On this date...

Fort Sackville Memorial

In 1776, Washington set his mind on medical readiness. He ordered a formal examination of every surgeon and mate in the Continental Army. Inventories of instruments, medicines, and bandages are demanded at once.

In 1779, Fort Sackville surrendered, marking the beginning of the end of British domination in America’s western frontier.

In 1782, the Battle of Tydiman's Plantation took place in South Carolina.

In 1804, Thomas Jefferson was nominated for US President at the Democratic-Republican caucus

On February 25, 1828, John Adams, son of President John Quincy Adams, marries his first cousin and inadvertently follows a pattern of keeping marriages within the family.

In 1836, a patent was issued to Samuel Colt for the first practical revolving-cylinder firearm.

In 1836, Showman P. T. Barnum exhibited African American slave Joice Heth, claiming she was the 161-year-old nursemaid to George Washington

In 1837, Vermont blacksmith Thomas Davenport received the first US patent for an electric motor. He insulated the wires with strips of fabric cut from his wife's wedding dress.

In 1839, Seminoles & black allies were shipped from Tampa Bay, Florida, to the West.

In 1847, the State University of Iowa was approved.

In 1855, Bowery Boys gang leader William Poole, "Bill the Butcher," was shot in the back by a gang of archrival John Morrissey in New York (died 8th March)

In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed the Legal Tender Act, authorizing the use of paper notes to pay the government’s bills.

In 1870, Hiram Revels becomes first African American in the US Congress.

In 1901, United States Steel Corp. was incorporated by J.P. Morgan.

In 1901, George M. Cohan's 1st Broadway musical "The Governor's Son" opens at the Savoy Theatre, NYC; runs for 32 performances

In 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which permitted a federal income tax, went into effect.

In 1919, Oregon became the first state to tax gasoline (1 cent per gallon)

In 1940, the first telecast of a National Hockey League game is transmitted over New York's W2XBS—the National Broadcasting Company's experimental station used to test TV technology.

In 1964, Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeated Sonny Liston to win his first world heavyweight title.

In 1987, the NCAA suspended the Southern Methodist University football program for the 1987 season for repeated rules violations but stopped short of imposing the so-called "death penalty." Still, the sanctions are the most severe levied by the NCAA against a major college football program.

In 1991, an Iraqi Scud missile hit a U.S. barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 28 Americans during the Persian Gulf War.

In 1995, Frank Sinatra performed forthe final time before a live audience of 1200 select guests at the Palm Desert Marriott Ballroom, in Palm Desert, California, on the closing night of his charity golf tournament

In 1997, a jury in Media, Pennsylvania, convicted chemical fortune heir John E. du Pont of third-degree murder, deciding he was mentally ill when he shot and killed world-class wrestler David Schultz. (Du Pont died in prison in December 2010 while serving a 13- to 30-year sentence; he was 72.)

In 1999, A jury in Jasper, Texas, sentenced white supremacist John William King to death for the dragging death of James Byrd Jr., an African-American man.

In 2004, The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson’s controversial film about the last 44 hours of Jesus of Nazareth’s life, opened in theaters across the United States. Not coincidentally, the day was Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent for many Christian denominations.

In 2020, U.S. health officials warned that the coronavirus was certain to spread more widely in the U.S.; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Americans to be prepared. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, speaking in India, said the virus was “very well under control” in the United States.