February 22nd

Today in America's Present Past

1732 | POTUS: President George Washington was born.

1761 | Composer Jacob Kimball was born.

1767 | Benedict Arnold wed Margaret Mansfield.

A mural depicting the “Boston Massacre” in which 11-year-old Christopher Seider was killed | Image courtesy of the U.S. Capitol

1770 | Christopher Seider becomes the first “martyr” of the U.S. War of Independence.

1777 | Politician Archibald Bulloch died.

1778 | Painter Rembrandt Peale was born.

1784 | First American ship to trade with China, “Empress of China” departs New York City’s harbor.

1798 | General Charles Mynn Thruston was born.

1810 | Novelist Charles Brockden Brown died.

1819 | Novelist James Russell Lowell is born.

1819 | POTUS: The Adams-Onis Treaty between the United States and Spain was signed, granting America possession of Florida.

“George Washington” painted by Charles Wilson Peale | Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum

1827 | Painter Charles Willson Peale died.

1839 | Activist Octavius Catto was born.

1850 | Entrepreneur Isaac Rice was born.

1854 | The first meeting of the “Republican Party” occurs in Jackson, Michigan.

1860 | Shoemakers strike in Lynn, Massachusetts, for better wages.

1864 | Civil War: The Battle of Dalton, Georgia.

1864 | Civil War: The Battle of Dug Hill, Tennessee.

1865 | Civil War: The Battle of Wilmington, North Carolina.

1865 | Civil Rights: Tennessee adopts a new state constitution banning slavery.

1872 | The first national convention of the “Prohibition Party” convenes in Columbus, Ohio.

1876 | John Hopkins University opens.

1876 | Activist and author Zitkala-Sa was born.

1878 | The “Greenback Labor Party” forms.

1879 | Entrepreneur Frank Winfield Woolworth opens his first store.

Abe Attell | Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

1884 | Boxer Abe Attell was born.

1887 | The “Union Labor Party” is formed in Cincinnati, Ohio.

1889 | Statehood: North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington are admired by the Union.

1890 | Entrepreneur John Jacob Aster III died.

1892 | Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born.

1901 | SCOTUS: Justice Charles Evans Whittaker was born.

1911 | Poet Frances Harper died.

1915 | WWI: Germany sinks American merchant ship Carib.

1917 | Author Jane Bowles was born.

1923 | Transcontinental airmail service begins.

1925 | Poet Gerald Stern was born.

1932 | Political Ted Kennedy was born.

1935 | The airspace over the White House becomes restricted.

1942 | WWII: Democrat President Franklin Roosevelt orders the retreat of U.S. forces from the Philippines.

1950 | Basketball Pro Julius Erving was born.

1952 | Politician Bill Frist was born.

1965 | SCOTUS: Justice Felix Frankfurter died.

“Operation Junction City” was the largest-scale airborne incursion of the Vietnam War.

1967 | Vietnam War: U.S. forces launch Operation Junction City.

1973 | Entrepreneur and politician Winthrop Rockefeller died.

1975 | Actress Drew Barrymore was born.

1978 | Author Phyllis McGinley died.

The American hockey team bested the Soviets in 1980.

1980 | At the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet team in what is remembered as the “Miracle on Ice.”

1987 | Artist Andy Warhol died.

1997 | Albert Shanker, Labor leader and populizer of “charter schools,” died.

1999 | Super sniper USMC Carlos Hathcok died.

2002 | Journalist Daniel Pearl was murdered.

2024 | Spaceship Odysseus becomes the first non-government craft to land on the moon and the first U.S. craft since 1972.