February 14, 1924: The Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company changes its name to International Business Machines Corporation (IBM).
February 14, 1884: Teddy Roosevelt’s wife and mother die hours apart. Worst Valentine’s Day ever!
**February 16, 1968: ** In Haleyville, Alabama, the first 9-1-1 emergency telephone system goes into service.
February 16, 1659: The first known check is written, for 400 pounds.
February 17, 1957: 72 die in the Warrenton Missouri Nursing Home Fire. Afterwards, basic safety standard regulations for nursing homes would be signed into law in Missouri.
February 17, 1913: The Armory Show opens in New York City, displaying works of artists who are to become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century.
February 18, 1930: Pluto is discovered.
February 18, 1930: Elm Farm Ollie becomes the first cow to fly in a fixed-wing aircraft and also the first cow to be milked in an aircraft.
February 18, 1856: The American Party, aka the Know-Nothings, convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate its first presidential candidate, former President Millard Fillmore.
February 19, 1884: The Enigma Tornado Outbreak kills anywhere from 178 to 1200 in the Southeastern United States. The enigma name is appropriate. No one knows how many died or how many tornadoes occurred that day. It was certainly one of the worst, if not the worst, tornado outbreak in US history. Poor news coverage and a very limited understanding of tornadoes at the time keep this event very much of an enigma.
February 19, 1942: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.
and 34 years later,
February 19, 1976: Executive Order 9066 is rescinded by President Gerald Ford.
February 19, 1807: Former Vice President Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason but later acquitted.
February 20, 1962: John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth, making three orbits in four hours, 55 minutes.
February 21, 1945: The USS Bismarck Sea, the last US aircraft carrier to be sunk in World War II, is hit by two Japanese kamikaze planes. Over 300 die.
February 21, 1858: Edwin Holmes installs the first electric burglar alarm, in Boston, Massachusetts.
February 22, 1997: Scottish scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
(That was TWENTY years ago?!?!)
February 22, 1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
Feb. 22, 1732 - George Washington is born on the Pope’s Creek Estate near present-day Colonial Beach in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
February 22, 1901: The SS City of Rio de Janerio strikes a rocks in the dense fog at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. The passenger ship sinks killing 130. It is the deadliest shipwreck ever at the Golden Gate.
February 23, 1898: Émile Zola is imprisoned in France after writing “J’accuse”, a letter accusing the French government of antisemitism and wrongfully imprisoning Captain Alfred Dreyfus.