February 28 ...

In 1827 the first US railroad chartered to carry passengers and freight, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, was incorporated. In 1844 a 12-inch gun aboard the USS Princeton exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Navy Secretary Thomas W. Gilmer, and several others. In 1849 the ship California arrived at San Francisco, carrying the first of the gold-seekers. In 1861 the Territory of Colorado was organized. In 1881 Thomas Edison hired Samuel Insull as his private secretary. In 1901 scientist Linus Pauling was born in Portland, OR. In 1951 the Senate committee headed by Estes Kefauver (D-TN) issued a preliminary report saying at least two major crime syndicates were operating in the US. In 1953 scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick discovered the double-helix structure of DNA, the molecule that contains the human genes. In 1974 the US and Egypt re-established diplomatic relations after a seven-year break. In 1986 Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot to death in central Stockholm. In 1993 a gun battle erupted at a compound near Waco, TX, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents tried to serve warrants on the Branch Davidians, a group of religious extremists; four agents and six Davidians were killed as a 51-day standoff began.

Sources are saying that this might be the new 'point man' for the Obama Administration on the 'sequester' -- if, sources say, someone from the NYT/MSNBC/CBS/NBC/ABC complex doesn't swoop up first what one major news organization president called 'the ultimate, golden-throated, nuance-teller.'

80 years ago on this day in 1933, Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, caught fire. The Nazis, blaming communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

February 27 ...

In 1801 the city of Washington, DC, was placed under congressional jurisdiction. In 1807 poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, ME. In 1812 in his first address as a member of the House of Lords, the poet Lord Byron defended Luddite destruction of textile machines in his home county of Nottinghamshire. In 1860 Abraham Lincoln gave his famous speech at Cooper Union in New York City. In 1883 Oscar Hammerstein I, grandfather of composer Oscar Hammerstein II, patented the first cigar-rolling machine. In 1902 American author John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, CA. In 1922 the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution guarantying the right of women to vote. In 1923 the great jazz tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon was born in Los Angeles, CA. In 1933 Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, caught fire. The Nazis, blaming communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties. In 1951 the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified. In 1960 the US Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, CA. (The US team went on to win the gold medal.) In 1972 the Shanghai Communique, pledging that it was in the interest of all nations for the United States and China to work towards the normalization of their relations, was issued by US President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai at the conclusion of Nixon's historic visit to China. In 1973 the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee in South Dakota. In 1974 People magazine was first issued by Time-Life (later known as Time-Warner). In 1979 Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine, upsetting Mayor Michael Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. (Byrne went on to win in the general election.) In 1985 former ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, who had served three terms as a US senator, and ran as the 1960 Republican vice-presidential nominee, died in Beverly, MA, at age 82. In 1986 the US Senate approved telecasts of its debates on a trial basis. In 1991 President George H.W. Bush declared that "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated," and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight.

February 26 ...

In 1802 poet, novelist, and playwright Victor Hugo was born in Besancon, France. In 1815 Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France. In 1848 the Second French Republic was proclaimed. In 1907 the US Congress raised its own pay to $7500. In 1916 Mutual Films signed Charlie Chaplin to a film contract for $10,000 per week, plus a $150,000 signing bonus. In 1919 Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. In 1929 President Coolidge signed a measure establishing Grand Teton National Park. In 1940 the United States Air Defense Command was created. In 1945 a midnight curfew on nightclubs, bars, and other places of entertainment was set to go into effect across the nation. In 1952 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that his nation has an atomic bomb. In 1970 National Public Radio was founded. In 1993 a bomb built by Islamic terrorists exploded in the parking garage of New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others. In 1995 Barings PLC collapsed after a securities dealer lost more than $1.4 billion by gambling on Tokyo stock prices. The company was Britain's oldest investment banking firm.

February 25 ...

In 1570 Pope Pius V excommunicated England's Queen Elizabeth I. In 1793 the department heads of the US government met with President George Washington at his home for the first Cabinet meeting on record. In 1841 impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1901 US Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan. In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution, giving Congress the power to levy and collect income taxes, was declared in effect. In 1943 US troops reoccupied the Kasserine Pass. In 1948 Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia. In 1956 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev harshly criticized the late Josef Stalin in a speech before a Communist Party congress in Moscow. In 1964 Cassius Clay (later Muhammad Ali) became world heavyweight boxing champion by defeating Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, FL. In 1986 President Ferdinand E. Marcos fled the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino assumed the presidency. In 1996 a 12-mile tether connecting a half-ton satellite to the space shuttle Columbia broke loose as it was almost completely unreeled.

February 24 ...

In 1803 the US Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison established the principle of judicial review. In 1821 Mexico declared its independence from Spain. In 1863 Arizona was organized as a territory. In 1868 the US House of Representatives impeached President Andrew Johnson following his attempted dismissal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton; Johnson was later acquitted by the Senate. In 1920 what became known as the Nazi Party, led by a chief spokesman named Adolph Hitler, held its first meeting of importance in Munich. In 1942 the Voice of America went on the air for the first time. In 1945 American soldiers liberated the Philippine capital of Manila from Japanese control during World War II. In 1980 the US hockey team defeated Finland, 4-2, to clinch the gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY. In 1981 Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Britain's Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer. In 1987 an exploding supernova was discovered in the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy. In 1989 Iran's Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who ten days before had issued a fatwa sentencing Salman Rushdie to death for his novel The Satanic Verses, placed a bounty of $3 million on Rushidie's head. In 2001 mathematician and computer scientist Claude Shannon, whose theories about binary code became the basis for modern mass communications networks, died in Medford, MA, at age 84.

February 23 ...

In 1574 France began the 5th holy war against the Huguenots. In 1685 Baroque composer George Frideric Handel was born in Halle in Saxony. In 1822 Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city. In 1836 the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio. In 1847 US troops commanded by Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico. In 1848 former president John Quincy Adams died of a stroke at age 80; he was stricken on the floor of the US House. In 1861 President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore. In 1868 civil rights activist and scholar W.E.B. DuBois was born in Great Barrington, MA. In 1870 Mississippi was readmitted to the Union. In 1903 Cuba leased Guantanamo Bay to the United States "in perpetuity." In 1945 US Marines captured Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, where they famously raised the American flag. In 1965 Stan Laurel -- of Laurel and Hardy -- died in Santa Monica, CA. In 1996 the Iraqi News Agency reported that Lt. Gen. Hussein Kamel al-Majid and his brother Saddam Kamel al-Majid, a pair of defectors who were also the sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein, were killed by clan members after returning to their homeland. In 1997 scientists in Scotland announced they had succeeded in cloning a lamb named "Dolly."

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.

February 21 ...

In 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels first published The Communist Manifesto. In 1878 the first telephone directory was issued by the District Telephone Company of New Haven, CT. In 1885 the Washington Monument was dedicated. In 1907 writer and poet W. H. Auden was born in York, England. In 1916 the Battle of Verdun in France began; it was the longest and bloodiest battle of WWI, with more than 200,000 killed and 700,000 wounded. In 1925 The New Yorker magazine made its debut. In 1947 Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds. In 1965 Malcolm X was murdered in New York City as he was about to address a meeting of his Afro-American Unity Organization. In 1972 President Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing for a week-long visit that paved the road for normalized US-China relations. In 1975 former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to two and a half to eight years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up. In 1989 Czech dissident playwright Vaclav Havel was jailed in Prague for incitement and obstruction. In 1992 for the first time since the Communist revolution of 1949, China welcomed foreigners back to its Shanghai stock market. In 1996 the Space Telescope Science Institute announced that photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope confirmed the existence of a "black hole" equal to the mass of 2 billion suns in a galaxy some 30 million light years away. In 2000 consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced his entry into the presidential race, bidding for the nomination of the Green Party. In 2005 former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush wrapped up their tour of tsunami-ravaged nations with a visit to the Maldives.

February 20 ...

In 1726 Revolutionary War hero William Prescott ("Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes!") was born in Groton, MA. In 1790 Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II died. In 1792 President George Washington signed an act creating the US Post Office. In 1872 the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in New York City. In 1895 Frederick Douglass died in Washington, DC at age 77. In 1902 photographer Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, CA. In 1933 the US House completed congressional action on an amendment to repeal Prohibition. In 1944 US bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as "Big Week." In 1952 The African Queen, starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn, opened at the Capitol Theatre in New York City. In 1962 John H Glenn Jr. became the first American to orbit Earth flying aboard Friendship 7. In 1965 the Ranger 8 spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface. In 1969 after his prediction of a worldwide calamity occurring on this day proved false, former Catholic priest Michel Collin (he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in 1951 for declaring himself to be the Pope) accused his detractors of "quibbling over dates." In 1981 the space shuttle Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch as the spacecraft fired its three engines in a 20-second test. In 2001 the government announced the arrest two days earlier of veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years; also on this day, space shuttle Atlantis landed in the Mojave Desert after three straight days of bad weather prevented the ship from returning to its Florida home port.

February 19 ...

In 1473 astronomer Nicolas Copernicus was born in Torun, Poland. In 1803 Congress voted to accept Ohio's borders and constitution. In 1807 former Vice President Aaron Burr was arrested in Alabama. (He was subsequently tried for treason and acquitted.) In 1846 the Texas state government was formally installed in Austin. In 1878 Thomas Edison received his patent for the phonograph. In 1881 Kansas became the first state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages. In 1942 President Roosevelt signed an executive order giving the military the authority to relocate and intern Japanese-Americans as well as Japanese nationals living in the US; also on this day, more than 150 Japanese warplanes attacked the northern Australian city of Darwin, killing at least 240 people (it was the first of over 60 Japanese attacks on the city during WWII). In 1943 the Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia began (the Americans were roundly defeated by the Germans in the first large-scale battle between the two countries during WWII). In 1945 the Battle of Iwo Jima began. In 1986 the Soviet Union launched the Mir space station. In 1997 the last of China's major Communist revolutionaries, Deng Xiaoping, died. In 2002 NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft began using its thermal emission imaging system to map Mars.

February 18 ...

In 1546 the leader of the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther, died in Eisleben, Germany. In 1564 Michelangelo died in Rome. In 1685 Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle established Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay, and thus formed the basis for France's claim to Texas. In 1735 the first opera was performed in America. The work was Flora (or Hob in the Well) and was presented in Charleston, SC. In 1841 the first continuous filibuster in the US Senate began. It lasted until March 11th. In 1861 Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, AL. In 1865 Union forces captured Fort Sumter and Charleston, SC. In 1885 Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the US for the first time. In 1901 Winston Churchill made his maiden speech in the British House of Commons. In 1930 the planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh. The discovery was made as a result of photographs taken in January 1930. In 1932 Sonja Henie won her 6th world women's figure skating title in Montreal, Canada. In 1952 Greece and Turkey became members of NATO. In 1970 the "Chicago Seven" defendants were found innocent of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national convention. In 1972 the California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty. In 1977 the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert. In 1988 Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as the 104th justice of the US Supreme Court. In 2001 veteran FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years.

80 years ago on this date in 1933, the Blaine Act, which would repeal Prohibition, passed the US Senate, and was later ratified as the 21st Amendment in December of that same year; also on this day, Newsweek was first published.

February 17 ...

In 1621 Myles Standish was appointed as the first commander of Plymouth colony. In 1801 the US House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president. In 1817 a street in Baltimore became the first to be lighted with gas from America's first gas company. In 1843 Aaron Montgomery Ward, creator of the mail-order business, was born in Chatham, NJ. In 1864 the Confederate vessel H. L. Hunley became the first submarine to engage and sink a warship, the Union's USS Housatonic. In 1865 Columbia, SC, burned as the Confederates evacuated and Union forces moved in. (It's not known which side set the blaze.) In 1924 swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle, with a time of 52-2/5 seconds in Miami, FL. In 1933 the Blaine Act, which would repeal Prohibition, passed the US Senate, and was later ratified as the 21st Amendment in December of that same year; also on this day, Newsweek was first published. In 1944 the World War II Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. US forces won the battle on February 22, 1944. In 1947 the Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union. In 1964 the Supreme Court ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population. In 1972 President Nixon departed on his historic trip to China. In 2005 President Bush named John Negroponte, the US ambassador to Iraq, as the government's first national intelligence director; also on this day, Iraq's electoral commission certified the results of the Jan. 30 elections and allocated 140 of 275 National Assembly seats to the United Iraqi Alliance, giving the Shiite-dominated party a majority in the new parliament.