On February 13, 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy. Galileo has been publicly advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. He will agree to what is essentially a plea bargain in April of that same year, and is placed under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII. Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642. Recognized as one of history's foremost mind in the study of motion and astronomy, Galileo will nevertheless be regarded with contempt by the Catholic Church until the Vatican formally acknowledged its mistake in condemning him, in 1992. On February 13, 1920, the League of Nations recognizes the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland. Swiss neutrality actually dates back to the Congress of Vienna in 1815. It was a loose confederation of German-, French-, and Italian-speaking communities until 1798, when Napoleon conquered and unified the country as the Helvetic Republic and imposed a constitution, which was enforced by French occupation troops. Bitterly resented by the Swiss people, the French occupation ended in 1803, when Napoleon agreed to a new Swiss-approved constitution and withdrew his troops. Yet another constitution, this one adopted in 1848, reinforced the neutrality principle by outlawing Swiss service in foreign armies or the acceptance of pensions from foreign governments. After World War I, Swiss voters narrowly approved membership in the League of Nations, which - in addition to recognizing perpetual neutrality - established its headquarters in the city of Geneva. Switzerland maintains neutrality, along with a reputation for political and economic stability, to the present day. On the evening of February 13, 1945, the first in a series of Allied firebombing raids is launched against the German city of Dresden. Over the next two day, American and British bombers will drop 3,400 tons of explosives on the city called “Florence of the Elbe.” Eight square miles of the city are obliterated, and the death toll - impossible to accurately calculate due to the many refugees in the city - ranges from 25-35,000. Dresden was targeted for destruction following the Yalta Conference, where Allied powers agreed to strategic bombing of German industrial centers. Dresden hardly fit this description, but was targeted as it was believed to be an important communications link between the Nazi government and its armies on the Russian front. Critics say Dresden was more a cultural center with little strategic importance, and cite its destruction as the cautionary tale against targeting civilians in wartime.
On February 14, around the year 270 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. At least, that's how the legend goes. In fact, the Catholic church recognizes 3 St. Valentines, all martyrs. One was bishop of Terni, Italy, and another was martyred in the African provinces of Rome. The third, the legend says, defied Claudius' edict banning marriage, which he believed was deterring enlistment in the army. Valentine continued to marry young lovers in secret, and was sentenced to death. The legend further states that Valentine wrote a farewell note to a platonic female friend while in jail awaiting execution, signing the note, "From Your Valentine." The connection of Valentine's Day to romance likely comes from the pagan Feast of Lupercalia, also celebrated on February 14. In this festival, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. Pope Gelasius ended the practice in 496 and declared February 14 be celebrated as Valentine's Day. On February 14, 1929, four men dressed as police officers enter gangster George "Bugs" Moran’s headquarters on North Clark Street in Chicago, line seven of Moran’s henchmen against a wall, and shoot them to death. Moran controlled the bootleg alcohol trade in Chicago's North Side. He feuded throughout the decade with rival bootlegger Al Capone, and when Moran put a $50,000 bounty on Capone's head, "Scarface" upped the ante and ordered Moran's execution. Knowing Moran was expecting a delivery of bootleg whiskey at his HQ, Capone ordered 4 of his men to dress as cops and bust up the delivery. Moran, however, arrived late, saw the bogus cops entering the building and hid outside, thinking he was only avoiding arrest. The 7 dead included Moran's friend Frank Gusenberg, who was still alive when the real police arrived. When asked who shot him, Gusenberg, gangster to the last, said, "No one, nobody shot me." The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre effectively ended the gang war between Capone and Moran, who's organization was left too weak to retaliate. Capone was jailed in 1931. On February 14, 1933, Jack McGurn, one of the Massacre hit men, was killed by machine gun fire in a crowded bowling alley. His killer was never caught, but many believe it was Moran, who was relegated to small time robberies by this time. He died in prison of lung cancer in 1957. On February 14, 1943, the US Army suffers its first major defeat of World War II, losing more than 1,000 men to German General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps at Kasserine Pass. Rommel saw the army's II Corps as the weak spot in the Allied defenses as he set his sites on Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. In the wake of the Kasserine Pass defeat, Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower relieves General Lloyd Fredendall as II Corps commander. His replacement is General George S. Patton. The rest is history.
On February 15, 1898, a massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine as it sits at anchor in Cuba’s Havana harbor. Of its crew of 400, 260 are killed. Cuba was in a state of rebellion against Spanish rule, and the Maine, one of the newest and largest ships in the fleet, had been sent as a show of force for US citizens on the island. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the ship was blown up by a mine. Although Spain was not directly blamed, a wave of public outrage, fueled greatly in part by the newspapers owned by media giants William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, led Congress to declare war on Spain. The Spanish-American War was begun and ended by the following December, with Spain turning over numerous overseas possessions, including the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam, to the US. In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage. On February 15, 1946, the University of Pennsylvania formally dedicates it Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. Called ENIAC for short, it is the first general purpose computer. Filling a good-sized room, its initial use is for computations on the feasibility of the hydrogen bomb. It was transferred to the US Army Ordinance Corps later that year, who used it until 1955. Various components of ENIAC are now displayed in the Smithsonian, and various army museums and universities around the country. On February 15, 1998, one of sports' longest streaks of futility ends, when Dale Earnhardt wins his first Daytona 500 in 20 attempts. Earnhardt had more than 70 wins and 7 Winston Cup championships to his credit when he finally put the Daytona notch on his belt. Following his victory, crews from competing teams lined the pit road to congratulate Earnhardt.
On February 16, 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen. Other than that he had lived around 1400 BC and died when still a teenager, little was known about King Tut when Carter gained excavation rights in Egypt's Valley of the Kings in 1915. Numerous tombs had already been excavated by then, including at least one that contained references to King Tut, but Carter was convinced his actual tomb was undiscovered. He found its entrance in November 1922, entering its interior chambers on the 26th. Unlike many other pharoah's tombs that had been plundered over the centuries, King Tut's tomb was virtually intact. There are also four other connected chambers. On 2/16, under the watchful eyes of a number of Egyptian officials, Carter enters the fourth chamber to find King Tut's intact sarcophagus. It is now the centerpiece of the "Treasures of Tutankhamen" exhibit, which is frequently loaned to museums around the world but is permanently housed in Cairo. February 16, 1968 sees the first official "911" call placed in the United States. The concept of a short, easy to remember phone number for emergency use only actually began in the United Kingdom in the 1930's with "999" chosen as the emergency number. Fire departments around the US began calling for a similar system, and the FCC finally put a plan in motion in 1967. AT&T, the country's largest phone service in the pre-phone monopoly days, suggested "911" as it had not yet been designated an area code anywhere in the country. The first local system went active in Haleyville, Alabama, with the state's Speaker of the House, Rankin Fite making the first 911 call. But the concept still spread slowly; it was not endorsed as a nation-wide system by the White House until 1973, and even then came only as a proclamation rather than executive order. 911 was in use by 50% of the nation by 1987. On February 16, 1960, the USS Triton, the US Navy's 4th nuclear powered submarine, departs Groton, Connecticut on her shakedown cruise. Submerging immediately after clearing port, her destination is St. Peter and St. Paul's Rocks in the South Atlantic Ocean. The Triton reaches that point on Feb. 24, and immediately begins Operation Sandblast. Following, in general, the route of Ferdinand Magellan, Triton will become the first vessel to sail around the world submerged. Her sail will break the water's surface one time during the voyage, to transfer an ill sailor off the boat on March 6. Other than that, she will remain completely submerged until her arrival back at Groton on May 10.
On February 17, 1782, the American Revolution goes global. A French naval squadron under Admiral Pierre Andre de Suffren de Saint-Tropez, living up the French agreement to assist the cause of American independence, attacks a British squadron....on the Indian Ocean. Over the next 14 months, Bailli de Suffren, as he is known, will attack superior British forces in the Indian Ocean region 5 times. The first 4 are stalemates; the fifth causes British Vice Admiral Sir Edward Hughes to withdraw his forces from the East Indies, after sending Suffren his personal compliments on his strategies during the campaign. Suffren is ordered home shortly afterward, but he dies during the journey, robbing Napoleon of who he believes could have been "the next Lord Nelson." On February 17, 1820, The Senate passes the Missouri Compromise, an attempt to deal with the dangerously divisive issue of extending slavery into the western territories. The Territory of Missouri applied for statehood in 1818, while the subject of slavery was under intense debate in Congress and society in general. Slaveholders and abolitionists alike realize their congressional influence will ride on the number of new "free" or "slave" states admitted into the Union. Congress debates Missouri's position for 2 years before the compromise is reached. Missouri will be admitted without restrictions on slavery, while Maine will be simultaneously admitted as a free state. The Missouri Compromise also mandates that the line of latitude that now constitutes the northern border of Arkansas will be the boundary between free and slave states for any new states carved out of the Louisiana territory. On February 17, 1972, the 15,007,034th Volkswagen Beetle comes off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany, one more than the total number of Model T's produced by Ford from 1908 to 1927. The VW Beetle is now the most produced car in the world.
On February 18, 1885, Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain first introduced Huck Finn as the best friend of Tom Sawyer, hero of his tremendously successful novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Though Twain saw Huck’s story as a kind of sequel to his earlier book, the new novel was far more serious, focusing on the institution of slavery and other aspects of life in the antebellum South. Told in the first person, with Huck as its uneducated, uncultured narrator, the story centers on Huck's efforts to help a runaway slave escape bondage. But within in a month of its release, libraries around the country began banning the book, calling it "tawdry", "coarse" and "ignorant." It found renewed controversy in the 1950's when African-American groups labelled it racist for its portrayal of black characters (despite its strong criticism of slavery and racism in general). As recently as 1998, an Arizona parent sued her school district, claiming that making Twain’s novel required high school reading made already existing racial tensions even worse. Between the controversies, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been hailed by many serious literary critics as a masterpiece. No less a judge than Ernest Hemingway famously declared that the book marked the beginning of American literature. On February 18, 2010, a relatively obscure website called WikiLeaks publishes a leaked diplomatic cable detailing discussions between American diplomats and Icelandic government officials. The leak of "Reikjavik13" barely registered with the public, but it was the first of what turned out to be nearly 750,000 sensitive documents sent to WikiLeaks by Chelsea Manning, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst who was deployed to Iraq two years earlier. She will soon begin leaking information about the war in Iraq, including documentation that indicates the government underreported the death toll to Iraqi civilians by as much as 10,000. Manning was arrested in May of 2010 and eventually sentenced to 35 years in military prison, though her sentence was commuted by President Obama days before the end of his term in January 2017. Manning is now considered one of the most significant "whistleblowers" in American history. On February 18, 2001, Dale Earnhardt Sr., considered one of the greatest drivers in NASCAR history, dies in a last-lap crash at the Daytona 500. Earnhardt was running in third place and trying to block drivers trying to get past him and the top two cars, which he owned. There was brief contact by another car with the back of Earnhardt's famed black no. 3 Chevrolet, and Earnhardt went nose first into the wall. He would be cut from the car and driven to a nearby hospital, where he was pronounced dead of head injuries. The death of the immensely popular driver nicknamed "The Intimidator" would lead to sweeping safety reforms by NASCAR, including mandatory use of head and neck restraints.
I know. I wanted to post the video as it happened with the FOX audio, rather than some type of edited piece, but I was in a hurry.
