February 17
Today in America's Present Past
1574 | Explorer Pedro Menendez de Aviles was born.
1621 | Plymouth Colony elected Myles Standish commander.
1691 | Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a new charter.
1718 | Founder Matthew Tilghman was born.
1739 | Founder John Rutledge was born.
1774 | PainterJohn Rutledge was born.
1799 | Dred Scott was born. While 1799 is the commonly accepted year, his exact birth date is unknown.
1801 | Congress: The U.S. House of Representatives broke a tie and elected Thomas Jefferson President. After 35 deadlocked ballots, Alexander Hamilton’s lobbying for Thomas Jefferson over Aaron Burr finally broke the tie on the 36th ballot. This eventually led to the 12th Amendment.
1815 | War of 1812: President James Madison signed the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.
1844 | Entrepreneur Aaron Montgomery Ward was born.
1849 | Civil Rights: Harriet Tubman first escaped slavery.
1859 | An English-born San Francisco resident declares himself the Imperial Majesty Emperor Norton I, Emperor of the United States. While he was an eccentric “private” citizen, San Francisco businesses and citizens famously played along with his “imperial” reign for decades.
1861 | Civil Rights: The first university class was held for escaped enslaved students.
1864 | Civil War: In the world’s first successful submarine attack, the CSS H.L. Hunley sunk the USS Housatonic at Charleston, South Carolina. This was the first time in history a submarine sank a warship in combat. The Hunley used a spar torpedo to sink the USS Housatonic, nevertheless the Hunley and its crew were also lost in the exchange.
1865 | Civil War: Union forces burn Columbia, South Carolina. Debate remains as to whether the fires were set by retreating Confederates, drunken Union soldiers, or Sherman himself.
1874 | Entrepreneur Thomas J. Watson was born.
1876 | Civil Rights: Race riots in South Carolina related to “red shirts.”
1876 | Julius Wolff began canning sardines in Eastport, Maine.
1889 | Entrepreneur H.L. Hunt was born.
1890 | Entrepreneur and journalist Christopher Latham Sholes died.
1899 | Entrepreneur Charles Alfred Pillsbury was born.
1900 | Entrepreneur J. Willard Marriott was born.
1905 | Civil Rights: Frances Willard becomes the first female honored at the Capitol’s Statutory Hall.
1906 | POTUS: President Roosevelt’s daughter Alice wed in the White House.
1907 | SCOTUS: Justice Warren Burger was born.
1907 | Theosophical Society co-founder Henry Steel Olcott died.
1909 | Geronimo died. The Bedonkohe Apache leader died of pneumonia at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, while a prisoner of war.
1911 | Entrepreneur Glenn Curtis demonstrated his Triad hydroplane in San Diego, California.
1913 | Inventor Wallace Coulter was born.
1915 | WWI: First US combat causality Edward Stone died.
1918 | Vice President Spiro Agnew was born.
1924 | Architect Henry Bacon died.
1925 | Actor Hal Holbrook was born.
1933 | Newsweek began publication.
1933 | Congress: U.S. Senate ratified the Blaine Act. The Senate passed this resolution to submit the 21st Amendment to the states, which would eventually repeal the 18th Amendment (Prohibition).
1934 | The First High School course in driving was offered in State College, Pennsylvania.
1937 | Economist John Kenneth Galbraith wed Catherine Atwater.
1939 | SCOTUS: Justice David Souter was born.
1943 | WWII: Baseball pro Joe DiMaggio enlisted in the U.S. Army.
1944 | WWII: U.S. forces begin the liberation of Eniwetok.
1947 | Cold War: The Voice of America begins broadcasting at the Soviet Union.
1952 | POTUS: Democrat President Truman signed legislation moving the celebration of “I Am an American Day” (formerly in May) to September 17 and renaming it Citizenship Day.
1955 | Author J.D. Salinger wed Claire Douglas.
1963 | Michael Jordan was born.
1965 | Film Director Michael Bay was born.
1972 | POTUS: Republican President Nixon departed Washington, D.C., for China.
1974 | A disgruntled Army private buzzed the White House in a stolen helicopter. Private Robert K. Preston stole a Bell UH-1 Iroquois and hovered over the White House lawn. He was fired upon by Secret Service and arrested upon landing.
1988 | War on Terror: US LTC William Higgins was kidnapped and later killed in south Lebanon.
1994 | Author Randy Shilts died.
1998 | Composer Bob Merrill died.
2014 | TV: Jimmy Fallon debuted as the host of “The Tonight Show.”
2020 | Golfer Mickey Wright died.
2021 | Broadcaster Rush Limbaugh died.