February 7th is

Ballet Day *

Math e Day

Fettuccine Alfredo Day

Periodic Table Day *

Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
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MORE! John Deere, Laura Ingalls Wilder and Eubie Blake, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Grenada – Independence Day

Italy – Ivrea:
Storico Carnevale di Ivrea
(ongoing)
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On This Day in HISTORY

1301 – Edward of Caernarvon (later Edward II of England) becomes the first English Prince of Wales, and Earl of Chester

1497 – Supporters of the anti-luxury Dominican priest Girolamo Savonarola light the Bonfire of the Vanities, burning thousands of objects condemned as “occasions of sin” such as cosmetics, mirrors, fine clothes, playing cards, art, musical instruments and books in Florence, Italy. Such bonfires were often the climax of anti-vanity preaching, but this was on a much grander scale; the supreme irony is that Savonarola’s increasingly extreme interpretations of scripture got him declared a heretic, and he was burned at the stake in the same square in Florence on May 23, 1498

1639 – Academie Francaise begins Dictionary of French Language

1668 – Dutch Prince William III dances in premiere of “Ballet of Peace”

1758 – Benedikt Schack born, Bohemian composer and tenor, first performer of Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute

1783 – Spanish and French forces finally lift their siege of the British garrison holding Gibraltar, the longest siege endured by the British military, after 3 years and 7 months

1795 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, concerning the principle of sovereign immunity as it applies to the individual states of the United States: The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State

1804 – John Deere born, American inventor-manufacturer; 1838, developed first
mass-produced steel plow, helped increase farm yields per acre 10 fold within 20 years

1812 – The strongest of a series of earthquakes in the area of New Madrid, Missouri, hit, estimated to have been somewhere between magnitudes 7.6 and 8.2, the largest earthquake recorded east of the Rocky Mountains, which caused temporary waterfalls in the Mississippi River as the ground warped and rose

1812 – Charles Dickens born, preeminent English novelist of the Victorian era

1827 – Ballet Day * – Ballet introduced in New York City at the Bowery Theatre; the first record of a ballet performance in America was in Charleston SC in 1791

1831 – Belgium adopts its Constitution

1854 – A law is approved to found the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and the first lecture is given on October 16, 1855

1856 – The colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the Electoral Act of 1856, the first piece of known legislation providing for elections by way of secret ballot

1863 – Periodic Table Day * English chemist John Newlands publishes one of the first table of elements, dividing the 56 known elements into 11 groups based on the “Law of Octaves,” suggesting any one element will have similar properties to elements 8 places before and behind it on the table

1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder born, American author, Little House on the Prairie series

1889 – The Astronomical Society of the Pacific holds first meeting in San Francisco CA

1894 – The Cripple Creek Miner’s Strike begins, which will last for 5 months of often violent conflict, ending in a standoff and partial victory for the miners, but is followed in 1903 by the Colorado Labor Wars

1885 – Sinclair Lewis born, American author, 1930 Novel Prize in Literature

1887 –Eubie Blake born, American jazz composer and pianist

1898 – Émile Zola goes on trial for criminal libel for publishing J’accuse, where he charges highest levels of the French Army of obstruction of justice and antisemitism and wrongfully convicting Alfred Dreyfus to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island

1907 – The ‘Mud March’ is the first large procession organized by the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) – more than 3,000 women representing over 40 organizations trudged through  the streets of London from Hyde Park to Exeter. NUWSS leader Millicent Fawcett: “The London weather did its worst against us; mud, mud, mud, was its prominent feature, and it was known among us afterwards as the ‘mud march.'” In spite of the weather, thousands of spectators line the route, and the parade is covered by newspapers and magazines all over Europe and in the U.S.

1910 – Edmond Rostand’s verse play Chantecler, in which all characters are farmyard animals, premieres in Paris

1914 – Charlie Chaplin makes is first screen appearance as the “Little Tramp” in Kid Auto Races at Venice

1915 – First successful wireless message sent from a moving train to a station

1918 – Ruth Sager born, American geneticist, pioneer in cytoplasmic genetics, and originated cancer research on tumor suppressor genes

1928 – Bert Hinkler takes off on the first solo flight from England to Australia

1940 – British railways are nationalized

1940 – Walt Disney’s second full-length animated film, Pinocchio, premieres

1943 – WWII shoe rationing begins in the US

1944 – Bing Crosby records “Swinging on a Star”

1947 – Arabs and Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine

1948 – Jimmy Greenspoon born, composer-keyboardist, Three Dog Night

1951 – Sancheong-Hamyang massacre is conducted by South Korean Army troops, slaughtering 705 unarmed civilians, 85% of them women, children and the elderly; followed two days later by the Geichang massacre of 719 unarmed civilians, including 385 children – the victims are suspected to be Communist sympathizers. When Assemblyman Shin Chung-mok from Geichang’s district reposted the atrocity to the National Assembly, he is arrested, tried and executed in a military court martial. The two officers who oversaw the massacres are eventually found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, but their sentences were commuted by ‘strongman’ President Syngman Rhee, who had enacted stringent laws against political dissent, and enforced them with arrests and murders of “Communists sympathizers”

1959 – Fidel Castro proclaims a new Cuban constitution

1962 – President Kennedy announces a U.S. ban on all Cuban imports and exports

1962 – Garth Brooks born, American singer-songwriter

1969 – Diane Crump becomes the first woman jockey at a major US racetrack, Hialeah

1974 – Grenada gains independence from the United Kingdom

1974 – The Mel Brooks movie Blazing Saddles opens

1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune’s orbit for the first time since their discoveries

1979 – Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Karman born, Yemeni journalist and human rights activist; “Women Journalists Without Chains” founder-leader; co-recipient of 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the first Arab woman, first person from Yemen, and second- youngest Nobel Laureate to date

1983 – Elizabeth Dole is sworn in as the first woman secretary of transportation

1984 – Space Shuttle program: STS-41-B Mission: Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk using the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)

1986 – Twenty-eight years of one-family rule end in Haiti, when President Jean-Claude Duvalier flees the Caribbean nation

1987 – Madonna’s “Open Your Heart” is #1 on the singles chart

1987 – Dennis Conner and his Stars & Stripes team bring America’s Cup back to the U.S.

1990 – Dissolution of the Soviet Union: The Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party agrees to give up its monopoly on power

1991 – Haiti’s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in

1991 – The Troubles: The Provisional IRA launched a mortar attack on 10 Downing Street in London, the official residence and office for the British Prime Minister

1992 – The Maastricht Treaty is signed, leading to the creation of the European Union

1999 – King Hussein of Jordan dies, and Crown Prince Abdullah ascends the throne

2012 – President Mohamed Nasheed, the first democratically elected president of the Republic of Maldives resigns, possibly at gunpoint, after 23 days of anti-governmental protests which include large numbers of army and police officers, calling for the release of Chief Judge Abdulla Mohamed who had been arrested by the military.  Nasheed is tried and convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act of Maldives, which Amnesty International describes as “politically motivated.” Nasheed has been granted political asylum by the United Kingdom

2013 – Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery, which it had finally formally ratified in 1995.

2016 – North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space

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Visuals

• Math e Day
• Ballerina Uliana Lopatkina as “The Dying Swan” – Pushkin Theater April 30, 1996
• International flags
• Edward, Prince of Wales with his father
• John Deere, his plow, historic marker
• Charles Dickens quote
• Laura Ingalls Wilder quote
• Sinclair Lewis quote
• North Korea launching Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 

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