February 25th is

Chocolate-Covered Peanuts Day

Clam Chowder Day

Sword Swallowers Day

Open That Bottle Night *
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MORE! Elizabeth I, Samuel Colt and Corazon Aquino, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Voudon – Manger Tetes d’L’eau (ritual feeding of the springs)

Italy – Venice: opening of Carnevale Venezia

Kuwait – National Day

Philippines – EDSA Revolution Anniversary

Solomon Islands – Choiseul Province:
Choiseul Province Founding Day

Suriname – Dag van de Revolutie
(Day of Liberation and Innovation)

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On This Day in HISTORY

138 – Roman Emperor Hadrian adopts Antoninus Pius, who will succeed him, as one of the “Five Good Emperors”

1570 – Pope Pius V issues papal bull Regnans in Excelsis (reigning on high) declaring
“Elizabeth, the pretended Queen of England and the servant of crime”, to be a heretic and releasing all her subjects from any allegiance to her: “We charge and command all and singular the nobles, subjects, peoples and others afore said that they do not dare obey her orders, mandates and laws. Those who shall act to the contrary we include in the like sentence of excommunication.”  It sanctioned the right of Catholics to “deprive her of her throne.” Elizabeth’s limited tolerance of Catholic worship (in private) was ended after two rebellions in 1569: the “First Desmond Rebellion” in Ireland, and the “Northern Rebellion” by Catholic nobles trying to depose her and put Mary, Queen of Scots on her throne; the Papal Bull leads her to execute the Catholic nobles who refuse to vow allegiance to her

1649 – Johann Philipp Krieger born, German composer

1707 – Carlo Goldoni born, Italian dramatist

1751 – Edward Willet displays the first trained monkey act in the U.S.

1791 – First Bank of the United States (The President, Directors and Company, of the Bank of the United States) is chartered by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Washington

1793 – The department heads of the U.S. government meet with U.S. President Washington for the first Cabinet meeting on U.S. record

1836 – Samuel Colt gets the first of many patents, for a “revolving-cylinder pistol”

1837 – Thomas Davenport patents the first commercial electrical motor, but with no practical electrical distribution system available, Davenport goes bankrupt

1841 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir born, leading French Impressionist painter

1842 – Idawalley Zorada Lewis born, American lighthouse keeper, who takes over the Lime Rock Light after her parents die; she becomes the highest-paid lighthouse keeper in the U.S. – $750 a year – “in consideration of the remarkable services of Mrs. Wilson in the saving of lives.” She makes her first rescue at the age of 12, and receives the Gold Lifesaving Medal from the U.S. Government in 1881 for rescuing two soldiers who fell through ice; makes her last rescue at age 63; called “the Bravest Woman in America,” Lime Rock and the Lime Rock Lighthouse are named Ida Lewis Rock and Lighthouse, the only time a Light has been renamed for its keeper

1866 – Benedetto Croce born, Italian historian, humanist, and philosopher

1870 – Hiram R. Revels (R-MS) becomes the first black member of the U.S. Senate as he is sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis

1871 – Larysa Kosach-Kvitka born, under the pen name “Lesya Ukrainka” author of poetry, plays, and essays; foremost woman of Ukrainian literature

1873 – Enrico Caruso born, Italian operatic tenor, regarded as one of the greatest singers who ever lived

1881 – Phoenix AZ is incorporated when Governor John C. Fremont signs the “Phoenix Charter Bill” instituting a mayor-city council form of government

1890 – Vyacheslav Skryabin born, better known as Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet revolutionary and politician, determines much of the soviet internal and foreign policy

1901 – United States Steel Corporation is incorporated by J.P. Morgan

1907 – Mary Chase born, American children’s author and playwright; best known for her play Harvey

1910 – Millicent Fenwick born; served on New Jersey Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1958-1974); Congresswoman (R-NJ, 1975-1983); U.S. Ambassador to the UN (1983-1987); moderate Republican, outspoken supporter of civil and women’s rights; considered the inspiration for Garry Trudeau’s Doonesbury character Lacey Davenport

1913 – The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, giving Congress the power to “lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever sources derived”

1917 – Anthony Burgess born, English novelist and critic

1918 – Wartime food rationing begins in parts of Great Britain

1919 – The state of Oregon becomes the first state to tax gasoline, at 1 cent per gallon

1928 – The Federal Radio Commission issues the first U.S. television license to Charles Jenkins Laboratories in Washington DC

1930 – George McCarthy patents the Checkograph, a bank check photographing device

1933 – The aircraft carrier Ranger is launched, the first U.S. Navy ship designed and built from the keel up as an aircraft carrier

1948 – Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia

1950 – “Your Show of Shows” debuts on NBC-TV

1956 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev criticizes the late Josef Stalin in a speech before the Communist Party congress in Moscow

1972 – Germany gives a $5 million ransom to Arab terrorists who hijack a jumbo jet

1986 – Filipino President Ferdinand E. Marcos flees the Philippines after 20 years of rule in the wake of a tainted election; Corazon Aquino is sworn in as President

1990 – Nicaraguan election leads to victory for the opponents of the Sandinistas

1999 – In Moscow, China’s Prime Minister Zhu Rongji and Russia’s President Boris Yeltsin discuss trade and other issues

2000 – After a change of venue, an Albany NY jury acquitted four New York City police officers of second-degree murder and lesser charges in the February 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo, who is unarmed and standing on the front stoop of his apartment building when he is killed in a hail of 41 bullets

2000 – The first Open That Bottle Night * started by Wall Street Journal Tastings columnists Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher (1998-2009), encouraging their readers to open a symbolically significant bottle, and then share their stories, making the wine itself the subject of the celebration

2010 – The Mid-Atlantic and New England states are hit by a severe blizzard and flooding rains, leaving tens of thousands without heat or power

2013 – British Liberal Democratic women activists are furious as at least 10 women who allege they were molested by former Lib Dem chief executive Lord Rennard are shrugged off by Lib Dem peer Tony Greaves describing the complaints as ‘mild sexual advances’ and adding ‘half of the House of Lords’ had probably behaved in similar ways

2014 – 1,427 gold coins from the mid-19th century that were buried in eight cans are discovered by an anonymous couple while walking their dog in Gold Country CA; dubbed the Saddle Ridge Hoard, it is expected to be worth over $10 million dollars,the largest known hoard of gold coins ever found in the U.S.

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Visuals

• Chocolate-Covered Peanuts
• Open That Bottle Night banner
• International flags
• Bust of  Antoninus Pius
• Carlo Goldini, prejudice quote
• The Seine at Asnieres by Pierre Auguste Renoir
• Benedetto Croce, writing histories quote
• Harvey, Elwood P. Dowd played by Jimmy Stewart
• Anthony Burgess, goodness quote
• Saddle Ridge Hoard
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