February 11th
Today in America's Present Past
1766 | Founding: The colony of Virginia declares the British Stamp Act unconstitutional.
1783 | Theologian Jarena Lee was born.
1786 | Massachusetts Circular printed by Samuel Adams.
1790 | Civil Rights: Society of Friends petitions Congress for the abolition of slavery.
1794 | Congress: U.S. Senate session open to the public for the first time.
1803 | SCOTUS: Marbury v. Madison is argued in the Supreme Court.
1809 | Entrepreneur Robert Fulton patients the steamboat.
1811 | POTUS: President Madison prohibits trade with England.
1812 | Massachusetts Governor Eldridge Gerry signs an infamous redistricting plan.
1828 | DeWitt Clinton died.
1833 | SCOTUS: Chief Justice Melville Fuller was born.
1837 | American Physiological Society founded.
1847 | Inventor Thomas Edison was born.
1848 | Painter Thomas Cole died.
1878 | The First American Bicycle Club was established in Boston, Massachusetts.
1881 | Entrepreneur Arthur Davison was born.
1895 | Georgetown incorporated into Washington, D.C.
1902 | George Marshall weds Elisabeth Carter Coles.
1907 | Passenger ship Larchmont sinks off of Rhode Island.
1909 | Boxing champion Max Baer was born.
1916 | Civil Rights: Emma Goldman was arrested for a public lecture on birth control.
1918 | POTUS: Democrat President Woodrow Wilson gives his “Four Principles” speech.
1925 | Medical researcher Virgina E. Johnson was born.
1936 | Actor Burt Reynolds was born.
1943 | WWII: General Dwight D. Eisenhower was given the Supreme Command of Allied Forces.
1945 | WWII: Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Declaration of Liberated Europe at the Yalta Conference.
1953 | POTUS: Republican Eisenhower denies clemency request by the Rosenbergs.
1953 | Jeb Bush was born.
1961 | Civil Rights: Housing Secretary Robert Weaver, the first U.S. Cabinet-level African American, is sworn in.
1962 | Singer Sheryl Crow was born.
1963 | Novelist Sylvia Plath died.
1986 | Author Frank Herbert died.
1990 | Boxer James “Buster” Douglas KO’s Mike Tyson to win the world heavyweight championship title.
2006 | Author Peter Benchley died.
2011 | Entertainer Whitney Houston died.
2016 | Oregon militia occupying a wildlife refuge surrenders.
2021 | POTUS: Democrat President Joe Biden halts funding of a Mexican border wall.