February 8
Following the Russian rejection of a Japanese plan to divide Manchuria and Korea into spheres of influence, Japan launches a surprise naval attack against Port Arthur, a Russian naval base in China. The Russian fleet was decimated. – 1904.
A severe blizzard in New England finally subsides, and the region begins to dig out from under several feet of snow. Over the previous 72 hours, some areas of Rhode Island and Massachusetts had received as many as 55 inches of snow. – 1978.
February 9
Because no presidential candidate received a majority of electoral votes in the election of 1824, the U.S. House of Representatives votes to elect John Quincy Adams, who won fewer votes than Andrew Jackson in the popular election, as president of the United States. Adams was the son of John Adams, the second president of the United States. – 1825.
The U.S. Congress pushes ahead standard time for the United States by one hour in each time zone to impose daylight saving time, called at the time, “war time.” Daylight saving time, suggested by U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt, was imposed to conserve fuel, and could be traced back to World War I, when Congress imposed one standard time on the United States to enable the country to better utilize resources. – 1942.
Congress approves legislation to allow a total of $940 million to be used for Great Depression-era relief projects; $790 million of this money was intended to be used for funds in work relief and flood recovery programs. – 1937.
President John Kennedy asks Congress to approve creation of the Medicare program, financed by an increase in Social Security taxes, to aid 14.2 million Americans aged 65 or older. – 1961.
February 10
After three hours, world chess champion Gary Kasparov loses the first game of a six-game match against Deep Blue, an IBM computer capable of evaluating 200 million moves per second. Man was ultimately victorious over machine, however, when Kasparov defeated Deep Blue in the match with three wins and two ties and took home the $400,000 prize. – 1996.
February 11
The Seattle General Strike ends after six days. Approximately 65,000 struck for higher pay after two years of World War I wage controls. – 1919.
Nelson Mandela, leader of the movement to end South African apartheid, is released from prison after 27 years, February 11. – 1990.
February 12
Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic goes on trial at The Hague, Netherlands, on charges of genocide and war crimes in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo. Milosevic served as his own attorney for much of the prolonged trial, which ended without a verdict when the so-called “Butcher of the Balkans” was found dead at age 64 from an apparent heart attack in his prison cell March 11, 2006. – 2002.
February 13
Italian philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, Galileo Galilei, arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying January 8, 1642. – 1633.
The earliest military action to be revered with a Medal of Honor award is performed by Colonel Bernard J.D. Irwin, an assistant army surgeon serving in the first major U.S.-Apache conflict. Near Apache Pass, in southeastern Arizona, Irwin, an Irish-born doctor, volunteered to go to the rescue of Second Lieutenant George N. Bascom, who was trapped with 60 men of the U.S. Seventh Infantry by the Chiricahua Apaches. Irwin and 14 men, initially without horses, began the 100-mile trek to Bascom’s forces by riding on mules. After fighting and capturing Apaches along the way and recovering stolen horses and cattle, they reached Bascom’s forces February 14 and proved instrumental in breaking the siege. – 1861.
Some 12,000 Hollywood writers return to work following a three-month strike against television and motion picture studios. They won compensation for their TV and movie work that gets streamed on the Internet. – 2008.
February 14
Striking workers at Detroit’s newspapers, out since the previous July, offer to return to work. The offer is accepted five days later, but the newspapers vow to retain some 1,200 scabs. A court ruling the following year ordered as many as 1,100 former strikers reinstated. – 1996.