This Day In History

[MVeeI]

February 1

1865 - President Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery.

1942 - Voice of America begins broadcasting programs to areas controlled by Axis powers.

1960 - Four black students stage the first of the sit-ins at a lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina.

1964 - The Beatles have their first number one hit in the. U.S., I Want to Hold Your Hand.

2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on atmospheric reentry, killing all seven astronauts.

Birthdays

1894 - John Ford, director and producer.

1901 - Clark Gable, actor.

1904 - S. J. Perelman, humorist and screenwriter.

1905 - Emilio G. Segre, Italian-American physicist and Nobel Prize winner.

1946 - Elisabeth Sladen, English actress. Played a Dr. Who companion, Sarah Jane Smith.

 

[Raissermesser]

February 1
1865 - President Lincoln signs the 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery.

Major history quibble: This assertion pops up in all sorts of sources, but it's inaccurate. The problem is the wording implies that a presidential signature is necessary to ratify an amendment to the US Constitution. Not so. At no point in the process is presidential action required.

There are two ways to propose a constitutional amendment: By a two-thirds vote of both houses of congress, or a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the states. Every amendment of the constitution so far has originated by a two-thirds vote of congress.

At that point, a proposed amendment is sent directly to the states for approval or rejection. Note that, unlike a bill, it never goes to the president's desk for approval. Once three-fourths of the states have approved an amendment, it becomes part of the constitution.

So, what's the story of the 13th Amendment? Previous attempts to get it out of congress had failed, but on January 31, 1865, the proposed amendment got the necessary number of votes in the House, and was sent to the states for ratification.

Except, it made a little detour first.

The proposed amendment ended up on Lincoln's desk. On February 1, 1865, Lincoln wrote "Approved" on it. Here's the important part: That did not ratify the 13th Amendment. Honestly, it was nothing more than a feel-good move. Lincoln could have written "Kilroy was here" on it, and it would have meant just as much. The amendment wasn't ratified until December 6, 1865, and wasn't certified as part of the constitution until December 18, 1865. That was done by the Secretary of State Steward, not President Johnson.

Lest anyone thinks I'm being pedantic here, it wasn't many days after February 1, 1865 that congress passed a resolution that basically said "Okay, guys: proposed amendments don't have to go to the president. Everyone clear on that?" Such things are important.

 

[oc_in_fw]

Major history quibble: This assertion pops up in all sorts of sources, but it's inaccurate. The problem is the wording implies that a presidential signature is necessary to ratify an amendment to the US Constitution. Not so. At no point in the process is presidential action required.

There are two ways to propose a constitutional amendment: By a two-thirds vote of both houses of congress, or a constitutional convention called by two-thirds of the states. Every amendment of the constitution so far has originated by a two-thirds vote of congress.

At that point, a proposed amendment is sent directly to the states for approval or rejection. Note that, unlike a bill, it never goes to the president's desk for approval. Once three-fourths of the states have approved an amendment, it becomes part of the constitution.

So, what's the story of the 13th Amendment? Previous attempts to get it out of congress had failed, but on January 31, 1865, the proposed amendment got the necessary number of votes in the House, and was sent to the states for ratification.

Except, it made a little detour first.

The proposed amendment ended up on Lincoln's desk. On February 1, 1865, Lincoln wrote "Approved" on it. Here's the important part: That did not ratify the 13th Amendment. Honestly, it was nothing more than a feel-good move. Lincoln could have written "Kilroy was here" on it, and it would have meant just as much. The amendment wasn't ratified until December 6, 1865, and wasn't certified as part of the constitution until December 18, 1865. That was done by the Secretary of State Steward, not President Johnson.

Lest anyone thinks I'm being pedantic here, it wasn't many days after February 1, 1865 that congress passed a resolution that basically said "Okay, guys: proposed amendments don't have to go to the president. Everyone clear on that?" Such things are important.

Luckily you’re correct. Being the type of person Johnson was, he would likely have never signed it.

 

[MVeeI]

February 3

1870 - The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing voting rights to all male citizens regardless of race.

1913 - The16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, authorizing the Federal Government to impose and collect an income tax.

1959 - The music died. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper) are killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.

Birthdays

1874 - Gertrude Stein, novelist, poet, and playwright.

1904 - Pretty Boy Floyd, gangster and bank robber. He was killed by FBI agents in 1934.

1918 - Joey Bishop, actor and producer.

1920 - Henry Heimlich, physician. Invented the Heimlich maneuver.

1950 - Morgan Fairchild, actress.

 

[MVeeI]

February 5

1907 - Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces the creation of Bakelite, the world's first synthetic plastic.

Birthdays

1906 - John Carradine, actor.

1914 - William S. Burroughs, novelist, short-story writer and essayist.

1919 - Red Buttons, actor and comedian.

1934 - Hank Aaron, baseball player.

1942 - Roger Staubach, football player.

1946 - Charlotte Rampling, English actress.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 6

1952 - After a long illness, King George VI of Great Britain and Northern Ireland dies in his sleep at the royal estate at Sandringham. Princess Elizabeth, the oldest of the king’s two daughters and next in line to succeed him, was in Kenya at the time of her father’s death; she was crowned Queen Elizabeth II on June 2, 1953, at age 27.

 

[MVeeI]

February 7


1962 - The U.S. bans all Cuban imports and exports.

1979 - Pluto moves inside Neptune's orbit for the first time either was discovered.

1990 - The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power.

2013 - Mississippi officially certifies the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery.

Birthdays

1812 - Charles Dickens, English author and critic.

1885 - Sinclair Lewis, novelist, short-story writer and playwright.

1908 - Buster Crabbe, swimmer and actor. Played Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

1932 - Gay Talese, journalist and memoirist.

1962 - Garth Brooks, singer-songwriter and guitarist.

1965 - Chris Rock, actor, director and producer.

1978 - Ashton Kutcher, actor.

 

[MVeeI]

February 9

1825 - The U.S. Houuse of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as President after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the 1824 presidential election.

1950 - Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the U.S. State Department of being filled with Communists.

1964 - The Beatles make their first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show before 73 million viewers.

1977 - Satchel Paige becomes the first Negro League player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1986 - Halley's Comet last appeared in the inner Solar System.

Birthdays

1737 - Thomas Paine, English--American philosopher, author and activist.

1901 - Brian Donlevy, actor.

1909 - Carmen Miranda, Portugese-Brazilian actress, singer and dancer.

1942 - Carole King, singer-songwriter and pianist.

1943 - Joe Pesci, actor.

 

[Kilroy6644]

February 7
1908 - Buster Crabbe, swimmer and actor. Played Tarzan, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers.

From Wikipedia:

"Crabbe made regular television appearances, including one on an episode of the 1979 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, in which he played a retired fighter pilot named "Brigadier Gordon", in honor of Flash Gordon. When Rogers (Gil Gerard) praises his flying, Gordon replies "I've been doing that sort of thing since before you were born". Rogers (who was born more than 500 years earlier) responds "You think so?" to which Gordon replies "Young man, I know so". In fact, Crabbe had been playing "Buck Rogers" since long before Gerard was born."

I particularly enjoyed that episode.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 10

1535 - A dozen Anabaptists run stark naked through the streets of Amsterdam. Such strange actions, usually by Melchoirite Anabaptists, led to the group's ridicule by Protestants and Catholics alike.

1962 - American spy pilot Francis Gary Powers is released by the Soviets in exchange for Soviet Colonel Rudolf Abel, a senior KGB spy who was caught in the United States five years earlier.

 

[MVeeI]

February 11

1861 - The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a resolution guaranteeing non-interference with slavery in any state.

1937 - The Flint sit-down strike ended when General Motors recognized the United Auto Workers Union.

Birthdays

1839 - Josiah Willard Gibbs, physicist and mathematician.

1847 - Thomas Edison, engineer and businessman.

1898 - Leo Szilard, Hungarian-American physicist.

1919 - Eva Gabor, Hungarian-American actress.

1934 - Tina Louise, actress and singer.

1935 - Gene Vincent, singer and guitarist.

1936 - Burt Reynolds, actor and director.

1964 - Sarah Palin, journalist and politician.

1969 - Jennifer Aniston, actress and producer.

 

[MVeeI]

February 13

1880 - Thomas Edison observes thermionic emission (emission of electrons from a heated wire). The process is used in vacuum tubes.

1960 - The French explode their first atomic bomb.

Birthdays

1903 - Georges Simenon, Belgian-Swiss author. He created the fictional character Inspector Maigret.

1910 - William Schockley, English-American physicist. He and Stanley Morgan headed the group at Bell Labs that developed the transistor.

1919 - Tennessee Ernie Ford, singer and actor.

1923 - Chuck Yeager, test pilot and general. He was the first pilot to break the sound barrier.

1933 - Kim Novak, actress.

1934 - George Segal, actor.

1942 - Peter Tork, one of the Monkees.

1944 - Jerry Springer, English-American TV host and mayor of Cincinnati.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 13

1258 - Baghdad, then a city of 1 million, falls to the Mongols as the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed with tens of thousands slaughtered, ending the Islamic Golden Age.

1633 - Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642.

1945 - A series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the “Florence of the Elbe” to rubble and flames, and killing roughly 25,000 people. Despite the horrendous scale of destruction, it arguably accomplished little strategically, since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender.

 

[Raissermesser]

Galileo was on trial for being, well, Galileo. He was chummy with then Pope Urban VIII, who invited Galileo write a piece on Copernicanism. What Galileo came up with was known as a dialog, a hypothetical argument between two individuals. Except the one taking the geocentric view looked like it was based on Pope Urban VIII, and portrayed him as an imbecile. Keep in mind this is the same person who asked Galileo to write the paper. Seriously not cool.

Needless to say, Pope Urban VIII and Galileo weren't buddies anymore. So it was that Galileo was hauled off to Rome and ended up under house arrest.

Dresden remains controversial. At the time, there was some controversy about most or all the bombing raids. The incendiary raids had the goal of starting a fire storm, and Dresden wasn't alone. In 1945, the Florence of the Elbe hosted over a hundred defense plants, and was in a position to act as a choke point for troop movements from the east and toward the west. It's well to remember that the Battle of the Bulge started almost two months earlier, and had been over for less than three weeks. The Allies had discovered the destruction of infrastructure was more effective than striking factories, and Dresden had both. With Dresden in ruins, it was hoped to cause a massive snarl in troop movements, shortening the war.

And yes, 25,000 died. The incendiary bombing campaigns were horrific. The goal was to start fire storms, and bomber crews would sometimes don their oxygen masks to try to filter out the smell of burning bodies.

 

[Mr. Scruffy]

February 14

270 - Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.

1779 - Captain James Cook, the great English explorer and navigator, is killed by natives of Hawaii during his third visit to the Pacific island group.

1943 - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against an Allied defensive line in Tunisia, North Africa. The Kasserine Pass was the site of the United States’ first major battle defeat of the war.

 

[Doc4]

February 14

270 - Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.

1779 - Captain James Cook, the great English explorer and navigator, is killed by natives of Hawaii during his third visit to the Pacific island group.

1943 - German General Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps launch an offensive against an Allied defensive line in Tunisia, North Africa. The Kasserine Pass was the site of the United States’ first major battle defeat of the war.

Hmm ...

"Happy Cook's Day ... how 'bout cooking me some desert rats, honey?"

I think I'll stick with the Roman priest.

 

[Haggises]

2018
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
17 families lost loved ones.

 

[oc_in_fw]

2018
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
17 families lost loved ones. View attachment 1063062

About half of those died trying to help others escape.

 

[MVeeI]

February 15


1898 - The battleship Maine explodes in Havana harbor leading to the Spanish-American War.

1946 - ENIAC (electronic numerical integrator and computer), the first general-purpose electronic computer is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1989 - The Soviet Union announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.

Birthdays

1820 - Susan B. Anthony, suffragist.

1883 - Sax Rohmer, English-American author. He created the character Dr. Fu Manchu.

1951 - Jane Seymour, English-American actress.

1954 - Matt Groenig, animator, producer and screenwriter. He created The Simpsons.

 

[oc_in_fw]

1989 - The Soviet Union announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.

The graveyard of empires. And some thought that we would fare better than everyone else who entered Afghanistan.