Washington's (& Chopin's) Birthday today...
Today is Friday, February 22, 2019. 26 days until spring, and a mere 620 days until the next presidential election.
- Sunrise: 6:51am
- Sunset: 5:55pm ...giving us 11 hours and 5 minutes of daylight.
93% of the now waning moon now visible, rising at 9:50pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 10:51
- Low: 4:38am/5:23pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- People Power Day - Philippines
- Unity Day - Syria
- World Thinking Day
- National Margarita Day
- National Wildlife Day
- Skip The Straw Day
- Woolworth's Day
On this day in…
1630 - Quadequine introduced popcorn to English colonists at their first Thanksgiving dinner.
1784 - "Empress of China", aU.S. merchant ship, left New York City for the Far East.
1819 - Spain ceded Florida to theUnited States.
1855 - The U.S. Congress voted to appropriate $200,000 for continuance of the work on the Washington Monument. The next morning the resolution was tabled and it would be 21 years before the Congress would vote on funds again. Work was continued by the Know-Nothing Party in charge of the project.
1859 -U.S. President Buchanan approved the Act of February 22, 1859, which incorporated the Washington National Monument Society "for the purpose of completing the erection now in progress of a great National Monument to the memory of Washington at the seat of the Federal Government."
1860 - Organized baseball’s first game was played in San Francisco,CA.
1865 - In theU.S.,Tennessee adopted a new constitution that abolished slavery.
1879 - In Utica,NY, Frank W. Woolworth opened his first 5 and 10-cent store.
1885 - The Washington Monument was officially dedicated in Washington,DC. It opened to the public in 1889.
1892 - "Lady Windermere's Fan", by Oscar Wilde, was first performed.
1920 - The first dog race track to use an imitation rabbit opened in Emeryville,CA.
1923 - The first successful chinchilla farm opened in Los Angeles,CA. It was the first farm of its kind in theU.S.
1924 -U.S. President Calvin Coolidge delivered the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.
1969 - Barbara Jo Rubin became the first woman to win aU.S. thoroughbred horse race.
973 - TheU.S. and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices.
1984 - TheU.S. Census Bureau statistics showed that the state ofAlaska was the fastest growing state of the decade with an increase in population of 19.2 percent.
1994 - TheU.S. Justice Department charged Aldrich Ames and his wife with selling national secrets to the Soviet Union. Ames was later convicted to life in prison. Ames' wife received a 5-year prison term.
1997 - Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut and colleagues announced that an adult sheep had been successfully cloned. Dolly was actually born on July 5, 1996. Dolly was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell.
2002 - In the Philippines, An MH-47E Chinook helicopter crashed into the ocean. All 10 men aboard were killed.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- George Washington 1732
- Johann Nikolaus Forkel 1749
- Rembrandt Peale 1778
- Frederic-Francois Chopin 1810
- James Russell Lowell 1819
- Robert Baden-Powell 1857
- Edna St. Vincent Millay 1892
- Luis Bunuel 1900
- Robert Young 1907
- Sheldon Leonard 1907
- John Mills 1908
- Robert Wadlow 1918
- Bud Yorkin 1926
- Guy Mitchell (Al Cernick) 1927 - Singer
- Paul Dooley 1928
- Edward M. Kennedy 1932
- Ernie K-Doe 1936
- Bobby Hendricks 1938
- Jonathan Demme 1944
- Oliver (Swofford) 1945
- John Ashton 1948
- Ellen Greene 1950
- Julie Walters 1950
- Julius Erving II 1950
- Miou-Miou (Sylvette Hery) 1950
- Amy Alcott 1956
- Kyle MacLachlan 1959
- Jeri Ryan 1968
- Jose Solano 1971
- Lea Salonga 1971
- Michael Chang 1972
- Scott "Flip" Phillips (Thomas Scott "Flip" Phillips) 1973 - Drummer (Creed)
- Drew Barrymore 1975 - Actress
