February 19
The first rescuers reach surviving members of the Donner Party, a group of California-bound emigrants stranded by snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. – 1847.
U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 to initiate a controversial World War II policy with lasting consequences for Japanese Americans. The document ordered the removal of resident enemy aliens from parts of the West vaguely identified as military areas. Although Order 9066 affected Italian Americans and German Americans, the largest numbers of detainees were by far Japanese Americans who were systematically rounded up and placed in detention centers. – 1942.
February 20
U.S. president George Washington signs legislation to create the U.S. Postal Service to guarantee inexpensive delivery of all newspapers, stipulating the right to privacy, and granting Congress the ability to expand postal service to new areas of the Nation. – 1792
Six and a half months before Adolf Hitler invaded Poland, New York City’s Madison Square Garden hosted a rally to celebrate the rise of Nazism in Germany. Inside, more than 20,000 attendees raised Nazi salutes toward a 30-foot-tall portrait of George Washington flanked by swastikas. Outside, police and some 100,000 protesters gathered. – 1939.
From Cape Canaveral, Fla., John Hershel Glenn, Jr. is successfully launched into space aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft on the first orbital flight by an American astronaut. – 1962.
In a highly-controversial vote, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives. – 1985.
February 21
The Washington Monument, built in honor of America’s revolutionary hero and first president, is dedicated in Washington, D.C.. – 1885.
In New York City, N.Y., Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. – 1965.
February 22
Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. secretary of state John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its old province of Florida to the United States. – 1819.
During the Mexican-American War, Mexican general Santa Anna surrounds the outnumbered forces of U.S. General Zachary Taylor at the Angostura Pass in Mexico and demands an immediate surrender. Taylor refuses and early the next morning Santa Anna dispatched some 15,000 troops to move against the 5,000 Americans. The superior U.S. artillery halted one of the two advancing Mexican divisions, while Jefferson Davis’ Mississippi riflemen led the defense of the extreme left flank against the other Mexican advance. By five o’clock in the afternoon, the Mexicans begin to withdraw. – 1847.
In one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic Games history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of college players, defeats the four-time defending Gold-Medal winning Soviet team at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.Y.. The Soviet squad, previously regarded as the finest in the world, fell to the youthful American team, 4-3, before a frenzied crowd of 10,000 spectators. Two days later, the Americans defeat Finland, 4-2, to clinch the hockey Gold Medal. – 1980.
February 23
During the bloody Battle for Iwo Jima, U.S. Marines from the 3rd Platoon, E Company, 2nd Battalion, 28th Regiment of the 5th Division take the crest of Mount Suribachi, the island’s highest peak and most strategic position, and raise the U.S. flag. Marine photographer Louis Lowery was with them and recorded the event. – 1945.
A group of children from Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pa., receive the first injections of the new polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. Thanks to the vaccine, by the 21st century polio cases were reduced by 99% worldwide. – 1954.
February 24
The U.S. House of Representatives votes 11 articles of impeachment against president Andrew Johnson, nine of which cite Johnson’s removal of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, a violation of the Tenure of Office Act. The House vote made president Johnson the first president to be impeached in U.S. history. – 1868.
Women and children textile strikers are beaten by Lawrence, Mass. police during a 63-day walkout protesting low wages and work speedups. – 1912.
Russia invades Ukraine in a special military operation. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, espoused irredentist views and challenged Ukraine’s right to statehood, and falsely claimed that Ukraine was governed by neo-Nazis who persecuted the ethnic Russian minority. – 2022
February 25
A 22-year-old Cassius Clay shocks the odds-makers by dethroning world heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston in a seventh-round technical knockout. The dreaded Liston, who had twice demolished former champ Floyd Patterson in one round, was an 8-to-1 favorite. However, Clay predicted victory and boasted that he would “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” and knock out Liston in the eighth round. – 1964.