Category: Today

On Feb. 23, 1836, the Battle of the Alamo began with Mexican troops under President General Antonio López de Santa Anna launching an assault on the Alamo Mission near modern-​day San Antonio, Texas. The siege lasted 13 days until Mexican forces overwhelmed the mission.

On Feb. 23, 1861, President-​elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington, D.C., after dodging opposition mobs in Baltimore, Maryland.

On Feb. 23, 1903, Cuba leased Guantánamo Bay to the U.S. “in perpetuity.”

On Feb. 23, 1945, during the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag.

On Feb. 22, 1943, Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friend, Christoph Probst, members of a close-​knit group of University of Munich students calling themselves “The White Rose,” were executed after being caught distributing leaflets urging Germans to resist Hitler and the Nazis. [For more see today’s commentary.)

On Feb. 22, 1980, the U.S. hockey team defeated the four-​time defending gold-​medal-​winning Soviet team 4 – 3 before a frenzied crowd of 10,000 spectators at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. The victory of the youthful American college players beating the Soviet squad, considered the best in the world, became known as “The Miracle on ice.”

On Feb. 22, 1732, George Washington, who would go on to become “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” was born in Virginia.

On Feb. 8, 1943, Japanese troops evacuated Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied possession after a prolonged campaign. In August of 1942, U.S. Marines landed on the island as the Allies’ first major offensive against Japanese-​held positions in the Pacific. A series of bloody battles ensued in the tropical heat as Marines engaged Japanese troops on land and the Navy has seven major battles in the waters surrounding Guadalcanal. American casualty estimates were 1,600 combat dead, 2,000 died of disease and 4,000 wounded, while roughly 24,000 Japanese perished. The American victory paved the way for other wins in the Solomon Islands.

On Feb. 7, 1775, Benjamin Franklin published “An Imaginary Speech” in London, responding to comments made to the Parliament that the British need not fear the colonial rebels, as “Americans are unequal to the People of this Country in Devotion to Women, and in Courage, and worse than all, they are religious.” In his thoughtful counter, Franklin slyly recalled that the population in the colonies had increased, while the British population had declined, and, therefore, American men must be more “effectually devoted to the Fair Sex” than their British brethren.

On Feb. 7, 1907, the first large march – known as ”the Mud March” – was organized by Britain’s National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), with more than 3,000 women slogging through the cold, muddy streets of London, from Hyde Park to Exeter Hall, to advocate for women’s suffrage.

On Feb. 7, 1990, the Central Committee of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union agreed to endorse President Mikhail Gorbachev’s recommendation that the party give up its 70-​year monopoly on political power. A Communist Party official noted, “Society itself will decide whether it wishes to adopt our politics.”

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.