On This Day March 1

Four and a half years after journalist Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for an invention he called the "Type-Writer," he sold his patent rights for $12,000 to E. Remington and Sons of New York state. An arms manufacturer seeking to diversify, they were a firm well equipped with the machinery and skill to carry out the development work. On March 1, 1873 E. Remington and Sons began the manufacturing of the first practical typewriter in Ilion, New York.

Sholes typewriter, 1873. Buffalo History Museum.

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On This Day February 29

Christopher Columbus found himself anchored off the coast of Jamaica with dwindling rations due to uncooperative locals who refused to trade. Consultation of his Zacuto almanac revealed an upcoming lunar eclipse on February 29, 1504. seizing this astronomical knowledge, Columbus gathered the Jamaican chiefs and asserted that, unless they provided him with sustenance, he possessed the ability to obscure the moon. 

Columbus predicts lunar eclipse to the natives

Initially met with laughter, the chiefs were soon alarmed as the eclipse unfolded. Fearing the celestial disturbance, the frightened natives pleaded with Columbus to restore the moon, promising to fulfill his demands in return.

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On This Day February 28

Organic chemist Wallace Carothers began working at the DuPont Experimental Station in 1928. One day, a team of researchers, led by Carothers discovered an molten substance: it would stick to a glass rod and form a fine strand. As soon as the strand met the cold air, it solidified and formed a long continuous fiber that was both flexible and strong. The fiber was stronger and elastic than silk. The first example of what would become nylon was produced on February 28, 1935.

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On This Day February 27

The Argentina population rose against Spanish rule in 1810. In May the Primera Junta, the first independent government in Argentina, was established in an open cabildo in Buenos Aires. The Argentine flag was first raised at the city of Rosario on February 27, 1812. On July 9, 1816 a congress of deputies meeting at San Miguel de Tucumán declared the country's independence and designated it as the national flag.

Argentina national flag

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On This Day February 26

In early January 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt declared the Grand Canyon a national monument, protecting its 800,000 acres from private development. Congress did not officially outlaw private development in the Grand Canyon until February 26, 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson signed the Grand Canyon National Park Act., establishing most of the Grand Canyon as a United States National Park.

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On This Day February 25

Phoenix, Arizona, became a city on February 25, 1881. At that time it had a population of about 2,500 people. It was Englishman Lord Darrell Duppa, one of the original settlers, who suggested the name "Phoenix". He saw the prehistoric ruins of the native Hohokam people, who had lived on the land for two thousand years, and predicted that another civilization would rise from them, like the mythological fire bird which was born again from its own ash after it died.

Northern skyline, downtown Phoenix,

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On This Day February 24

Roman emperor Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published on February 24, 303, beginning the Diocletianic Persecution, the last and most severe episode of the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire. Diocletian's systematic intense persecution against the Church,  climaxed in early 304 when all Christians were required to make sacrifice to the empire on the pain of death. An estimated 3,000–3,500 Christians were martyred in the persecution.

The Christian Martyrs' Last Prayer, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1883)

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On This Day February 23

The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed using mass-produced movable type. The traditional date for its publication was February 23, 1455. 42 lines were printed on each of the 1,242 pages in a gothic typeface which was as near as its German inventor, Johannes Gutenberg could get to the handwriting of the day. It was printed on paper made from cloth, rags and vellum.

Gutenberg Bible of the New York Public Library. By NYC Wanderer (Kevin Eng) 

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On This Day February 22

The USA ice hockey team defeated the Soviets 4-3 in the “Miracle on Ice" game. The match took place during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on February 22, 1980 and the Americans went on to win the gold medal. The United States national team, made up of amateur and collegiate players had not been expected to defeat the Soviet Union national team, which had won the gold medal in six of the seven previous Olympic Games.

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On This Day February 21

Built by Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick, the first self-propelling steam locomotive made its debut outing on February 21, 1804. Trevithick took the world into the railway age when his seven-tonne locomotive hauled 10 tonnes of iron, 70 passengers, and five wagons from the Pen-y-darren ironworks, near Merthyr Tydfil, to Abercynon in South Wales., reaching a top speed of almost 5mph during its nine-mile journey.

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On This Day February 20

On February 20, 1998, ice skater Tara Lipinski of the U.S. became the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history when she won the ladies’ figure skating title in Nagano, Japan, aged 15 years and 8 months. The previous year Tara Lipinski was the youngest champion women's World Figure Skating Champion at the age of 14 years and 10 months.

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On This Day February 19

The phonograph was accidentally invented in 1877 by Thomas Edison while trying to record telegraph signals. His device was the first machine that was able to both capture and reproduce analog sound. He patented the device on February 19, 1878. Edison's first phonograph recorded onto tinfoil cylinders had low sound quality and destroyed the track during replay so that one could listen only once.

Thomas Edison with his second phonograph, photographed April 1878

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On This Day February 18

The non-conformist preacher John Bunyan's Christian allegory Pilgrim's Progress was published on February 18, 1678. An allegory based on Bunyan's own spiritual life, it was partly written by the author during his time in Bedford jail for preaching without a licence. Pilgrim's Progress has been translated in over 100 languages and for the next 150 years following its publication, Bunyan's books, like the Bible, were found in every English home.

Title page of Pilgrim's Progress Date: 1678 

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On This Day February 17

Thomas Jefferson was elected the third president of the United States on February 17, 1801 after 35 indecisive ballot votes. For his presidential inauguration, Jefferson walked from his boarding house to the Capitol to demonstrate "Republican simplicity."  Jefferson hated public speaking so much that he only gave two speeches in his presidency, one per term.

Thomas Jefferson

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On This Day February 16

On February 16, 1937, the du Pont company patented their synthetic textile fiber calling it nylon. The letters "nyl" were arbitrary and the "on" was copied from the suffixes of other fibers such as cotton and rayon. One of the first products to be made with this new material was a new type of toothbrush- Dr. West's miracle toothbrush with nylon bristles. Other early uses were for fishing lines and surgical sutures.

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On This Day February 15

On February 15, 2013, a meteor burst into a fireball 30 times brighter than the sun over central Russia. Shock waves from the explosion of the meteorite over the Chelyabinsk region, injured more than 1,000 people, mainly due to widespread broken glass. It was the largest recorded impact event on Earth since the Siberian Tunguska event in 1908.

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On This Day February 14

Alexander Graham Bell filed his patent for a "telephone" (Greek for sound) on February 14, 1876. The inspiration for the device came when Bell was working to improve the telegram in Boston, Massachusetts. Bell filed his application for a patent knowing a rival, Elisha Gray was working on a similar project. A representative of Bell filed his patent for a "telephone" at New York Patent Office at 12.00 PM. The now forgotten Gray got there two hours later.

Alexander Graham Bell's telephone patent drawing, 

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On This Day February 13

Peanuts, the syndicated comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, featuring Charlie Brown and his pet Snoopy, was first published in nine newspapers on October 2, 1950. The last original Peanuts comic strip (see below) appeared in newspapers on February 13, 2000, one day after Charles M. Schulz died. With 17,897 strips published in all, Peanuts was arguably the longest story ever told by one human being.

Last Peanuts comic strip Wikipedia

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On This Day February 12

The phrase 'The New Look' was coined by Harper's Bazaar, the fashion monthly, for Christian Dior's first fashion collection, on February 12, 1947. His long-skirted "new look" brought Dior worldwide fame and helped Paris regain its position as the capital of the fashion world as out went fashion rations and in came masses of material, designed to suit a curvy hour-glass figure.

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On This Day February 11

Saint Bernadette had the first of several visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto at Lourdes on February 11, 1858. A few days after the ninth visitation, a spring began to flow from a patch dug by Bernadette. An old stone mason with a blind eye bathed it in the spring's water and as others also followed her example it was soon reported to have healing properties. The grotto soon became a center of pilgrimage. Many sick people who were dipped in the water of the spring were cured.

The Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes By BRUNNER Emmanuel, Manu25

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On This Day February 10

Prince Albert and Queen Victoria were married in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace on February 10, 1840 and had a two day honeymoon at Windsor Castle. Their wedding cake was 9 feet around, weighed 300 pounds and was 14 inches high. Albert was not only the Queen's companion, but also an important political adviser. Having found a partner, Victoria no longer relied on the Whig ladies at her court for companionship.

Marriage of Victoria and Albert, painted by George Hayter

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On This Day February 9

The Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964 drew what was at the time the largest audience in the history of American television of 73 million viewers. Crime in America dropped noticeably that night, especially juvenile offenses.

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On This Day February 8

The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber took place in Nevada on February 8, 1924. A member of the Hip Sing Tong criminal society from San Francisco, California, Gee Jon was sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly member from another gang in Nevada. An unsuccessful attempt to pump poison gas directly into Gee's cell at Nevada State Prison in Carson City led to the development of the first makeshift gas chamber to carry out Gee's death sentence.

The former gas chamber at New Mexico State Penitentiary. By Shelka04

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On This Day February 7

Supporters of Dominican friar and preacher Girolamo Savonarola burnt Florentine luxury goods on February 7, 1497 at the carnival of Florence. Savonarola organised the “bonfire of the vanities” at the carnival celebration before Lent, in which thousands of works of art, pornographic books and gambling equipment were publicly burnt.  Such bonfires were not invented by Savonarola, but had been a common accompaniment to the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino di Siena (1380-1444).

Savonarola Preaching in Florence, painting by Nikolay Lomtev (1850s)

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On This Day February 6

The first 86 African American immigrants left New York on February 6, 1820 to start a settlement in present-day Liberia. The emigrants started to establish a settlement on what is now the coast of Liberia. All three whites and 22 of the emigrants died within three weeks from yellow fever.
The settlement was named Liberia, which is "Land of the Free" in Latin, because it was founded by freed American slaves.

Map of Liberia in the 1830s

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On This Day February 5

The "Welcome Stranger" was the name given to the largest gold nugget ever found in the world with a calculated refined weight of 2,315 oz (72kg). It was discovered by John Deason and Richard Oates at Moliagul, Victoria, Australia on February 5, 1869 about 9 miles north-west of Dunolly. The nugget was found only three centimeters below the surface, near a root of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully.

A wood engraving of the Welcome Stranger published in The Illustrated Australian News 

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On This Day February 4

The mainstream online social network Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on February 4, 2004, along with four fellow Harvard College students and roommates. Four days after Facebook went live it had just 650 users. Originally known as 'TheFacebook,' the company changed the name to just Facebook after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005 for $200,000.

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On This Day February 3

A 4-year-old 6 1/2-ton African bull elephant called Jumbo who was born in Sudan was transferred to the London Zoo in 1865. He became the most famous elephant in the world. American showman P. T. Barnum simply had to have this huge elephant in his circus. He bought Jumbo on February 3, 1882, for $10,000, advertising him as the "only mastodon on Earth."  Jumbo's sale initiated public outrage in Britain.

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On This Day February 2

In 1624 the Dutch established a settlement, New Amsterdam, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, which served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. New Amsterdam received municipal rights on February 2, 1653, thus becoming a city. Eleven years later New Amsterdam was captured by the British. It was renamed New York in honor of the Duke of York, future King James II of England, who had organized the mission.

New Amsterdam in 1664 (looking approximately due north)

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