February 01:
1790: U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time. However, as only three of the six judges were present, the Court recessed until the next day.
1861: Texas voted to secede from the Union.
1862: Battle Hymn of the Republic, a poem by Julia Ward Howe, was published in the Atlantic Monthly.
1920: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police began its existence when the Royal Northwest Mounted Police merged with the Dominion Police.
1960: Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.
1968: Siagon's police chief, Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong soldier with a pistol shot to the head, in a famous scene caught on film.
February 02:
1848: Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War, was signed.
1882: James Joyce born near Dublin.
1893: The first motion-picture close-up was filmed at the Edison Studio in West Orange, New Jersey, as camerman William Dickson photographed comedian Fred Ott sneezing.
1905: Ayn Rand born.
1971: Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda.
February 03:
1690: The first paper money in America was issued by the colony of Mass. The currency was first used to pay soldiers fighting a war against Quebec.
1809: The territory of Illinois was created.
1811: Horace Greeley born.
1836: William Barret Travis arrives at the Alamo.
1913: In one of the blackest days in U.S. history, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. This amendment created the income tax.
1924: Woodrow Wilson died at age 68.
February 04:
1783: Britain declares a formal cessation of hostilities with the United States.
1789: George Washington unanimously selected as President by the electors of the Electoral College.
1801: John Marshall sworn in as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
1861: Representatives from six southern states met in Montgomery, Alabama, to from the Confederate States of America.
1945: The Yalta Conference began.
February 05:
1783: Sweden recongized the United States as an independent nation.
1881: Phoenix, Arizona was incorporated.
February 06:
1756: Aaron Burr born in Newark, New Jersey.
1778: France recognizes the United States as a sovereign nation.
1788: Mass. becomes the 6th state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1899: US Congress ratified the treaty that ended the Spanish-American War.
1911: Ronald Reagan born.
1959: First successful test of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missle.
February 07:
1782: The Bank of North America opened in Philadelphia, becoming the first commercial bnk in the United States.
1789: The first US Presidential election was held.
1798: Great Britain, leading a shameful procession, became the first country to enact an income tax.
1867: Laura Ingalls Wilder born.
1953: President Truman announced in his State of the Union Address that the US had developed a hydrogen bomb.
1959: The United States recognizes Fidel Castro as head of Cuba.
1979: The Khmer Rouge government of Cambodia was overthrown as North Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh.
1995: Murray Rothbard, famous libertarian and author of Man, Economy and State, died of cardiac arrest.
February 08:
1836: Davy Crockett and his "Tennessee Mounted Volunteers" arrive at the Alamo.
February 09:
1825: The House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electorial votes.
1861: Jeff Davis and Alexander Stephans elected President and Vice President of the Confederate States of America.
1870: US Weather Bureau established.
1943: Battle of Guadalcanal ended in the southwest Pacific with a US victory.
February 10:
1763: France ceded Canada to England in the Treaty of Paris, which ended the French and Indian War.
1962: U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers was exchanged for Soviet Rudolph Ivanovich Abel.
February 11:
1812: The Massachusetts' Legislature, at the urging of Governor Elbridge Gerry, passed a redristricting law that favored his party. This maneuver resulted in the term "gerrymandering."
1847: Thomas Edison born in Milan, Ohio.
1945: Yalta agreement signed.
1979: Followers of Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran.
1990: Nelson Mandela was released from jail after 27 years in prison.
February 12:
1733: English colonists, lead by James Ogelthorpe, landed at Savannah, Georgia.
1809: Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president, born in a log cabin in Kentucky.
1892: President Lincoln's birthday is decalred a national holiday.
1909: The NAACP formed.
1915: The cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial laid.
1923: Director Franco Zefferelli born.
February 13:
1633: Galileo arrived in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition.
1635: The first government school (aka public school) was founded in Boston, Mass. It was called the Boston Public Latin School.
1920: The League of Nations recoginzed the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
1945: Allied bombing of Dresden began.
1959: Barbie Dolls are introduced.
1960: France exploded its first atomic bomb in the Sahara Desert.
February 14:
1778: The American ship, Ranger carried the recently adopted Stars & Stripes flag to a foreign port for the first time when it arrived in France.
1929: The "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" took place as Al Capone's gang gunned down rival gang members.
1989: The Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslems to kill Salman Rushdie for writing Satonic Verses.
February 15:
1842: A private mail service in New York City introduced the first adhesive postage stamp.
1879: The silver dollar became legal tender.
1879: President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill to allow women attorneys to argue cases before the United States Supreme Court.
1898: USS Mainewas blown up in Havana harbor, killing 260.
1933: President-elect Franklin Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in Miami, but the mayor of Chicago, Anton J Cermok, was killed.
1989: The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afganistan, after more than 9 years of military intervention.
February 16:
1862: About 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tennessee, earning General Ulyssess S Grant his nickname of Unconditional Surrender" Grant.
1945: More than 2,000 US troops landed on the Island of Corregidor, in the Phillipines.
1959: Fidel Castro became the president of Cuba.
February 17:
1801: The House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson PPresident and Burr Vice President.
1947: the Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.
1964: The US Supreme Court issued its "one man, one vote" decision.
1972: President Richard Nixon began his historic trip to China.
February 18:
1861: Jefferson Davis was sworn in as President of the CSA in Montgomery, Alabama.
1970: The Chicago Seven were found innocent of conspiracy to incite riots at the 1968 Democrat convention in Chicago.
February 19:
1846: The Texas State government was formerlly installed in Austin, Texas.
1942: Franklin Rosevelt signed the executive order authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans.
1945: The Marines landed on Iwo Jima.
February 20:
1792: President Washington signed the Act creating the US Post Office.
1839: Congress prohibited dueling in Washington, D.C.
1933: The House of Representatives voted to approve an amendment to the US Constitution to repeal prohibition.
1962: Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit earth in the "Freedom Seven" capsule.
February 21:
1866: Lucy B. Hobbs became the first female graduated from dental school when she graduated from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1885: The Washington Monument was dedicated in Washington, D.C.
1916: The longest and bloodiest battle of World War I began. It was the Battle of Verdun, in France.
1965: Malcolm X was shot to death by Black Muslim assassins in New York City.
February 22:
1732: George Washington born in Virginia.
1819: Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
1935: It becomes illegal to fly over the Whitehouse.
1997: Jim Lewis, the 1984 Libertarian Party Vice Presidential candidate (David Bergland was the Presidential candidate) died at age 63.
February 23:
February 24:
February 24, 1836: Travis sends a letter out by Albert Martin:
"To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World-
Fellow Citizens and Compatriots:
I am besieged with a thousand or more of the Mexicans
under Santa Anna. I have sustained a considerable Bombardment
and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man.
The enemy has demanded surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison is to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the wall. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets which is due his honor and that of his country.
VICTORY OR DEATH.
William Barret Travis, Lt. Col. commanding the Alamo"
February 25:
1913: In a dark day for US History, the Sixteenth Amendment (legalizing the income tax) is ratified.
February 26:
1802: Victor Hugo born.
1951: The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting president to two terms, is passed.
February 27:
February 28:
1533: Michel de Montaigne born.
February 29:
Last revised January 5, 2003
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