February 15th is

International Angelman Day *

Gum Drops & Chewing Gum Day

Remember the Maine! Day *

Singles Awareness Day *

Susan B. Anthony Day *

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MORE!  Michael Praetorius, Susan B. Anthony and Duke Ellington, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Mahayana Buddhism – Parinirvana Day (Buddha’s death/nirvana-after-death)

Pagan – Feast of Lupercalia (honoring Lupercus/Faunus/Pan, god of fertility, shepherds and wild places, and in Ancient Rome, it also honored Lupa, the she-wolf who suckled the infant twins, Romulus and Remus, mythic founders of the city) 

Bolivia – Tarija: Carnaval Chapaco
(ongoing)

Canada – Flag Day

Indonesia – Jakarta: Gubernatorial Election

New Zealnd – National Lamb Day

Serbia – Sretenje
(national day)

Vanuatu – Tanna: John Frum Day
(American “cargo cult” figure)
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On This Day in HISTORY

590 – Persian Khosrau II, last Great King of the Sasanian Empire, is crowned

706 – Byzantine Emperor Justinian II regains his throne, has the usurper Leontios and his overthrower Tiberios III publicly executed in the Hippodrome of Constantinople

1113 – Pope Paschal II sanctions the establishment of the Order of Hospitallers, a religious and military order charged with care and defense of the Holy Land

1493 – Aboard the Niña, Christopher Columbus writes a letter describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World

1564 – Galileo Galilei is born, Italian polymath, scientist, philosopher and artist

1571 – Michael Praetorius born, German composer and music theorist

1748 – Jeremy Bentham born, English Utilitarian philosopher and economist

1760 – Jean-Francois Le Sueur born, French composer

1764 – The city of St. Louis is established in Spanish Louisiana (Missouri)

1797 – Henry Steinway born in Germany, American piano builder

1799 – Printed ballots are authorized for use in elections in the state of Pennsylvania

1807 – Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski born, Polish composer

1809 – Cyrus McCormick born, developed the first mechanical reaper

1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany born, jeweler, founder of NY’s Tiffany & Co, father of Louis Comfort Tiffany

1820 – Susan B. Anthony born, American abolitionist, women’s rights activist, co-leader with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and “face” of American Equal Rights Association, campaigns for equal rights for women and people of color;  she and Cady Stanton found the women’s rights newspaper The Revolution, and the National Woman Suffrage Association, later merging into the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) where Anthony spearheads the fight until her retirement in 1900 at the age of 80

1836 – Sarah Fuller born, educator, promotes teaching deaf children speech techniques developed by Alexander Bell, founds the Home for Little Deaf Children

1857 – Robert Fuchs born, Austrian composer, noted for chamber music and serenades

1861 – Alfred North Whitehead born, English mathematician and philosopher

1874 – Ernest Shackleton born in Ireland, British polar explorer

1879 – President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States

1883 – Sax Rohmer born as Arthur Sarsfield Ward, English author, Fu Manchu series

1898 – An underwater mine explodes, sinking the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing over half its American crew; widely assumed in the U.S. to be the work of Spanish saboteurs, Remember the Maine! * became the battle-cry leading to the Spanish-American War (April-December 1898)

1903 – Morris and Rose Michtom, Russian immigrants, introduced the first teddy bear in America

1905 – Harold Arlen born, American composer and arranger

1910 – Irena Sendler born, Polish nurse and social worker, head of children’s section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization; she and other members smuggle about 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and providing them with false identity papers and homes, saving them from the Holocaust.

1921 – Radha Krishna Choudhary born, Indian historian and writer

1932 – George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted on radio’s “The Guy Lombardo Show”
1933 – U.S. President-elect Franklin Roosevelt escapes an assassination attempt in Miami; Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak is mortally wounded in the attack

1935 – Susan Brownmiller born, American journalist and author; Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape 

1937 – Gregory MacDonald born, American mystery writer, Fletch novels

1941 – Duke Ellington and his orchestra’s first recording of “Take the “A” Train”

1954 – Big Joe Turner records the original “Shake, Rattle & Roll”

1954 – Matt Groening born, cartoonist, The Simpsons

1957 – Harry Belafonte’s single “The Banana Boat Song” (Day-O) hits #1 on the charts

1958 – “The Dick Clark Show” debuts on ABC-TV

1961 – The Marcels record “Blue Moon”

1965 – Canada adopts its red & white flag with a red maple leaf in the center

1965 – The Beatles release their single “Eight Days a Week”

1967 – The band Chicago is formed

1971 – Great Britain goes to a decimal money system; the pound now equal to 100 pence instead of  240 pence

1975 –  Rush releases their album “Fly By Night”

1982 – Agatha Barbara takes office as Malta’s first woman President

1985 – The Center for Disease Control reported that half of all nine-year-olds in the U.S. showed no sign of tooth decay

1989 – After nine years of intervention, the Soviet Union announces that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan

1991 – The leaders of Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland sign the Visegard agreement,  for cooperation in transforming their countries to free-market economies

2002 – U.S. President George W. Bush approves Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as a site for long-term disposal of radioactive nuclear waste

2010 – Singles Awareness Day * is made famous when Dustin Barnes writes a tongue-in-cheek story about his memories of celebrating S.A.D. with friends in HS who felt left out on Valentine’s Day, then gets many calls wanting interviews from U.S. news outlets

201 1 – After Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker proposed cutbacks in benefits and bargaining rights for public employees, protestors swarm the capital in Madison

2011 – Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduces the Susan B. Anthony  * Birthday Act, to make Susan B. Anthony’s birthday a U.S. national holiday, but it has never been enacted. California, Florida, New York, and Wisconsin have the day listed on their state calendars, but only Florida has made it a legal holiday. West Virginia marks it on Election Day in February, and Massachusetts celebrates Susan B. Anthony Day each year on August 26, the date in 1920 when the 19^th Amendment is ratified, giving women the right to vote; also August 26, annual Susan B. Anthony Festival in Rochester NY

2013 – The Angelman Syndrome Foundation launches International Angelman Day *
to educate parents and healthcare professionals about AS, a neuro-genetic disorder occurring once in every 15,000 live births; often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy or autism due to lack of awareness; AS characteristics include developmental delays, speech disorders, seizures, walking and balance disorders. Individuals with Angelman syndrome will require life-long care. https://www.angelman.org
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Visuals

• International Angelman Day banner
• Susan B. Anthony, self-respecting woman quote
• International flags
• Byzantine gold Solidus coin, Justinian II
• Galileo Galilei, loved stars quote
• Susan B. Anthony, woman must not depend on man quote 
• Alfred North Whitehead, philosophy in wonder quote
• Author Sax Rohmer 
• Remember the Maine lapel pin
• Susan Brownmiller, patriarchy quote
• Canadian flag
• Malta 20 lira note with Agatha Barbara
• Singles Awareness Day heart
• Portrait of Susan B. Anthony, Susan B. Anthony Museum and House, Rochester NY 

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