I'M BACK!!!!!!!!!! On February 17, 1906, officers of the Pinkerton Detective Agency (with no legal authority to do so) take 3 men into custody in Denver, CO and escort them on a private train to Idaho, where they are charged with the December 1905 murder of governor Frank Steunenberg. The men include Bill Haywood, president of the International Workers of the World, and Carles Moyer, president of the Western Federation of Miners. Steunenberg had gotten on the bad side of the unions several years earlier by breaking of a miners strike, and was killed by a bomb at his home. Despite the questionable method they were brought to custody, Moyer soon came to trial for murder, but the unions hired noted defense attorney Clarence Darrow and he won an acquittal. Haywood, suspecting he would have less luck in the courts, fled the country and settled in Russia. He died in 1928 and is buried in the Kremlin. On February 17, 1947, the Voice of America radio program is broadcast for the first time (in Russian) to the Soviet Union. The government funded broadcast had begun in 1942 on short-wave radio, providing war news and music in all theatres of war. It continued into the Cold War (as the first Russian broadcast stated) "to give (listeners in other countries) a picture of life in America." Detractors called it "propaganda", but Soviet officials did nothing to prevent the broadcasts, since the content was more music than commentary. Today, the Voice of America is heard world-wide over the internet, in English and 46 other languages.
On February 18, 1564, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni dies in Rome, 3 weeks short of his 89th birthday. Held as one of the greatest artists of all time, Michelangelo is responsible for some of history's greatest works in the fields of sculpture, painting, architecture and engineering. HIs accomplishments spanned nearly his entire life span; two of his best known sculptures, the Pieta and David, were completed before he was 30, and he made significant contributions to the construction of St. Peter's Basilica after his 75th birthday. He considered painting a lower art form, yet his fresco of the Book of Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is perhaps history's most breathtaking work of art. Many consider Michelangelo as equal to Leonardo di Vinci as the archetype of the true Renaissance man. On February 18, 1930, astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers the planet that will (a month later) be named Pluto. Pluto's existence had been speculated on for more than a decade, as astronomers tried to explain wobbles in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. Not long after the announcement of Pluto's discovery, skeptics began questioning whether it had sufficient mass to cause the irregularities being observed. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union announced that a planet must "clear the neighborhood around its orbit." Because its elliptical orbit overlaps that of Neptune, Pluto does not fit the description, and is now excluded as a planet in our solar system, now considered a "dwarf planet" in the Kuiper belt. (Color photo of Pluto taken in 1915) On February 18, 1929, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces the winners of its first Academy Awards. Its a simpler process than the massive spectacle presented today; the winners were printed on the back of the Academy's monthly newsletter, and announced to the public in Variety magazine a week later. Three months later, the winners received their awards - a gold statuette designed by art director Cedric Gibbons - at a $5 per plate dinner in Los Angeles. In 1931, a journalist printed a remark he overheard from an Academy secretary, that the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar, giving the Academy Award a name of its own.
On February 19, 1807 former vice president Aaron Burr is arrested and charged with alleged treason. Burr's political career was in ruins after a contentious vice presidency under President Jefferson, and his killing of Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. Burr fled into the Spanish territory along the Gulf Coast, where he forged an alliance with General James Wilkinson, who had worked with the Spanish in the past. Its believed they conspired to seize Spanish territory in Florida and Louisiana in an attempt to form a new colony, but Wilkinson got cold feet and informed Washington that Burr was raising a militia to seize New Orleans. Burr would eventually be acquitted, but his rep was tarnished further, and he fled to Europe for several years. On February 19 1878, Thomas Edison is awarded U.S. Patent 200,521 for his sound reproduction device, which he calls a phonograph. Expanding on existing work on the telephone and telegraph, Edison sought a way to generate easily repeated messages over both mediums. The phonograph was the result. His original design captured the signals created on a cylinder wrapped in tinfoil. Wax cylinders, leading to wax discs, would come later. On February 19, 1851, mob justice somehow does not get out of hand. The incident starts with 2 Australian immigrants beating and robbing a San Francisco shopkeeper of $2,000. Neighboring merchants quickly apprehend them, and William T. Coleman, leader of the city's "committee on vigilance" arrives on the scene. He assembles a jury from the gathered mob to conduct an on-the-street trial. Such vigilante justice often ended with a hanging in the 19th century American west, but these defendants are fortunate that their "judge" - Coleman - is legitimately interested in a fair trial, and the citizens he picks as defense attorneys win an acquittal. Hotheads in the mob attempt to seize the defendants anyway, but Coleman delivers them to the rightful authorities, who try and convict them at a later date. Coleman would eventually become a prominent Republican Party member in San Francisco, though he would repeatedly stray into "safety" or "vigilance" organizations until his death in 1893.
On February 20, 1792, President George Washington signs the Postal Service Act, making the U.S. Post Office a Cabinet Department. The Post Office had been originally established by the Continental Congress in 1774, primarily to ensure for the inexpensive delivery of newspapers. The position of Postmaster General of the U.S. will be one of government's choicest patronage jobs until the USPS is incorporated in 1971. (photo: Timothy Pickering, Postmaster General at the time of the Postal Service Act) On February 20, 1998, 15-year old Tara Lipinski wins the gold medal in women's figure skating for the U.S. at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. In doing so, Lipinski becomes the youngest person to win gold in the sport, and the youngest Winter Olympics gold medalist ever. (American springboard diver Marjorie Gestring won gold at the 1936 Summer Olympics at age 13) A year earlier, Lipinski had become the youngest world champion figure skater of all time. She turned pro 2 months later and retired from competitive skating in 2002 at age 19. On February 20, 1942, Lt. Edward "Butch" O'Hare becomes America's first flying ace of WWII. Flying an F4F Wildcat off the USS Lexington, O'Hare and Fighter Squadron 3 launched to defend the American airbase at Rabaul from a Japanese bomber attack. In just 4 minutes, O'Hare shot down 5 enemy bombers, earning the "ace" designation. He would also be awarded the Medal of Honor, the first Navy pilot so honored. O'Hare would be shot down November 26, 1943, leading the navy's first-ever night fighter attack; neither his body nor the plane were ever found. In September, 1949, Chicago officials would rename Orchard Depot Airport O'Hare International in his honor. (LKF: the accountant who kept mobster Al Capone's fraudulent books before turning state's evidence and helping convict Capone on tax evasion, was O'Hare's father.)
On February 21, 1965, African American nationalist leader Malcolm X is assassinated. Malcolm (born Malcolm Little) was preparing to address about 400 members of his Organization of Afro American Unity at a Washington Heights (NYC) facility when a man in the crowd allegedly yelled "N***A! Get your hands out of my pockets!" In the ensuing confusion, a man ran up to the stage and shot Malcolm with a sawed off shotgun at point blank range, while two other men opened fire with handguns. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead; the autopsy identified 10 buckshot entry points and 11 other bullet wounds. Three members of the Nation of Islam would be convicted of murder On February 21, 1916, German artillery opens fire on the northwest France fortress city of Verdun, commencing the longest battle of World War I. The heavily fortified city on the Meuse River was the key point of Allied defenses along the western front. When the Germans finally ceased their assault and withdrew in mid-December, combined casualties exceeded 300,000 dead and 400,000 wounded, with virtually no change in the lines after nearly 10 months fighting. The Battle of Verdun would come to symbolize the horrific nature of trench warfare in WWI. (below: a panaromic photo montage of the Verdun battlefield, taken in 1917) On February 21, 1948, the National Association of Stock Car Automobile Racing (NASCAR) is officially incorporated. NASCAR was conceived by Daytona Beach, FL mechanic and race enthusiast Bill France, who had been involved in racing for several years and seen how the lack of a governing body made it easy for local race promoters to cheat participating drivers. France would serve as president of NASCAR until retiring in 1972, and was instrumental in shaping the early development of stock car racing, including construction of Daytona International Speedway, which has become NASCAR's best-known venue. (below: Bill France photographed at Daytona Speedway during construction)
Prior to my arrival on the big blue rock and what I just read of your post is probably the most I have ever learned about him or his life. It is rare for me to say someone dying would be a good thing and the list of people that I would say "need killin" is short but that farrakahn fella is on it.
