February 17th is

Cabbage Day

Café au Lait Day

My Way Day

World Human Spirit Day *

National Caregivers Day *

National Public Science Day

National PTA Founders Day

World Information Architecture Day

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MORE! Myles Standish, Dorothy Kenyon and Barack Obama, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Chile – Puerto Natales:
El Galpón Film Festival

Italy – Venice:
opening of Carnevale Venezia

Kosovo – Dita e Pavarësisë
(Independence Day)

Libya – Revolution Day
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On This Day in HISTORY

1600 – Giordano Bruno, ‘free thought’ hero, is burned at the stake as a heretic in the ironically-named Campo de’ Fiori (Field of Flowers) in Rome, and all of his works are put on the Index of Forbidden Books by the Vatican Holy Office

1621 – Myles Standish is appointed first commander of the English Plymouth Colony (now Massachusetts)

1653 – Arcangelo Corelli born, Italian violinist and composer

1665 – Rudolph Jacob Camerarius born, German botanist identifies the stamens and pistils as male and female organs

1801 –U.S. House of Representatives resolves an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr by choosing Jefferson as president and Burr, vice president

1843 – A. Montgomery Ward born, American mail-order merchant

1848 – Louisa Lawson born,  Australian writer, women’s rights activist; took over as publisher of radical pro-federation newspaper The Republican and later launched  The Dawn, Australia’s first journal produced by an all-woman staff; leading figure in the Australian woman suffrage movement, ‘The Mother of Suffrage in New South Wales’

1854 – The British Empire recognizes the Boer Orange Free State’s independence

1863 – A group of citizens in Geneva found an International Committee for Relief to the Wounded, which later becomes the International Committee of the Red Cross

1864 – ‘Banjo’ Paterson born, Australian poet, journalist and songwriter

1874 – Thomas J. Watson Sr. born, American industrialist who built IBM

1876 – Canned sardines, packed in oil, are sold in the U.S. for the first time

1877 – Isabelle Eberhardt born, Swiss explorer and author, traveled extensively in North Africa often as a man for the freedom it allowed her; died in a desert flash flood

1877 – Andre Maginot born, French statesman; ‘Maginot Line’ is named for him

1877 – Isidora Sekulić born, Serbian author, adventurer and polyglot, known for her extensive travels, strong female characters in her fiction

1879 – Dorothy Canfield Fisher born, author, educational reformer and social activist, brought the Montessori Method to the United States

1881 – Mary Carson Breckinridge born, American nurse-midwife, Frontier Nursing Service founder, started family care centers in the Appalachian Mountains

1897 – Alice McLellan Birney and Phoebe Apperson Hearst hold the first convocation of the National Organization of Mothers (now the Parent Teacher Association AKA the PTA), 2,000 people attend.

1888 – Dorothy Kenyon born, American attorney, feminist and civil liberties activist; in 1950, accused of communist affiliations by Senator McCarthy, she called him “an unmitigated liar” and “a coward to take shelter in the cloak of Congressional immunity” then responded, “I am not, and never have been, a supporter of, a member of, or a sympathizer with any organization known to me to be, or suspected by me, of being controlled or dominated by Communists.” A NY Times editorial and support from Eleanor Roosevelt and other respected public figures made McCarthy back off, and the charges were dismissed – On United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (1946-50) 

1904 – Madama Butterfly premières at La Scala in Milan

1913 – The Armory Show opens in New York, a landmark exhibit displaying works of artists who become some of the most influential painters of the early 20th century

1919 – The Ukrainian People’s Republic asks the Triple Entente (alliance of Great Britain, France and the Russian Empire) and the US for help fighting the Bolsheviks

1933 – Wisconsin Senator John Blaine sponsors the Blaine Act, which is passed by the U.S. Senate, initiating the repeal of the 18^th Amendment (Prohibition)

1942 – Huey P. Newton born, American activist; co-founder of the Black Panthers

1947 – The Voice of America begins broadcasting to the Soviet Union

1959 – First weather satellite, Vanguard 2, launches to measure cloud-cover distribution

1964 – In Wesberry v. Sanders the U.S. Supreme Court rules that congressional districts have to be approximately equal in population

1965 – The Ranger 8 probe launches to photograph the Mare Tranquillitatis region of the Moon in preparation for the manned Apollo missions; Mare Tranquillitatis, the “Sea of Tranquility” becomes the site chosen for the Apollo 11 lunar landing

1966 – Brian Wilson begins recording the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations”

1969 – Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan record “Girl from the North Country” in Nashville

1972 – Cumulative sales of the Volkswagen Beetle exceed those of the Ford Model T

1972 – President Nixon leaves for his visit to China

1976 – The Eagles ‘Greatest Hits’ album is released

1996 – World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov beats the Deep Blue supercomputer in a six-game chess match in Philadelphia PA

1996 – NASA’s Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros

2002 – New regulations to go into effect requiring German pig farmers to spend 20 seconds a day with each pig, 10 seconds in the morning and 10 seconds in the afternoon

2003 – World Human Spirit Day *is launched by Michael Levy of Point of Life to promote a connection between people during two minutes of silent meditation

2005 – President George W. Bush names John Negroponte as the first U.S. national intelligence director

2008 – Kosovo declares its independence as the Republic of Kosovo

2009 – President Barack Obama signs $757 billion economic stimulus package into law

2015 – National Caregivers Day * is started by Providers Association for Home Health & Hospice Agencies

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Visuals

• National Caregivers Day poster
• International flags
• Giordano Bruno, Judgement quote
• Louisa Lawson, women’s power quote
• Banjo Paterson, drover’s life quote
• 1913 Armory Show
• World Human Spirit Day – Bernard Williams quote

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