February 18th
Today in America's Present Past
1685 | France claims Texas by establishing Fort St. Louis at Matagorda Bay.
1688 | Civil Rights: Quakers in Germantown, Pennsylvania, form a protest against slavery.
1795 | Entrepreneur George Peabody was born.
1804 | The first land-grant northwest college is charted as Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
1816 | Thomas Doubleday was born.
1831 | Physician Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born.
1839 | The Detroit Boat Club is formed.
1853 | Entrepreneur August Belmont was born.
1856 | The “American Party” (a.k.a. “Know-Nothings”) convened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to nominate Mildred Fillmore for President.
1865 | Civil War: Union forces liberate Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, and Fort Anderson, North Carolina.
1878 | Lincoln County, New Mexico War starts when Jessie Evans murders John Tunstall.
1879 | Frederic-Augste Bartholdi receives a patient for the design of the Statute of Liberty.
1885 | Mark Twain publishes “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
1892 | Political 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 issues stamps in a roll.
1915 | Outlaw Frank James died.
1918 | POTUS: Democrat President Woodrow Wilson hosts a “Birth of a Nation” screening in the White House.
1922 | Congress: Passage of the Capper-Volestead Act allows farmers to buy and sell cooperatively without anti-trust violations.
1931 | General Maxwell Thurman was born.
1931 | Author Toni Morrison was born.
1938 | Entrepreneur George Dayton died.
1954 | The Church of Scientology is established in Los Angeles, California.
1954 | Actor John Travolta was born.
1957 | Physician Joseph Gilbert Hamilton died.
1965 | Civil Rights: Jimmie Lee Jackson is beaten to death in Marion, Alabama, for participating in a peaceful march.
1965 | Entertainer Dr. Dre was born.
1967 | Physicist Robert Oppenheimer died.
1970 | The trial of the “Chicago Seven” concluded.
1973 | Outlaw Frank Costello died.
1977 | NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its maiden flight.
1979 | TV: The mini-series “Roots” premiers.
1988 | SCOTUS: Justice Anthony Kennedy is sworn in.
1987 | Civil Rights: Tampa, Florida riots.
2001 | FBI Agent Robert Hanssen is arrested for being a Russian spy.
2001 | Racer Dale Earnhardt died.