On February 22, 1732, George Washington is born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the first of six children of Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. (Augustine had three additional children from his first marriage.) An initially loyal British subject, Washington eventually led the Continental Army in the American Revolution and became the new nation’s first president. He […]

Spanish minister Do Luis de Onis and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams sign the Florida Purchase Treaty, in which Spain agrees to cede the remainder of its province of Florida to the United States. Spanish colonization of the Florida peninsula began at St. Augustine in 1565. By the 17th century, the Spanish began […]

An angry mob in San Francisco’s business district ”tries” two Australian suspects in the robbery and assault of C. J. Jansen. When the makeshift jury deadlocked, the suspects were returned to law enforcement officials. It was one of the most prominent vigilante moments of the California Gold Rush period. Jansen was working at his store at […]

On February 22, 1917, Sergeant Benito Mussolini is wounded by the accidental explosion of a mortar bomb on the Isonzo section of the Italian Front in World War I. Born in Predappio, Italy, in 1883, the son of a blacksmith and a teacher, Mussolini was well-read, largely self-educated and had worked as a schoolteacher and […]

George Kennan, the American charge d’affaires in Moscow, sends an 8,000-word telegram to the Department of State detailing his views on the Soviet Union, and U.S. policy toward the communist state. Kennan’s analysis provided one of the most influential underpinnings for America’s Cold War policy of containment and became a foundational document of 20th-century U.S. […]

On February 22, 1969, 19-year-old Barbara Jo Rubin becomes the first female jockey to win a race at an American thoroughbred track when she rides Cohesion to a victory by a neck over Reely Beeg in the ninth race at Charles Town, West Virginia. That she raced at all was a testament to Rubin’s ability […]

The U.S. Air Force launches Navstar 1, the world’s first operational GPS satellite, from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. GPS begins as a military technology, but expands to transform industries from aviation to communications. Global Positioning System (GPS) technology is an indispensible part of 21st century life, powering everything from rideshare apps to fitness […]

The notorious play “Moose Murders” bombs on Broadway, opening and closing at New York’s Eugene O’Neill Theater on the same night. In doing so, its name becomes synonymous for an abysmal theatrical flop. An aging movie star, Texas oil money and a man-eating moose failed to save the show, which tied the Broadway record for […]

On February 22, 2014, one of the world’s most-wanted criminals, Joaquin “El Chapo” (“Shorty”) Guzmán Loera, head of the Sinaloa cartel, the world’s biggest drug trafficking organization, is captured and arrested in a joint U.S.-Mexican operation in Mazatlán, Mexico, after outrunning law enforcement for more than a decade.  Guzmán had been the target of an international […]