February 18th is

Battery Day *

Crab Stuffed Flounder Day

Drink Wine Day

Pluto Day *

World Pangolin Day
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MORE! Alessandro Volta, Toni Morrison and Ray Charles, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Japan –Okayama:
Saidai-ji Eyo Hadaka Matsui
(Shinto semi-naked ‘lucky man’ contest)

Netherlands – Utrecht:
A State of Trance Festival

New Zealand – Henderson:
Raggamuffin Music Festival
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On This Day in HISTORY

1229 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, had married Yolande of Jerusalem, daughter of John of Brienne, nominal ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1225, giving him a claim to the truncated kingdom; the ‘Sixth Crusade’ is a diplomatic mission, and on this date he signs a 10-year truce with al-Kamil, regaining Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem with neither military engagements nor support from the papacy

1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, convicted of treason against his older brother Edward IV of England, is executed in private at the Tower of London

1516 – Mary Tudor born, would be Queen Mary 1, “Bloody” Mary, of England

1745 – Alessandro Volta born, Italian physicist and inventor; Battery Day *

1791 – Congress passes a law admitting the state of Vermont to the Union, effective March 4, 1791; Vermont was a de facto independent but unrecognized state for 14 years

1830 – Pluto Day * Clyde W. Tombaugh discovers photographic evidence of Pluto at Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff AZ

1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany born, Tiffany & Co, American craftsman- designer; made significant advancements in the art of glassmaking

1851 – Ida Husted Harper born, American author, educator, journalist and suffragist

1857 – Max Klinger born, German symbolist painter, sculptor, and writer; Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove series

1861 – Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery,  Alabama

1871 – Harry Brearley is born, English metallurgist who invented stainless steel (1912)

1885 – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain is published in the U.S., two months after its debut in Canada and the U.K. 

1892 – Wendell Willkie born, American Republican presidential candidate

1898 – Enzo Ferrari born, Italian automobile manufacturer- designer- race-car driver

1901 – Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner, but it is so large, he has to mount the machine on a horse-drawn carriage, with a long hose to reach inside a house

1909 – Wallace Stegner born, American author-environmentalist-historian, “Dean of Western Writers” won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Angle of Repose;  1977  National Book Award for Fiction, The Spectator Bird

1918 – Jane Loevinger born, American psychologist, pioneer in ego development theory and women’s psychological issues

1922 – Helen Gurley Brown born, American author, publisher and businesswoman, editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine

1929 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the winners of the first Academy Awards; Oscars to Best Actress: Janet Gaynor, Best Actor: Emil Jannings, and Best Film: Wings

1931 – Toni Morrison born, American author, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Nobel Prize in Literature, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor

1934 – Audre Lorde born, American poet-author and activist

1940 – Fabrizio De André born, Italian singer-songwriter-guitarist

1941 – Irma Thomas born, American singer-songwriter, “The Soul Queen of New Orleans”

1947 – Dennis DeYoung born, American musician-songwriter, Styx

1952 – Greece and Turkey become members of NATO

1959 – Ray Charles records “What’d I Say”

1964 – “Any Wednesday” opens at NYC’s Music Box Theatre; Gene Hackman gets noticed

1970 – Five of the Chicago Seven defendants found guilty of intent to incite a riot at 1968’s Democratic national convention; their convictions are later overturned

1972 – The California Supreme Court strikes down the state’s death penalty in People v. Anderson; overruled by Proposition 17 in the same year

1977 – The space shuttle Enterprise makes its maiden “flight” atop a Boeing 747

1987 – Girl Scout executives decide to change the scout uniform color from the traditional Girl Scout green to the newer Girl Scout blue

1988 – Anthony M. Kennedy is sworn in as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court

1998 – In Russia, money shortages result in the shutting down of three plants that produced nuclear weapons

2000 – The U.S. Commerce Department reports a deficit in trade goods and services of $271.3 billion for 1999, the largest calendar-year trade gap in U.S. history.

2001 – FBI agent Robert Philip Hanssen is arrested, accused of spying for Russia for over 15 years; later pleads guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole

2006 – A Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament is sworn in

2010 – A Census Bureau report shows the median age at first marriage in 2010 is 28.7 years for men and 26.5 years for women

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Visuals

• Crab-stuffed flounder
• Pangolin Day poster
• International flags
• Alessandro Volta and his battery
• Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove series: Abduction by Max Klinger
• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, first page
• Wendell Willkie. liberties quote
• Enzo Ferrari, aerodynamics quote
• Wallace Stegner, wilderness preservation quote
• Audre Lorde, issues quote
• Anthony M. Kennedy, Constitution quote
• First-time Marriage median age chart

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