February's Today in Your History
A look at the people and events that shaped our lives, including America's first Black Attorney General
AARP Members Only Access, February 2023
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PHOTO BY: Everett Collection
Feb. 28: Today in Television History: M*A*S*H airs its series finale, one of the most-watched episodes in television history (1983)
Forty years ago today, the beloved, Korean War–set dramedy aired its series finale, which was entitled “Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen” and directed by series star Alan Alda. After eleven seasons, the two-and-a-half-hour episode (counting commercials) detailed the waning days of the American war efforts on the Korean peninsula, and though the series often seesawed back and forth between the funny and the serious, this episode leaned into the tragic and emotional: Hawkeye is institutionalized after convincing a woman on a bus to smother a “chicken” (that ended up being her crying infant), Mulcahy is deafened by an explosion, and the doctors and nurses of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital pack up and say their goodbyes. M*A*S*H remained appointment television for many Americans through the end of its run, and a whopping 106 million people — or 77 percent of the television-viewing audience — tuned in for the finale. In fact, it remained the most-watched TV show in history until the 2010 Super Bowl, which saw the New Orleans Saints heroically competing after Hurricane Katrina. How do those numbers stack up against other big series finales? M*A*S*H blows shows like Cheers (80.4 million), Seinfeld (76.3 million) and Friends (52.5 million) out of the water. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: History and Art Collection/Alamy
Feb. 27: The 22nd Amendment is ratified, limiting presidents to two terms (1951)
Following World War II, President Harry S. Truman created an advisory body known as the Hoover Commission, headed up by former President Herbert Hoover, to improve efficiency in the federal government. Among the group’s 273 recommendations to Congress was making an amendment to the Constitution that would limit presidents to two terms, and Congress formally proposed the Twenty-Second Amendment on March 24, 1947, before sending it along to the state legislatures for ratification. It took almost another four years for the requisite number of states — 36 out of the then-48 — to ratify the amendment and thus make it an official law of the land, which finally happened on this date in 1951. The law had been written in such a way to exempt Truman from being included, and upon its passage, he announced through his press secretary, “I have no comment; it does not affect me.” Republican National Committee Chairman Guy George Gabrielson had a different take: “If he should have the audacity to seek another term in 1952, I am confident that the voters — certainly in their present mood — will see to it that the spirit of the amendment is observed.” Indeed, Truman didn’t seek a third term. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann/Getty Images
Feb. 26: Robert Penn Warren is named America’s first poet laureate (1986)
On this date in 1986, Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin announced the creation of a new position, the Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry, and for the inaugural honoree, they chose a literary elder statesman: 80-year-old Robert Penn Warren. Known best for his political novel All the King’s Men, Warren was the only writer to have received Pulitzer Prizes in both fiction (1947) and poetry (twice, in 1958 and 1979). There had been poet laureates in Britain as far back as the 17th century, but the position first came to American shores thanks to the lobbying efforts of Hawaiian Senator Spark M. Matsunaga. Duties would include delivering a lecture and public reading, advising the Library of Congress on literary programs and suggesting new poets who should be recorded for the Library’s archives. In the U.K., poet laureates had a slightly different function, and they were often called upon to compose ceremonial verse for state occasions. Warren told The New York Times that he wouldn’t have taken the position if he “had been required to compose an ode to the death of someone’s kitten.” He continued, “That belongs to the old system of things. It’s part of the trappings of the monarchy — a kind of hired applauder, and I couldn’t have any of that.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: AP Photo
Feb. 25: Muhammad Ali becomes the world heavyweight champion by beating Sonny Liston (1964)
Days before he changed his name to Muhammad Ali, Cassius Clay stunned the sports world by defeating the heavily favored Sonny Liston to become the world heavyweight champion. In the weeks leading up to the fight, the underdog Clay was already on the offensive, taunting Liston by calling him “the big ugly bear” and even threatening to turn him into a bearskin rug. In a pre-fight poll, only three out of 46 writers and columnists predicted a Clay win, and the bout took a dramatic turn in the fourth round when a medication used on Liston’s cut seemed to temporarily blind his opponent. Clay rallied and by the sixth round, Liston’s shoulder was badly injured, and he retired to his corner, unable to return when the bell for the seventh round rang. The crowd of 8,297 was stunned, and after Clay was officially announced as the heavyweight champ, he shouted at the journalists who had doubted him, “Eat your words!” The next day, Clay announced that he had become a member of the Nation of Islam, and when the two fighters met for a rematch in May 1965, Ali landed a first-round knockout. Sports Illustrated later named Ali the Sportsman of the 20th Century in 1999. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: PA Images/Alamy
Feb. 24: Queen Elizabeth II knights Elton John in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace (1998)
Twenty-five years ago today, Elton John received an honor fit for a king when Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Henceforth, he’d be a “Sir.” The 50-year-old rock star arrived at the palace in a green Bentley with his parents and his partner David Furnish, and he said of the honor, “They don’t come much bigger than this.” His knighthood came just a few short months after he topped the charts with “Candle in the Wind 1997,” which he had reworked to honor his late friend Princess Diana. “I’ve had a long career and worked hard,” he said. “But I think the turning point came in 1990 when I got sober and started to do some charity work, particularly for the AIDS problem. A knighthood is the icing on the cake.” In 2021, Sir Elton received another bit of recognition from the royal family when Prince Charles appointed him to the Order of the Companions of Honour; the group, which can include a maximum of 65 members, currently counts the likes of Paul McCartney, J.K. Rowling and Judi Dench among its prestigious ranks. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Vince Bucci/AFP via Getty Images
Feb. 23: Santana wins eight Grammys, tying Michael Jackson for the most won in one night (2000)
On this date in 2000, Santana pulled off an impressive feat when the band took home eight Grammys; that haul tied them with Michael Jackson for most trophies won at the same ceremony. Among the awards the rock band snagged that night were album of the year for Supernatural and record of the year for “Smooth,” their chart-dominating collaboration with Rob Thomas. Looking back on the event after 20 years, legendary guitarist Carlos Santana told Rolling Stone, “On the actual night, I kept making fun of it, saying, ‘I feel like a doggy retrieving a Frisbee.’ I kept going back and forth, back and forth.” It became such a running joke, in fact, that when Sheryl Crow won best female rock vocalist, she thanked Santana “for not being in this category.” The wins may have also come as such a surprise because Santana’s work had been widely ignored by the Grammys for decades: The band had never won an award as a group, with Carlos having only taken home one in 1988 for best rock instrumental performance on “Blues for Salvador.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: jeremy sutton-hibbert/Alamy
Feb. 22: British scientists announce the birth of Dolly the cloned sheep (1997)
On this date in 1997, researchers at Scotland’s Roslin Institute announced the birth of the world’s first successfully cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly. She had been created using a single cell from the mammary gland of a 6-year-old ewe, which was then implanted into an unfertilized egg cell that had its nucleus removed. The announcement was pushed back to February until scientists had time to write up their findings, but Dolly had actually been born months before, on July 5, 1996, to a Scottish Blackface sheep surrogate mother; when the baby lamb emerged with a white face instead of a black one like her “mother,” scientists had their first inkling that she was, in fact, a clone. Her birth, unsurprisingly, sparked quite a bit of controversy: Those opposed questioned the ethics of potential human cloning, while supporters saw this as the first step in potentially curing degenerative diseases or even saving endangered species. One thing most people could agree on was that the backstory of her name was pretty charming: The sheep had been originally called 6LL3 but was later renamed “Dolly” as an homage to Dolly Parton. Why? The sheep’s DNA had come from a mammary gland cell. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: ST/AFP via Getty Images
Feb. 21: Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a hot air balloon (1995)
On this date in 1995, American stockbroker Steve Fossett became the first balloonist to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean, completing a wearying four-day, 5,400-mile journey when he landed in Leader, Saskatchewan. The 50-year-old adventurer had left South Korea, in a 150-foot-tall helium balloon that was set to land in California — the balloon was even marked “Seoul to San Francisco” — but the wind had a mind of its own, pushing him far off course. The last time someone had attempted to make the journey alone was in 1991, but Japanese balloonist Fumio Niwa sadly died while waiting to be rescued in his gondola after having to abandon his balloon in the sea. Fossett’s flight came with its own mishaps: On the first night, his propane burners failed, and temperatures dropped as low as -4ºF with nothing but a sleeping bag to keep him warm. In fact, he needed to use his own body heat to thaw out his frozen drinking water! “I’ve asked him why he does it and he just smiles,” his flight manager, Alan Noble, told reporters. “I think he does it because it’s something he wants to do. You’ve got to admire someone who spends the money they’ve made in enjoying life.” Fossett would later become the first balloonist to circumnavigate the planet solo in 2002 and then the first person to complete a nonstop global flight in an airplane by himself in 2005. He sadly went missing during a scouting flight in Nevada in September 2007, and his wreckage was found a year later. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: NASA/ullstein bild via Getty Images
Feb. 20: John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth (1962)
At the start of the 1960s, the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing, with the Soviets pulling out to an early lead when Yuri A. Gagarin orbited the earth one time in April 1961 aboard the Vostok. On Feb. 20, 1962, American John Glenn evened the playing field when he blasted off on the Friendship 7 and completed three orbits as part of the Mercury-Atlas 6 mission. Glenn was the third American to reach space after the suborbital flights of Alan Shepard and Virgil “Gus” Grissom, and his heroic trip to space wasn’t without its drama: During Glenn’s second orbit, Mission Control was alerted to a sensor that indicated his heat shield and landing bag were not secure. They feared the worst, but he reentered the atmosphere without a hitch and was safely recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, about 800 miles southeast of Bermuda — the sensor, it turns out, had been faulty. Phew! Upon splashing down, Glenn became a national hero, and he parlayed his fame into a 25-year Senate career. In 1998, a year before retiring from office, he returned to space as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery at the age of 77. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Anthony Camerano/AP Photo
Feb. 19: Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique (1963)
Sixty years ago today, Betty Friedan shook the foundations of polite American society with the publication of her book The Feminine Mystique. Inspired by a survey that Friedan circulated to her Smith College classmates, Friedan’s book posited that American middle-class women were much more deeply dissatisfied with their lives than many had previously believed, and she set off on a journey to conduct more research and speak to psychologists to get to the root cause. The book begins: “The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the twentieth century in the United States.” Friedan came to define that “problem that has no name” as a feeling of uselessness and boredom that came when a woman stayed home and had no identity outside of being a wife and mother. The book was a runaway blockbuster success, selling more than 3 million copies in three years, and it’s often credited with sparking the second-wave feminist movement. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: REUTERS/Alamy
Feb. 18: Dale Earnhardt Sr. dies from injuries during a crash in the final lap of the Daytona 500 (2001)
The racing world lost one of its most legendary figures on Feb. 18, 2001, when Dale Earnhardt Sr. crashed during the final lap of the 43rd Daytona 500. After colliding with other cars, Earnhardt’s black No. 3 Chevrolet spun out of control and hit the concrete wall at 160 mph. The Intimidator, as he was known, was cut out of his car and rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead from a basilar skull fracture. After his death, Earnhardt was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2006, and he was a member of the founding group of inductees in the NASCAR Hall of Fame four years later. But his death wasn’t in vain: He was the fourth NASCAR driver who had died within nine months, and the accidents pushed the organization to institute stricter safety standards — including head and neck restraints, the SAFER barrier and multipoint seat belt harnesses — that have undoubtedly saved the lives of future generations of racers. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann/Getty Images
Feb. 17: The world’s first superhero, Phantom, appears in print (1936)
A little over two years before Superman flew into the hearts of American comics fans in the summer of 1938, a different character was breaking ground as the first costumed, fictional superhero: Phantom. The brainchild of Lee Falk, a student at the University of Illinois, Phantom first appeared in King Features Syndicate on Feb. 17, 1936. He dons a purple bodysuit (though the comic strip wasn’t published in color until 1939!) and a black mask, and he comes armed with revolvers, homing pigeons and a skull-shaped ring that leaves a mark on his foes when he strikes them. He also comes with a wild origin story: In the 16th century, pirates killed everyone on a British merchant ship except for a nobleman’s young son named Kit Walker, who washes up on a jungle beach, is taken in by a tribe and vows to fight piracy and greed. Future generations of Walkers are trained to take up the fight, though local legend says that it’s still the same Phantom fighting crime centuries later — hence his nickname “the Ghost Who Walks.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann/Getty Images
Feb. 16: Fidel Castro becomes the prime minister of Cuba (1959)
On New Year’s Day 1959, Fidel Castro and his guerrilla forces drove President Fulgencio Batista and his government into exile, and on Feb. 16, the bearded revolutionary was officially sworn in as prime minister at the age of 32. Castro, who had been the commander in chief of the armed forces, filled a power vacuum created when the more moderate Prime Minister José Miró Cardona abruptly resigned. He wore his olive-green fatigues and square cap to the ceremony in the Cabinet Room of Havana’s Presidential Palace and told the assembled crowd of supporters and journalists, “We have great plans, and we suffer when we cannot put these into effect rapidly, but technical preparations take time.” Upon assuming office, he immediately reduced the powers of the president and elevated the prime minister to almost a dictator. Soon, he was instituting radical policies that included nationalizing Cuban industry and expropriating American businesses and agricultural estates, and within a year, he was making trade deals with the Soviet Union that alienated the United States. He remained a thorn in America’s side for nearly half a century, until he stepped down as Cuba’s leader in 2008. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Kelly Jordan/The Daytona Beach News-Journal via AP
Feb. 15: Dale Earnhardt Jr. pulls off an emotional victory at the Daytona 500 three years after his father’s death (2004)
Three years after he lost his father in a devastating crash on the same track, Dale Earnhardt Jr. cruised to his first Daytona 500 victory on Feb. 15, 2004. It was only his fifth attempt at the race, which started with a bang as President George W. Bush was on hand to give the command for drivers to start their engines. While Tony Stewart led more laps that day, Jr. passed into the lead on lap 181, and no one was ever able to catch up after that. In a moving twist, he came in first exactly six years after his father’s one and only Daytona 500 victory, which he achieved on his 20th try. Upon winning, Earnhardt Jr. stopped on the finish line to get out of his car and embrace his teammates, announcing, “This has got to be the greatest day of my life.” Stewart echoed his opponent’s sentiment, saying, “I’m happy about the day we had. But you know, considering what that kid went through losing his father here in the Daytona 500 and knowing how good he’s been here and just something’s happened, it’s nice to see him get his victory here, too. I think his father was really proud today.” Jr. would go on to win a second Daytona 500 a decade later in 2014, and he remained a fan favorite throughout his career: Before retiring in 2017, he was voted the National Motorsports Press Association Most Popular Driver an astounding 15 times in a row. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Tony Avelar/AP Photo
Feb. 14: Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim register a new video-sharing site called YouTube (2005)
Valentine’s Day 2005 would mark the start of a love affair between internet users and an addictive video-sharing website called YouTube. It was on that date that three former PayPal employees, Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim, officially registered the domain with the goal of giving everyday folks the ability to easily share their “home videos” online. It wasn’t until April 23 of that year that Karim posted YouTube’s official first video, an 18-second clip called “Me at the zoo” that shows him standing in front of elephants at the San Diego Zoo, offering some wisdom: “Hi, so here we are in front of the, uh, elephants. The cool thing about these guys is that they have really, really, really long, um, trunks. And that’s … that’s cool. And that’s pretty much all there is to say.” Trust us: He was a better entrepreneur than narrator, but that didn’t stop the video from being viewed 254 million times in the past 18 years. The beta version of the site opened to general users in May, before officially launching in December. By the following January, the site was already attracting 25 million daily views. It’s no wonder then that Google decided to snatch up YouTube in October 2006 for a cool $1.65 billion. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Everett Collection
Feb. 13: Dolly Parton releases her debut album (1967)
The country music world got a little glitzier on Feb. 13, 1967, when Dolly Parton released her debut full-length solo album, appropriately titled Hello, I’m Dolly. (She had previously recorded six songs for the 1963 compilation album Hits Made Famous by Country Queens.) To open her first album, Backwoods Barbie went with a song that would perfectly encapsulate her mission statement for the rest of her career: Called “Dumb Blonde,” the tune kicks off with the lyrics, “Don’t try to cry your way out of this / Don’t try to lie or I’ll catch you in it / Don’t try to make me feel sorry for you / Just because I’m blonde / Don’t think I’m dumb / ’Cause this dumb blonde ain’t nobody’s fool.” From the start, she showed off her trademark wit, as when she sings on “Something Fishy,” “I guess some large-mouth bass left that lipstick on your shirt / I don’t think you’re a fisherman / Honey, I think you’re a flirt.” Though Parton was relatively unknown at the time, her album peaked at number 11 on the country charts, but more importantly, it caught the attention of Porter Wagoner, who invited her onto his weekly television show and helped turn her into a superstar. —Nicholas DeRenzo
Test your Dolly Parton knowledge with our quiz.
Check out our celebrity interview with the legendary singer, too.
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PHOTO BY: Deborah Coleman/Getty Images
Feb. 12: San Francisco begins issuing same-sex marriage licenses (2004)
On this date in 2004, during the heat of the gay marriage debate, then–San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom took the bold step of issuing same-sex marriage licenses in the city before it was the law of the land. “San Francisco is a proud city,” he explained. “We do not tolerate discrimination.” During the first nine days of the new policy, almost 3,200 couples got married, with the first among them being a lesbian couple who had been living together for more than half a century, 79-year-old Phyllis Lyon and 83-year-old Del Martin. Lyon and Martin seemed a perfect choice for the boundary-breaking moment: They had founded the country’s first lesbian organization, the Daughters of Bilitis, way back in 1955. Newsom’s move ignited a national debate, and that August, the California Supreme Court ruled that the mayor had exceeded his powers and nullified the licenses that had been issued. The mayor argued that he was confident about the decision, even if it meant the end of his political career, but he has undoubtedly had the last laugh: Same-sex marriage was finally legalized across California in 2013 and nationwide in 2015, and Newsom recently won reelection as governor. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Mondadori Portfolio/Archivio GBB/Everett Collection
Feb. 11: Poet Sylvia Plath is found dead at the age of 30 (1963)
Sylvia Plath’s legacy will always be tinged by tragedy: Although she’s considered one of the most beloved American poets of the 20th century, she’s almost as well known for her struggles with depression, her periods of psychiatric hospitalization and her eventual death by suicide at the age of 30 as she is for her poems. Sixty years ago today, on Feb. 11, 1963, a Monday morning, a nurse arrived at the London flat of Plath and her husband, fellow poet Ted Hughes, to help take care of her young children. When no one answered the door, the nurse sought the assistance of a worker, who helped her get inside, where she found Plath on the kitchen floor with her head in the gas oven, dead from carbon-monoxide poisoning. The young poet had been careful not to harm her sleeping toddlers, blocking the space under the doors with cloth and tea towels; in their room, she had left them milk and bread in case they awoke before someone found them. Following her death, Plath’s widower compiled her works in 1981’s The Collected Poems, for which she became the first person to win a posthumous Pulitzer Prize the next year. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Jim McCrary/Redferns/Getty Images
Feb. 10: Carole King releases her chart-topping album Tapestry (1971)
On Feb. 10, 1971, Carole King released her groundbreaking album Tapestry, which is filled with so many memorable singles that it almost came into the world fully formed as a greatest hits record. In fact, you can probably sing along to most of the songs on the album, including “I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late,” “You’ve Got a Friend,” “Where You Lead,” “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” and more. From the start, Tapestry was an unmitigated critical and commercial success: It picked up four Grammy Awards, including album, song and record of the year, and it’s still one of the highest-selling albums of all time, with a diamond (or 14-time platinum) certification from the RIAA. Notoriously picky rock critic Robert Christgau loved the album, writing, “King has done for the female voice what countless singer-composers achieved years ago for the male: liberated it from technical decorum. She insists on being heard as she is — not raunchy and hot-to-trot or sweet and be-yoo-ti-ful, just human, with all the cracks and imperfections that implies. And for the first time she has found the music — not just the melodies, but the studio support — to put her point across as cleanly and subtly as it deserves.” It might come as no surprise that when Rolling Stone released its updated list of “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” in 2020, Tapestry ranked at an impressive number 25. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
Feb. 9: The Hollywood Walk of Fame makes its debut (1960)
A Hollywood icon was born 63 years ago today, on Feb. 9, 1960, with the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Walk of Fame. Comprising a series of terrazzo-and-brass stars honoring entertainment legends, the sidewalk-based hall of fame was the brainchild of E.M. Stuart, the volunteer president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. By the late 1950s, committees were convened in four different categories — motion picture, radio, recording and television — to decide who was worthy of a star, and they included such industry bigwigs as Walt Disney, Cecil B. DeMille and Samuel Goldwyn. Joanne Woodward, an Oscar winner for The Three Faces of Eve, is often credited as the first actress to be honored with a star, but the truth is a bit more complicated: There weren’t individual ceremonies in those days, but Woodward was the first actress to pose for a portrait with her star, and an industry legend was erroneously born. Woodward was actually one of eight celebrities to have their stars unveiled in 1958 as a prototype for what the tributes would eventually look like — the other seven honorees were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick and Ernest Torrence. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Museum of American Finance, New York City
Feb. 8: The Nasdaq stock exchange begins trading (1971)
The American financial world got jolted into the future on Feb. 8, 1971, when Nasdaq began operations as the world’s first electronic stock market. Its name is an acronym for the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Systems, and it was unlike any other market that had come before it: There was no physical trading floor on which brokers did their work, and all trades occurred through computers and telecommunications systems. Upon its debut, The New York Times dubbed it “the most revolutionary innovation in the history of the over-the-counter market,” and in the years since, Nasdaq has grown to become the second largest securities exchange in the world, after only the New York Stock Exchange. Today, the exchange is no longer viewed as NYSE’s little brother, and its index of about 3,000 companies includes many of the biggest tech companies around, including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google’s parent company Alphabet. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Popperfoto via Getty Images
Feb. 7: The Beatles arrive in the United States for the first time (1964)
Perhaps not since the Mayflower reached Plymouth Rock had the arrival of Brits on American shores caused such a historic stir as the landing of the Beatles at John F. Kennedy Airport on Feb. 7, 1964. Less than a week after the Fab Four nabbed their first U.S. number 1 single with “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” John, Paul, George and Ringo boarded Pan Am Yankee Clipper Flight 101 at London’s Heathrow Airport; by the time they touched down, Beatlemania was in full force. As the Daily Mirror reported, “Five thousand screaming, chanting teenagers — most of them playing truant from school — gave the Beatles a fantastic welcome here today.” More than 100 extra cops were on hand to control the crowd of “stamping, banner-waving fans,” with one officer telling reporters, “I think the world has gone mad.” Two days later, the Beatles made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, with an estimated 73 million Americans (or about 40 percent of the U.S. population) tuning in to watch them tear through five songs: “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: ZUMA Press, Inc. /Alamy
Feb. 6: Elizabeth II becomes the queen of England after her father dies (1952)
On this date in 1952, following a long illness and a failed lung operation, the 56-year-old King George VI died in his sleep at the royal estate at Sandringham. Princess Elizabeth was in Kenya on the first stop of her Commonwealth tour when she received the news of his death and her immediate accession to the throne as Queen Elizabeth II. She spent her last morning as princess in a treehouse watching a herd of elephants being led by a matriarch, and in her 2012 biography Elizabeth the Queen, Sally Bedell Smith wrote, “There has been much speculation, not least because of historical parallels, about when precisely Elizabeth became Queen. It undoubtedly happened when she was atop the African fig tree, which draws a romantic line to the moment in 1558 when Elizabeth I, seated next to an oak tree at Hatfield House, heard that the death of her sister, Queen Mary, meant she was the monarch, also at age twenty-five.” She immediately flew back to the United Kingdom, where she was greeted at the airport by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Soon, a proclamation of accession was signed by 150 members of the Privy Council at St. James’s Palace in London, but it would be more than a year before the official coronation took place at Westminster Abbey on June 2, 1953. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Spencer Platt/Newsmakers/Getty Images
Feb. 5: Kelly Ripa is named as Regis Philbin’s permanent cohost (2001)
After 15 years on the morning show, Kathie Lee Gifford left behind Live With Regis and Kathie Lee in July 2000, kicking off a months-long search for Regis Philbin’s new cohost. During that stretch, ABC tried out a number of temporary replacements, including CNBC financial reporter Maria Bartiromo, legal assistant (and Julia Roberts inspiration) Erin Brockovich and even Philbin’s own wife, Joy. In the end, they decided to go with someone who was already a part of the network family; the 30-year-old Kelly Ripa had starred on the soap opera All My Children as Hayley Vaughan Santos for a decade at that point and was beloved for her perky attitude and her playful banter with the broadcast legend. “Say hello to my new cohost!” Philbin announced on the Feb. 5, 2001, show. “She’s here, and she ain’t leaving.” Indeed, Ripa has stuck around the morning juggernaut for more than two decades and counting, and when Philbin retired in 2011, she got to experience the hunt for a replacement from the other side, with Ryan Seacrest eventually landing the gig. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: G. Newman Lowrance via AP
Feb. 4: Prince performs “Purple Rain” in the rain at the Super Bowl XLI halftime show (2007)
During Super Bowl XLI in Miami Gardens, Florida, the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears with a final score of 29 to 17, but that night of Feb. 4, 2007, will always be remembered most for its halftime show, when Prince brought the house down in a torrential South Florida downpour. Backed by the 350-piece Florida A&M University marching band, Prince performed in a turquoise suit with a trademark purple guitar in the shape of his “Artist Formerly Known as Prince” symbol, a shape that was mimicked in the massive, neon-lit stage. His set list began with the intro to Queen’s “We Will Rock You,” then segued into his “Let’s Go Crazy” and a medley of “Baby I’m a Star,” “1999” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Proud Mary.” Next, he tore through covers of “All Along the Watchtower” and the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You,” before a giant piece of fabric arose behind him with his projected silhouette. The most indelible image of the evening came as the High Priest of Pop stood in the drenching shower — the first time it had ever rained during a Super Bowl — to deliver his blazing rendition of “Purple Rain.” The hazards were many (slippery floors, electric guitars, Prince’s high heels), but the iconic rocker loved the drama of the storm. In fact, he reportedly asked if they could make it rain harder! The gamble clearly paid off: In the years since 2007, Prince’s performance has achieved almost mythic status, and it’s been called the best halftime show of all time by Vulture, Rolling Stone and Billboard. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Gerald Herbert/AP Photo
Feb. 3: Eric Holder becomes America’s first Black attorney general (2009)
Eric Holder was sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden on Feb. 3, 2009, as the 82nd attorney general of the United States, becoming the first Black man to hold the position. The Bronx native had attended Columbia Law School and clerked at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund before President Reagan nominated him to become an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. In 1997, Holder was appointed deputy attorney general under President Clinton. After being nominated by President Obama and confirmed by a Senate vote of 75 to 21, Holder delivered a moving speech on his history-making role in the Cabinet: “We note today not just the journey of one fortunate person but also the distance traveled by this nation and by a people. Though much ground still needs to be covered, the events of the last year signify that a new day for this nation is potentially at hand. Nowhere but in this great country could a person like me or the president hope to achieve the positions we are now so fortunate to hold.” Holder remained in the position until 2015, when he resigned and rejoined the law firm of Covington & Burling LLP, where he had been a litigator. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Everett Collection/Alamy
Feb. 2: George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker premieres in New York (1954)
The Nutcracker has become a perennial holiday season favorite, so you might be surprised to hear that the beloved version by Russian American choreographer George Balanchine made its debut not in December but in February: On Feb. 2, 1954, his take on the ballet by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was first staged at New York’s City Center of Music and Drama. Before 1954, most Americans had only heard of “The Nutcracker Suite,” a collection of tunes from the ballet score that had been used in Disney’s Fantasia, but Balanchine and his New York City Ballet brought the production to thrilling life, with costumes by Karinska, sets by Horace Armistead and a cast that included children in the lead roles and the legendary Maria Tallchief as the Sugar Plum Fairy. Balanchine and his team chose the Christmas-themed production out of necessity: At the time, they shared the theater with the New York City Opera, which got first dibs on scheduling, and the fledgling ballet had been given the less popular weeks around the holidays; they never could have predicted at the time that this kid-friendly gamble would go on to become one of the biggest moneymakers in the entire world of dance, with dozens of performances each season. “If we hadn’t done Nutcracker,” Tallchief later recalled, “we wouldn’t have survived.” —Nicholas DeRenzo
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PHOTO BY: Bettmann via Getty Images
Feb. 1: Four Black college students start a sit-in at a Greensboro lunch counter (1960)
On Feb. 1, 1960, four Black students from the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University began staging one of the most consequential nonviolent protests of the civil rights era to call attention to the injustice of segregation. The Greensboro Four — Ezell Blair Jr., David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Joseph McNeil — were inspired to take action after learning about the methods of Mahatma Gandhi. After befriending a local white business owner and social activist named Ralph Johns, they planned their simple act of protest: They sat down at the whites-only lunch counter at the Woolworth’s in downtown Greensboro and refused to get up when they were denied service. Johns, in keeping with their plan, alerted the local media. A photo of the four men appeared in local papers, expanding the protest. They kept returning day after day, with some 300 students from the area joining them by Feb. 5, and television coverage helped their protest spread to 55 cities in 13 states. Shockingly, the plan actually worked — and quickly! — with many Southern restaurants integrating by that summer; the Greensboro Woolworth’s began by serving four of its own Black employees at the end of July. Today, the lunch counter and four stools are on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., and the former Woolworth’s building now houses the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. —Nicholas DeRenzo
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