The phone call that Ray Charles placed to Atlantic Records in early 1959 went something like this: “I’m playing a song out here on the road, and I don’t know what it is—it’s just a song I made up, but the people are just going wild every time we play...Read More

Old West

1878

Murder ignites Lincoln County War

Long simmering tensions in Lincoln County, New Mexico, explode into a bloody shooting war when gunmen murder the English rancher John Tunstall. Tunstall had established a large ranching operation in Lincoln County two years earlier in 1876, stepping into the middle of a dangerous political and economic rivalry for control of...Read More

Presidential

1861

Davis becomes provisional president of the Confederacy

On this day in 1861, Jefferson Davis, a veteran of the Black Hawk and Mexican-American Wars, begins his term as provisional president of the Confederate States of America. As it turned out, Davis was both the first and last president of the ill-fated Confederacy, as both his term and the...Read More

Sports

1979

Richard Petty wins Daytona 500 after last-lap crash

Richard Petty comes from behind to win the 21st annual Daytona 500, after leaders Donnie Allison and Cale Yarborough crash into a wall during the final lap of the race. Allison and Yarborough then began fighting on the infield, an altercation broadcast on live television. The race helped popularize NASCAR...Read More

Vietnam War

1965

United States warns of forthcoming bombing operations

The State Department sends secret cables to U.S. ambassadors in nine friendly nations advising of forthcoming bombing operations over North Vietnam, and instructs them to inform their host governments “in strictest confidence” and to report reactions. President Lyndon Johnson wanted these governments to be aware of what he was...Read More

World War I

1913

Raymond Poincare becomes president of France

Raymond Poincare, a conservative politician who had been elected president of the French Republic over the objections of Georges Clemenceau and the French Left a month earlier, takes office on this day in 1913. Known for his right-wing nationalist beliefs and his strong Catholic faith, Poincare served as France’s prime...Read More

World War II

1943

Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders

Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie, the leaders of the German youth group Weisse Rose (White Rose), are arrested by the Gestapo for opposing the Nazi regime. The White Rose was composed of university (mostly medical) students who spoke out against Adolf Hitler and his regime. The founder, Hans Scholl, was...Read More

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February 19

Lead Story

1847

Donner Party rescued

On this day in 1847, the first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In the summer of 1846, in the midst of a Western-bound fever sweeping the United States, 89 people–including 31 members of the Donner and Reed families–set out in a wagon train from Springfield, Illinois. After arriving at Fort Bridger, Wyoming, the emigrants decided to avoid the usual route and try a new trail recently blazed by California promoter Lansford Hastings, the so-called “Hastings Cutoff.” After electing George Donner as their captain, the party departed Fort Bridger in mid-July. The shortcut was nothing of the sort: It set the Donner Party back nearly three weeks and cost them much-needed supplies. After suffering great hardships in the Wasatch Mountains, the Great Salt Lake Desert and along the Humboldt River, they finally reached the Sierra Nevada Mountains in early October. Despite the lateness of the season, the emigrants continued to press on, and on October 28 they camped at Truckee Lake, located in the high mountains 21 kilometers northwest of Lake Tahoe. Overnight, an early winter storm blanketed the ground with snow, blocking the mountain pass and trapping the Donner Party.

Most of the group stayed near the lake–now known as Donner Lake–while the Donner family and others made camp six miles away at Alder Creek. Building makeshift tents out of their wagons and killing their oxen for food, they hoped for a thaw that never came. Fifteen of the stronger emigrants, later known as the Forlorn Hope, set out west on snowshoes for Sutter’s Fort near San Francisco on December 16. Three weeks later, after harsh weather and lack of supplies killed several of the expedition and forced the others to resort to cannibalism, seven survivors reached a Native American village.

News of the stranded Donner Party traveled fast to Sutter’s Fort, and a rescue party set out on January 31. Arriving at Donner Lake 20 days later, they found the camp completely snowbound and the surviving emigrants delirious with relief at their arrival. Rescuers fed the starving group as well as they could and then began evacuating them. Three more rescue parties arrived to help, but the return to Sutter’s Fort proved equally harrowing, and the last survivors didn’t reach safety until late April. Of the 89 original members of the Donner Party, only 45 reached California.

Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness. But if you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

 

Also on this day

American Revolution

1777

Congress overlooks Benedict Arnold for promotion

On this day in 1777, the Continental Congress votes to promote Thomas Mifflin; Arthur St. Clair; William Alexander, Lord Stirling; Adam Stephen; and Benjamin Lincoln to the rank of major general. Although the promotions were intended in part to balance the number of generals from each state, Brigadier General...Read More

Automotive

1984

Yarborough wins fourth Daytona 500

Driver Cale Yarborough wins his fourth Daytona 500 on this day in 1984. In the history of the 200-lap, 500-mile race, which was first run at Florida’s Daytona International Speedway in 1959 and is considered one of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR)’s premiere events, only one...Read More

Civil War

1821

Francis Preston Blair, Jr., born

On this day in 1821, Union General Francis Preston Blair Jr. is born in Lexington, Kentucky. The colorful Blair was instrumental in keeping Missouri part of the Union during the early stages of the Civil War. Blair’s father served as an advisor to several presidents. His namesake and youngest son was...Read More

Cold War

1981

United States calls situation in El Salvador a communist plot

The U.S. government releases a report detailing how the “insurgency in El Salvador has been progressively transformed into a textbook case of indirect armed aggression by communist powers.” The report was another step indicating that the new administration of Ronald Reagan was prepared to take strong measures against what...Read More

Crime

1851

Angry San Francisco vigilantes take the law into their own hands

On this day in 1851, an angry mob in San Francisco’s business district”tries” two Australian suspects in the robbery and assault of C. J. Jansen. When the makeshift jury deadlocked, the suspects were returned to law enforcement officials. Jansen was working at his store at the corner of Montgomery and...Read More

Disaster

1884

Tornadoes strike the Southeast

On this day in 1884, an astonishing series of 37 tornadoes sweeps across the Southeast United States. The twisters, which came at a time in which there was no warning system in place to alert area residents, killed 167 people and injured another 1,000. The tornadoes began early in the afternoon...Read More

General Interest

1473

Copernicus born

On February 19, 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus is born in Torun, a city in north-central Poland on the Vistula River. The father of modern astronomy, he was the first modern European scientist to propose that Earth and other planets revolve around the sun.Copernicus was born into a family of well-to-do merchants,...Read More

1807

Aaron Burr arrested for treason

Aaron Burr, a former U.S. vice president, is arrested in Alabama on charges of plotting to annex Spanish territory in Louisiana and Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic. In November 1800, in an election conducted before presidential and vice-presidential candidates shared a single ticket, Thomas Jefferson...Read More

1942

Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066

Ten weeks after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the removal of any or all people from military areas “as deemed necessary or desirable.” The military in turn defined the entire West Coast, home to the majority of Americans of Japanese...Read More

1974

Solzhenitsyn reunited with family

Alexander Solzhenitsyn awaits reunion with his family after exile from Russia. Publication of The Gulag Archipelago, a detailed history of the Soviet prison system, prompted Russia to exile the 55 year-old author. One of Russia’s most visible and vocal dissidents, Solzhenitsyn once served an 11-year prison term. Solzhenitsyn had previously...Read More

Hollywood

1934

Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade

On this day in 1934, the legendary comic actor and entertainer Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade in Erie, Pennsylvania. Their marriage would last until Hope’s death 69 years later, making it by far one of Hollywood’s most enduring unions. Born Leslie Townes Hope in 1903 near London, Hope emigrated with his...Read More

Literary

1952

Amy Tan’s birthday

Novelist Amy Tan is born on this day in 1952 to Chinese immigrants who came to Oakland in 1949. Tan studied English at San Jose State and Berkeley. Although she planned an academic career, she grew bored with university life and turned to technical writing, business writing, and publishing. At age...Read More

Music

1878

Thomas Alva Edison patents the phonograph

The technology that made the modern music business possible came into existence in the New Jersey laboratory where Thomas Alva Edison created the first device to both record sound and play it back. He was awarded U.S. Patent No. 200,521 for his invention–the phonograph–on this day in 1878. Edison’s invention came...Read More

Old West

1847

Rescuers reach Donner Party

The first rescuers from Sutter’s Fort reach the surviving remnants of the Donner emigrant party at their snowbound camp in the high Sierra Nevada Mountains. The events leading up to the Donner party tragedy began the summer before, when 89 emigrants from Springfield, Illinois, set out overland for California. Initially...Read More

Presidential

1942

FDR signs Executive Order 9066

On this day in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, initiating a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans. The document ordered the removal of resident enemy aliens from parts of the West vaguely identified as military areas. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor...Read More

Sports

1996

Patrick Roy gets 300th win as NHL goalie

On this day in 1996, Colorado Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy earns his 300th win in the National Hockey League. Roy retired from hockey in 2003 with 551 career wins, a record that still stands. Patrick Roy, a native of Quebec City, Canada, was drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in 1984. He...Read More

2010

Tiger Woods apologizes for extramarital affairs

On this day in 2010, professional golfer Tiger Woods gives a televised news conference in which he apologizes for his marital infidelities and admits to “selfish” and “foolish” behavior. The 34-year-old Woods, one of the greatest players in the history of golf as well as one of the world’s highest-paid...Read More

Vietnam War

1965

South Vietnamese coup unsuccessful

Dissident officers move several battalions of troops into Saigon on this day with the intention of ousting Gen. Nguyen Khanh from leadership. General Khanh escaped to Dalat with the aid of Air Vice Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky, commander of the South Vietnamese Air Force, who then threatened to bomb Saigon and...Read More

1970

Chicago Seven sentenced

The Chicago Seven (formerly the Chicago Eight–one defendant, Bobby Seale, was being tried separately) are acquitted of riot conspiracy charges, but found guilty of inciting riot. The eight antiwar activists were charged with the responsibility for the violent demonstrations at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The defendants included...Read More

World War I

1915

British navy bombards Dardanelles

On this day in 1915, British and French battleships launch a massive attack on Turkish positions at Cape Helles and Kum Kaleh at the entrance to the Dardanelles, the narrow strait separating Europe from Asia in northwestern Turkey and the only waterway linking the Mediterranean Sea to the Black Sea....Read More

World War II

1945

Marines invade Iwo Jima

On this day, Operation Detachment, the U.S. Marines’ invasion of Iwo Jima, is launched. Iwo Jima was a barren Pacific island guarded by Japanese artillery, but to American military minds, it was prime real estate on which to build airfields to launch bombing raids against Japan, only 660 miles away. The...Read More

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February 20

Lead Story

1985

Ireland allows sale of contraceptives

In a highly controversial vote on February 20, 1985, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives.

Up until 1979, Irish law prohibited the importation and sale of contraceptives. In a 1973 case, McGee v. The Attorney General, the Irish Supreme Court found that a constitutional right to marital privacy covered the use of contraceptives. Pressured by strong conservative forces in Irish society, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, the government was slow to change the law to reflect the court’s decision, and a number of proposed bills failed before reaching the books.

In 1979, the Irish health minister, Charles Haughey, introduced a bill limiting the legal provision of contraceptives to “bona fide family planning purposes.” Signed into law in November 1980, the Health (Family Planning) Act ensured that contraceptives could be sold by a registered pharmacist to customers with a valid medical prescription. Still, many people saw the law as too strict. Over the next several years, a movement began to make contraceptives more easily available, causing bitter divisions inside and outside of the Dail, Ireland’s main house of Parliament.

As the government debated the changes, Catholic Church leaders railed against them, warning that increased access to contraceptives would encourage the moral decay of Ireland, leading to more illegitimate children and increased rates of abortion and venereal disease. On the eve of the vote in early 1985, the Dublin archbishop claimed the legislation would send Ireland down a “slippery slope of moral degradation.” Some politicians were even threatened with violence if they voted for the legislation.

On February 20, 1985, a coalition of the Fine Gael and Labour parties led by Dr. Garret FitzGerald defeated the opposition of the conservative Fianna Fail party by an 83-80 vote. The new legislation made non-medical contraceptives (condoms and spermicides) available without prescriptions to people over 18 at pharmacies; it also allowed for the distribution of these contraceptives at doctors’ offices, hospitals and family planning clinics. Though it was still illegal to advertise contraceptives and use of the birth control pill remained restricted, the vote marked a major turning point in Irish history–the first-ever defeat of the Catholic Church in a head-to-head battle with the government on social legislation.

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February 21

Lead Story

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Born Malcolm Little in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1925, Malcolm was the son of James Earl Little, a Baptist preacher who advocated the black nationalist ideals of Marcus Garvey. Threats from the Ku Klux Klan forced the family to move to Lansing, Michigan, where his father continued to preach his controversial sermons despite continuing threats. In 1931, Malcolm’s father was brutally murdered by the white supremacist Black Legion, and Michigan authorities refused to prosecute those responsible. In 1937, Malcolm was taken from his family by welfare caseworkers. By the time he reached high school age, he had dropped out of school and moved to Boston, where he became increasingly involved in criminal activities.

In 1946, at the age of 21, Malcolm was sent to prison on a burglary conviction. It was there he encountered the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam, whose members are popularly known as Black Muslims. The Nation of Islam advocated black nationalism and racial separatism and condemned Americans of European descent as immoral “devils.” Muhammad’s teachings had a strong effect on Malcolm, who entered into an intense program of self-education and took the last name “X” to symbolize his stolen African identity.

After six years, Malcolm was released from prison and became a loyal and effective minister of the Nation of Islam in Harlem, New York. In contrast with civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X advocated self-defense and the liberation of African Americans “by any means necessary.” A fiery orator, Malcolm was admired by the African American community in New York and around the country.

In the early 1960s, he began to develop a more outspoken philosophy than that of Elijah Muhammad, whom he felt did not sufficiently support the civil rights movement. In late 1963, Malcolm’s suggestion that President John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a matter of the “chickens coming home to roost” provided Elijah Muhammad, who believed that Malcolm had become too powerful, with a convenient opportunity to suspend him from the Nation of Islam.

A few months later, Malcolm formally left the organization and made a Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca, where he was profoundly affected by the lack of racial discord among orthodox Muslims. He returned to America as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz and in June 1964 founded the Organization of Afro-American Unity, which advocated black identity and held that racism, not the white race, was the greatest foe of the African American. Malcolm’s new movement steadily gained followers, and his more moderate philosophy became increasingly influential in the civil rights movement, especially among the leaders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee.

On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.

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