February 17th
Today in America's Present Past
1574 | Pedro Menendez de Aviles is born.
1621 | Plymouth Colony elects Myles Standish commander.
1691 | Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a new charter.
1718 | Founding: Matthew Tilghman was born.
1739 | Founding: John Rutledge is born.
1774 | Painter Raphaelle Peale was born.
1799 | Dred Scott is born.
1801 | Congress: The U.S. House of Representatives breaks a tie and elects Thomas Jefferson as President.
1815 | War of 1812: President James Madison signs 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.
1861 | Civil Rights: The first university class was held for escaped slaves.
1862 | Civil War: Bloodiest day in the American Civil War during the Battle of Antietam.
1864 | Civil War: In the world’s first successful submarine attack, the CSS H.L. Hunley sunk the USS Housatonic at Charleston, South Carolina.
1865 | Civil War: Union forces burn Columbia, South Carolina.
1874 | Entrepreneur Thomas J. Watson was born.
1876 | Civil Rights: Race riots in South Carolina related to “red shirts.”
1876 | Julius Wolff begins 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 is born.
1900 | Entrepreneur J. Willard Marriott is born.
1905 | Civil Rights: Frances Willard becomes the first female honored at the Capitol’s Statutory Hall.
1906 | POTUS: President Roosevelt’s daughter Alice weds in the White House.
1907 | SCOTUS: Chief Justice Warren Burger is born.
1907 | Theosophical Society co-founder Henry Steel Olcott died.
1909 | Apache leader Geronimo died.
1911 | Entrepreneur Glenn Curtis demonstrates 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 is born.
1924 | Architect Henry Bacon died.
1925 | Actor Hal Holbrook was born.
1933 | Newsweek begins publication.
1933 | Congress: U.S. Senate ratifies the Blaine Act, ending prohibition.
1934 | The First High School course in driving is offered in State College, Pennsylvania.
1937 | Economist John Kenneth Galbraith weds Catherine Atwater.
1939 | SCOTUS: Justice David Souter is born.
1943 | WWII: Baseballer Joe DiMaggio enlists in the U.S. Army.
1944 | WWII: U.S. forces begin the liberation of Eniwetok.
1947 | Cold War: The Voice of America begins broadcasting in the Soviet Union.
1952 | Previously known as Constitution Day, it was renamed “Citizenship Day.”
1955 | Author J.D. Salinger weds Claire Douglas.
1963 | Michael Jordan was born.
1965 | Film Director Michael Bay was born.
1972 | POTUS: Republican President Richard Nixon departs Washington, D.C., for China.
1974 | Disgruntled Army private buzzes the White House in a stolen helicopter.
1978 | POTUS: Camp David Accords signed by Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, and Democrat President Jimmy Carter.
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.”
2016 | War on Terror: Bombing in Chelsea, New York.
2020 | Golfer Mickey Wright died.
2021 | Broadcaster Rush Limbaugh died.