February 27......

February 27 is the 58th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 307 (308 in leap years) days remaining in the year on this date.

{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}

EVENTS

● 280 - Birth of Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to be converted (ca. 312) to the Christian faith.

● 837 - 15th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet

● 1526 - Saxony & Hesse form League of Gotha (league of Protestant princes)

● 1531 - Evangelical German monarchy/towns form Schmalkaldische Union

● 1534 - Beginning of Anabaptist "New Jerusalem" on earth in Germany. All Lutherans and Roman Catholics are to be eliminated by driving them out or converting them, so as to create a community bound by love and without sin. Nonbelief or "misbelief" is made a capital offense. It resists besieging armies and lasts over a year.

● 1557 - 1st Russian Embassy opens in London

● 1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.

● 1563 - William Byrd is appointed organist at Lincoln Cathedral

● 1594 - Henry IV is crowned King of France.

● 1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.

● 1626 - Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.

● 1665 - Battle at Elmina, Gold Coast Vice-Admiral De Ruyter beats English

● 1667 - Abraham Crijnssen conquerors Fort Willoughby (Zeelandia), Suriname

● 1670 - Jews are expelled from Austria by order of Leopold I

● 1678 - Earl of Shaftesbury freed out of London Tower

● 1696 - English/Welsh nobles lay down Oath of Association

● 1700 - The island of New Britain is discovered.

● 1703 - The first Mardi Gras is celebrated in Mobile, Alabama.

● 1713 - French troops bomb Willemstad Curaçao

● 1793 - The Giles resolutions are introduced to the United States House of Representatives asking the House to condemn Alexander Hamilton's handling of loans.

● 1801 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.

● 1803 - Great fire in Bombay, India

● 1807 - Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.

● 1812 - Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.

● 1813 - 1st federal vaccination legislation enacted

● 1813 - Congress authorizes use of steamboats to transport mail

● 1816 - Dutch regain Suriname

● 1827 - The first Mardi Gras is celebrated in New Orleans, Louisiana.

● 1838 - Birth of William J. Kirkpatrick, American Methodist sacred composer. He edited his first collection of hymns at age 21, and is still remembered today for composing the melodies to such hymns as: "He Hideth My Soul," "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus," "Redeemed, How I Love to Proclaim It" and "Lord, I'm Coming Home."

● 1839 - Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'Most of God's people are content to be saved from the hell that is without. They are not so anxious to be saved from the hell that is within.'

● 1844 - Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti (National Day)

● 1849 - William Jewell College was chartered in Liberty, Missouri, under Baptist sponsorship.

● 1854 - Composer Robert Schumann saved from suicide attempt in Rhine

● 1860 - Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that was largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.

● 1861 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops, killing five protesters.

● 1861 - US Congress authorizes 1st stamped newspaper wrappers for mailing

● 1864 - 6th & last day of Battle at Dalton, Georgia (about 600 casualties)

● 1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia. {The Union used the commandant of this camp as their victor's revenge by having him hanged for the atrocities committed there, which were no worse than rebels prisoners were treated in Union POW camps.}

● 1865 - Civil War skirmish near Sturgeon MO

● 1867 - Birth of anarchist Paulin Mailfait (1867-1927), Charleville, France. Did eight months in prison for helping a soldier desert in 1892.

● 1867 - Dr. William G. Bonwill invented the dental mallet.

● 1869 - John Menard is 1st black to make a speech in Congress

● 1871 - Meeting of Alabama claims commission

● 1872 - Charlotte Ray, 1st Black woman lawyer, graduated Harvard U

● 1873 - Dutch socialist Samuel van Wooden demands law against child labor

● 1876 - Birth of anarchist Francois Segond Casteu (1876-1935), Nice, France. His remarks often caused problems with authorities, and in September 1927, he was imprisoned at Amiens for a series of anticlerical articles. Casteu was released following a hunger strike.

● 1877 - US Electoral College declares R Hayes winner Presidential election

● 1879 - Constantine Fahlberg discovers saccharin (artificial sweetener)

● 1880 - Birth of African American lesbian poet Angelina Weld Grimke. Like most black woman writers, her works will have very little visibility. Nonetheless, Grimke wins acclaim for two dramas, several short stories, and a great number of poems. Her play "Rachel" angrily dramatizes the personal impact of lynching.

● 1881 - Battle at Amajuba, South Africa Boers vs British army under General Colley

● 1886 - Hugo Black, who served 34 years as a U.S. Supreme Court judge and was known as a champion of civil liberties, was born.

● 1894 - Birth of Ernst Friedrich, founder of Berlin peace museum, Germany.

● 1896 - The "Charlotte Observer" published a picture of an X-ray photograph made by Dr. H.L. Smith. The photograph showed a perfect picture of all the bones of a hand and a bullet that Smith had placed between the third and fourth fingers in the palm.

● 1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.

● 1900 - The British Labour Party is founded.

● 1900 - The FC Bayern München (Munich) is founded.

● 1902 - Birth of Marian Anderson, African American opera singer famously banned by the Daughters of the American Revolution from performing at Constitution Hall; she sang before 75,000 at the Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday instead.

● 1902 - Birth of John Steinbeck, Salinas, California. Novelist, story writer, playwright, essayist, and screenplay writer. Best known for "The Grapes of Wrath," his first overtly political tract, which decried the treatment of migrant farm workers in California during the Great Depression and led to some (but obviously not enough) reform.

● 1906 - France & Britain agree to joint control of New Hebrides

● 1908 - Star #46 was added to US flag for Oklahoma

● 1912 - Lord Kitchener opens Khartoum-El Obeid (Nyala) railway

● 1921 - The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.

● 1922 - A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.

● 1922 - Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes 1st National Radio Conference

● 1923 - Formation in New York of the Mohegan Colony Association, based on anarchist principles.

● 1924 - Belgium's Theunis government falls

● 1925 - Hitler resurrects NSDAP political party in Munich

● 1929 - Turkey signs Litvinov-pact

● 1929 - Russia & US sign trade agreement

● 1930 - Bouvet Island declared a Norwegian dependency

● 1932 - Explosion in coal mine Boissevain, Virginia, USA (38 dead)

● 1933 - German parliament building, Reichstag, destroyed by fire (set by Nazis, blamed on communists)

● 1934 - Birth of consumer activist and 1996/2000 Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader. Winsted, Conn.

● 1934 - Birth of Native-American author N. Scott Momaday, Lawton, Oklahoma. His first novel, "House Made of Dawn," is one of the first works by a Native American author describing contemporary reservation life to draw widespread acclaim.

● 1938 - Britain and France recognize Franco and his fascist government in Spain.

● 1938 - English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink wrote in a letter: 'Slackness and carelessness are inexcusable in a child of God. He should ever present a model and example of conscientiousness, painstaking care, and exactness.'

● 1939 - Belgian government of Pierlot falls

● 1939 - English Spook house Borley Rectory destroyed in a fire

● 1939 - American Civil Rights Movement: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.

● 1940 - Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14

● 1942 - J S Hey discovers radio emissions from the Sun

● 1942 - 1st transport of French Jews to Nazi-Germany

● 1942 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes.

● 1943 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.

● 1943 - The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin

● 1948 - The Communist Party takes control of government in Czechoslovakia.

● 1945 - Battle of US 94 Infantry

● 1947 - Paul-Emile Victor French polar expeditions organized

● 1949 - Chaim Weizmann becomes 1st Israeli President

● 1950 - General Chiang Kai-shek elected President of Nationalist China

● 1951 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.

● 1953 - Spelling bill passes second reading; A proposal to simplify English spelling has cleared its second hurdle in parliament.

● 1956 - Female suffrage in Egypt

● 1957 - Mao's speech "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among People"

● 1958 - USSR performs nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya USSR

● 1960 - Oil pipe line from Rotterdam to Ruhrgebied opens

● 1961 - The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.

● 1962 - South-Vietnam President Ngo Dinh Diem's palace bombed, 1st US killed

● 1963 - Argoud charged over de Gaulle plot; Antoine Argoud, President De Gaulle's arch enemy and a former colonel in the French Army, is charged with an assassination attempt.

● 1963 - The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.

● 1964 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.

● 1965 - Dutch Marijnen government resigns

● 1965 - France performs Underground nuclear test at Ecker Algeria

● 1967 - Antigua & St Christopher-Nevis become associated states of UK

● 1967 - Rio de la Plata Treaty

● 1967 - Dominica gains independence from the United Kingdom.

● 1969 - Berkeley police charge University of California student picket lines, club and arrest two Chicano leaders.

● 1969 - Thousands rampage thru nine University of Wisconsin buildings, in Madison, over black enrollment policy.

● 1969 - Students at the University of Chicago march in the streets.

● 1969 - General Hafez al-Assad becomes head of Syria via military coup

● 1969 - President Nixon visits West-Berlin

● 1970 - New York Times (falsely) reports US army has ended domestic surveillance

● 1971 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus .

● 1972 - President Nixon & Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issued Shanghai Communique

● 1973 - Pope Paul VI publishes constitution motu proprio Quo aptius

● 1973 - Village of Wounded Knee, South Dakota occupied by 300 Oglala Sioux and other American Indian Movement activists, in response to campaign of terror and murder by tribal and FBI officials. The village was the site of the last major massacre of Indians by whites in 1890.

● 1974 - People magazine is published for the first time.

● 1975 - PC murder linked to IRA bomb factory; Scotland Yard says the man who shot dead a police officer in London yesterday had been staying in a flat used as a "bomb factory" by the IRA.

● 1976 - The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada presents claim to immense area in Canada's Arctic.

● 1976 - The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.

● 1977 - Keith Richards gets suspended sentence for heroin possession, Canada

● 1978 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

● 1980 - Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF wins elections in Zimbabwe

● 1980 - Terrorists occupies Dominican embassy in Bogota

● 1981 - Massive protest march against military coup attempt, Madrid, Spain.

● 1981 - Greatest passenger load on a commercial airliner-610 on Boeing 747

● 1982 - Wayne Williams found guilty of murdering 2 of 28 blacks in Atlanta GA

● 1982 - France performs nuclear test at Muruora Island

● 1984 - Worker's union leader Billy Nair freed in South Africa

● 1985 - Farmers converge in Washington to demand economic relief

● 1985 - Mauritania's new constitutional charter published

● 1985 - US dollar is worth ƒ3.9355 (Netherlands)

● 1986 - The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.

● 1987 - The Tower Commission Report, detailing the Iran-Contra Scandal, finds Pres. Reagan confused and uninformed. It faults White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan, former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane, and his successor Admiral John Poindexter, and CIA Director William Casey. Casey had resigned three weeks previously for health reasons; McFarlane attempted suicide a week later; and Regan resigned the day the report was released.

● 1987 - Donald Regan resigned as White House chief of staff

● 1989 - Ontario Court of Appeal finds the Temeaugma Anishnabe "Bear Island people" (Ojibwa) lost title to their land in 1850, although a treaty was never signed.

● 1989 - German war criminals Austria der Fünten/Fischer, freed in Holland

● 1989 - Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo.

● 1990 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on five criminal counts.

● 1991 - Bangladesh elect new parliament in first democratic transition of power.

● 1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated."

● 1994 - Maronite church near Beirut bombed, 10 killed

● 1995 - Car bomb explodes in Zakho, North-Iraq (54-80 killed)

● 1996 - Satoshi Tajiri creates the hit media franchise Pokémon.

● 1997 - In Ireland, divorce became legal.

● 1997 - Legislation banning most handguns in Britain went into effect.

● 1998 - With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as a first-born son.

● 1998 - FBI arrests 10 most wanted suspected serial killer Tony Ray Amati

● 1999 - While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.

● 1999 - Nigerians vote to break with military; Voters flock to polling stations in Nigeria to elect a civilian president and end military rule that has lasted 15 years.

● 2002 - In Boston, twenty people working at Logan International Airport were charged with lying to get their jobs or security badges.

● 2002 - Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.

● 2002 - A Muslim mob attacks a train a few minutes after it leaves the Godhra railway station, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya; retaliatory riots lead to the death of at least 1000 people, mostly Muslims.

● 2003 - Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican church.

● 2003 - Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic was sentenced by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to 11 years in prison.

● 2003 - Fred Rogers, the host of TV's "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" died at age 74.

● 2004 - A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines kills 116, its worst terrorist attack.

● 2004 - Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.

● 2005 - Pre-pay price capping on the Transport for London Oyster card is introduced.

● 2006 - The Harlem Globetrotters extended their overall record to 22,000 wins.

BIRTHS

● 272 - Constantine I, Roman emperor (d. 337)

● 1691 - Edward Cave, English editor and publisher (d. 1754)

● 1711 - Constantine Mavrocordatos, Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia (d. 1769)

● 1779 - Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer (d. 1842)

● 1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (d. 1882)

● 1847 - Ellen Terry, English actress (d. 1928)

● 1861 - Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d. 1925)

● 1869 - Alice Hamilton, American pathologist who worked on industrial diseases (d. 1970)

● 1886 - Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1971)

● 1888 - Lotte Lehmann, German singer (d. 1976)

● 1888 - Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist (d. 1974)

● 1888 - Earl Caddock, professional wrestler (d. 1950)

● 1890 - Freddie Keppard, American jazz musician (d. 1933)

● 1891 - David Sarnoff, Russian-born broadcast pioneer (d. 1971)

● 1891 - Anne Samson, oldest-ever nun documented (d. 2004)

● 1892 - William Demarest, American actor (d. 1983)

● 1897 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (d. 1993)

● 1899 - Charles Best, American medical scientist (d. 1978)

● 1901 - Marino Marini, Italian artist (d. 1980)

● 1902 - Gene Sarazen, American golfer (d. 1999)

● 1902 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)

● 1903 - Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)

● 1904 - James T. Farrell, American writer (d. 1979)

● 1904 - Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist (d. 1996)

● 1904 - André Leducq, French cyclist (d. 1980)

● 1904 - Chick Fullis, baseball player (d. 1946)

● 1905 - Franchot Tone, American actor (d. 1968)

● 1907 - Mildred Bailey, American singer (d. 1951)

● 1910 - Joan Bennett, American actress (d. 1990)

● 1910 - Peter De Vries, American writer (d. 1993)

● 1910 - Kelly Johnson, American aircraft engineer (d. 1990)

● 1912 - Lawrence Durrell, British writer (d. 1990)

● 1913 - T. B. Ilangaratne, Sri Lankan novelist and politician (d. 1992)

● 1913 - Irwin Shaw, American writer (d. 1984)

● 1917 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (d. 1993)

● 1922 - Hans Rookmaaker, Dutch professor and art historian (d. 1977)

● 1923 - Dexter Gordon, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1990)

● 1925 - Samuel Dash, American Congressional counsel (d. 2004)

● 1926 - David H. Hubel, Canadian neuroscientist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1927 - Lynn Cartwright, American actress (d. 2004)

● 1927 - Guy Mitchell, American singer (d. 1999)

● 1928 - Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of Israel

● 1929 - Djalma Santos, Brazilian football player

● 1930 - Paul von Ragué Schleyer, American chemist

● 1930 - Peter Stone, American writer (d. 2003)

● 1930 - Joanne Woodward, American actress

● 1932 - Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress

● 1933 - Raymond Berry, American football player

● 1934 - Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (d. 1992)

● 1934 - N. Scott Momaday, American writer

● 1934 - Ralph Nader, American consumer activist

● 1934 - Van Williams, American actor

● 1935 - Mirella Freni, Italian soprano

● 1937 - Barbara Babcock, American actress

● 1940 - Howard Hesseman, American actor ("Head of the Class," "WKRP in Cincinnati")

● 1941 - Paddy Ashdown, British politician

● 1942 - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate

● 1942 - Charlayne Hunter-Gault, American journalist

● 1943 - Mary Frann, American actress (d. 1998)

● 1943 - Morten Lauridsen, American composer

● 1944 - Ken Grimwood, American writer (d. 2003)

● 1945 - Carl Anderson, American singer and actor (d. 2004)

● 1947 - Gidon Kremer, Latvian violinist

● 1949 - Debra Monk, Actress

● 1951 - Steve Harley, British rock musician (Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel)

● 1954 - Neal Schon, American musician (Journey)

● 1957 - Viktor Markin, Russian athlete

● 1957 - Timothy Spall, English actor

● 1957 - Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator

● 1957 - Adrian Smith, English musician (Iron Maiden)

● 1958 - Nancy Spungen, Sid Vicious's girlfriend (d. 1978)

● 1960 - Paul Humphreys, Rock musician

● 1960 - Johnny Van Zant, Country singer (Van Zant)

● 1962 - Adam Baldwin, American actor

● 1962 - Grant Show, American actor ("Melrose Place")

● 1965 - Mike Cross, Rock musician (Sponge)

● 1965 - Noah Emmerich, American actor

● 1965 - Frank Peter Zimmermann, German violinist

● 1966 - Donal Logue, Canadian actor

● 1969 - Brad Vander Ark, American musician

● 1970 - Michael A. Burstein, American writer

● 1970 - Patricia Petibon, French opera singer

● 1971 – Chilli, R&B singer (TLC)

● 1971 - Derren Brown, British psychological illusionist

● 1971 - Rozonda Thomas, American singer (TLC)

● 1972 - Jeremy Dean, Rock musician (Nine Days)

● 1972 - Jennifer Lyon, American Survivor contestant

● 1973 - Roderick Clark, R&B singer

● 1973 - Eric Lindros, Hockey player

● 1973 - Ali Tabatabaee, American Iranian rapper (Zebrahead)

● 1975 - Shelby Walker, American mixed martial artist (d. 2006)

● 1977 - Lance Hoyt, American professional wrestler

● 1977 - Ji Sung, South Korean actor

● 1978 - James Beattie, English footballer

● 1980 - Bobby Valentino, American singer

● 1980 - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton

● 1981 - Josh Groban, American singer

● 1983 - Kate Mara, Actress

● 1984 - Juliana Imai, Brazilian model

● 1984 - Antti Tuisku, Finnish singer

● 1985 - Fefe Dobson, Canadian singer

● 1985 - Abe Asami, Japanese singer and actress

● 1988 - JD Natasha, American musician

DEATHS

● 1659 - Henry Dunster, first President of Harvard College (b. 1609)

● 1699 - Charles Paulet, 1st Duke of Bolton, English politician (b. c. 1625)

● 1706 - John Evelyn, English diarist (b. 1620)

● 1720 - Samuel Parris, English-born Puritan minister (b. 1653)

● 1735 - John Arbuthnot, English physician and writer (b. 1667)

● 1844 - Nicholas Biddle, President of the Second Bank of the United States (b. 1786)

● 1887 - Alexander Borodin, Russian composer (b. 1833)

● 1892 - Louis Vuitton, French luggage maker (b. 1821)

● 1902 - Breaker Morant, Anglo-Australian soldier executed in Boer War under controversial circumstances (b. 1864)

● 1921 - Schofield Haigh, English cricketer (b. 1871)

● 1936 - Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1849)

● 1936 - Joshua W. Alexander, U.S. Secretary of Commerce under Woodrow Wilson (b. 1852)

● 1941 - William D. Byron, U.S. Congressman (b. 1895)

● 1964 - Orry-Kelly, Australian costume designer (b. 1897)

● 1968 - Frankie Lymon, American singer (b. 1942)

● 1972 - Pat Brady, American actor and singer (b. 1914)

● 1977 - John Dickson Carr, American author (b. 1905)

● 1978 - Vadim Salmanov, Russian composer (b. 1912)

● 1980 - George Tobias, American actor (b. 1901)

● 1985 - Henry Cabot Lodge, American politician (b. 1902)

● 1986 - Jacques Plante, Canadian hockey player (b. 1929)

● 1987 - Joan Greenwood, English actress and director (b. 1921)

● 1989 - Paul Oswald Ahnert, German astronomer (b. 1897)

● 1989 - Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1903)

● 1990 - Nahum Norbert Glatzer, Jewish-American scholar (b. 1903)

● 1992 - S. I. Hayakawa, Canadian-American linguist and politician (b. 1906)

● 1993 - Lillian Gish, American actress (b. 1893)

● 1998 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1905)

● 1998 - J. T. Walsh, American actor (b. 1943)

● 2002 - Spike Milligan, British comedian (b. 1918)

● 2003 - John Lanchbery, English composer (b. 1923)

● 2003 - Fred Rogers, American children's television actor (b. 1928)

● 2004 - Paul Sweezy, American economist and editor (b. 1910)

● 2006 - Otis Chandler, Former Publisher of the L.A. Times (b. 1927)

● 2006 - Robert Lee Scott, Jr., U.S. General, Flying Tiger, author (b. 1908)

● 2006 - Linda Smith, British comedian (b. 1958)

HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES

● Roman Catholic:
● St. Alexander
● St. Anne Line
● St. Antigone
● St. Augustus Chapdelaine
● St. Baldomerus
● St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (non-leap years)
● St. Honorine
● St. John of Gorze
● St. Leander of Seville
● St. Thalelaeus
● Bl. Mark Barkworth

● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for February 14 (Civil Date: February 27)
● St. Cyril, Equal-to-the Apostles, teacher of the Slavs.
● St. Auxentius, monk of Bithynia.
● St. Isaac, recluse of the Kiev Caves.
● St. Maron, hermit of Syria.
● St. Abraham, Bishop of Charres in Mesopotamia.
● Translation of the Relics of Martyr Michael and his counsellor Theodore of Chernigov.
● Martyr Philemon, Bishop of Gaza.
● New-Martyr George of Mitylene, at Constantinople.
● New-Martyr Nicholas of Corinth.

● Christian:
● St. Leander

● Anglican:
● George Herbert, priest

● Bahá'í Faith - Day 2 of Ayyám-i-Há (Intercalary Days) - days in the Bahá'í calendar devoted to service and gift giving.

● Roman Empire - Equirria, horse races in honor of the pagan war god Mars were held.

● Denmark - Street Urchins' Carnival.

● St Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla: Statehood Day (1967)

● St Kitts & Antigua : Independence Day (1967)

● Dominican Republic - Independence Day (National Day) (1844).

● First day of Maslenitsa in Russia (2006)


Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.

Additional facts taken from:

On this day in the New York Times

The BBC’s Take on the day

On This Day Website

Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.

Scope Systems Any Day Website

Roman Catholic Saint of the Day

Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar

Permanent Backlink to Post