Category: Today

On Feb. 6, 1959, Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.

On Feb. 6, 1989, the Polish Round Table Talks began in Warsaw, Poland. The government initiated the discussion with the banned trade union Solidarność and other opposition groups in an attempt to defuse growing social unrest. The talks ended on April 4, 1989, with the legalization of independent trade unions and the introduction of a representative legislature, including the office of President, which annulled the power of the Communist party general secretary. In elections that June, Solidarność won almost every single seat on the ballot.

On Feb. 5, 1631, Roger Williams immigrated to America, arriving in Boston, Massachusetts. Williams went on to establish the colony of Providence Plantation, which provided a refuge for religious minorities, start the first Baptist church in America, and advocate for fair dealings with Native Americans.

On Feb. 5, 1778, South Carolina became the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.

On Feb. 5, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur returned to Manila. He had said he would.

On Feb. 5, 1958, a hydrogen bomb known as the Tybee Bomb was lost by the US Air Force off the coast of Savannah, Georgia, never to be recovered.

On Feb. 4, 1789, George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, was unanimously elected the first president of the United States by all 69 presidential electors who cast their votes. John Adams of Massachusetts, who received 34 votes, was elected vice president. The electors, who represented 10 of the 11 states that had ratified the U.S. Constitution, were chosen by popular vote, legislative appointment, or a combination of both, four weeks before the election. On Feb. 4, 1792, Washington was unanimously elected to a second term, becoming the only president unanimously chosen by the Electoral College.

On Feb. 4, 1794, the French legislature abolished slavery throughout all territories of the French Republic.

On Feb. 4, 1913, Rosa Parks was born in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, Parks would spark the Montgomery Bus Boycott by refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. She was named “the first lady of civil rights,” by the U.S. Congress.

On Feb. 3, 313, Constantine the Great and co-​emperor Valerius Licinius met in Milan and signed a letter proclaiming a policy of religious freedom, known as the Edict of Milan, officially ending the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Constantine ruled the western parts of the empire and actively promoted Christianity. Licinius ruled the eastern parts of the empire and, though a pagan, was accepting a policy of toleration toward Christianity.

On Feb. 3, 1944, U.S. troops captured the Marshall Islands, occupied by the Japanese since 1914 and used as a base for military operations. The loss of live was relatively small, with 400 Americans killed in the assault by 53,000 soldiers.

On February 2, 1980, details of ABSCAM, an FBI operation to uncover political corruption, were released to the public. FBI agents had posed as representatives of Abdul Enterprises, a fictional business owned by an Arab sheik. Under FBI video surveillance, agents met with the officials and offered them money or other considerations in exchange for special favors, such as the approval of government contracts for companies in which the sheik had invested. Senator Harrison A. Williams (D‑NJ), and five House members – John Jenrette (D‑SC), Richard Kelly (R‑FL), Raymond Lederer (D‑PA), Michael Myers (D‑PA), and Frank Thompson (D‑NJ) – were convicted of bribery and conspiracy in separate trials in 1981. John Murtha (D‑PA) was named an unindicted co-​conspirator in the scandal, though never indicted or prosecuted. Senator Larry Pressler (R‑SD) refused to take the bribe and was called a “hero” by Walter Cronkite.

On Feb. 2, 1943, the last of the German forces fighting at Stalingrad under General Field Marshall Friedrich von Paulus surrendered, despite Hitler’s order that, “The troops will defend themselves to the last!” The Battle of Stalingrad began in the summer of 1942, as German forces assaulted the city, pushed the Soviets almost to the Volga River in mid-​October and encircled Stalingrad. But with diminishing resources, partisan guerilla attacks, and the cruelty of the Russian winter taking their toll, the Soviets launched a counteroffensive that encircled the Germans. Roughly half of the 280,000 men under Paulus’ command were already dead or dying, about 35,000 had been evacuated, and the remaining 91,000 were taken to Soviet POW camps, from which only 5,000 ever returned.

On Feb. 1, 1790, the Supreme Court of the United States met for the first time in the Royal Exchange Building on New York City’s Broad Street, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding. The U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution, which took effect in March 1789.

On Feb. 1, 1908, King Carlos I of Portugal and his eldest son, Luis Filipe, were assassinated by revolutionaries while riding in an open carriage through the streets of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital. Carlos’ second son, Manoel, succeeded him on the throne, but in October 1910 a republican revolution forced King Manoel II to abdicate and flee to England with the rest of the royal family. In the same year, Teofilo Braga, a well-​known writer, was chosen the first president of the newly democratic republic of Portugal.

On Jan. 31, 1865, the United States Congress proposed the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, submitting it to the states for ratification. The Amendment’s main section reads: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

On Jan. 31, 1990, the first McDonald’s fast food restaurant opens in the Soviet Union. Having once traveled to Moscow, I’m exceedingly thankful for this.

On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi, known for his non-​violent, non-​cooperation struggle for freedom and national independence, was assassinated by a Hindu extremist.

On Jan. 30, 1956, Martin Luther King, Jr.‘s home was bombed in retaliation for his work on the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

On Jan. 30, 1972, British soldiers killed fourteen unarmed civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” Soldiers shot 26 unarmed protesters and bystanders – 13 males, seven of whom were teenagers, died immediately, while another man died of his injuries nearly five months later. In the immediate aftermath, an investigation by the British Government largely cleared the soldiers and British authorities of blame. A second investigation begun in 1998, released a report in 2010 declaring that all of those shot were unarmed, and that the killings were both “unjustified and unjustifiable.”

On Jan. 29, 1861, Kansas entered the Union as the 34th state and as “free state.” The struggle between pro-​slavery and anti-​slavery forces in Kansas was a preview to the bloodshed of the Civil War. In 1854, Kansas was organized as a territory with popular sovereignty to decide the issue of slavery. Both sides drafted constitutions and the political battle erupted in massive violence that earned the area the name “Bleeding Kansas.” The violence continued through the Civil War. In 1863, pro-​slavery forces burned Lawrence to the ground, murdering nearly 200 men.

On Jan. 29, 1964, Stanley Kubrick’s black comic masterpiece, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” opened in theaters to both critical and popular acclaim. The movie’s popularity was evidence of changing attitudes toward the concept of nuclear deterrence. And it was very funny.

On Jan. 28, 1981, President Ronald Reagan lifted the federal government’s remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States, helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.