On this date...

Abraham Lincoln

In 1766, Francis Lightfoot Lee signed the Westmoreland Resolves (aka, the Leedstown Resolutions), that was drafted by his brother, Richard Henry Lee.

In 1776, at the Battle of Moore's Creek Bridge, North Carolinian revolutionaries defeated loyalists during the American Revolution, thwarting a British invasion of the southern colonies.

In 1776, Washington issued orders reminding his men of the stakes of the coming campaign. Any soldier skulking or retreating without orders, he writes, “will be instantly shot down, as an example of cowardice.” The cause, he insists, is nothing less than liberty or slavery.

In 1827, on February 27, 1827, a group of masked and costumed students danced through the streets of New Orleans, Louisiana, marking the beginning of the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebrations.

In 1860, President Abraham Lincoln posed for the first of several portraits by noted Civil War-era photographer Mathew Brady. Days later, the photograph is published on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar with the caption, "Hon. Abram [sic] Lincoln, of Illinois, Republican Candidate for President."

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln made a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency

In 1872, Charlotte E. Ray graduated from Howard Law School, becoming the first Black woman to practice law in the United States.

In 1879, Russian-American chemist Constantin Fahlberg discovered an artificial sweetener (later named 'saccharin') while working on coal tar analysis at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland [1]

In 1922, in deciding the case Leser v. Garnett, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 19th Amendment, which, when ratified two years earlier, provided American women with the right to vote. The justices were unanimous in their decision to dismiss the challenge.

In 1922, US Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover convenes 1st National Radio Conference

In 1935, at the seventh Academy Awards ceremony, 6-year-old ascendant Hollywood star Shirley Temple received the first-ever kid-sized, "juvenile" Oscar. The trophy measured roughly half the height of a full-sized Oscar.

In 1942, the U.S. Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the Langley_,_ is sunk by Japanese warplanes (with a little help from U.S. destroyers), and all of its 32 aircraft are lost.

In 1942, the Battle of the Java Sea began during World War II; Imperial Japanese naval forces scored a decisive victory over the Allies.

In 1951, the 22nd Amendment was ratified, limiting US presidents to only being elected to two terms.

In 1960, two decades before the famed "Miracle on Ice," another underdog U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviet Union team in the semifinals at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, California.

In 1968, during a news broadcast, journalist Walter Cronkite, who was considered “the most trusted man in America,” broke from his usual objectivity to predict that the Vietnam War could end only in a protracted stalemate; his commentary was credited with changing the U.S. public's opinion of the conflict.

In 1969, US President Richard Nixon visited West Berlin, West Germany

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai issued the Shanghai Communique, a historic joint statement that called for normalizing relations between their countries, at the conclusion of Nixon’s historic visit to China.

In 1973, Two hundred members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), a militant Native civil rights organization, occupied the reservation hamlet of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, vowing to stay until the government met AIM's demands for a change in tribal leaders, a review of treaties made with Native people, and a Senate investigation of the treatment of Native people. They were, however, eventually forced to surrender after being surrounded by federal marshals.

In 1980, the long-lost glasses of rocker Buddy Holly, who died in the deadly plane crash in 1959, were found—filed away in an envelope in a court clerk's office.

In 1986, the United States Senate allowed its debates to be televised on a trial basis

In 1991, U.S. President George H.W. Bush ordered a ceasefire effective at midnight and declared victory in the Persian Gulf War, a conflict triggered by Iraq's invasion and occupation of Kuwait in August 1990.

In 2019, Michael Cohen, former lawyer to Donald Trump testifies before the House Oversight Committee, saying Trump is "racist", a "con man," and "a cheat"

In 2019, the second summit began between US President Donald Trump and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un in Hanoi, Vietnam.

In 2024, The Philadelphia Orchestra announces rthe enaming of their concert home as Marian Anderson Hall, in honor of the noted 20th century contralto who was from the city.