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1902—Langston Hughes, African-American poet, is born
1861—Texas secedes from the Union
2—Groundhog Day
—James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet, born
1653—New Amsterdam (New York City) is incorporated as a city
1894—Norman Rockwell, American illustrator, is born
1870—15th Amendment, granting black men suffrage, ratified
1874—American modernist Gertrude Stein born
1913—Rosa Parks birthday
1938—Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the 1st animated feature, is released
1902—Charles Lindbergh, American aviator, is born
1917—Mexican Constitution is adopted
—Congress passes the Immigration Act
1911—Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989), is born
1778—France recognizes the United States as a sovereign nation
1937—John Steinbeck’s novel “Of Mice and Men” published
1926—Historian Carter G. Woodson establishes "Negro History Week"
1867—Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author, born
1812—Charles Dickens, born
1870—15h Amendment ratified guarantees the right to vote regardless of race
1915—D.W. Griffith film "Birth of a Nation" premieres
1887—Dawes Act passed—Indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship
1824—John Quincy Adams is elected President
1995—Bernard Harris first Black astronaut to take spacewalk
1862— Julia Ward Howe’s "Battle Hymn of the Republic" published
1949—Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman opens on Broadway
1763—The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War
2013—Chinese New Year: Year of the Snake
1945—FDR, Stalin, Churchill, sign Yalta Agreement
1990—Nelson Mandela is released from jail after 27 years in prison
1909—National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded
2013—Mardi Gras
1809—Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president, is born
1826—The American Temperance Society, the first national organization to advocate prohibition, founded
—Andrew Bradford publishes first magazine in colonies, "The American Magazine," beating Benjamin Franklin by three days
1891—American Painter Grant Wood born
2013—Valentine’s Day
1817—Frederick Douglass, abolitionist adopted birthday because his mother referred to him as my “little valentine”
1564—Galileo Galilei, astronomer, is born
—The philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death
1923—Burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's unearthed tomb is unsealed in Egypt
1838—Historian Henry Adams born
1801—Thomas Jefferson is elected President
1885—Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published
1880—Presidents' Day observed (USA)
1674—Peace of Westminster- NYC becomes English
1919—W.E.B. DuBois organizes first Pan-African Congress in Paris
1805—Angelina Grimké, abolitionist & lawyer, is born
1895—Abolitionist Frederick Douglass dies
1965—Malcolm X is shot to death in New York City
1732—George Washington, 1st U.S. President, is born
1848—John Quincy Adams, 6th U.S. President (1825–1829), dies
1868—W.E.B. Du Bois, civil rights writer, is born
1940—Singer Woody Guthrie writes "This Land is Your Land"
1803—Marbury v. Madison is decided
1868—Andrew Johnson impeached for violating Tenure of Office Act
1885—Berlin Act—European powers partition Africa
1902—John Steinbeck, American writer, is born
1807—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, is born
1860—Presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln delivers Cooper Union speech
1820—British illustrator and graphic humorist John Tenniel born