Important Dates & Events in History

FEBRUARY

Agricultural Week
Shape Up With Pickes Time
National Pay Your Bills Week

National New Idea Week
Boy Scouts Week
National Crime Prevention Week
Celebration of Love Week
Big Brothers/Sisters Week
National Cardiopulmonary Week
Circle K International Week
National Future Homemakers of America Week
Hero Week
Virgin Islands Week
National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans Week
Dietary Managers' Pride in Food Service Week
National School Counseling Week
International Forgiveness Week
Great American Pizza Bake
Love May Make the World Go 'Round, But Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
Camellia Festival (Fort Valley, Georgia)
National Kraut & Frankfurter Week (begins 2nd Thurs)

Brotherhood Week
National Pedestrian Toll Week
Health Education Week
International Friendship Week
National Engineers Week
Pay Your Bills Week
National Condom Week
Home for Birds Week
National Cardiovasular Technologists Recognition Week

Truth Week
Pancake Week
International Friendship Week
National Engineers Week

1st Sunday

Homstrom (Burning Man Festival; Switzerland)

1st Weekend

Sapporo Snow Festival (Japan)
Everglades City Seafood Festival (Florida)
Badger State Winter Games (Wisconsin)
Mackinaw Mush Sled Dog Race (Mackinaw City, Michigan)
Bullnanza (Guthrie, Oklahoma)

1st Friday after Feb. 1st

Arbor Day; Arizona (some counties))

2nd Sunday

Boy Scouts Sabbath

2nd Monday

Clean Out Your Computer Day
Meal Monday (aka Oatmeal Monday; UK Universities)

2nd Tuesday

Academy Award nominations announced

Monday after 1st Thursday

Gasparilla Pirate Invasion Festival begins (Tampa, Florida)

Sunday nearest 12th

Race Relations Sunday

3rd Sunday before Lent

Lost Sunday
Septuagesima Sunday

2nd Sunday before Lent

Sexagesima Sunday

3rd Weekend

Midwinter Bluegrass festival (Missouri)

Saturday before President's Day

George Washington Birthnight Banquet and Ball (Alexandria, Virginia)

3rd Monday

President's Day

Sunday nearest 22nd

Brotherhood Sunday

2nd New Moon after Winter Solstice

Chinese New Year

Sunday before Lent

Fasching Sunday (Germany & Austria)
Shrove Sunday
Fastingong Sunday
Quinquagesima Sunday

Day after Fasching Sunday

Fasching

Fridays during Lent

Fariseos (Mayan Indians; celebration making fun of Christian ceremonies)

12 Days before Shrove Tuesday

Nice Carnival begins (France)

Week before Carnival

Kiddies' Carnival (Trinidad & Tobago)

Thursday before Shrove Tuesday

Mad Thursday
Tincunaco Ceremony (Argentina)

Sunday before Ash Wednesday

Carnival Week begins (Italy)
Shrovetide begins

Saturday before Ash Wednesday

Carnival begins (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Ovar Carnival Festival begins (Portugal)

Day before Shrove Tuesday

Rose Monday
Fastelavn (Shrove Monday; Denmark)
Bun Day (Iceland)
Collp Monday
Street Urchins' Carnival (Denmark)

Day before Ash Wednesday (also 46 Days Before Easter)

Shrove Tuesday
Carnival
Mardi Gras
Pancake Day (aka Pancake Tuesday)
Carriacou Carnival (Grenada)
Bursting Day (Iceland)
Fastens-een (Scotland)
Brose and Bannock Day (Scotland)
Fasten Day (Old England)
Shuttlecock Day (Leicester, Yorkshire)
Nickanan Night (Cornwall)
Paczki Day (Hamtramck, Michigan)
Sharp Tuesday
Football Day (England)
Shrovetide Pancake Race (Olney, UK & Liberal, Kansas)

40 Days Before Easter (not including Sundays)

Ash Wednesday
Lent begins
Cussing Day
Pulver Wednesday

2nd Day of Lent

Cat Festival (Belgium)

Thursday after Shrove Tuesday

Fritter Thursday

Friday after Shrove Tuesday

Kissing Day
Nippy Lug Day (Westmoreland, UK)

1st Sunday in Lent

Quadragesima Sunday

1st Monday after Lent

Blue Monday
Green Monday (Cyprus)

13th Day of dark 1/2 of Phalguna, 2nd Hindu month (@ Feb/Mar)

Shivaratri

14th Day of bright 1/2 of Phalguna, 2nd Hindu month (@ Feb/Mar)

Holi

14th Day of Adar, 2nd Jewish month @ Feb/Mar)

Purim

Full Moon Day of 3rd Buddhist month (@ Feb/Mar)

Magha Puja

1st Day of 1st Moon (@ Feb/Mar)

Chinese New Year
Losar (Tibetan New Year)
Solnal (Korean New Year)
Tet (Vietnamese New Year)
Imbolg (Wicca)

14 days after Chinese New Year

Chinese Lantern Festival and Tourism Day

Weeks before Carnival

Carnival Lamayote (Haiti)

Sometime in February

Argungu Fishing Festival (Nigeria)

When Zambezi River starts to rise (@ Feb/Mar)

Kuomboka (Zambia)

Determined by Tibetan Astrologers (@ Feb)

Losar (Tibet)

15 days after Losar

Chogna Choeba (Tibet)

Sometime in February

Minnesota Cherry Pit Spitting Contest

" 1859 Victor Herbert, composer/conductor/cellist (Ireland; died 1924)
" 1878 Hattie Wyatt Caraway, Arkansas senator who was the first woman elected to the Senate (Bakersville, TN; died 1950)
" 1895 John Ford, director (Cape Elizabeth, ME; died 1973)
" 1901 Clark Gable, actor (Cadiz, OH; died 1960)
" 1902 Langston Hughes, poet (Joplin, MO; died 1967)
" 1918 Muriel Spark, novelist (Edinburgh, Scotland)
" 1926 Stuart Whitman, actor (San Francisco, CA)
" 1931 Boris Yeltsin, Russian president (Sverdlovsk, Russia)
" 1937 Don Everly, singer/musician (Brownie, KY)
" Hildegarde
" Princess Stephanie (Monaco)
" Elsa the Lion (star of the movie "Born Free")

" US Supreme Court 1st met (1790)
" Lyrics to The Battle Hymn of the Republic published (1862)
" 13 Amendment signed, abolishing slavery (1865)
" Royal Navy College opened (1873)
" Oxford English Dictionary 1st published (1884)
" 1st Film Studio began filming (1893)
" 1st Automobile Insurance policy written (Travelers Insurance; 1898)
" 1st 45 rpm record issued (RCA; 1949)
" 1st Sit-in held (Greensboro, North Carolina; 1960)
" Beatles' I Want To Hold Your Hand reached No. 1 (1964)
" Ayatollah Khomeini returned to power after being exiled 15 years (1979)
" Late Night with David Letterman debuted (1982)
" De Klerk scrapped Apartheid in South Africa (1990)
" Explosion of the space shuttle "Columbia" during landing attempt, and loss of all 7 astronauts aboard: Commander Rick D. Husband, age 45; Pilot William C. McCool, age 40; Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson, age 42; Mission Specialist David M. Brown, age 46; Mission Specialist Kalpana Chawla, age 42; Mission Specialist Laurel Clark, age 41; Payload Specialist Ilan Ramon (Israel), Age 47. This was the 113th shuttle mission.(2003)
" Juke Boxes outlawed
" Alexander Selkirk rescued from desert isle (inspired Robinson Crusoe)

" @ China/Vietnam/Korea New Year - the Year of the Earth Sheep (also known as the Ram, or the Goat.) This is the year 4701 in the Chinese Lunar calendar and the most important Holiday. The Chinese clean and decorate their home with 5 luck signs of happiness, new clothes are worn and even the poorest buy new shoes for it is considered bad luck to step down on the ground in old shoes. Tibetans call it Losar and celebrate for three days by visiting, feasting and the relaxation of the monastic discipline. Vietnamese call it the Tet Festival.

" @ Imbolg (Wicca). Comes from an archaic Gaelic expression "in the belly" which signalled the first stirrings of life within the womb of mother earth. Corn colls are burned as offerings to the sun to hasten his return.

" 1882 James Joyce, novelist/poet (Dublin, Ireland; died 1941)
" 1895 George Halas, football coach/owner (Chicago, IL; died 1983)
" 1905 Ayn Rand, novelist (Russia; died 1982)
" 1927 Stan Getz, jazz saxophonist (Philadelphia, PA; died 1991)
" 1937 Tom Smothers, comedian (New York, NY)
" Bo Hopkins, actor (Greenville, SC)
" Graham Nash, musician/singer (Blackpool, England)
" Brent Spiner, actor
" Max Beckmann
" Solomon Guggenheim

" Groundhog Day: (USA,Canada)
" Purification Day
" Brew Hog Day
" Imolc (aka Oimelc)
" Lupercalia
" Feast of Pan
" Bonza Bottler Day
" Wives' Feast Day
" Candlemas
" Wand Dedication Day (Fairy)
" St. Joan de Lestonnac's Day
" Brigit's Day
" Dia de la Candelaria (Mexico)
" Yuma Crossing Day
" Feast of Torches
" National Heavenly Hash Day
" Shaving of the Candlemas Bear Masque (Pyrenees)
" Presentation of Our Lord (aka the Purification of the Virgin Mary)

" New Amsterdam renamed New York (1665)
" Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed (1848)
" 1st Public Lavatory (Men's) opened in London (1852)
" Baseball's National League established (1876)
" 1st Cub Scout Pack formed (1914)
" 1st Lie Detector Test given (1935)
" Women given the vote in Lichtenstein (1986)
" Last Russian troops left Afghanistan (1989)
" Frozen Food invented
" Bottle Cap patented
" Groundhog Day: (USA,Canada) - Folklore suggests that if the groundhog sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

" 1809 Felix Mendelssohn, composer (Germany; died 1847)
" 1811 Horace Greeley, newspaper editor and presidential candidate (Amherst, NH; died 1872)
" 1821 Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman physician (near Bristol, England; died 1910)
" 1874 Gertrude Stein, writer/critic (Allegheny, PA; died 1946)
" 1894 Norman Rockwell, artist/illustrator (New York, NY; died 1978)
" 1907 James Michener, novelist (New York, NY; died 1997)
" 1909 Simone Weil, philosopher (France; died 1943)
" Shelly Berman
" Henry Heimlich
" George Tilyou
" H. Alvar Aalto

" St. Blaise's Day (patron of sick cattle, wool combers; against throat diseases; Western)
" Winterlude
" Setsubun (Japan) - Known as "Bean Throwing Night", beans are thrown to protect against demons with shouts of "Devil out, Good fortune in".
" Wedding Ring Day
" St. Anskar's Day (patron of Denmark, Iceland, Norway)
" Blessing of Throats Day
" Martyr's Day (Sao Tome)
" Four Chaplains Memorial Day
" Magnolia and Fish Jubilee (Fairy)
St. Werburga's Day
" National Carrot Cake Day
" Cordova Ice Worm Festival (@)
" St. Simeon's Day (Eastern)
" Day the Music Died (according to Don McLean)

" Europeans 1st set foot on Africa (1488)
" Holland announced Regulation on Trade of Tulips (1637)
" Civil War Peace Talks began (1865)
" Christian Science concept established (1866)
" 15th Amendment ratified; no denial of voting based on race, color, etc.; (1870)
" The Eight, a group of 8 US Artists (aka Ashcan Group), held their only exhibition (1908)
" 16th Amendment ratified, imposing income tax; (1913)
" League of Nations 1st met (1919)
" Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, & the Big Bopper killed in plane crash (The Day the Music Died; 1959)
" Yasser Arafat became leader of PLO (1969)
" 1st American Soldier, Donald Dugan, killed in Bosnia (1996)
" 1st US Paper Money issued

" 1st Winter Olympic Games began

" 1902 Charles Lindbergh, aviator and first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic (Detroit, MI; died 1974)
" 1913 Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (Tuskegee, AL)
" 1921 Betty Frieden, feminist writer and founder of NOW (Peoria, IL)
" 1947 Dan Quayle, former vice president of the United States and Indiana senator (Indianapolis, IN)
" 1948 Alice Cooper, singer/songwriter (Detroit, MI)
" 1962 Clint Black, country singer/songwriter (Katy, TX)
" Emperor Norton I of the United States
" Gumby

" Obscurity Day
" King Frost Day
" Torture Abolition Day
" National Day - S'ri Lanka Independence Day
" Create-A-Vacuum Day
" St. Andrew Corsini's Day (patron against quarrels, sudden death)
" Yuma Crossing Day
" St. Phileas' Day
" Thank A Mailman Day
" St. John de Brito's Day (patron of Portugal)
" National Stuffed Mushroom Day
" St. Isidore of Pelusium's Day
" St. Gilbert of Sempringham's Day

" Washington/Adams ticket elected US President/Vice Pres.
" Slavery abolished in French Colonies (1793)
" Modern Republican Party named (1854)
" Confederate States of America formed (1861)
" Apache Wars began (1861)
" Interstate Commerce Act passed (1887)
" Charleston dancing record set (22 hrs, 30 mins; 1929)
" 1st Winter Olympics began (Lake Placid, New York; 1932)
" USO established (1941)
" Grammy-award winning singer Karen Carpenter died of anorexia nervosa (1983)
" The 693-foot cargo ship New Carissa ran aground in Coos Bay and began leaking oil. (1999)
" 1st Electric Typewriter for sale
" National Institute of Arts and Letters founded
" Demountable Auto Tire patented
" 1st Color Newspaper supplement published
" US Bronze Star established
" Thornton Wilder's Our Town premiered on Broadway
" American Social Hygiene Association established

" 1788 Sir Robert Peel, English statesman (Lancashire, England; died 1850)
" 1900 Adlai Stevenson, Illinois governor, presidential candidate, and UN representative (Los Angeles, CA; died 1965)
" 1906 John Carradine, actor (New York, NY; died 1988)
" 1919 Red Buttons, actor (New York, NY)
" 1928 Father Andrew Greeley, priest and author (Oak Park, IL)
" 1934 Hank Aaron, baseball player (Mobile, AL)
" Roger Staubach, football quarterback (Cincinnati, OH)
" 1948 Christopher Guest, comedian and writer (New York, NY)
" Belle Starr

" Bartender's Cup
" Weatherman's Day
" Primrose Day
" Wyrd's Day (Celtic Goddess of Fortune Telling)
" Lailatul Quadr (Night of Power)
" St. Agatha's Day (patron of Malta, nurses, jewelers, bell makers, bell ringers, wet nurses; against fire, breast cancer)
" Chama Cha Mapinduzi Day (aka CCM; Tanzania)
" Japanese Martyr Day
" Bob Marley Day (Jamaica)
" Disaster Day
" National Weatherperson's Day
" St. Avitus' Day
" Mexico Constitution Day
" National Chocolate Fondue Day

Spain captured Minorca from British (1782)
" 1st Newspaper west of the Mississippi, the Oregon Spectator, was published. (1846)
" Reader's Digest 1st published (1922)
" Redshift of Quasars discovered (1963)
" State of Emergency declared at Berkely due to Vietnam War protests (1969)
" Luggage Inspection by US airlines became mandatory (1972)
" Patty Hearst kidnapped (1974)
" Unknown Mozart Symphony discovered in Denmark (1983)
" Third Punic War, longest war in history ended (after 2,131 years; 1985)
" 1st Adding Machine for sale
" Slow Motion photography patented

" Queen Anne
" Walter Edward Fauntroy
" 1756 Aaron Burr, 3d vice president of the United States who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel (Newark, NJ; died 1836)
" 1895 Babe Ruth, baseball player (Baltimore, MD; died 1948)
" 1911 Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States (Tampico, IL)
" 1917 Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress (Budapest, Hungary)
" 1931 Rip Torn, actor (Temple, TX)
" 1932 François Truffaut, director (Paris, France; died 1984)
" 1939 Mike Farrell, actor (St. Paul, MN)
" 1940 Tom Brokaw, TV journalist (Webster, SD)
" 1942 Sarah Brady, gun control activist who's husband was injured during an assassination attempt on Pres. Ronald Reagan. (Alexandria, VA)
" 1945 Bob Marley, reggae singer (Jamaica; died 1981)

" Mid-Winter's Day
" Aldus Day (inventor of Italics)
" St. Dorothy's Day (patron of brides, gardeners, florists, newlyweds; against lightning, fire, thieves)
" Police Brutality Day
" Waitangi Day- (Maori, New Zealand)
" St. Vedast's Day
" Lame Duck Day
" St. Amand's Day (patron of brewers, hotel workers, wine & beer merchants)
" Carrot Festival
" National Frozen Yogurt Day
" St. Paul Miki and Companion's Day
" Rubik-Cube Muddling Championships (Fairy)
" St. Peter Baptist (patron of Japan)
" Basant Panchami (Hindu)

" Maxmilian I of Germany declares himself "Holy Roman Emperor" (1493)
" Massachusetts became the 6th state (1788)
" Britain annexed New Zealand (1840)
" 1st Minstrel Show performed (1843)
" The signing of Waitangi in 1849 by a group of Maori chiefs (New Zealand) and the British Government. Waitangi Day honours the rights of the British Crown and that of the Maori people, which is now in the process of being reclaimed. (1849)
" Norman Rockwell's 1st Post cover in color (1926)
" Violinist Yehudi Menuhin played his debut (1926)
" Anastasia, Tsar Romonov's daughter, thought to be murdered, resurfaced in New York (1928)
" 1st Train collision (near Wappinger's Creek, NY; 1871)
20th Amendment adopted (changing date of Presidential inauguration; 1933)
" Elizabeth II coronated Queen of England (1952)
" Klaus Barbie charged with Nazi war crimes (1983)
" Largest crowd assembled (15 million; Hindu Feast of Kumbh Mela at Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; 1989)
" Crayola made its one billionth crayon (1996)
" English monarchy abolished by Parliament
" Highest Wave seen (112 ft.)
" 1st Perforated postage stamp made
" 1st Storm Warning given
" Three golf balls driven on the moon
" Western Electric contracted to make Bell Phone

" Basant Panchami (Hindu) in Northern India heralds the approach of spring and yellow colored clothes are symbolically worn. It is associated with Saraswati, the Goddess of Learning, wisdom and creative arts.

" 1478 Sir Thomas More, scholar and Lord Chancellor of England (London, England; died 1535)
" 1812 Charles Dickens, novelist (Portsmouth, England; died 1870)
" 1817 Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist, orator, writer and former slave. (Tuckahoe, MD, died Feb. 20, 1895))
" 1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder, children's author (Lake Pepin, WI; died 1957)
" 1883 Eubie Blake, composer/pianist/singer (Baltimore, MD; died 1983)
" 1885 Sinclair Lewis, novelist (Sauk Center, MN; died 1951)
" 1932 Gay Talese, author (Ocean City, NJ)
" 1953 Dan Quisenberry, baseball pitcher (Santa Monica, CA; died 1998)
" 1962 Garth Brooks, country singer (Tulsa, OK)
" 1966 Chris Rock, comedian/actor (South Carolina)
" Aleister Crowley
" Frederick Douglass
" John Deere
" Michael Jordan
" Buster Crabbe

" National Run-For-Your-Life Day
" St. Moses' Day (patron of Saracens)
" Daniel Boone Escape Day
" No Talk Day
" Grenada Independence Day
" National Fettuccine Alfredo Day
" Mulk (Baha'i)

" Son of Edward I became the 1st English Prince of Wales (1301)
" Birth of Frederick Douglass. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and the son of a slave. He successfully escaped captivity to New Bedford, Mass. in 1838 where he took the name Douglass. American abolitionist, orator, writer, Douglass worked with the Underground Railroad and gave eloquent speeches in Europe and the Northern United States to further the cause of the abolitionists and to help end slavery. He established the newspaper North Star, fought for enactment of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, became the US marshal for the District of Columbia, and U.S. minister to Haiti. Douglass wrote the autobiography, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass". (1817)
" Confederate States of America founded (1861)
" Henry Clay makes his "I'd rather be right than President" remark (1839)
" Dead Sea Scrolls discovered (1947)
" Vietnam split into two countries (1950)
" 1st Astronaut walked in space untethered (1984)
" "Baby Doc" Duvalier fled Haiti (1986)
" USSR Central Committee voted to ends its monopoly of power (1990)
" Women won the right to vote in Switzerland (1991)
" IRA bombed No. 10
Downing Street (1991)

" Mulk (Baha'i). The first day of the eighteenth Baha'i month. The English translation of Mulk (Arabic) is Dominion.

" 1820 William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general (Lancaster, OH; died 1891)
" 1828 Jules Verne, science fiction writer (Nantes, France; died 1905)
" 1851 Kate Chopin, novelist/short-story writer (St. Louis, MO; died 1904)
" 1925 Jack Lemmon, actor (Boston, MA)
" 1931 James Dean, actor (Fairmont, IN; died 1955)
" 1932 John Williams, composer/conductor/pianist (New York, NY)
" 1940 Ted Koppel, TV journalist (Lancashire, England)
Nick Nolte, actor (Omaha, NE)
" 1942 Robert Klein, comedian/actor (New York, NY)
" 1953 Mary Steenburgen, actress (Newport, AR)
" 1955 John Grisham, novelist (Jonesboro, AR)
" Dmitri Mendeleev
" Gregor Mendel
" St. Proclus

" Ha-Ri-Ku-Yo (aka Mass for Broken Needles, day of rest for needles; Japan)
" Kite Flying Day (Korea)
" Boy Scout Day
" Narvik Sun Pageant Day (Norway)
" Eidul Fitr (Breakfast Festival)
" St. Jerome Emilani's Day (patron of orphans)
" Iraq's February Revolution Day
" Snow Festival begins (Sapparo, Japan)
" National Molasses Bar Day
" St. Meingold's Day (patron of bakers, bankers, millers, miners)
" Hold Onto Your Head Day
" St. Theodore's Day (Greek)

" Mary Queen of Scots beheaded (1587)
" 1st Opera performed in US (1735)
" Source of Australia's Murray River discovered (1830)
" Tahiti Typhoon killed 10,000 people (1906)
" Boy Scouts of America founded (1910)
" Birth of A Nation premiered (1915)
" Stars and Stripe military newspaper 1st published (1918)
" Gas Chamber 1st used for execution (1924)
" Last Saturday Evening Post published (1969)
" New York Zoological Society changed its name to NYZS/The Wildlife Conservation Society (1993)
" Nazis shot every 10th person in 2 villages near Warsaw in retaliation of the death of 2 German soldiers
" 1st Police Dog used

" 1773 William Henry Harrison, 9th president of the United States (Berkeley, VA; died 1841)
" 1874 Amy Lowell, poet (Brookline, MA; died 1925)
1909 Dean Rusk, diplomat and Secretary of State (Cherokee County, GA; died 1994)
" 1914 Gypsy Rose Lee, vaudeville entertainer/stripper (Seattle, WA; died 1970)
" 1923 Brendan Behan, playwright/poet (Dublin, Ireland; died 1964)
" 1928 Roger Mudd, TV journalist (Washington, DC)
" 1942 Carole King, singer/songwriter (Brooklyn, NY)
" 1944 Alice Walker, author (Eatonton, GA)

" Feast of Apollo
" Toothache Day
" St. Apollonia's Day (patron of dentists; against toothaches)
" Hobert Regatta Day (Tasmania)
" National Inventor's Day
" St. Maron's Day (patron of Maronites)
" National Bagels and Lox Day
" St. Teilo's Day
" National Hooky Day
" Tales of Kelp-Koli begin (Fairy)
" Feast of La'Ala'A (Upolu God of Wrestling; Polynesia)

" UK Parliament declared US Colonies in rebellion (1775)
" Hershey's Chocolate founded (1894)
" Boxer Rebellion began (China; 1899)
" San Francisco Museum of Modern Art founded (1935)
" Arthur Ashe became 1st black on US Davis Cup tennis team (1964)
" Beatles 1st appeared on Ed Sullivan (1964)
" AFL and CIO labor unions merged (1968)
" 1st British soldier killed at Ulster (1971)
" In Renton, Wa., some 17,000 Boeing engineers and technical workers went on strike in one of the biggest white-collar strikes in US history. (2000)
" US Weather Bureau established
" Search for Dr. Livingstone began
" 1st Boeing 747 flew

" 1868 William Allen White, journalist/editor (Emporia, KS; died 1944)
" 1890 Boris Pasternak, novelist/poet (Moscow, Russia; died 1960)
" 1893 Jimmy Durante, comedian (New York, NY; died 1980)
" 1898 Dame Judith Anderson, actress (Adelaide, Australia; died 1992)
" 1941 Bertolt Brecht, playwright (Augsburg, Germany; died 1956)
" 1927 Leontyne Price, opera singer (Laurel, MS)
" 1930 Robert Wagner, actor (Detroit, MI)
" 1939 Roberta Flack, singer (Black Mountain, NC)
" 1946 Donovan (Leitch), singer/songwriter (Glasgow, Scotland)
" 1950 Mark Spitz, Olympic champion swimmer (Modesto, CA)
" 1955 Greg Norman, golfer (Melbourne, Australia)
" 1961 George Stephanopoulos, TV commentator and former presidential adviser (Fall River, MA)
" Frances Moore Lappé, author of Diet for a Small Planet and co-founder of Food First.

" World Marriage Day
" Umbrella Day
" School Day
" Feast of St. Paul's Shipwreck (Malta)
" Plimsoll Day
" National Cream Cheese Brownie Day
" St. Scholastica's Day (patron of children in convulsions, bringing rain, nuns)

" Treaty of Paris signed (1763)
" Prince Albert married Queen Victoria (1840)
" Upper and Lower Canada reunited (1840)
" Revised Bible authorized by Church of England (1899)
" 1st Singing Telegram delivered (1933)
" 1st Medal of Honor awarded in World War 2 (1942)
" Detroit auto makers stopped producing cars during World War 2 (1942)
" Arthur Miler's Death of A Salesman premiered on broadway (1949)
" 60,000 Blacks forceably evicted in Sophiatown (South Africa; 1955)
" Gary Powers exchanged for a Russian spy (1962)
" 25th US Amendment ratified (providing continuity of power if President is disabled or ill; 1967)
Alex Haley, author of "Roots" and co-writer of "The Autobiography of Malcolm X," died in Seattle at age 70. Much of his work was donated to the Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville. (1992)
" 8 Ft. Alligator came of a New York City sewer
" Diving Suit patented
" Spanish-American War ended
" Styrofoam Cooler invented
" 1st Gold Record issued

" 1847 Thomas Edison, inventor (Milan, OH; died 1931)
" 1909 Joseph Mankiewicz, filmmaker (Wilkes-Barre, PA; died 1993)
" 1917 Sidney Sheldon, author (Chicago, IL)
" 1936 Burt Reynolds, actor (Waycross, GA)
" 1938 Manuel Noriega, Panamanian general and strongman (Panama City, Panama)
" 1941 Sergio Mendes, musician/bandleader (Niteroi, Brazil)
" Daniel Boone
" Henry Fox Talbot
" Lloyd Bentsen, US Senator and former candidate for Vice-President
" Eva Gabor, actress (Hungary)

" National Inventor's Day
" Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day
" White Shirt Day (Flint, Michigan)
" Anthesteria (Feast of Flowers; Ancient Greece)
" National Foundation Day (Japan; 660 BCE)
" Ghost Day
" St. Blaise's Day (Eastern)
" Grandmother Achievement Day
" Runic half-month of Elhaz ends
" Youth Day (Cameroon)
" St. Benedict of Aniane's Day
" Vatican City Independence Day
" St. Caedmon's Day (patron of poets)
" Armed Forces Day (Liberia)
" National Day (Iran)
" Lateranensi Pact Day (Vatican City)
" St. Gregory II's Day
" National Peppermint Patty Day
" Make A New Friend Day
" Feast of Our Lady's Miraculous Apparitions to St. Bernadette Soubirous at Lourdes begins
" Waqf el Arafat (Egypt)
" Day of Hajj (Islam)

" 1st US Hospital began admitting patients (1752)
" Quakers petitioned Congress to free slaves (1790)
" Napoleon married Marie-Louise (1810)
" Gerrymandering 1st occurred (1812)
" Bernadette Soubirous, a 14-year old French girl saw the Virgin Mary at Lourdes (1858)
" Benito Juarez declared President of Mexico (1858)
" US opened 11 million acres of Sioux land to white settlers (1890)
" Vatican City became an independent principality (1929)
" Lateran Treaty signed (1929)
" Henry Ford announced the V-8 Engine (1932)
" Flint, Michigan sit-down strike ended; resulted in United Auto Workers (1937)
" Jack Paar walked off the Tonight Show over censorship of a "water closet" joke (1960)
" Beatles recorded their 1st single, Please Please Me (1963)
" The French Chef, starring Julia Child, debuted (1963)
" China ends its ban on Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Balzac, Dickens & Twain (1978)
" Nelson Mandella finally freed from prison after 27 years (1990)
On the Oregon coast the New Carissa cargo ship was set on fire with explosives to burn off some 400,000 gallons of fuel oil to prevent its spillage. (1999)
" Madison Square Garden opened
" Yap Treaty signed
" Bald Eagle declared endangered
" 1st Public Lavatory opened (Women's)

" Day of Hajj (Islam). Muslims perform the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The pilgrimage is one of the five Pillars of Islam. All Muslims are expected to perform the Hajj at least once in their lifetime. About 4 million Muslims from over 70 countries journey to the holy city of Mecca each year to make this spiritual pilgrimage.

" 1809 Charles Darwin, naturalist (Shrewsbury, England; died 1882)
" Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States (Hardin County, KY; died 1865)
" 1880 John L. Lewis, labor leader and head of the UMW (Lucas, IA; died 1969)
" 1881 Anna Pavlova, ballerina (St. Petersburg, Russia; died 1931)
" 1898 Roy Harris, composer (Chandler, OK; died 1979)
" 1923 Franco Zeffirelli, director (Florence, Italy)
" 1926 Joe Garagiola, baseball player and sportscaster (St. Louis, MO)
" 1938 Judy Blume, children's author (Elizabeth, NJ)
" Lorne Greene, actor
" Cotton Mather
" Edward Forbes

" Festival of Pitooyage (God of gaming & chance; Oaxaca, Mexico)
" Choes Day (Day of the Cups; Ancient Greece)
" Burgsonndeg (Luxembourg)
" Feast of Diana/Artemis (Goddess of the Hunt)
" World Marriage Day
" Georgia Day
" Runic half-month of Sigel (sun) begins
" Burma Union Day
" Oglethorpe Day (Georgia)
" Borrowed Days begin (Scottish Highlands)
" St. Julian the Hospitaler (patron of travelers, innkeepers, boatmen, circus performers)
" National Plum Pudding Day
" St. Meletius' Day

" Lady Jane Grey executed (1554)
" John Donne preached his last sermon (1631)
" William of Orange and Mary became King & Queen of England (1688)
" Oglethorpe landed at Savannah, Georgia (1733)
" Australian Gold Rush began (1851)
" 1st Car accident fatality (1898)
" Galoshes invented (1831)
" NAACP founded (1909)
" Manchu Dynasty overthrown by Chinese Nationalists (1912)
" Chinese Emperor Pu Yi abdicated (1912)
" Ground broken on the Lincoln Memorial (1914)
" Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue premiered (1924)
" 1st US Draft Card burned in protest (1947)
" 1st Tobboggan Race held
" 1st Around the World Auto Race began
" Barbie Dolls 1st for sale
" Dracula premiered
" Robinson Crusoe rescued
" Action Comics No. 1 published (1st appearance of Superman)

" *** EID-UL-ADHA (Islam) It is celebrated to commemorate the story of Abraham's test of obedience to God when he was asked to sacrifice his son Ismael. At the last minute, God replaced Ismael with a lamb.

" 1885 Bess Wallace Truman, first lady of the United States (Independence, MO; died 1982)
" 1892 Grant Wood, painter (near Anamosa, IA; died 1942)
" 1920 Eileen Farrell, opera singer (Willimantic, CT)
" 1923 Chuck Yeager, pilot who broke the sound barrier (Myra, WV)
" 1944 Stockard Channing, actress (New York, NY)
" Jerry Springer, TV personality (London, England)
" Peter Tork, actor/singer and member of the Monkees (Washington, DC)
" 1950 Peter Gabriel, singer/musician (London, England)
" "Tennessee" Ernie Ford, singer

" Dream of Your Sweetheart Day
" Confession Day
" St. Augustine's Day
" Exorbitant Price Day
" Get A Different Name Day
" Parentalia begins (Old Roman family observance to soul of your father)
" Fiesta de Menendez (St. Augustine, Florida)
" St. Mathias' Day
" Clean Out Your Computer Day
" St. Agabus' Day (patron of fortune-tellers; Western)
" Dump Your Significant Jerk Day
" Borrowed Days (Scottish Highlands)
" National Tortini Day
" St. Priscilla's Day (Eastern)
" Blessing of the Salmon Nets (Northumberland, UK)
" St. Catherine dei Ricci's Day

" Glass introduced to Britain (664)
" Catherine Howard, a wife of Henry VIII, beheaded for infidelity (1542)
" Galileo detained by the Inquisition in Rome (1633)
" 1st US Magazine published (American Magazine; 1741)
" Flour Riot (NYC; 1837)
" Johann Strauss' The Blue Danube premiered (1867)
" ASCAP established (1914)
" Bruno Hauptmann found guily of murder of Lindbergh baby during the trial that was referred to as "The Crime of the Century." (1935)
" Prince Valiant comic strip began (1937)
" 1st US Public School opened (Boston Latin School; 1635)
" James Gang robbed their 1st bank (1866)
" Mata Hari arrested for spying (1917)
" Penicillin 1st used on human (1941)
" France 1st tests an atomic bomb (1960)
" Human Egg 1st fertilized in test tube (1969)
" New York City's Guardian Angels established (1979)
" 1st State University (North Carolina)

" 1894 Jack Benny, comedian (Chicago, IL; died 1974)
" 1921 Hugh Downs, TV journalist (Akron, OH)
" 1944 Carl Bernstein, journalist/author (Washington, DC)
" 1946 Gregory Hines, dancer/actor (New York, NY)
" 1948 Teller, magician in the duo Penn & Teller (Philadelphia, PA)
" 1972 Drew Bledsoe, football player (Ellensburg, WA)
" Marty Feldman, actor
" George Ferris (invented the "wheel")
" Kazmir Malevich
" Jimmy Hoffa, teamster organizer

" St. Valentine's Day (patron of lovers)
" Juno Februa's Day (Goddess of Love)
" Read To Your Child Day
" Fjortende Februar (Denmark)
" Trifon Zarezan (Viticulturists' Day; Bulgarian Dionysus Festival)
" Ferris Wheel Day
" National Have-a-Heart Day
" Sts. Cyril & Methodius' Day (patrons of Czechoslovakia, Europe, the Slavs)
" Vali (Norse Archer God)
" National Cream-Filled Chocolates Day
" Birds Mating Season begins
" National Random Acts of Kindness Day
" Race Relations Day
" Cat Festival
" Borrowed Days end (Scottish Highlands)
" National Cardiovasular Technologists Recognition Day

" Valentine's Day (Canada, USA, UK). One version states that a priest named Valentine was martyred on February 14th, 269 AD in Rome for secretly marrying couples against the orders of the Roman Emperor, Claudius II. This was the night before a festival called Lupercalia associated with fertility. Probably both customs became associated with this day.
" Richard II mysteriously died at Pontefract Castle (1400)
" Captain Cook killed by Hawaiians (1779)
" British Navy under Captain Nelson defeated Spanish Armada off Cape St. Vincent (1797)
" 1st US President photographed in office (Polk; 1849)
" Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state. (1859)
" Arizona became the 48th state (1912)
" League of Women Voters founded (1920)
" Valentine's Day Massacre took place (1929)
" Dresden fire-bombed (1944)
" Selma March to Montgomery, Alabama led by Martin Luther King Jr. (1965)
" Malcolm X's home fire-bombed (1965)
" Ayatollah Khomeini placed a death sentence of Salmon Rusdie for writing a book (1989)
" 1st Porpoise born in captivity
" 1st Cancer Clinic opened
" US Telephone patented
" 1st Childern's Hospital opened
" 1st State Bird Sanctuary established

" 1564 Galileo Galilei, physicist/astronomer (Pisa, Italy; died 1642)
" 1809 Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the reaper (Rockbridge County, VA; died 1884)
" 1817 Charles-Francois Daubigny, French painter who's work was a forerunner of Impressionism. (Paris, France, died 1878).
" 1820 Susan B. Anthony, women's rights leader (Adams, MA; died 1906)
" 1882 John Barrymore, actor (Philadelphia, PA; died 1942)
" 1905 Harold Arlen, composer/songwriter (Buffalo, NY; died 1986)
" 1914 Kevin McCarthy, actor (Seattle, WA)
" 1927 Harvey Korman, actor/comedian (Chicago, IL)
" 1931 Claire Bloom, actress (London, England)
" 1935 Susan Brownmiller, feminist author (Brooklyn, NY)
" Jane Seymour, actress (Middlesex, England)
" 1954 Matt Groening, cartoonist and creator of The Simpsons (Portland, OR)
" 1964 Chris Farley, comedian/actor (Madison, WI; died 1997)
" Henry E. Steinway
" Claire Bloom
" Babur
" Adolfo
" Pedro Menendez de Aviles
" Louis XV

" Remember the Maine Day
" Lupercalia (Old Roman Festival to Paganism)
" Faunus (Celebrates Animals Helping Humans)
" Kamakura (Snow Cave Festival; Japan)
" Senior Day
" Flag Day (Canada)
" St. Sigfrid's Day (patron of Sweden)
" Battleship Day
" Decimal Day (UK)
" St. Euseus' Day (patron of shoemakers)
" National Gumdrop Day

" St. Louis founded (1764)
" Female lawyers 1st admitted to practice before US Supreme Court (1879)
" USS Maine blown up in Havana Harbor (1898)
" Permanent Court of International Justice held its 1st session (1922)
" Unsuccessful assassination attempt made on FDR (1933)
" Disney's Cinderella premiered (1950)
" National Flag Day - Canada. New Canadian "Maple Leaf" flag unfurled. Twenty-two year old Joan O'Malley sewed Canada's first flag. The flag was raised for the first time on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at the stroke of noon. (1965)
" US Flag Code of Etiquette adopted
" To Kill A Mockingbird premiered
" Mustard invented

" 1838 Henry Adams, historian/journalist (Boston, MA; died 1918)
" 1848 Hugo Marie De Vries, Dutch botanist. (Haarlem, died May 20, 1935)
" 1886 Van Wyck Brooks, literary critic/cultural historian (Plainfield, NJ; died 1963)
" 1903 Edgar Bergen, entertainer/ventriloquist (Chicago, IL; died 1978)
" 1904 George F. Kennan, historian and diplomat (Milwaukee, WI)
" 1920 Patty Andrews, singer (Minneapolis, MN)
" 1956 James Ingram, singer/songwriter (Akron, OH)
" 1957 LeVar Burton, actor (Landstuhl, West Germany)
" 1958 Ice-T, rap singer (Newark, NJ)
" 1959 John McEnroe, tennis champion (Wiesbaden, West Germany)
" Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin
" Machito
" Sonny Bono, singer

" Feast of Sticky Buns
" Auld Deer (Cattle Fair; Scotland)
" St. Valentine's Day (Greek)
" Bumper Car Day
" Mule Day
" Annual Sit and Spit Contest
" St. Flavian's Day (Eastern)
" National Almond Day
" Lithuania Independence Day
" St. Pamphilius' Day (Eastern)
" Do A Grouch A Favor Day
" St. Juliana's Day

" 1st Check written (1659)
" Birth of Hugo Marie De Vries, Dutch botanist who rediscovered the laws of heredity developed by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel and brought the concept of mutation into evolutionary theory.
" Emma Goldman arrested for teaching birth control (1916)
" Nylon patented (1937)
" Nylon Stockings 1st for sale (1939)
" Fidel Castro sworn in as dictator of Cuba (1959)
" USS Triton submarine began 1st underwater circumnavigation of the Earth (1960)
" France's longest traffic jam (109 miles; 1980)
" Largest Mackeral caught (90 lbs.)
" Elks (BPOE) established
" 1st Commercial Helicopter flew
" Celebration of the Gold Standard
" 1st TV News aired

" 1908 Red Barber, sportscaster (Columbus, OH; died 1992)
" 1924 Margaret Truman, mystery writer and daughter of Pres. Harry Truman (Independence, MO)
" 1925 Hal Holbrook, actor (Cleveland, OH)
" 1929 Chaim Potok, novelist (New York, NY)
" 1930 Ruth Rendell, mystery writer (England)
" 1936 Jim Brown, football running back (St. Simons Island, GA)
" 1956 Richard Karn, actor (Seattle, WA)
" 1962 Lou Diamond Phillips, actor (Philippines)
" 1963 Michael Jordan, basketball player (Brooklyn, NY)
" Montgomery Ward
" Marion Anderson, singer

" Random Acts of Kindness Day
" Fornacalia (Old Roman Bread Festival)
" National Cafe Au Lait Day
" Championship Crab Races
" Bonten Festival (Japan)
" National PTA Founder's Day
" St. Fintan's Day
" Sourdough Rendezvous begins (Yukon, Canada)
" Feast of Shesmu (Eqyptian God of Wine Press)
" Celtic tree month of Luis ends

" Columbia, South Carolina surrendered to General Sherman (1865)
" National Congress of Parents & Teachers (PTA) founded (1897)
" Geronimo died (1909)
" Modern Art 1st shown in US (1913)
" Popey debuted in comic strip Thimble Theater (1929)
" Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament founded (1958)
" Minimum Wage Law enacted

" 1859 Sholem Aleichem (Solomon Rabinowitz), author/humorist (Russia; died 1916)
" 1892 Wendell Willkie, lawyer, executive, and presidential candidate (Elwood, IN; died 1944)
" 1920 Jack Palance, actor (Lattimer, PA)
" 1922 Helen Gurley Brown, author/publisher (Green Forest, AR)
" 1931 Toni Morrison, novelist (Lorain, OH)
" 1932 Milos Forman, director (Caslav, Czechoslovakia)
" 1933 Yoko Ono, artist, musician, and widow of John Lennon (Tokyo, Japan)
" 1950 John Hughes, producer/director (Lansing, MI)
" 1954 John Travolta, actor (Englewood, NJ) " Niccolo Paganini
" "Bloody" Mary Tudor
" George Peabody
" Louis Tiffany
" Sholom Aleichem (Yiddish "Mark Twain")

" Festival of Women (Persia)
" Tacita (Roman Silent Goddess)
" Chaosflux (Discordian)
" Bun Day (Iceland)
" Independence Day - Nepal, Gambia
" Tribhuvan Jayanti (Nepal)
" St. Bernadette's Day
" Celtic tree month of Nuin (Ash) begins
" Kiki Bird Days
" St. Colman's Day
" Fly-By for Fairies and Elves (Fairy)
" St. Fra Angelico's Day (patron of artists)
" St. Leo I's Day (Eastern)
" Aquarius zodiac sign ends
" St. Flavian's Day (Western)

" Michaelangelo died (1564)
" John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress published (1678)
" Jefferson Davis inaugurated as 1st, and only, President of Confederate States of America (1862)
" Phrase "one world" 1st used (1892)
" Pluto discovered (1930)
" Cows 1st flew in an airplane (1930)
" Japanese-American Internment Camps opened (WW 2; 1943)
" Snow fell on the Sahara Desert (1979)
" South Africa banned foreign TV news crews (1986)
" 1st 3-D Movie premiered (Bwana Devil)
" 2nd 3-D Movie premiered (Creature from the Black Lagoon)
" Shuttle "Enterprise" 1st flew

" 1473 Nicolaus Copernicus, astronomer (Torun, Poland; died 1543)
" 1911 Merle Oberon, actress (Bombay, India; died 1979)
" 1912 Stan Kenton, jazz musician/bandleader (Wichita, KS; died 1979)
" 1916 Eddie Arcaro, jockey (Cincinnati, OH; died 1997)
" 1940 Smokey Robinson, singer/songwriter (Detroit, MI)
" 1952 Amy Tan, author (Oakland, CA)
" 1955 Jeff Daniels, actor (Georgia)
" 1960 Prince Andrew, Duke of York (London, England)
" 1963 Hana Mandlikova, tennis champion (Prague, Czechoslovakia)
" Seal, singer/songwriter (London, England)
" Lee Marvin, actor
" Margaux Hemingway, actress
" Karen Silkwood, whistleblower

" Feast of Pusiuraura (God of the Dart Game; Melanesia)
" Pisces zodiac sign begins
" Consumer Credit Festival
" Butter Festival begins (China)
" St. Conrad's Day (patron against hernia, famine)
" Daytona 500 (@)
" National Chocolate Mint Day
" Goddess Month of Bridhe ends
" Fly-By for Goblins and others (Fairy)

" Liverpool Bread Riots begin (1855)
" Knights of Pythias founded (1864)
" 1st Pan African Congress held (1919)
" Conflakes 1st for sale (1906)
" 1st Helicopter flew (1921)
" Japanese-Americans placed in concentration camps in remote US areas (WW2; 1942)
" US Troops landed on Iwo Jima Island (WW2; 1945)
" Mr. Roger's Neighborhood debuted (1968)
" Sammy Davis Jr. kissed Archie Bunker (on All in the Family; 1972)
" Phonograph invented
" International Council for Exceptional Children established
" Tin-Type Camera patented

" 1902 Ansel Adams, photographer (San Francisco, CA; died 1984)
" 1920 Carl Stotz, founder of Little League (Williamsport, PA; died 1992)
" 1925 Robert Altman, director/producer (Kansas City, MO)
" 1927 Sidney Poitier, actor (Miami, FL)
" 1934 Bobby Unser, auto racer (Albuquerque, NM)
" 1942 Phil Esposito, hockey player, coach, and executive (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada)
" 1955 Kelsey Grammar, actor (St. Thomas, Virgin Islands)
" 1963 Charles Barkley, basketball player (Leeds, AL)
" 1966 Cindy Crawford, model (DeKalb, IL)
" 1967 Kurt Cobain, musician/singer (Aberdeen, WA; died 1994)
" Confucius (551 BCE), philosopher
" Voltaire, author/philosopher
" Serena, singer
" Gloria Vanderbilt
" Amanda Blake, actress
" Patty Hearst, daughter of William Randolf Hearst who was kidnapped by the SLA

" National Cherry Pie Day
" St. Wulfric's Day
" Native Agents Day
" Goddess Month of Moura begins
" Princess Alice Day
" Student Volunteer Day
" Adopt a Goblin Orphan Day (Fairy)
" St. Eleutheris of Tournai's Day
" Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day (at high noon everyone yells "Hoodie-Hoo" to chase away winter & make way for spring)

" King James I of Scotland assassinated (1437)
" Last Mogul Emperor of India died (1707)
" US Mail established (1792)
" Austria declared bankruptcy (1811)
" Toothpick patented (1872)
" Arrowmobile, 1st "flying car," tested (1937)
" 1st American, John Glenn, orbited the earth (1962)
" Ross Perot announced he would run for US President if supporters put his name on all 50 states' ballots (1992)
" Metropolitan Museum of Art opened
" 1st Film shown to a paying audience
" Elevator patented

" 1855 Alice Freeman Palmer, women's educator and college president (Colesville, NY; died 1902)
" 1903 Anaïs Nin, diarist/novelist (Neuilly, France; died 1977)
" 1907 W. H. Auden, poet (York, England; died 1973)
" 1927 Erma Bombeck, humorist/writer (Dayton, OH; died 1996)
" Hubert de Givenchy, fashion designer (Beauvais, France)
" Sam Peckinpah
" King Harold of Norway

" Card Reading Day
" Feast of Peace and Love (Old Roman)
" Shaheel Day (Bangladesh)
" Feralia (Old Roman Spirits Festival)
" Martyrs Day (Bangladesh)
" St. Peter Damian's Day (patron against headaches)
" National Sticky Bun Day

" 1st Newspaper in an Indian language published (The Cherokee Phoenix; 1828)
" Punjab annexed by UK (1849)
" 1st Burglar Alarm installed (1858)
" 1st Woman graduated from dental school (1866)
" Washington Monument dedicated (1885)
" 1st Brain Operation performed (1902)
" Battle of Verdun (1916)
" New Yorker magazine published (1925)
" Malcolm X assassinated (1965)
" US President Richard Nixon visited China (1972)
" World's Oldest Man, Shigechiyo Izumi, died at 120 years old (1986)
" 1st Telephone Directory published
" France granted freedom of worship
" Carolina Parakeet declared extinct

" 1732 George Washington, first president of the United States and commander of the Continental Army (Westmoreland County, VA; died 1799)
" 1778 Rembrandt Peale, painter (Bucks County, PA; died 1860)
" 1788 Anton Schopenhauer, philosopher (Danzig, Germany; died 1860)
" 1810 Frédéric Chopin, composer (Poland; died 1849)
" 1862 Connie Mack, baseball manager (Brookfield, MA; died 1956)
" 1892 Edna St. Vincent Millay, poet (Rockland, ME; died 1950)
" 1908 Sir John Mills, actor (Suffolk, England)
" 1932 Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts senator (Brookline, MA)
" 1934 Sparky Anderson, baseball player and manager (Bridgewater, SD)
" 1944 Jonathan Demme, director (Rockville Centre, NY)
" 1950 Julius Erving, basketball player (Roosevelt, NY)
" 1956 Amy Alcott, golfer (Kansas City, MO)
" 1968 Jeri Ryan, actress (Munich, Germany)
" 1972 Michael Chang, tennis champion (Hoboken, NJ)
" 1975 Drew Barrymore, actress (Los Angeles, CA)
" Charles VII
" Sheldon Leonard
" Nelson Bunker Hunt
" Robert Wadlow (world's tallest person)
" Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides

" Girl Guides Thinking Day
" Girl Guides Day (UK)
" Branch Day
" Concordia (Old Roman Festival of Goodwill)
" Be Humble Day
" Feast of the Chair of St. Peter
" St. Lucia Independence Day
" Mother's Day (India)
" St. Joseph of Arimathea's Day
" Unity Day (Egypt)
" St. Margaret of Cortona's Day (patron of fallen women)
" Handing Back of Goblin Orphans Day (Fairy)
" Feast of Hastseltsi, the Red God, God of Racing (Navaho)
" Abu Simbel Festival - Egypt

" Popcorn introduced to westerners (1630)
" 1st Thanksgiving (Massachusetts Bay Colony; 1631)
" 1st US joint stock company offered its shares for sale (American Manufactory of Woolens, Linenes, and Cottons; 1775)
" Spain renounced claims to Oregon Country. (1819)
" 1st 5 & 10 cent store opened (Woolworth; 1879)
" President Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union. (1889)
" Rio de Janeiro sank off San Francisco (1901)
" New Yorker Magazine 1st published (1925)
" Streptomycin antibiotic discovered (1946)
" Montgomery, Alabama black civil rights leaders arrested for continuing boycott (1956)
" Pebbles Flintstone is born (1963)

" Abu Simbel Festival - Egypt. Built by Ramses II, his temple is angled so that the inner sanctum lights up twice a year: once on the anniversary of his rise to the throne and, once on his birthday. Crowds pack in the temple before sunrise to watch the shafts of light illuminate the statues of Ramses, Ra and Amon. The other date for this event is Oct. 22.

" Girl Guides Thinking Day (Canada, USA) This is the joint birthday of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of Boy Scouts and Girl Guides, and his wife Olave who became the World Chief Guide.

" 1633 Samuel Pepys, diarist (London, England; died 1703)
" 1685 George Frederick Handel, composer (Halle, Germany; died 1759)
" 1787 Emma Willard, women's educator (Berlin, CT; died 1870)
" 1868 W. E. B. Dubois, educator and black activist (Great Barrington, MA; died 1963)
" 1904 William L. Shirer, author/journalist (Chicago, IL; died 1993)
" 1938 Sylvia Chase, TV journalist (Northfield, MN)
" 1943 Julio Iglesias, singer (Madrid, Spain)
" 1944 Johnny Winter, singer/musician (Beaumont, TX)
" 1951 Edward "Too Tall" Jones, football player and actor (Jackson, TN)
" Johannes Gutenberg, inventor of the printing press
" Majel Barrett, actress and wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry
" Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne
" Christopher Marlowe, actor
" Jade Emperor (of China)

" Ember Day
" Guyana Republic Day
" Terminalia (End of Old Roman Year)
" St. Polycarp's Day
" Victoria Daffodil Bonspiel
" Pancake Day (Venice)
" National Banana Bread Day
" Vaudeville Day
" St. Mildburga's Day (patron of birds)
" Feast of the Incappucciati (Italy)
" National Day (Brunei Darussalam)
" St. Willigis' Day (patron of carters)
" International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day

" Handel's Oratorio premiered (1732)
" 1st Cotton Mill founded (1813)
" Siege of the Alamo began (1836)
" Source of the Nile discovered (1863)
" Arizona separated from Mexico and was made a US Territory (1863)
" Mississippi readmitted to the Union (1870)
" Emile Zola imprisoned for his letter J'Accuse (1898)
" Japanese Submarine shelled Santa Barbara (WW 2)
" US Flag raised on Iwo Jima (WW 2; 1945)
" 1st NASCAR sanctioned race held (1948)
" 1st Mass Inoculation (1954)
" Theater censorship ended in UK (1968)
" UK lifted economic ban on South Africa (1990)
" Ground war against Iraq began (1991)
" Rotary Club established
" John Lee survived 3 hangings
" Printing Press with movable type invented
" Aluminum invented

" 1786 Wilhelm Grimm, folklorist and coauthor of Grimm's Fairy Tales (Hanau, Germany; died 1859)
" 1836 Winslow Homer, painter (Boston, MA; died 1910)
" 1874 Honus Wagner, baseball player (Carnegie, PA; died 1955)
" 1885 Chester Nimitz, Pacific commander in WWII (Fredericksburg, TX; died 1966)
" 1921 Abe Vigoda, actor (New York, NY)
" 1922 Steven Hill, actor (Seattle, WA)
" 1932 Michel Legrand, composer/conductor (Paris, France)
" 1935 Renata Scotto, opera singer (Savona, Italy)
" 1938 James Farentino, actor (Brooklyn, NY)
" 1941 Philip H. Knight, Nike executive (Oregon)
" 1945 Barry Bostwick, actor (San Mateo, CA)
" 1947 Edward James Olmos, actor (East Los Angeles, CA)
" 1955 Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computers (California)
" 1956 Eddie Murray, baseball player (Los Angeles, CA)
" 1956 Paula Zahn, TV anchor (Naperville, IL)
" Joseph I. Lieberman
" Charles V

" Swamp Cabbage Festival
" Estonia Independence Day
" Feast of Regifugium (Flight of Kings; Old Roman)
" Giving of Shoes (Fairy)
" Mexican Independence Proclamation Day
" St. Matthias' Day
" Flag Day (Mexico)
" Gregorian Calendar Day
" Vincennes Day (Indiana)
" St. Prix's Day

" Pope Gregory XIII issued the order to correct the Julian calendar to the Gregorian Calendar (1582)
" Mexico declared independence from Spain (1821)
" French Monarchy overthrown (1848)
" US House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson (1867)
" 1st Cities linked by telephone (Paris & Brussels; 1887)
" Hadassah founded (1912)
" 2nd French Republic began (1848)
" "Flying Scotsman" train engine made its 1st run from London to Edinburgh (1923)
" Juan Peron elected President of Argentina (1946)
" "Missing Link" Skull found (1961)
" American Motors' AMX debuted (1968)
" 1st Sheep successfully cloned (named "Dolly"; Scotland; 1997)
" 1st Law overturned by US Supreme Court
" Bluebeard executed
" 1st Multi-Stage Rocket flew
" 1st Parade with Floats
" Steam Shovel patented

" 1841 Pierre Auguste Renoir, painter (Limoges, France; died 1919)
" 1873 Enrico Caruso, opera singer (Naples, Italy; died 1921)
" 1905 Adelle Davis, nutritionist and author (Lizton, IN; died 1974)
" 1913 Jim Backus, actor (Cleveland, OH; died 1989)
" 1917 Anthony Burgess, author (Manchester, England; died 1993)
" 1928 Larry Gelbart, writer/producer (Chicago, IL)
" Bob Schieffer, TV journalist (Austin, TX)
" 1943 George Harrison, musician/singer/songwriter (died 2002) (Liverpool, England)
" Sally Jessy Raphael, TV personality (Easton, PA)
" 1966 Tea Leoni, actress (New York, NY)
" 1971 Sean Astin, actor (Santa Monica, CA)
" Kim Hee Sun
" Benedetto Croce
" Bobby Riggs, tennis player (defeated by Billie Jean King in the "Battle of the Sexes")
" Jose de San Martin
" Charles Lang Freer
" Ludvig Nordstrom
" Zeppo Marx

" Time of the Old Woman begins (until 4 March)
" Quiet Day
" Coronado Day (US Southwest)
" Kuwait National Day
" People Power Day - Philippines
" St. Walburga's Day (patron of crops; against coughs, frenzy, plague)
" National Chocolate Covered Peanuts Day
" St. Ethelbert's Day
" Dance of the Secret Places (Fairy)
" National Don't Utter a Word Day
" St. Tarasius' Day
" Feast of the Stinky Butts
" Suriname Revolution Day
" Intercalary Days (Bahá'í) (thru 3-1).

" Edward II crowned King of England (1308)
" Queen Elizabeth I excommunicated by Pope Pius V (1570)
" Six-Shooter Revolver patented by Samuel Colt (1836)
" Lincoln issued "Greenback" US Dolllars (1862)
" 1st Black became member of Congress (Hiram Revels of Mississippi; 1870)
" Sherman County, Oregon incorporated from part of Wasco County (1889)
" US Income Tax Law established (1913)
" Oregon introduced the first state tax on gasoline at one cent per gallon, to be used for road construction. (1919)
" Cassius Clay (who later changed his name to Muhammed Ali) "floated like a butterfly and stung like a bee" defeating Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Boxing Title (1964)
" Ford Thunderbird debuted (1964)
" Jimmy Swaggart banned from preaching for frequenting a prostitute (1988)
" Nicaragua votes to replace Sandinistas (1990)
" Haing Ngor, Cambodian activist featured in The Killing Fields, killed (1996)
" Electric Motor invented
" 1st Bank opened
" US Steel incorporated
" Hen layed the largest egg (16 oz.)

" Intercalary Days (Bahá'í) (thru 3-1). There are 4 or 5 days inserted into the calendar called Ayyam-i-ha. This precedes a month of fasting from March 2 to March 20th. Gifts are exchanged, parties and public meetings are held to share the faith.

" 1802 Victor Hugo, author (Besançon, France; died 1885)
" 1808 Honoré Daumier, painter/caricaturist (Marseilles, France; died 1879)
" 1829 Levi Strauss, creator of the first jeans (Buttenheim, Germany; died 1902)
" 1846 Buffalo Bill Cody, frontiersman/showman (Scott County, IA; died 1917)
" 1916 Jackie Gleason, comedian/actor (Brooklyn, NY; died 1987)
" 1919 Mason Adams, actor (New York, NY)
" 1920 Tony Randall, actor (Tulsa, OK)
" 1928 Antoine "Fats" Domino, singer/songwriter (New Orleans, LA)
" 1931 Robert Novak, journalist (Joliet, IL)
" 1932 Johnny Cash, country singer (Kingsland, AR)
" 1953 Michael Bolton, singer (New Haven, CT)
" Jose Luis Cuevas
" Geofrey Cambridge
" Richard Gatling
" Robert Alda

" Tournament of Hearts (Scotland)
" Festival of Mihr (God of Fire; Armenia)
" Bun Day
" St. Alexander's Day
" National Pistachio Day
" Sourdough Rendezvous
" Dance of the Known Places (Fairy)
" Runic half-month of Sigel ends
" St. Porphyrius' Day

" 1st Catholic Mass celebrated in a church in US (1732)
" 1st Jail with solitary confinement cells authorized (Philadelphia; 1773)
" Napoleon escaped from exile in Elba (1815)
" 2nd French Republic declared (1848)
" Grand Canyon declared National Park (1919)
" Radar 1st demonstrated (1935)
" Volkswagen debuted (1936)
" England developed its 1st Atomic Bomb (1952)
" Dictator Ferdinand Marcos exiled from Philippines (1986)
" First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton won a Grammy Award (1997)
" 22nd Amendment passed (limiting President to 2 terms; 1951)
" Subway 1st opened in NYC

" 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet/writer (Portland, ME; died 1882)
" 1902 Marian Anderson, opera singer (Philadelphia, PA; died 1993)
" John Steinbeck, novelist (Salinas, CA; died 1968)
" 1930 Joanne Woodward, actress (Thomasville, GA)
" 1932 Elizabeth Taylor, actress (London, England)
" 1934 Ralph Nader, consumer advocate (Winsted, CT)
" 1940 Howard Hesseman, actor (Lebanon, OR)
" 1942 Charlayne Hunter-Gault, broadcast journalist (Due West, SC)
" 1961 James Worthy, basketball player (Gastonia, NC)
" 1980 Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former Pres. Bill Clinton (Little Rock, AR)
" Constantine the Great
" Rudolf Steiner

" International Day
Polar Bear Day
" Runic half-month of Tyr (cosmic pillar) begins
" Independence Day - Dominican Republic
" Equirria (Old Roman Cavalry Horse Festival)
" St. Galmier's Day (patron of locksmiths)
" Majuba Day (Boers; South Africa)
" St. Kitts-Nevis Statehood Day
" The Hop (Fairy)
" St. Leander's Day
" Feast of St. Gabriel Possenti (patron of college students)

" Anabaptist "New Jerusalem" began (Germany; 1534)
" Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), 1st US passenger railroad, chartered (1827)
" Lincoln gave his "might makes right" speech (1860)
" 15th US Amendment passed ("right to vote"; 1869)
" Saccharine discovered (1879)
" Cigar-rolling Machine patented by Oscar Hammerstein (1883)
" 22nd Amendment ratified limiting President to 2 terms (passed by Republican Congress after FDR; later Republicans tried to get rid of it to allow Reagan to run again but were unable to undo their own knot; 1950)
" Shanghai Communique held between Richard Nixon and Chou En-Lai (1972)
" Battle of Wounded Knee (1973)
" Emergency Powers introduced in Yugoslavia as Serbs attempted to assert rule over ethnic Albanians (1989)
" Kuwait City liberated as 100-Hour War ended (1991)
" Bushnell Assembly of God church received an entry letter from the American Family Publisher's Sweepstakes, addressed to 'God', which began "God, you may already be a sweepstakes winner" (Florida; 1997)
" The wrecked oil tanker New Carissa was dragged out to sea for sinking off the Oregon coast. (1999)
" Tower of Pisa 1st leaned
" Beethoven's 8th Symphony premiered
" 1st American died in World War I

" 1533 Michel de Montaigne, essayist/philosopher (Perigord, France; died 1592)
" 1797 Mary Lyon, women's educator (near Buckland, MA; died 1849)
" 1820 Sir John Tenniel, illustrator/cartoonist (London, England; died 1914)
" 1923 Charles Durning, actor (Highland Falls, NY)
" 1930 Gavin MacLeod, actor (Mount Kisco, NY)
" 1939 Tommy Tune, actor/dancer/singer (Wichita Falls, TX)
" 1940 Mario Andretti, auto racer (Montona, Italy)
" 1945 Charles "Bubba" Smith, football player and actor (Beaumont, TX)
" 1948 Bernadette Peters, singer/actress (New York, NY)
" Linus Pauling, chemist, winner of Nobel Prize (as a boy he lived in Portland, Oregon)
" Vaslav Nijinsky
" Zero Mostel

" Public Sleeping Day
" Action Line Day
" Magha Puja (Buddhist All Saints Day)
" Floral Design Day
" Kalevala Day (Finland)
" Burgsonnieg (Luxembourg)
" St. Oswald of York's Day
" National Chocolate Souffle Day
" Ponce Carnival (Puerto Rico)
" St. Romanus' Day (patron against drowning, insanity)

" 1st New World victims of Spanish Inquisition burned at the stake (1574)
" Wesleyan faith founded (1784)
" USS Princeton's gun exploded (1844)
" Yellowstone became 1st US National Park (1871)
" 1st Vaudeville Theatre opened (1883)
" 1st Parachute Jump (1912)
" Pontiac Firebird debuted (1967)
" Final episode of M*A*S*H aired (1983)
" Cody's Books in Berkeley, California bombed for stocking Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses (1989)
" A 6.8 magnitude slab earthquake shook the Northwest and rocked the cities of Seattle and Portland, Oregon. It was centered 32.6 miles below the surface along the boundary of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate and the continental North American plate. Damages were later estimated at $1.5-2 billion. (2001)
" Red Spots of Jupiter discovered
" Tarters sacked Baghdad
" Amazon River discovered by Europeans
" Basketball game 1st televised
" Kalevala Day - Finland. It is Finland's national epic and is observed country-wide with lectures, parades and recitations to honour Elias Lonnrot, a country doctor, folklorist and philologist who compiled the Kalevala in 1835 which has greatly influenced the development of modern Finnish literature.

" 1792 Gioacchino Rossini, composer (Italy; died 1868)
" 1904 Jimmy Dorsey, musician/bandleader (Shenandoah, PA; died 1957)
" 1928 Joss Ackland, actor (London, England)
" 1944 Dennis Farina, actor (Chicago, IL)
" 1972 Antonio Sabato Jr., actor (Rome, Italy)
" Paolo Eleuteri Serpieri
" "Balthus" de Rola
" Howard Nemerov
" Bob Denver, actor
" Ranchhodji Morarji Desai
" Paul III

" Leap Year Day
" St. Tib's Day (every 4 years; Discordian)
" Dark Day
" Maha Siurratri (Hindu)
" Bachelor's Day
" St. Oswald of Worcester's Day
" National Surf and Turf Day

" St. Gotthard Tunnel completed (1880)
" Helium 1st liquefied (1908)
" Bishop Dsmond Tutu arrested for demonstrating in South Africa (1988)
" All three children in the Henriksen family of Norway were born on Leap DayFebruary 29: Heidi in 1960, Olave in 1964, and Leif-Martin in 1968.
" Deefield Massacre