February 22 is:
National Cook a Sweet Potato Day
National Margarita Day
National Cherry Pie Day
Birthday of George Washington in 1732; first President of the United States, born in Colonial Virginia.
Now commemorated on Presidents’ Day.
Publication of Federalist Paper #59: Concerning the Power of Congress to Regulate the Election of Members written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. In Chapter 59, the new Constitution provided that the time, place, and manner of electing United States senators and representatives should be regulated by the state legislatures, but that the Congress could alter such regulations, “except as to places of choosing senators.”
“Every government ought to contain in itself the means of its own preservation.” If the power of regulating elections for the national government were left entirely in the hands of state legislatures, the latter would have the union entirely at their mercy.
Birthday of Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892), American poet and playwright; authored:
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!
1821 Spain sold eastern Florida to United States for $5 million. Under Spanish rule, Florida was divided by the natural separation of the Suwanee River into West Florida and East Florida. See further information about West Florida
February 22, 1862 – Jefferson Davis officially became President of the Confederate States of America.
In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opened the first of many of 5¢ and 10¢ Woolworth stores in February, 1878. The original store failed and closed in May 1878.
1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge became the first President to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
The inaugural Daytona 500 race was held in Daytona Beach, Fla. on this date in 1959.
2006 “Insurgents” (aka barbaric terrorists), affiliated with Al-Qaida, destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq’s holiest Shiite shrines, the Askariya Mosque in Samarra, Iraq, setting off a spasm of sectarian violence. In 2007 another al-Askari Mosque bombing destroyed the mosque’s two remaining ten-story minarets.