February 22 ...

In 1732 George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, VA. In 1819 Spain agreed to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the US. In 1879 Frank Winfield Woolworth opened a five-cent store in Utica, NY. In 1889 President Cleveland signed a bill to admit the Dakotas (which was divided into North and South at the signing), Montana, and Washington state to the Union. In 1924 Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House. In 1973 the US and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices. In 1980 one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history occurred when the US hockey team defeated the defending champion Soviet team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, NY. In 1996 the space shuttle Columbia blasted into orbit on a mission to unreel a satellite on the end of a 12.8-mile cord; also on this day, President Clinton announced he would nominate Alan Greenspan to a third term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In 2001 President Bush held his first full-fledged presidential news conference, in which he defended his tax-cutting and budget-tightening plans and gave FBI director Louis Freeh a vote of confidence following the arrest of veteran agent Robert Hanssen on spying charges.