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1902—Langston Hughes, African-American poet, is born
1861—Texas secedes from the Union
2—Groundhog Day
—James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet, born
1653—New Amsterdam (New York City) is incorporated as a city
1870—15th Amendment, granting black men suffrage, ratified
1894—Norman Rockwell, American illustrator, is born
1874—American modernist Gertrude Stein born
1822—Free American Blacks settle Liberia
1938—Disney film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the 1st animated feature, is released
1902—Charles Lindbergh, American aviator, is born
1917—Mexican Constitution is adopted
—Congress passes the Immigration Act
1911—Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989), is born
1778—France recognizes the United States as a sovereign nation
1937—John Steinbeck's novel "Of Mice and Men" published
1867—Laura Ingalls Wilder, American author, born
1915—D.W. Griffith film "Birth of a Nation" premieres
1887—Dawes Act passed—Indians living apart from tribe granted citizenship
1911—Elizabeth Bishop, American poet, is born
1824—John Quincy Adams is elected President
1995—Bernard Harris first Black astronaut to take spacewalk
1862— Julia Ward Howe’s "Battle Hymn of the Republic" published
1949—Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman opens on Broadway
1890—Boris Pasternak, Russian author of Doctor Zhivago, born
1763—The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War
1945—FDR, Stalin, Churchill, sign Yalta Agreement
1990—Nelson Mandela is released from jail after 27 years in prison
1809—Abraham Lincoln, 16th US president, is born
1890—Charles Darwin, English naturalist, is born
1957—Southern Christian Leadership Conference organizes in New Orleans
—Andrew Bradford publishes first magazine in colonies, "The American Magazine," beating Benjamin Franklin by three days
1891—American Painter Grant Wood born
1817—Frederick Douglass, abolitionist adopted birthday because his mother referred to him as my “little valentine”
500—Valentine's Day
1564—Galileo Galilei, astronomer, is born
—The philosopher Socrates is sentenced to death
1923—Burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's unearthed tomb is unsealed in Egypt
1838—Historian Henry Adams born
1801—Thomas Jefferson is elected President
1885—Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published
1674—Peace of Westminster- NYC becomes English
1919—W.E.B. DuBois organizes first Pan-African Congress in Paris
1805—Angelina Grimké, abolitionist & lawyer, is born
1895—Abolitionist Frederick Douglass dies
1880—Washington's Birthday ( federal holiday)/Presidents Day (holiday in some states)
1965—Malcolm X is shot to death in New York City
1732—George Washington, 1st U.S. President, is born
1848—John Quincy Adams, 6th U.S. President (1825-1829), dies
1868—W.E.B. Du Bois, civil rights writer, is born
1803—Marbury v. Madison is decided
1868—Andrew Johnson impeached for violating Tenure of Office Act
1885—Berlin Act—European powers partition Africa
1902—John Steinbeck, writer, is born
1933—Nazis burn Reichstag
1807—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet, is born
1820—British illustrator and graphic humorist John Tenniel born
1736—Ann Lee, founder of the Shakers, is born
1692—The Salem witch trials begin