February 4th is

Dump Your Significant Jerk Day

Homemade Soup Day

Stuffed Mushroom Day

USO Day *

World Cancer Day *

Thank a Mail Carrier Day *

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MORE! Virginia Alexander, Rosa Parks and Purvis Young, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Angola – Liberation Day

Germany – Berlin: Around
International Film Festival

Sri Lanka – Independence Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

960 – Zhao Kuangyin becomes Emperor Taizu, the first emperor of the Song dynasty in China; he expanded the imperial examination system so most civil service workers were recruited through the exams, and encouraged education by building academies which were allowed a great deal of freedom of discussion; curtailed the power of the military, ending an era of warlords; the Song dynasty lasted over three centuries

1555 – John Rogers is the first Protestant burned at the stake under Mary I of England after she revived the Heresy Acts, returning the English church to Roman jurisdiction

1676 – Giacomo Facco born, Italian Baroque composer and violinist

1703 – In Edo (now Tokyo), 46 of the Forty-seven Ronin commit seppuku (ritual suicide) as recompense for avenging their master’s death

1758 – Macapá, Brazil is founded by Sebastião Veiga Cabral as São José de Macapá

1775 – Thank a Mail Carrier Day *: The Second Continental Congress establishes the Constitutional Post, the first organized mail service in America; First Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin instituted a standardized rate chart

1789 – George Washington is unanimously elected as the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College

1794 – The French legislature abolishes slavery throughout all territories of the French First Republic, but it will be reestablished in the French West Indies in 1802

1820 – During the Chilean War of Independence, the Chilean Navy, commanded by former British Naval officer Lord Cochrane, captures Valdivia from the Spanish forces with 300 men and 2 ships

Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald

1825 – The Ohio Legislature authorizes the construction of the Ohio and Erie Canal and the Miami and Erie Canal

1846 – The first Mormon pioneers make their exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, westward towards Salt Lake Valley

1859 – The Codex Sinaiticus, the Sinai Bible, a handwritten copy of the Greek Bible from the 4^th century, is discovered in Egypt

1861 – In Montgomery AL, delegates from six Southern states form the Confederate States of America

BLACK HISTORY MONTH Highlight:
1899 – Virginia M. Alexander born, African-American physician, obstetrician and gynecologist; in spite of financial hardship, graduated in three years from the University of Pennsylvania; applied to the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, with the second highest application score, and received a scholarship from a WWI veteran’s mother which helped with her expenses; although she faced racial prejudice and discrimination, she graduated, but had a very difficult time getting an internship, turned away by many hospitals because of her race and gender, but Kansas City General Hospital reversed their policy of not allowing women, so she and another woman were accepted there; after completing her internship, she went back to Philadelphia, and began a private practice, opening the Aspirant Health Home in 1931, which provided health services to poor members of the black community in North Philadelphia, offsetting the costs with income from her private practice, and sharing medical responsibilities with her colleague Helen O. Davis; in 1937, she got a master’s degree in Public Health, the first black student to attend the Yale School of Public Health; during WWII worked for the U.S. Department of Health; after the war, worked at local Philadelphia hospitals, taught classes at Howard University, and later at the Women’s Medical College Hospital

1899 – The Philippine-American War begins with its largest battle at Manila

1902 – Charles Lindbergh born, American pilot and explorer

1906 – Clyde W. Tombaugh born, American astronomer, discoverer Pluto in 1930; he makes his first telescopes from old farm equipment parts

1913 – Rosa Parks born, American civil rights activist

1915 – Norman Wisdom born, English comedian-songwriter

1918 – Ida Lupino born, actress, director and producer; first woman to direct a film noir, The Hitch-Hiker, in 1953; and the only woman to direct episodes (one uncredited) of the original Twilight Zone series; one of the first producers to use product placement to help offset the cost of her movies

1921 – Betty Friedan born, American feminist and author; The Feminine Mystique; co-founder, first President of the National Organization for Women (NOW)

1930 – Mars Candy launches Snickers, named for Frank Mars’ prized racehorse

1936 – At UC Berkeley, Dr. John Jacob Livingood bombards elements with 5-MEV, and  discovers irradiated bismuth emits fast electrons with a 5-day half-life, which is the behavior of Radium E, leading to making the first synthetic Radium

1938 – Our Town by Thornton Wilder opens in Broadway

1941 – USO Day * – the USO is formed by volunteers to entertain American troops (see also 1971 entry)

1941 – Roy J. Plunkett patents Teflon, which he discovers accidentally in 1938

1943 – Wanda Rutkiewicz born, Polish mountain climber; first woman to successful climb K2; she had reached the summit on eight of the fourteen ‘eight-thousanders’ on her list of mountains to conquer before she went missing on Kanchenjunga; there is no evidence to show whether she reached the summit or not; her body hasn’t been found

1943 – Purvis Young born, self-taught black artist whose work depicts poverty, crime, and other social issues; painted on discarded objects, like doors, cardboard, or pieces of wood; his works are in the collections the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Bass Museum of Art, and Virginia Museum of Fine Art

1945 – The Yalta Conference of Churchill, FDR and Stalin begins in the Crimea

1948 – Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) becomes independent within the British Commonwealth

1948 – Alice Cooper is born as Vincent Damon Furnier, American singer-songwriter-rocker – and golf enthusiast

1952 – Jenny Shipley born, New Zealand’s first woman Prime Minister (1997-1999)

1953 – Kitarō born, Japanese keyboard player, New Age composer

1957 – Smith-Corona Manufacturing Inc., of New York, begins selling a portable electric typewriter, which weighs 19 pounds

1957 – Don Davis born, composer-orchestrator, music for The Matrix movies

1960 – Siobhan Dowd born, British writer; died of breast cancer in 2007, but her last completed book, Bog Child, won the 2009 Carnegie Medal for best British juvenile book posthumously

1961 – Angolan War of Independence begins

1966 – The Rolling Stones release “19th Nervous Breakdown” in the U.K.

1971 – USO Day * is proclaimed  by President Nixon on the 30^th anniversary of the founding of the United Service Organizations: thousands of USO volunteers have boosted morale and brought entertainment to the U.S. Armed Forces in war and peace since before WWII (see also 1941 entry)

1976 – The Fleetwood Mac single “Rhiannon” is released

1985 – Ronald Reagan’s defense budget calls for a tripling of expenditure on the “Star Wars” research program

1993 – Russian scientists unfurl a giant mirror in orbit and flash a beam of sunlight across Europe during the night, which observers saw as a momentary flash

2000 – World Cancer Day * is established by the Paris Charter adopted at the World Summit Against Cancer for the New Millenium to highlight new developments in cancer research, and educate the public on prevention and treatment

2003 – The Bengali Hindus declare the independence of the Republic of Bangabhumi from Bangladesh

2003 – The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is officially renamed Serbia and Montenegro and adopts a new constitution

2004 – Mark Zuckerberg founds Facebook, for better or for worse

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