February 18
Today in America's Present Past
1685 | France claimed Texas by establishing Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay.
1688 | Civil Rights: Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, formed a protest against slavery. This is the first recorded collective protest against slavery in the colonies.
1795 | Entrepreneur George Peabody was born.
1804 | The first northwest land-grant college was charted as Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
1816 | Thomas Doubleday was born.
1831 | Physician Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born.
1839 | The Detroit Boat Club was formed.
1853 | Entrepreneur August Belmont was born.
1856 | The “American Party” (a.k.a. “Know-Nothings”) convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to nominate Millard Fillmore for President. They were a nativist, anti-Catholic party that rose to brief prominence during the collapse of the Whig Party.
1865 | Civil War: Union forces liberate Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, and Fort Anderson, North Carolina.
1878 | Lincoln County, New Mexico War started with the murder of John Tunstall by a posse including Jesse Evans (acting for the “Murphy-Dolan” faction) igniting the conflict that made Billy the Kid a household name.
1879 | Frederic-Augste Bartholdi received Design Patent No. 11,023. This protected the aesthetic design of “Liberty Enlightening the World.”
1885 | Mark Twain published “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
1892 | Politican Wendell Wilkie was born.
1895 | George “The Gipper” Gipp was born in Laurium, Michigan.
1901 | H. Ceil Booth patented a dust-removing suction cleaner.
1902 | Painter Albert Bierstadt died.
1902 | Entrepreneur Charles Lewis Tiffany died.
1906 | Entrepreneur John Batterson Stetson died.
1908 | The U.S. Postal Service issued stamps in a roll.
1915 | Outlaw Frank James died.
1918 | POTUS: Democrat President Wilson hosted a “Birth of a Nation” screening in the White House. Wilson famously remarked that the racist film was like “writing history with lightning.”
1922 | Congress: Passage of the Capper-Volestead Act allowed farmers to buy and sell cooperatively without anti-trust violations. This was the “Magna Carta” of farmer cooperatives.
1931 | General Maxwell Thurman was born.
1931 | Author Toni Morrison was born.
1938 | Entrepreneur George Dayton died.
1954 | The Church of Scientology was established in Los Angeles, California by L. Ron Hubbard.
1954 | Actor John Travolta was born.
1957 | Physician Joseph Gilbert Hamilton died.
1965 | Civil Rights: Jimmie Lee Jackson was killed by an Alabama State Troop in Marion, Alabama, for participating in a peaceful march. His death was the primary catalyst for the Selma to Montgomery marches.
1965 | Entertainer Dr. Dre was born.
1967 | Physicist Robert Oppenheimer died.
1970 | The trial of the “Chicago Seven” concluded. Five of the seven defendants were convicted of crossing state lines to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
1973 | Outlaw Frank Costello died.
1977 | NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise made its maiden flight atop a modified Boeing 747 (SCA). This was a captive flight (it remained attached to the plane) to test aerodynamics.
1979 | TV: The sequel miniseries, “Roots: The Next Generations” debuted.
1988 | SCOTUS: Justice Anthony Kennedy was sworn in.
1987 | Civil Rights: Tampa, Florida riots.
2001 | The FBI agent Robert Hassen was arrested in Foxstone Park, Virginia, while making a “dead drop.” He had been spying for the Soviets/Russians for over 20 years, compromising some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets.
2001 | Racer Dale Earnhardt died.