In 1732 (New Style date), the first president of the United States, George Washington, was born in Westmoreland County in the Virginia Colony.
In 1784, a U.S. merchant ship, the Empress of China, left New York for the Far East to trade goods with China.
In 1810, according to some sources, Polish composer Frederic Chopin was born. (Chopin, however, claimed March 1 as his birthday.)
In 1819, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1855, Pennsylvania State University was founded in State College, Pa. It was originally called the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania.
In 1862, Jefferson Davis, already the provisional president of the Confederacy, was inaugurated for a six-year term following his election in Nov. 1861.
In 1865, Tennessee adopted a new constitution abolishing slavery.
In 1879, Frank Winfield Woolworth opened a five-cent store in Utica, N.Y.
In 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed an enabling act paving the way for the Dakotas, Montana and Washington to become states.
In 1909, the Great White Fleet, a naval task force sent on a round-the-world voyage by President Theodore Roosevelt, returned after more than a year at sea.
In 1935, it became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.
In 1940, the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) was enthroned at age four in Lhasa, Tibet.
In 1959, the inaugural Daytona 500 race was held in Daytona Beach, Fla.; although Johnny Beauchamp was initially declared the winner, the victory was later awarded to Lee Petty.
In 1973, the United States and China agreed to establish liaison offices.
In 1980, the "Miracle on Ice" occurred in Lake Placid, N.Y. as the United States Olympic hockey team upset the Soviets, 4-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)
ABC announcer Al Michaels calls the final seconds of the game.
In 1987, pop artist Andy Warhol died at age 58.
In 1993, the U.N. Security Council approved creation of an international war crimes tribunal to punish those responsible for atrocities in the former Yugoslavia.
In 1994, the Justice Department charged 31-year CIA veteran Aldrich Ames and his wife, Rosario, with selling national security secrets to the Soviet Union.
In 1999, Levi Strauss, falling victim to a fashion generation gap, announced it was closing 11 plants.
In 2000, John McCain won Republican primaries in Michigan and his home state of Arizona. [Good luck w/ the primary in your "home state" this yr., you filthy moderate RINO! — Ed.]
In 2001, a U.N. war crimes tribunal convicted three Bosnian Serbs on charges of rape and torture in the first case of wartime sexual enslavement to go before an international court.
In 2002, San Diego police arrested David Westerfield in the disappearance of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. (Westerfield was later convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to death.)
In 2004, consumer advocate Ralph Nader entered the presidential race as an independent. A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Jerusalem bus, killing eight passengers. Rebels captured Haiti's second-largest city, claiming Cap-Haitien as their biggest prize in a two-week-old uprising.
In 2005, a powerful earthquake struck central Iran, killing more than 600 people. A Virginia man was charged with plotting with al-Qaida to kill President George W. Bush. (Ahmed Omar Abu Ali was convicted on all counts in November 2005; he was sentenced to life in prison after a 30-year sentence was overturned.) Buckingham Palace said Queen Elizabeth II would not attend the civil marriage ceremony of her son Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles — but that her absence should not be interpreted as a snub.
In 2006, insurgents destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines, the Askariya mosque in Samarra, setting off a spasm of sectarian violence.
In 2009, a gas explosion in a coal mine in northern China killed more than 70 miners.
Today's Birthdays: Announcer Don Pardo is 92. Actor Paul Dooley is 82. Hollywood "ghost singer" Marni Nixon is 80. Baseball Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson is 76. Movie director Jonathan Demme is 66. Actor John Ashton is 62. Actress Miou-Miou is 60. Actress Julie Walters is 60. Basketball Hall of Famer Julius Erving is 60. Actress Ellen Greene is 59. Former Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) is 58. White House adviser David Axelrod is 55. Actor Kyle MacLachlan is 51. World Golf Hall of Famer Vijay Singh is 47. Actress-comedian Rachel Dratch is 44. Actress Jeri Ryan is 42. Actor Thomas Jane is 41. Actress Tamara Mello is 40. Actress-singer Lea Salonga is 39. Actor Jose Solano is 39. International Tennis Hall-of-Famer Michael Chang is 38. Rock musician Scott Phillips is 37. Actress Drew Barrymore is 35. Actress Liza Huber is 35. Singer James Blunt is 33. Rock singer Tom Higgenson (Plain White T's) is 31.
Those Born On This Date Include: German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (17880; poet, diplomat and editor James Lowell (1819); Englishman Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and German physicist Heinrich Hertz, discoverer of radio waves (both 1857); Hall of Fame baseball umpire Bill Klem (1874); poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892); actor and TV producer Sheldon Leonard (1907); Robert Pershing Wadlow, at 8 ft. 11.1 inches tall, the tallest person in recorded history (1918); actors Robert Young (1907) & John Mills (1908).
Today In Entertainment February 22
In 1934, the comedy "It Happened One Night," starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, opened in New York.
In 1964, The Beatles arrived in London following their first visit to the US.
In 1976, original Supremes member Florence Ballard died in Detroit of coronary thrombosis at age 32. Ballard and her children were living on welfare at the time of her death.
In 1978, The Police starred in a TV commercial for Wrigley's chewing gum. The ad was made a few months before the band's single "Roxanne" was released in the UK.
In 1989, the first heavy metal Grammy was given out. Jethro Tull won.
In 1990, a jury in Los Angeles rejected a claim that Stevie Wonder's hit "I Just Called To Say I Love You" was stolen from another songwriter.
In 1993, CBS announced that the network had purchased the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York for David Letterman's new TV show. At that point, Letterman was rumored to be moving his program to Los Angeles.
In 1997, Farrah Fawcett and Ryan O'Neal announced they were ending their 15-year relationship.
In 2001, Steely Dan won their first Grammys ever, including album of the year for "Two Against Nature." They beat out Eminem's "The Marshall Mathers LP," which had generated controversy over its lyrics.
In 2004, Puddle of Mudd singer Wes Scantlin was arrested in Toledo, Ohio, for allegedly throwing a bottle into an audience and spitting on them while publicly drunk.
In 2005, Blink-182 announced they were going on hiatus. It turned out to be their breakup. They have since reunited. [The point being? — Ed.]
In 2007, Britney Spears checked into rehab for the third time in a week.
In 2008, singer-actress Jennifer Lopez gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy.
In 2009, the late Heath Ledger won the best supporting actor Oscar for "The Dark Knight"; "Slumdog Millionaire" won best picture and seven other Academy Awards.
Thoughts for Today: "The crude commercialism of America, its materializing spirit are entirely due to the country having adopted for its natural hero a man who could not tell a lie." — Oscar Wilde, Irish-born dramatist (1854-1900). "The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease." — Marianne Moore, American poet (1887-1972).
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