February 2
1819 The Dartmouth College Case placed charters of existing private
corporations outside the scope of control of the states.
1854 Stephen Hogan, inventor of half-toning, was born.
1859 Psychologist Havelock Ellis was born.
1876 Baseball's National League was formed.
1905 Ayn Rand (Alissa Rosenbaum), libertarian novelist and
philosopher, was born in St. Petersburg, Russia.
1937 Comedian Tom Smothers was born in New York City.
1950 What's My Line? premiered on CBS with Yankee shortstop
Phil Rizzuto as the first "mystery guest."
February 3
1632 Watertown settlers protested taxation imposed by the Court of
Assistants at Boston, in which they had no voice.
1809 Composer Felix Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany.
1868 Matthew Vassar left money to found Vassar college.
1894 Painter Norman Rockwell was born in New York City.
1907 Novelist James Michener was born in New York City.
1918 Comedian Joey Bishop (Joseph Abraham Gottlieb) was born
in New York City.
1926 Comedian Shelly Berman was born in Chicago.
1940 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Fran Tarkenton
was born in Richmond, Virginia.
1940 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese
was born in Evansville, Indiana.
1994 The USA ended its 19-year trade ban against Vietnam.
February 4
1746 American Revolutionary War engineer Thaddeus Kosciusko was born
in Lithuania.
1902 Aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh was born
in Detroit, Michigan.
1906 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, theologian who plotted to overthrow
Hitler, was born.
1918 Actress Ida Lupino was born.
1945 Comedian David Brenner was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1959 Pro football star Lawrence Taylor
was born in Williamsburg, Virginia.
February 5
1631 Roger Williams, leader for religious freedom, arrived
in America.
1715 James Otis, resistance leader, was born in Massachusetts.
1744 Weatherman and Boston physician John Jeffries was born.
1829 The Mississippi legislature declared the tariff of 1828
unconstitutional.
1840 John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tire, was born
in Scotland.
1850 Dubois D. Parmelee of New Paltz patented the first
push-key adding machine.
1870 A motion picture was shown to a theater audience for the first time,
in Philadelphia.
1906 Actor John Carradine (Richmond Reed Carradine) was born
in Greenwich Villiage, New York.
1912 The British Arbitration League issued an appeal against air war. Signers included
Arthur Concn Doyle, Thomas Hardy, and
J. S. Sargent.
1919 Actor and comedian Red Buttons was born in
the Bronx, New York.
1934 Basebal great Hank Aaron was born in Mobile, Alabama.
1942 Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Roger Staubach
was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1948 Actress Barbara Hershey (Barbara Hertzstein) was born
in Los Angeles, California.
February 6
1648 John Lilburne published the pamphlet
The People’s Prerogative.
1895 Baseball great Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
1931 Actor Rip Torn (Elmore Torn Jr.) was born in Temple, Texas.
1945 Reggae musician and peace maker Bob Marley was born
in Rhoden Hall, Jamaica.
1953 US wartime controls on wages and consumer goods ended.
February 7
1804 Steel-plow inventor John Deere was born.
1812 Novelist Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth, England.
1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of "Little House" books
and mother of libertarian writer Rose Wilder Lane, was born.
1883 Composer and pianist Eubie Blake was born
in Baltimore, Maryland.
1885 Novelist Sinclair Lewis (Harry Sinclair Lewis) was born
in Sauk Center, Minnesota.
1957 Bill Haley and His Comets began a British tour,
the first overseas
performances by a major American rock'n'roll act.
1962 Singer Garth Brooks was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
1964 The Beatles arrived in New York City.
1985 "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled Haiti after 28 years in power.
1990 The Soviet Union collapsed. The Central Committee agreed to give up its power
monopoly.
February 8
1828 Science fiction writer Jules Verne was born
in Nantes, France.
1883 Economist Joseph Schumpeter was born.
1925 Actor Jack Lemmon (John Uhler III) was born in Boston.
1931 Actor James Dean was born in Fairmont, Indiana.
1937 Yankee third-baseman Clete Boyer was born in Missouri.
1955 Author John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
1986 Riley Halliday was born.
February 9
1770 Bostonians organized against drinking tea until the tax was removed.
1866 Humorist George Ade was born in Kentland, Indiana.
1924 The Shandaken Aqueduct, longest in the world, opened to supply New York City.
1942 Singer and songwriter Carole King was born
in Brooklyn, New York.
1943 Actor Joe Pesci was born in Newark, New Jersey.
1945 Actress Mia Farrow was born in Los Angeles, California.
1951 Pitcher Satchel Paige was signed by the St. Lewis Browns
at age 45.
1964 The Beatles had their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1971 Pitcher Satchel Paige became the first negro-league player
to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
February 10
1775 Essayist Charles Lamb was born in London.
1890 Boris Pasternak, author of Doctor Zhivago,
was born in Moscow, Russia.
1893 Entertainer Jimmy Durante was born in New York City.
1915 Yankee pitcher Allie Reynolds was born in Oklahoma.
1923 Antoinette Nathan, 1972 Libertarian Party candidate for Vice
President of the United States and the first woman to receive a vote
in the Electoral College, was born.
1933 The first singing telegram was delivered, in New York City.
1939 Singer Roberta Flack was born in
Black Mountain, North Carolina.
1946 Singer and songwriter Donovan Leitch
was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
1950 Olympic swimming champion Mark Spitz
was born in Modesto, California.
1955 Golfing star Greg Norman was born in Melbourne, Australia.
1967 Actress Laura Dern was born in Los Angeles, California.
February 11
1768 Samuel Adams circulated a letter in which he denied Parliament
any authority to tax colonists.
1790 The Society of Friends petitioned Congress to abolish slavery.
1802 Abolitionist Lydia Maria Child was born in Medford, Massachusetts.
1847 Inventor Thomas Edison was born in Milan, Ohio.
1922 Actor Leslie Nielson was born in Regina, Canada.
1936 Actor Burt Reynolds was born in Waycross, Georgia.
1941 Musician and bandleader Sergio Mendes
was born in Niterol, Brazil.
1941 Glenn Miller was awarded the first gold record for
Chattanooga Choo Choo.
1986 Soviet dissident Anatoly Scharansky
was freed after 8 years in prison.
1990 Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandella was released
after 27 years in jail.
February 12
1746 Thaddeus Kosciuszko, revolutionary war leader in
America and Poland, was born in Lithuania.
1809 Charles Darwin, biological evolution theorist, was born in
Shrewsbury, England.
1851 Eugene von Bohm-Bawerk, economist and social theorist,
was born in the Czech Republic.
1915 Actor Lorne Greene was born.
1934 Basketball great Bill Russell was born in Monroe, Lousiana.
February 13
1741 The American Magazine, the first magazine in America, was published three
days ahead of Benjamin Franklin's General Magazine.
1776 The first open proposal for independence was offered in the
Second Continental Congress by James Wilson.
1892 Painter Grant Wood was born near Anamosa, Towa.
1919 Singer Ernest "Tennessee" Ford was born in Bristol, Tennessee.
1971 New York Libertarian Alliance and Society for Individual
Liberty sponsored a conference at Columbia University.
February 14
1801 "Aunt" Mary Prout was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
She founded a secret society
that became the Independent Order of St. Luke, which grew to 1500 chapters
across the country by 1900, to help pay for medical
care and burial services for needy blacks.
1817 Abolitionist Frederick Douglas was born.
1859 George Washington Ferris, inventor of the Ferris wheel, was
born in Galesburg, Illinois.
1876 Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.
1882 George Jean Nathan, drama critic and associate of H.L. Mencken,
was born.
1894 Comedian Benjamin Kebelsky (Jack Benny) was born
in Chicago, Illinois.
1912 Author Edmund Love was born.
1913 Sportscaster Mel Allen (Melvin Allen Israel) was born
in Birmington, Alabama.
1921 TV show host Hugh Downs was born in Akron, Ohio.
1948 Magician Teller was born in Philadelphia.
1956 Khrushchev denounced Stalin
at the USSR Communist Party Conference.
February 15
1564 Physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei was born
in Pisa, Italy.
1791 Thomas Jefferson argued against a charter for a National Bank.
1804 New Jersey passed an act to abolish slavery.
1809 Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper harvesting machine,
was born in Rockbridge County, Virginia.
1812 Charles Lewis Tiffany, American jeweler, was born
in Killingly, Connecticut.
1820 Susan B. Anthony, abolitionist and women's-rights advocate,
was born in Adams, Massachusetts.
1842 Adhesive postage stamps were introduced in the US by a private company.
1887 Frank Chodorov, libertarian social philosopher, was born.
1905 Composer Harold Arlen was born in Buffalo, New York.
1914 Actor Kevin McCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers)
was born in Seattle, Washington.
1927 Comedian Harvey Korman was born in Chicago, Illinois.
1951 Actress Jane Seymour was born in Hillingdon, England.
1974 Writer Aleksandr Solzhenitayn arrived in Switzerland
after being expelled from the USSR.
February 16
1822 Geneticist Francis Galton was born in Birmingham, England.
1857 The first school for the deaf was incorporated.
1903 Ventriloquist Edgar Bergen was born in Chicago, Illinois.
1935 Composer and entertainer Sonny Bono (Salvatore Bono)
was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1959 Tennis champion and sportscaster John McEnroe was born
in Wiesbaden, Germany.
February 17
1653 Composer and violinist Arcangelo Corelli was born in
Fusignano, Italy.
1781 Rene Theophile Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope,
was born in France.
1792 The Rights of Man Part 2 by Thomas Paine
was published.
1801 The House of Representatives broke a tie in the 1800 Presidential
election between Aaron Burr and
Thomas Jefferson on the 35th ballot,
when Alexander Hamilton wielded his influence
against Burr to elect Jefferson.
1931 First showing of Edison's talkies.
1936 Football star Jim Brown was born.
1963 Basketball great Michael Jordan
was born in Brooklyn, New York.
February 18
1688 The first public stand against slavery was taken by Quakers
at Germantown, Pennsylvania.
1745 Physicist Alessandro Volta was born in Italy.
1765 Citizens of North Carolina united to prevent operation
of the Stamp Act.
1848 Louis Comfort Tiffany, son of jeweler
Charles Louis Tiffany, was born in New York City.
He became famous for his work with decorative iridescent "favrile" glass.
1885 Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
was published.
1894 Guitarist Andres Segovia was born.
1920 Actor Jack Palance was born in Lattimer, Pennsylvania.
1920 TV star Bill Cullen was born.
1927 Actor George Kennedy was born in New York City.
1932 Film director Milos Forman
was born in Caslaz, Czechoslovakia.
1950 Actress Cybill Shepherd was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
1952 Singer Juice Newton (Judy Cohen) was born
in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
1955 Actor John Travolta was born in Englewood, New Jersey.
1957 TV show decoration Vanna White
was born in Conway, South Carolina.
February 19
1473 Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland.
1717 Actor David Garrick was born in Hereford, England.
1861 The Russian serfs were
granted freedoms by the Emancipation Act.
1878 Journalist and social philosopher Garet Garrett was born.
1916 Jockey Eddie Arcaro was born in Cincinnati, Ohio.
1924 Actor Lee Marvin was born in New York City.
1940 Singer and songwriter William "Smokey" Robinson
was born in Detroit, Michigan.
1955 Actor Jeff Daniels was born in Georgia.
February 20
1726 William Prescott, American Revolutionary War soldier,
was born at Groton, Massachusetts.
1805 Abolitionist Angelina Grimke was born.
1902 Photographer Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco.
1920 Charles E. Stotz, the founder of Little League baseball,
was born in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
1927 Actor Sidney Poitier, was born in Miami, Florida.
1929 Amanda Blake, the actress who played Miss Kitty on
Gunsmoke, was born.
1933 Prohibition was revoked by Congress.
1937 Singer Nancy Wilson was born in Chillicothe, Ohio.
1941 Native-Canadian folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie
(Beverly Saint-Marie) was born in Craven, Saskatchewan.
1942 Hockey star Phil Esposito was born in
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.
1963 Basketball star Charles Barkley
was born in Leeds, Alabama.
1966 Supermodel Cindy Crawford was born
in DeKalb, Illinois.
February 21
1765 North Carolina citizens forced court and customs officials to swear
an oath not to execute the Stamp Act.
1851 Mary W. Shelly, author of Frankenstein, was born.
1927 Humor columnist Erma Bombeck was born in Dayton, Ohio.
1955 Actor Kelsey Grammar
was born on St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands.
February 22
1630 Indians introduced Pilgrims to popcorn at a Thanksgiving feast.
1732 Revolutionary War leader George Washington was born
in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
1784 The first US ship to trade with China, Empress of China,
sailed from New York City.
1791 Thomas Paine published part one of Rights of Man.
1810 Composer Frederic Chopin was born.
1857 Physicist Heinrich Hertz was born in Germany.
1879 Frank W. Woolworth
opened his first store in Utica, New York.
1950 Basketball star Julius "Dr. J" Erving
was born in Roosevelt, New York.
February 23
1685 Composer Frederick Handel was born in Halle, Germany.
1817 Inventor George Frederick Watts was born.
1929 New York Yankee star Elston Howard
was born in St. Louis, Missouri.
1939 Actor Peter Fonda was born in New York City.
February 24
1761 James Otis made an argument in court against
writs of assistance.
1829 The Virginia General Assembly declared the tariff of 1828 unconstitutional.
1836 Painter Winslow Homer was born in Boston.
1840 Former President John Quincy Adams began his
argument to the Supreme Court for release of the Amistad
slave-ship prisoners.
1874 Baseball great Honus Wagner
was born in Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
1955 Steven Jobs, founder of the Apple computer company,
was born in Los Altos, California.
1956 Baseball star Eddie Murray
was born in Los Angeles, California.
February 25
1779 George Rogers Clark's army of 170 men captured
Vincennes and gained control of the country northwest of the Ohio River.
1807 Slavery ended in England.
1841 Impressionist painter Auguste Renoir
was born in Limoges, France.
1913 Cartoon voice and comic actor Jim Backus was born in
Cleveland, Ohio.
1945 Beatle George Harrison was born in Liverpool, England.
1950 Your Show of Shows starring Sid Caesar and
Imogene Coca premiered in NBC television.
1964 Cassius Clay defeated Sonny Liston
to become the world heavyweight boxing champion.
February 26
1779 Israel Putnam escaped from the Redcoats
in Greenwich, Connecticut.
1802 Novelist Victor Hugo was born in Besancon, France.
1829 Levi Strauss, first manufacturer of jeans, was born
in Buttenheim, Bavaria.
1870 New York City's first subway opened in downtown Manhattan.
1887 William Frawley, the actor who played Fred Mertz in
I Love Lucy, was born.
1920 Actor Tony Randall (Leonard Rosenberg)
was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
1928 Singer and songwriter Antoine "Fats" Domino
was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1932 Singer and songwriter Johnny Cash
was born in Kingsland, Arkansas.
1933 Yankee pinch hitter Johnny Blanchard was born in Minneapolis,
Minnesota.
February 27
1648 John Lilburne published the pamphlet A Whip for the Present House of Lords.
1807 Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.
1815 Congress ordered the Navy gunboats to be put up for sale and all
armed vessels to be taken off the Great Lakes.
1902 Author John Steinbeck was born.
1913 Lillian (Webster) Halliday was born in the Bronx.
1930 Actress Joanne Woodward was born in Thomasville, Georgia.
1932 Actress Elizabeth Taylor was born in London.
1961 Basketball star James Worthy
was born in Gastonia, North Carolina.
February 28
1533 Essayist Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
was born in Perigord, France.
1648 John Lilburne and Richard Overton
published the pamphlet The Out-crys of Oppressed Commons.
1819 The University of Virginia was founded by Thomas Jefferson.
1820 Artist John Tenniel, who illustrated
Alice in Wonderland, was born in London.
1901 Chemist and physicist Linus Pauling
was born in Portland, Oregon.
1915 Actor Zero Mostel was born.
1944 Singer and actress Bernadette Peters
was born in Queens, New York.
1970 "Left-Right Festival of Liberation," the second West coast
libertarian conference, was held at USC.
February 29
1792 Composer Gioachino Antonio Rossini was born in Italy.
1860 Herman Hollerith, inventor of punch cards, was born.
1904 Band leader Jimmy Dorsey was born.
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