February 27th is

Anosomia Awareness Day *

Kahlua Day

Strawberry Day

Museums Advocacy Day *

International Polar Bear Day *

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MORE! John Menard, William Purvis and Marian Anderson, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Dominican Republic – Independence Day

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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 University of Constantinople is founded by Emperor Theodosius II at the urging of his wife Aelia Eudocia

The Pandidakterion of the University of Constantinople 

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 – Great Britain’s House of Commons 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 Luddites, who were using 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 actress, leading Shakespearean actress of her day; gave lectures on Shakespeare’s women characters

Ellen Terry as Lady MacBeth, Beatrice and Portia

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

1859 – Bertha Pappenheim born, Austrian-Jewish feminist and author (anonymously and as “P. Berthold”), became the director of an orphanage for Jewish girls, changing the curriculum from preparation for marriage  to vocational training; founding member and first president of the Jüdischer Frauenbund (Jewish Women’s Association); translated Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” into German; advocate for women’s education and equal rights, and activist against the trafficking of women; co-founder of the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland (Central Welfare Agency of German Jewry)

1860 – Abraham Lincoln makes his famous Cooper Union speech in New York, which is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency

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

1869 – Alice Hamilton born, American physician, academic, research scientist and feminist, first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard University, pioneer in the field of toxicology, focusing on occupational illnesses and the dangers of exposure to industrial metals and chemical compounds, campaigned for against lead poisoning and other industrial hazards; because of her campaign for safer working conditions, appointed as director of the Occupational Disease Commission created by the governor of Illinois in 1910, the first such commission in the world; activist in social welfare reform and the peace movement, and a volunteer at Hull House in Chicago

1869 – When John W. Menard speaks in Congress in defense of his claim to a contested seat in Louisiana’s Second Congressional District, he becomes the first black person to make a speech in the House of Representatives. Congressmen decided against both claimants. Congressman James A. Garfield of the examining committee said “it was too early to admit a Negro to the U.S. Congress.”

1872 – Charlotte E. Ray becomes the first woman graduate from Howard University School of Law, and the first female African American lawyer

1877 – Adela Verne born, English pianist and composer

1883 – William B. Purvis patents a self-inking hand stamp; he also invented a fountain pen with an ink reservoir to make it more portable

1883 – Oscar Hammerstein I patents the first cigar-rolling machine (lyricist’s father)

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

1890 – Mabel Staupers born, 1917 graduate of Freedman’s Hospital of Nursing (now Howard University), led Harlem Committee of NY Tuberculosis and Health Association, organized health education, public lectures, free exams and dental care for school children fought for full racial integration with help of Frances Bolton, integrated Army and Navy nurses

Mabel Keaton Staupers displays the Mary Mahony Award for distinguished service in nursing to nurses at the Harlem Hospital Nurses Residence in 1947

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, 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 the black performer’s appearance. 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 begins 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; noted for 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 was hampered, furst by the Nazi invasion, then by his 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

1924 – Samella Sanders Lewis born, artist, and art historian; first African American woman to earn a degree in fine arts and art history; founder of Contemporary Crafts in 1969, the first black-owned art publishing house

Field, by Samella Sanders Lewis

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

1942 – Charlayne Hunter-Gault born, African American journalist and foreign correspondent for National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service

1949 – Chaim Weizmann becomes the first Israeli president

1950 – Julia Schwab Neuberger born, second 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 was ratified, limiting U.S.  Presidents to two terms

1958 – Margaret Wood Hassan born, American attorney and Democratic politician; Governor of New Hampshire (2013-2017); since 2017,  U.S. Senator from New Hampshire

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 is granted an additional $400 million in federal loan guarantees; Chrysler had posted a loss of $1.7 billion in 1980

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

1990 – The Exxon Corporation and Exxon Shipping are indicted on five criminal counts for 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill

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

1992 – Polar Bears International is 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 rapidly 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

Trucker the desert tortoise advocating for museums on
Museums Advocacy Day in the capitol rotunda in Salt Lake City UT

2012 – Daniel Schein launches Anosomia Awareness Day, * asking supporters to wear red; Anosomia 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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