February 13th is

Fat Tuesday

Desperation Day *

Galentine’s Day *

Italian Food Day

Tortellini Day

World Radio Day *

International Condom Day *

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MORE! Edward Demby, Rita Dove and Malcolm X, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Fat Tuesday/Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras/Carnival in: Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, Dominica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Grenada, Guadeloupe,  Haiti, Liechtenstein,  Martinique, Panama, Portugal, Saint Bathélemy, Saint Martin, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela

Canada – British Columbia:
Family Day

India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka –
Maha Shivratri (Night of Shiva)

Qatar – National Sports Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

951 – Guo Wei, who had risen from the cavalry to assistant military commissioner, usurps the throne of the Later Han Emperor Yin in a coup, and declares himself the founding Emperor of the Later Zhou Dynasty

1462 – The Treaty of Westminster between Edward IV of England and the Scottish Lord of the Isles gives control Scottish lands north of the Firth of Forth to the Lord of the Isles in the event of Scotland being conquered by England, cementing an alliance that reduces the threat to Edward posed by exiled English King Henry VI who was given refuge by Scottish King James III

1542 – Henry VIII executes wife #5, Catherine Howard, for adultery

1633 – Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for his trial before the Inquisition

1692 – Mort Ghlinne Comhann: about 78 members of Clan Macdonald of Glen Coe, Scotland, are killed early in the morning, or die of exposure after their homes are burnt, for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange

1837 – Riot in New York over the high price of flour

1869 – Edward T. Demby born, ordained as an Episcopal priest in 1899; a leading spokesperson for desegregation of the church, he became the first African American elected as an Episcopal bishop in the U.S. in 1918

1870 – Leopold Godowsky born in Russia, American pianist and composer

1879 – Sarojini Naidu born, Indian author-poet/activist-politician, first woman to be President of the Indian National Congress, first woman to be Governor of Uttar Pradesh

1881 – Eleanor Farjeon born, English author, poet and biographer; noted for lyrics to the hymn “Morning Has Broken” and the Martin Pippin series for children

1891 –Kate Roberts born, one of the foremost Welsh-language authors, and a leading Welsh Nationalist; with her husband founded and ran the Welsh-language weekly Y Faner (The Banner – from 1935 to 1956)

1892 – Grant Wood born, American painter

1900 – The Anglo-German accord of 1899 is ratified by Reichstag; Britain renounces claims to Samoa in favor of Germany and the U.S.

1903 – Georges Simenon, Belgian novelist

1906 – Pauline Frederick born, American television news correspondent

1908 – Malvin R. Goode born; worked for the YMCA in Pittsburgh, leading the fight against discrimination with the organization; worked for the Pittsburg Courier (1948-1962); became first African American TV news correspondent, covering the UN for ABC television, beginning his assignment during the Cuban Missile Crisis

1914 – The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (known as ASCAP) is formed in NYC, to protect copyrighted musical compositions of its members

1919 – Evelyn Freedman Roberts born, Black American bandleader and composer

1920 – The League of Nations recognizes the continued neutrality of Switzerland

1923 – Chuck Yeager born, USAF General, the first test pilot to break the sound barrier

1926 – Fay Ajzenberg-Selove born, American nuclear physicist, known for experimental work on nuclear spectroscopy of light elements; recipient of the National Medal of Science in 2007

1933 – The House of Commons defeats a bill that would have prohibited the sale of alcohol in the U.K.

1937 – The comic strip Prince Valiant appears for the first time

1940 – Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines and his orchestra record “Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues”

https://youtu.be/_KraDc-F8sE

1943 – Elaine Pagels born, biblical scholar, Princeton professor of religion, known for her work on Nag Hammadi manuscripts, and her book Adam, Eve and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity

1943 – First women to sign up for non-clerical duties enlist in Marine Corps Women’s Reserve at Camp Lejune, North Carolina, inducted into specialties ranging from cooks to transport personnel and mechanics. One-third of the women served in aviation-related fields. Almost 18,000 women went through training at Camp Lejune, but the entire women’s reserve was discharged in March 1946

1946 – Dame Janet V. Finch born, British sociologist and academic administrator; Vice Chancellor and Professor of Social Relations at Keele University; named DBE in 2008 Birthday Honours for services to social science

1955 – Israel acquires 4 of the 7 Dead Sea scrolls

1957 – At a meeting in New Orleans LA, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is organized, with Martin Luther King Jr as its first president

1960 – France detonates its first atomic bomb

1964 – Ylva Johannson born, Swedish politician; Swedish Minister for Employment since 2014

1965 – The home of Malcolm X in NY City is bombed; no one is hurt, and he flies to Detroit the next day to give what would be his last public address, at Ford Auditorium; on February 21, he is assassinated as he begins a speech in Harlem

1967 – The Beatles release their single ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’

1970 – The New York Stock Exchange admits Joseph Searles III, its first Black member

The Wall Street bull and Robert Newburger on the left, with Joseph Searles

1972 – Led Zeppelin has to cancel a concert in Singapore when officials won’t let them off the plane because of their long hair

1990 – In Ottawa, the U.S. and its European allies forge an agreement with the USSR and East Germany on a two-stage formula to reunite Germany

1997 – Astronauts on the space shuttle Discovery bring the Hubble Space Telescope aboard for a tune up, allowing the telescope to see further into the universe.

2000 – The last original ‘Peanuts’ comic strip is published

2008 – The Writer’s Guild of America  ends a 100-day strike in Hollywood

2010 – Galentine’s Day * coined for the February episode before Valentine’s Day of Parks and Recreation – Leslie (Amy Poehler) throws her annual Galantine’s Day party for her women friends the day before Valentine’s Day

2011 – Egypt’s military leaders dissolve parliament, suspend the constitution and promise elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who’d helped topple President Hosni Mubarak

2011 – Desperation Day * – sixth season of How I Met Your Mother Valentine’s Day episode aired with storylines about the day before Valentine’s Day

2011 – AIDS Healthcare Foundation launches International Condom Day * with condom distribution and safer sex awareness events

2012 – Rita Dove, poet and author, who had been the second African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1987), receives the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama

2012 – UNESCO starts World Radio Day * coordinated by UNESCO’s International Radio Committee, on the anniversary of the founding of United Nations Radio in 1946

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