Category Archives: Today

Feb 25 is National Chocolate-Covered Peanuts Day
National Clam Chowder Day In his epic Moby Dick, Herman Melville wrote an ode to clam chowder that is so delectable, simply reading the words gets us craving a bowl.

“Oh, sweet friends! hearken to me. It was made of small juicy clams, scarcely bigger than hazelnuts, mixed with pounded ship biscuit, and salted pork cut up into little flakes; the whole enriched with butter, and plentifully seasoned with pepper and salt.”

The two most prevalent types of Clam Chowder are New England or “white” clam chowder and Rhode Island / Manhattan or “red” clam chowder. In 1939 a bill was introduced into legislature in the state of Maine that would make the use of tomatoes in clam chowder against the law.

138 – The Roman emperor Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius, effectively making Pius his successor.

February 25, 1947 – Prussia no longer exists from this date.

1836 – Samuel Colt was granted a United States patent for the Colt revolver.

1841 – Birthday of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, (February 25, 1841), French painter and sculptor, leader in the development of the Impressionist style. Photo: Luncheon of the Boating Party. More examples of his art can be found at Wikiart

1866 – Miners in Calaveras County, California, discover what is now called the Calaveras Skull – human remains that supposedly indicated that man, mastodons, and elephants had co-existed. It was later revealed to be a hoax.

1913 The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect.

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census of enumeration.

Because of a generous $3,000 exemption, plus an additional $1,000 exemption for married couples, the tax applied to fewer than four percent of the population.

1919 – Oregon placed a 1 cent per U.S. gallon tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.

1932 – Adolf Hitler obtained German citizenship by naturalization, which allowed him to run in the 1932 election for Reichspräsident.

1956 – In his speech “On the Personality Cult and its Consequences“, Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the Soviet Union denounced the cult of personality of Joseph Stalin.

February 21 is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

 
From: The Ayn Rand LexiconThe “sanction of the victim” is the willingness of the good to suffer at the hands of the evil, to accept the role of sacrificial victim for the “sin” of creating values.

National Sticky Bun Day
National Biscuits and Gravy Day

February 21, 1613 – Mikhail I of Russia became Tzar, starting the Romanov Dynasty which ruled until the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II on March 15, 1917, as a result of the Russian Revolution.

Birthday of Czar Peter III of Russia (1728) who ruled six months, then was murdered in June 1762 at the age of 34 by conspirators of his wife, Catherine II. He was not crowned until thirty-five years after his death, when his coffin was opened expressly for that purpose. He could not speak Russian and was unpopular. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:

“Nature had made him mean, the smallpox had made him hideous, and his degraded habits made him loathsome. And Peter had all the sentiments of the worst kind of small German prince of the time. He had the conviction that his princeship entitled him to disregard decency and the feelings of others. “

From Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing Company, 1981

February 21, 1848 – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto. Now in the public domain and available at Nextdoor estore.com

The Communist Manifesto summarized Marx and Engels’ theories about the nature of society and politics, that, in their own words, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. It also briefly features their ideas for how the capitalist society of the time would eventually be replaced by socialism, and then finally communism.

1878 – The first telephone book was issued in New Haven, Connecticut.

1885 – The newly completed Washington Monument was dedicated. Inscribed on the aluminum cap, notable names and dates in the monument’s construction are recalled, and on the east face, facing the rising sun, the Latin words “Laus Deo,” which translate to, “Praise be to God.”

February 21, 1958 – The peace symbol was designed.

February 20 is the 51st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

Presidents’ Day Originally Washington’s birthday (Feb 22, 1732) was a federal holiday. About half of the states officially renamed their Washington’s Birthday observances as “Presidents’ Day” to include Lincoln’s birthday (Feb 12, 1809). The holiday was moved as part of 1971’s Uniform Monday Holiday Act, an attempt to create more three-day weekends for the nation’s workers. It is now celebrated on the third Monday of February. Federal and state government services are closed.
There were four presidents born during February; besides Washington and Lincoln, William Henry Harrison was born February 9, 1773 and Ronald Reagan was born February 6th, 1911.

National Muffin Day

Publication of Federalist Paper #58: Objection That The Number of Members Will Not Be Augmented as the Progress of Population Demands Considered. written by James Madison in 1788. Madison argues that the initial number would be temporary and would be adjusted according to the Census conducted every 10 years. The House of Representatives was designed to represent the people whereas the Senate was designed to represent the States.

The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, was signed by President George Washington in 1792.

1809 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was greater than that of any individual state.

1816 – Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville premiered at the Teatro Argentina in Rome. Also called The Useless Precaution. Written by Gioachino Rossini, it is based on Pierre Beaumarchais’s French comedy Le Barbier de Séville (1775). Rossini’s opera recounts the events of the first of the three plays by Beaumarchais that revolve around the clever and enterprising character named Figaro, the barber of the title. (Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro, composed 30 years earlier in 1786, is based on the second part of the Beaumarchais trilogy.)

Familiar to Bugs Bunny fans, the music is from the Overture of the Barber of Seville:

1872 – In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened.

1877 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake premièred at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.

February 20, 1927 Golfers in South Carolina arrested for violating Sabbath.

1933 – The Congress of the United States proposed the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution that will end Prohibition in the United States.

1943 – The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.

Mercury program: In 1962, while aboard Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in 4 hours, 55 minutes.

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

1998-Tara Lipinski, 15, became the youngest Olympic figure skating gold medalist.

February 19 is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

National Chocolate Mint Day

Birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus (February 19, 1473), Prussian astronomer, mathemetician. His theory of the sun, rather than the earth, being at the center of the solar system was one of the most important scientific hypotheses in history. It was the beginning of modern astronomy.

Publication of Federalist Paper #57: The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the Expense of the Many Considered in Connection with Representation. written by Madison in 1788. Since it was assumed that Representatives would be elected from the “aristocracy” of each state, what was to prevent them from favoring their own class to the detriment of the rest of the society. Madison reminds critics that no law could be passed which did not apply to everyone, including the members of Congress. He said: “The house of representatives…can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny.”

1846 – In Austin, Texas the newly formed Texas state government was officially installed. The Republic of Texas government officially transferred power to the State of Texas government following the annexation of Texas by the United States.

1847 – The first group of rescuers reached the Donner Party, a group of American pioneer migrants who set out for California in a wagon train. Delayed by a series of mishaps, they spent the winter of 1846–47 snowbound in the Sierra Nevadas. Some of the migrants resorted to cannibalism to survive, eating those who had succumbed to starvation and sickness.

On February 19, 1859, Daniel E. Sickles, a New York Congressman, was acquitted of murder on grounds of temporary insanity. This is the first time this defense was successfully used in the United States. In Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House, Sickles shot and killed his wife’s lover, the district attorney of the District of Columbia, Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key.

Sickles’s career was replete with personal scandals. He was censured by the New York State Assembly for escorting a known prostitute, Fanny White, into its chambers. He also reportedly took her to England, leaving his pregnant wife at home, and presented White to Queen Victoria, using as her alias the surname of a New York political opponent.

The defense argued that “Sickles had been driven insane by his wife’s infidelity, and thus was out of his mind when he shot Key.” Following his acquittal, Sickles then publicly forgave his wife, and “withdrew” briefly from public life, although he did not resign from Congress. The public was apparently more outraged by Sickles’ forgiveness and reconciliation with his wife, whom he had publicly branded a harlot and adulteress, than by the murder and his unorthodox acquittal.

1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese-Americans to internment camps. Over 110,000 people of Japanese heritage were relocated. 11,000 people of German ancestry and 3,000 of Italian ancestry were also targeted. Internment ended in January, 1945 and the last internment camp was closed in 1946. The executive order was rescinded by President Gerald Ford in 1976.

February 18 is the 49th day of the year.

National “Drink Wine” Day

1546 – Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation, died in Eiselben, Germany.

The artist Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564. Several scholars have described Michelangelo as the greatest artist of his age and even as the greatest artist of all time. Examples of his work can be found at Wikiart.org including painting (the Sistine Chapel) and sculptures (David).

In 1678, John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” was published.

1885 – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was published in the United States. Now in public domain and available at Nextdoorestore.com

1913 – Pedro Lascuráin becomes President of Mexico for 45 minutes; this is the shortest term to date of any person as president of any country. President Madero of Mexico was overthrown in a coup by General Victoriano Huerta. Under the 1857 Constitution of Mexico, the vice-president, the attorney general, the foreign minister and then the interior minister stood next in line to the presidency. As well as Madero, Huerta had ousted Vice-President José María Pino Suárez and Attorney General Adolfo Valles Baca. To give the coup d’état some appearance of legality, he had Lascuráin, as foreign minister, assume the presidency, appoint him (Huerta) as his interior minister – making Huerta next in line to the presidency. Pedro Lascuráin then resigned, Huerta became president.

February 18, 1930 – Clyde Tombaugh discovered the dwarf planet Pluto.

Seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Dale Earnhardt died in an accident during the Daytona 500, on February 18, 2001.

February 17 is the 48th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

National Indian Pudding Day

National Cafe’ Au Lait Day

1621 – Myles Standish was appointed as first commander of Plymouth colony.

1801 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr was resolved when Jefferson was elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives. The Twelfth Amendment, ratified in 1804, was added to the United States Constitution. It called for electors to make a distinct choice between their selections for president and vice-president.

The United States House of Representatives passed the Missouri Compromise for the first time on this day in 1819.

1863 The International Red Cross was founded in Geneva.

Madame Butterfly premiered at La Scala in Milan in 1904. It is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini. The story takes place in Japan.
Synopsis from Wikipedia:

A U.S. naval officer named Pinkerton rents a house on a hill in Nagasaki, Japan, for himself and his soon-to-be wife, “Butterfly”. Her real name is Cio-Cio-san (from the Japanese word for “butterfly”) She is a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he is marrying for convenience, and he intends to leave her once he finds a proper American wife, since Japanese divorce laws are very lax. The wedding takes place at the house.

Three years later, Butterfly is still waiting for Pinkerton to return, as he had left shortly after their wedding. Her maid, Suzuki, keeps trying to convince her that he is not coming back, but Butterfly will not listen to her. The American consul, Sharpless, comes to the house with a letter which he has received from Pinkerton which asks him to break some news to Butterfly: that Pinkerton is coming back to Japan, but Sharpless cannot bring himself to finish it because Butterfly becomes very excited to hear that Pinkerton is coming back. Sharpless asks Butterfly what she would do if Pinkerton were not to return. She then reveals that she gave birth to Pinkerton’s son after he had left and asks Sharpless to tell him.

From the hill house, Butterfly sees Pinkerton’s ship arriving in the harbour. She and Suzuki prepare for his arrival, and then they wait. Suzuki and the child fall asleep, but Butterfly stays up all night waiting for him to arrive.

Suzuki wakes up in the morning and Butterfly finally falls asleep. Sharpless and Pinkerton arrive at the house, along with Pinkerton’s new American wife, Kate. They have come because Kate has agreed to raise the child. But, as Pinkerton sees how Butterfly has decorated the house for his return, he realizes he has made a huge mistake. He admits that he is a coward and cannot face her, leaving Suzuki, Sharpless and Kate to break the news to Butterfly. Agreeing to give up her child if Pinkerton comes himself to see her, she then prays to statues of her ancestral gods, says goodbye to her son, and blindfolds him. She places a small American flag in his hands and goes behind a screen, killing herself with her father’s seppuku knife. Pinkerton rushes in, but he is too late, and Butterfly dies.

1933 – The Blaine Act initiated the repeal of Prohibition in the United States. The 21st Amendment which formally ended Prohibition was adopted Dec 5th, 1933.

Also in 1933, Blondie Boopadoop married Dagwood Bumstead three years after Chic Young’s popular strip first debuted. (Bet you didn’t know Blondie’s maiden name!) According to The Blondie Story by the son of Chic Young, Dagwood was the “playboy son of billionaire railroad tycoon, J. Bolling Bumstead.” Dagwood was disinherited by his parents for marrying “that gold digger blonde.”

February 16 is the 47th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

National Almond Day
From: National Days Today.com

Almond hulls are used to feed cattle.
The word Almond is derived from Greek word “amygalda” meaning an almond shaped neuron in humans brain.
Almond flowers are not wind pollinated. Instead, it undergoes cross-pollination(one variety pollinates with another.) Honey bees play crucial role in transferring pollens between different varieties.
California cultivates eighty percentages of almonds in the world. It produces nearly six varieties of almonds.
Almonds are pasteurised to prevent salmonella bacterial growth.
Almond milk is lactose and cholesterol free which is best suited for vegans.
Almonds are one of the members of rose family. It is also called as “queen of rose family.”

Birthday of Elizabeth Kortright Monroe (February 16, 1786), wife of James Monroe; First Lady 1817-1825. When James Monroe was named U. S. Minister to France in 1794 :
From: First Ladies Biographies

During the last days of the French Revolution, Elizabeth Monroe made a name for herself by her courageous visit to Adrienne de Noiolles de Lafayette, the imprisoned wife of the Marquis de Lafayette – the great personal friend of George Washington and many other revolutionary era patriots and France’s most prominent supporter of American independence. Elizabeth Monroe, in the American Embassy’s carriage, made it a point to visit the woman in prison; it was as clear a message as could be made unofficially by the U.S. government. Not wishing to offend their ally, the French government used Elizabeth Monroe’s “unofficial” interest in Adrienne de Lafayette to release her on January 22, 1795 without any official provocation and thus maintain their alliance with the U.S. yet save face for the imprisonment.

Publication of Federalist Paper #56: The Total Number of the House of Representatives written by James Madison in 1788. Madison continues to discuss the number of Representatives needed and concludes that the number in the Constitution of one per thirty thousand is justified.

1874 – Silver Dollar became legal US tender.

The nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Alabama in 1968.

1985 – Hezbollah was founded. The ideology of Hezbollah has been summarized as Shi’i radicalism. Hezbollah was largely formed with the aid of the Ayatollah Khomeini’s followers in the early 1980s in order to spread Islamic revolution and follows a distinct version of Islamic Shi’a ideology.