February 13th
Today in America's Present Past
1728 | Reverend Cotton Mather died.
1741 | American Magazine, the nation’s first periodical, is published by Andrew Bedford.
1795 | University of North Carolina, the nation’s first state college, opens.
1799 | The Massachusetts legislature passes the nation’s first regulation of insurance.
1818 | Abolitionist Absalom Jones died.
1818 | George Rogers Clark died.
1826 | The nation’s first known “Temperance” society is formed in Boston, Massachusetts.
1837 | An inflation-fueled “Flour riot” breaks out in New York City.
1861 | POTUS: Republican President Abraham Lincoln declared President.
1861 | Bernard John Dowling earned The nation’s first U.S. Medal of Honor (but not awarded) during the Apache Wars.
1866 | Criminal Jesse James robbed his first bank, stealing $15,000 from a county bank in Liberty, Missouri.
1882 | Abolitionist Henry Highland Garnet died.
1887 | Attempted Kennedy Assassin Richard Pavlick was born.
1891 | Painter Grant Wood was born.
1892 | SCOTUS: Chief Justice Robert H. Jackson was born.
1900 | Jazz entertainer Joesph “Wingy” Manone was born.
1910 | Physicist William Shockley was born.
1919 | Singer Ernie “Tennessee” Ford was born.
1922 | Economist Gordon Tullock was born.
1923 | The “Renaissance” is the first African-American pro-basketball team organized.
1923 | Aviator Chuck Yeager was born.
1935 | A jury convicts Bruno Hauptmann of kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby.
1944 | Actress Stockard Channing was born.
1945 | WWII: U.S. bombing of Dresden, Germany begins.
1957 | Civil Rights: Southern Christian Leadership Conference forms with Martin Luther King as its leader.
1961 | Entertainer Henry Rollins was born.
1968 | POTUS: Democrat President Lyndon Johnson sends an additional 10,000 soldiers to Vietnam.
1971 | Republican Vice-President Spiro Agnew injures two while golfing.
2003 | Economist Walt Rostow died.
2016 | SCOTUS: Justice Antonin Scalia died.
2019 | NASA announces the end of its Mars rover “Opportunity,” concluding its 15-year mission.
2021 | POTUS: Republican President Donald Trump acquitted by the U.S. Senate after his impeachment trial.