February 27th is

International Polar Bear Day *

Anosmia Awareness Day *

Strawberry Day

Museums Advocacy Day *
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MORE!  Ellen Terry, Marian Anderson and Frances Perkins, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Christianity –Shrove Monday/Carnaval

Brazil – First Day of Carnaval

Bhutan, Nepal, and Tibet – Losar
(Lunar new year festival)

Cyprus and Greece – Kathara Deftera
(Ash/Clean Monday)

Dominican Republic – Independence Day
Mongolia – Tsagaan Sar
(Lunar Year of the Red Hen)

Paraguay – Heroes’ Day

United States – New Orleans LA:
First Day of Mardi Gras *
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On This Day in HISTORY

380 – Edict of Thessalonica: Theodosius I,  Gratian and Valentinian II, the three reigning Roman Emperors, “desire” all subjects of the Roman Empire to profess the faith of the bishops of Rome and of Alexandria, making Nicene (trinitarian) Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire

425 – The Pandidakterion (Imperial University of Constantinople) is founded by Emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia

907 – Abaoji, a Khitan chieftain, is enthroned as Emperor Taizu, establishing the Liao dynasty in northern China

1560 – The Treaty of Berwick, which expels the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Lords of the Congregation of Scotland

1594 – Henri IV is crowned King of France

1696 – The British House of Commons, in response to a failed assassination attempt on King William III, agrees to the swearing of an Oath of Association, in effect a loyalty oath to the King, reinforcing the argument that William’s preservation from the assassins is divine providence, and he is still entitled to sit on the English throne after the death of Queen Mary

1782 – The House of Commons of Great Britain votes against further war in America

1801 – Pursuant to the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801, Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress

1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow born, American poet

1812 – Argentine War of Independence: Manuel Belgrano raises the Flag of Argentina in the city of Rosario for the first time

1812 –Lord Byron gives his first address as a House of Lords member, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire

1827 – The first Mardi Gras * celebration begins in New Orleans LA

1844 – The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti

1847 – Dame Ellen Terry born, British stage star, leading Shakespearean actress of her day

1848 – Hubert Parry born, British composer, best known for setting William Blake’s poem Jerusalem to music

1850 – Laura Howe Richards born, American author, poet and biographer

1860 – Abraham Lincoln’s famous Cooper Union speech in New York, held to be largely responsible for his election to the Presidency, in which he lays out the case for the right of the Federal government to control slavery in Federal territories

1861 – In Warsaw, Russian troops fire on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland, killing five protesters

1869 – Alice Hamilton born, American pathologist, first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University, pioneer in the field of toxicology

1877 – Adela Verne born, English pianist and composer (Queen Elizabeth’s March was composed in 1937 for Queen Elizabeth II’s mother, for whom she was named)

1883 – Oscar Hammerstein patents the first cigar-rolling machine (grandfather of Oscar Hammerstein II, the librettist for musicals like Oklahoma!, and The King and I)

1886 – Hugo Black born, U.S. Supreme Court Justice for 34 years; defender of civil liberties, civil rights, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion

1896 – The Charlotte Observer publishes a picture of an X-ray photograph made by Dr. H.L. Smith., showing all the bones of a hand and a bullet that was placed on the palm

1897 – Marian Anderson born, African-American contralto and civil rights activist, achieves European fame prior to her American popularity largely due to racial prejudice. In 1939, Howard University tries to hire the DAR’s Constitution Hall for a Marian Anderson concert, the only venue in Washington DC large enough to hold the expected crowd, but the Daughters of the American Revolution refuse to have a black performer on their stage. Many DAR members resign, including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who writes about it in her weekly column, gaining world-wide attention. Supported by the First Lady and FDR, an open air concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial is arranged; Marian Anderson sings for an interracial crowd of 75,000 and a radio audience of millions, opening with “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” – In 1964, she would begin her final concert tour at Constitution Hall

1902 – John Steinbeck is born, American author, Nobel Prize in Literature; The Grapes of Wrath, Tortilla Flats, Cannery Row

1912 – Lawrence Durrell born, English novelist and poet, The Alexandrian Quartet

1922 – The U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, upholds that the 19th Amendment guarantees American women the right to vote in Leser v. Garnett; Judge Oscar Leser sues to have the names of two women removed from the voting rolls in Baltimore because the Maryland Constitution limits suffrage to men, and the Maryland legislature had refused to ratify the Nineteenth Amendment; the Supreme Court’s decision insures that the right to vote can actually be used by American women, as citizens of the United States, no matter what state they live in

1923 – Viktor Kalabis born, Czech composer whose career has been hampered by refusal to join the Communist Party; his Sinfonia is one of the world’s most-played Czech compositions; founder of the Concertino Praga young musicians competition

1933 – The Reichstag, Germany’s parliament building in Berlin, is set afire; the Nazis regime accuses Communists of setting the fire

1933 – Frances Perkins is appointed Secretary of Labor becoming the 1st woman to serve in a U.S. Cabinet position

1939 – In NLRB v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that sit-down strikes are illegal: in a split decision, the majority rules that the National Labor Relations Board, in ordering Fansteel to reinstate workers fired for participating in a sit-down strike, had exceeded its authority; that even though workers staged the sit-down because of Fansteel’s illegal actions in impeding union organizing and refusing to negotiate a contract, the strikers’ participation in a sit-down strike justified their firing

1943 – Morten Lauridsen born, American composer of choral works

1949 – Chaim Weizmann becomes the first Israeli president

1950 – Julia Schwab Neuberger born, 2nd British woman rabbi and first hired by a synagogue, Chief Executive of the King’s Fund (1997-2004), a health issues think tank, author of  The Moral State We’re In (2005)

1951 – The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, limiting U.S. Presidents to two terms

1961 –Del Shannon releases his single “Runaway”

1967 – Pink Floyd record their first single, “Arnold Layne”

1972 – The Shanghai Communique is issued by U.S. President Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai, that U.S.- Chinese relations should be normalized

1973 – The American Indian Movement (AIM) begins their 71-day occupation of  Wounded Knee in South Dakota, demanding the U.S. Senate launch an investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hold hearings on the scores of Indian treaties broken by the U.S. government

1974 – People magazine is first issued by Time-Life (later known as Time-Warner).

1981 – Chrysler Corporation gets an additional $400 million in federal loan guarantees after posting a loss of $1.7 billion in 1980

1986 – The U.S. Senate approves the telecast of its debates on a trial basis

1990 – The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping are indicted on five criminal counts for  the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in March 1989

1991 – U.S. President George H.W. Bush announces on live TV that “Kuwait is liberated”

1992 – Polar Bears International founded, sponsors of International Polar Bear Day * to raise awareness of the impact of global climate change on the habitat of Polar bears, whose numbers are dwindling because the polar ice is melting

1997 – In Ireland, divorce becomes legal

1998 – Britain’s House of Lords agrees to give a monarch’s first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son, ending 1,000 years of primogeniture

1999 – While trying to circumnavigate the Earth, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new hot air balloon endurance record of being aloft for 233 hours and 55 minutes

1999 – Nigeria returns to civilian rule when General Olusegun Obasanjo becomes the country’s first elected president since August of 1983

2009 – Museums Advocacy Day * is started by the American Alliance of Museums to encourage policy makers in Congress to support Museums and the Office of Museum Services Funding; now a two-day event, and spreading to state legislatures – send a message to your representatives telling them about your favorite museum and why you think museums are essential

2012 – Daniel Schein launches Anosmia Awareness Day, * asking supporters to wear red; Anosmia is olfactory dysfunction, sense of smell loss; sponsored by The Monell Center in Philadelphia PA, and Fifth Sense, a UK-based non-profit which provides support and information for people with smell and taste disorders, #LongLostSmell
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Visuals

• Strawberries
• American Alliance of Museums
• International flags
• The Pandidakterion (University)
• Henri IV of France
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, secrets sorrows quote
• Lord Byron, quote from his speech in defense of the Luddites
• Laura Howe Richards, poetry quote
• Abraham Lincoln, Cooper Union quote
• Hugo Black, free press quote
• John Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath quote
• Lawrence Durrell, taste of olives quote
• Polar Bear mother and cubs
• Trucker the desert tortoise advocating for museums on Museums Advocacy Day in the capitol rotunda in Salt Lake City UT

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