Category: Today

On February 13, 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’s theory that the Earth revolves around the Sun. In April, Galileo pled guilty before the Roman Inquisition in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his life at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, dying in 1642.

On February 12, 1986, Soviet human rights activist Anatoly Scharansky was released after spending eight years in Soviet prisons and labor camps. The amnesty deal was arranged at a summit meeting between Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan. Scharansky had been imprisoned for his campaign to win emigration rights for Russian Jews — who had been forbidden to practice Judaism in the USSR.

On Feb. 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded.

On Feb. 12, 1593, approximately 3,000 Korean defenders led by General Kwon Yul successfully repelled more than 30,000 invading Japanese forces in the Siege of Haengju.

On February 11, 1812, Governor Elbridge Gerry signed into law a plan to redistrict Massachusetts so that the Federalists would lose votes. The new Republican districts were said to be in the form of a salamander, so Gerry was accused of “gerrymandering” — the epithet deriving from his name and a salamander, which some said was the shape of the districts he had drawn up to favor his party. A cartoon gerrymander map was published in the Boston Gazette on March 26, 1812, with the salamander more in the mythical draconic form than the natural amphibious form.

On February 10, 1967, the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified. Submitted to the states on July 6, 1965, by the 89th Congress, it was adopted on the day the requisite number of states ratified it — the 38th, which was in this case Nevada. The Amendment deals with presidential disability and succession in cases of emergency or inability to perform the constitutional duties of the office.

The text reads:

Section 1. In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President.
Section 2. Whenever there is a vacancy in the office of the Vice President, the President shall nominate a Vice President who shall take office upon confirmation by a majority vote of both Houses of Congress.
Section 3. Whenever the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that he is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, and until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, such powers and duties shall be discharged by the Vice President as Acting President.
Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.
Thereafter, when the President transmits to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive department [sic] or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit within four days to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office. Thereupon Congress shall decide the issue, assembling within forty-​eight hours for that purpose if not in session. If the Congress, within twenty-​one days after receipt of the latter written declaration, or, if Congress is not in session, within twenty-​one days after Congress is required to assemble, determines by two-​thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall continue to discharge the same as Acting President; otherwise, the President shall resume the powers and duties of his office.

On February 9, 1991, voters in Lithuania voted for independence from the Soviet Union, eleven months after independence from the Soviet Union had been declared on March 11, 1990. Just over 93 percent of those voting voted in favor of independence, while the number of eligible voters voting “yes,” was 76.5 percent, far exceeding the 50 percent threshold. Independence was subsequently achieved in August 1991.

On February 8, 1837, having failed to secure the vice presidency of the United States in the Electoral College vote, Richard Mentor Johnson became the only U.S. Vice President to be elected to the position by the U.S. Senate according to the provisions of the Constitution’s Twelfth Amendment.