This Week in History – February 21-27
February 21, 1945 – Eric Liddell, the Scottish Olympian whose story is told in the film Chariots of Fire which won 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, dies of a brain tumor. In 1925, he had joined the staff of the Anglo-Chinese Christian College in Tientsin, China (his birthplace). He was captured by the Japanese in 1942 and died just before his scheduled release.
February 21, 2018 – Billy Graham, the most well-known and effective evangelist of the 20th century, dies at 99. Graham preached to millions and saw throngs come to Christ during his evangelistic crusades through the United States and across the globe. Graham also advised numerous American presidents and was the driving force behind establishing Evangelicalism as a movement within American Protestant Christianity and beyond.
February 22, 1732 – George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, VA. He served as commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and became the first U.S. President.
February 22, 1861 – Minnesota celebrates George Washington’s birthday as a legal holiday for the first time.
February 22, 1956 – In Montgomery, Alabama, 80 participants in the three-month-old bus boycott voluntarily gave themselves up for arrest after an ultimatum from white city leaders. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks were among those arrested. Later in 1956, the U.S. Supreme Court mandated desegregation of the buses.
February 22, 1980 – “Miracle on Ice.” The U.S. hockey team, coached by Minnesota’s Herb Brooks, beats the heavily-favored Soviet Union 4-3 at Lake Placid in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history. The Americans go on to win gold medal.
February 22, 2017 – President Donald Trump overturns Democrat President Barack Obama’s Executive Order which allowed so-called “transgenders” to use restrooms designated for those opposite their biological gender.
February 23, 155 – Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna, is martyred. Reportedly a disciple of the Apostle John, at age 86 he was taken to be burned at the stake. “You try to frighten me with fire that burns for an hour and forget the fire of hell that never burns out,” he said. According to witnesses, the flames would not touch him, and when he was run through with a sword, his blood put what was left of the fire out.
February 23, 1455 – Johannes Gutenberg publishes the Bible, the first book ever printed on a press with movable type.
February 23, 1685 – George Frederick Handel, composer of the oratorio “Messiah,” is born. He died in 1759, having spent the last six years of his life in total blindness.
February 23, 1836 – The Alamo is besieged for 13 days until March 6 by Mexican army under General Santa Anna. The entire garrison is eventually killed.
February 23, 1898 – In France, Emile Zola is imprisoned for writing his “J’Accuse” letter accusing the government of anti-Semitism and wrongly jailing Alfred Dreyfus.
February 23, 1983 – Mark Pavelich becomes the first U.S.-born National Hockey League player to score five goals in a game when the Eveleth native, and member of the gold medal-winning “Miracle on Ice” 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, led the New York Rangers to an 11-3 victory over the Hartford Whalers in NYC.
February 24, 303 – The first official Roman edict for the persecution of Christians is issued by Emperor Diocletian (Galerius Valerius Maximianus).
February 24, 1858 – Minnesota is nicknamed the “Gopher State.” The legislature had guaranteed a $5 million loan to railroad interests, and a cartoon showing a railroad car of corrupt men being pulled by nine striped rodents with human heads (representing legislators and railroad promoters) is printed on this date.
February 24, 1925 – Minnesota loses to Canada two and a half acres of water area from the Northwest Angle (the northwestern point of Lake of the Woods) when the United States and the Dominion of Canada sign an agreement that more accurately defines the international boundary between the two countries established by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842.
February 24, 2014 – Democrat President Barack Obama proposes nuclear trade with communist Vietnam.
February 24, 2015 – Democrat President Barack Obama vetoes “Keystone XL Pipeline Approval Act” from Congress saying it didn’t “serve the national interest.” However, opinion polls showed Americans, facing rising energy costs, overwhelmingly backed the legislation. On January 24, 2017, in his first week in office, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum reviving the project. But on January 20, 2021, Democrat President Joe Biden revoked the permit for the pipeline on his first day in office, along with other anti-energy executive orders, causing energy prices—and inflation across all sectors of the economy—to reach record highs in a matter of a few months.
February 24, 2021 – Democrat President Joe Biden issues executive order revoking five more orders by predecessor President Donald Trump—all related to economic opportunity, economic recovery, and violent crime prevention. Record inflation, homelessness, and violent crime soon skyrocketed across America.
February 25, 1836 – Samuel Colt patents first multi-shot revolving-cylinder revolver, enabling the firearm to be fired multiple times without reloading.
February 25, 1862 – Congress forms U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing to print newly issued and first U.S. paper currency, the United States One-Dollar Notes and on the same date, the first Legal Tender Act 1862 is passed by the Congress, authorizing the United States Note (greenback) into circulation, the first fiat paper money that was legal tender in America.
February 25, 1885 – A far cry from 117th U.S. House and Senate—Congress condemns barbed wire around government grounds.
February 25, 1901 – U.S. Steel Corporation is organized under J. P. Morgan.
February 25, 1932 – Austrian immigrant Adolf Hitler is granted German citizenship.
February 25, 1948 – Soviet socialists seize control of Czechoslovakia.
February 26, 1536 – Swiss Protestants sign the First Helvetic Confession, the first uniform confession of faith for all German-speaking Switzerland and an important Reformation document.
February 26, 1846 – American frontiersman “Buffalo Bill” Cody was born in Scott County, IN. He became world famous through his Wild West show which traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe for 30 years.
February 26, 1848 – The Communist Manifesto pamphlet was published by two young socialists, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. It advocated the abolition of all private property and a system in which workers “own” all means of production, land, factories, and machinery—but all under rigid control of the State.
February 26, 1857 – American Congregational clergyman Charles Sheldon, author of more than 50 books and editor of the Christian Herald, is born in Wellsville, NY. His most famous work, In His Steps (1896) v from which we get the phrase “What Would Jesus Do?”.
February 26, 1857 – Territorial delegate Henry M. Rice succeeds in lobbying Congress to pass the enabling act for the state of Minnesota. This act defines the state’s boundaries and authorizes the establishment of a state government.
February 26, 1990 – President Reagan’s legacy prevails. After finally being allowed free and fair elections, the socialist, Castro-armed Sandinistas are roundly defeated in Nicaraguan elections.
February 27, 280 – Birth of Constantine the Great, the first Roman emperor to be converted (ca. 312) to the Christian faith.
February 27, 1950 – The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting the president to two terms or a maximum of ten years in office.
February 27, 1991 – In Desert Storm, the 100-hour ground war ended as Allied troops entered Kuwait just four days after launching their offensive against Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces.
February 27, 1807 – America’s greatest poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, ME. Best known for Paul Revere’s Ride, The Song of Hiawatha, and The Wreck of the Hesperus.