Category: Today

February 13 birthdays include those of economists Gordon Tullock (1922) and Israel Kirzner (1930).

On February 12, 1809, Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born. But today’s big birthday celebration here at Common Sense must be that of Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, 1851.

Böhm-Bawerk was an Austrian economist who followed in the footsteps of Carl Menger, ushering in what has been called “the marginalist revolution” in economics. He applied the new understanding of economics’ first principles to the problems of capital and interest, penning two of the great classics of the literature, known “Capital and Interest”: the two major volumes are “History and Critique of Interest Theories ” and “Positive Theory of Capital.” He also wrote the first scholarly and systematic refutations of Karl Marx’s exploitation theory and general economic perspective, including the brilliant “Karl Marx and the Close of His System.”

On February 11, 1752, Benjamin Franklin opened Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the United States. On the same date in 1790, the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, petitioned U.S. Congress to abolish slavery.

In an early effort towards republican government transparency, on this date in 1794, the first session of United States Senate opened to the public.

February 11 birthdays include

1805 – Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea

1833 – Melville Weston Fuller, American jurist and 8th Chief Justice of the United States

1847 – Thomas Alva Edison, American inventor

On February 10, 1870, the YMCA was founded in New York City. On the same date in 1964, Glenn Beck was born.

On February 9, 1991, voters in Lithuania voted for independence from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, confirming the declaration of the popularly elected Sąjūdis eleven months before.

On January 11, 1571, the freedom of religion is granted to . . . Austrian nobility.

On December 14, 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state of these United States. On the same December date in 1918, Friedrich Karl von Hessen, a German prince elected by the Parliament of Finland to become King Väinö I, renounced the Finnish throne. In 1939, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland and starting the Winter War.

On November 23, 1644, “Areopagitica: A speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England,” was published, and became a classic anti-censorship tract.

On November 16, 1776, the Republic of the Seven United Provinces (Netherlands) recognized the independence of the United States of America. The date in 1811 marks the birth of free trade advocate and British politician John Bright.

On November 10, 1821, the First Cry of Independence in the Villa de los Santos (a small town in the interior of the country) occurred in Panama. The November 10 date has since become Panama’s “Cry of Independence Day” in the country. November is a month of independence celebrations in Panama, but the November 10 celebration marks the first signs of the struggle for separation from Spain.