History of the Week: 15th Amendment, Dickens, Kościuszko, Reagan, Queen of Scots, Sherman, Confederacy, Guadalcanal, Washington Elected, &More
History of the Week: 15th Amendment, Dickens, Kościuszko, Reagan, Queen of Scots, Sherman, Confederacy, Guadalcanal, Washington Elected, &More
Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” It’s a tongue-in-cheek observation of the fact that, while no situation is ever exactly the same as a previous historical situation, the same vices and virtues and conflicts and debates continually resurface throughout human history. For that reason, we should study history and learn from it. Below are some of the important events, deaths, and birthdays that occurred this past week in history.
February 3
1468 - German inventor Johannes Gutenberg, famous for his history-changing printing press, dies. The first book he printed was the Bible.
1509 - Reported date of the Battle of Diu, solidifying Portuguese influence in the Indian Ocean.
1809 - German composer Felix Mendelssohn is born.
1870 - The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing black Americans the right to vote (as they originally had done when the Constitution was first ratified). No Democrats in the Senate had voted for the Amendment, as the party was committed to racial oppression and segregation; it was Congressional Republicans who voted for the Amendment and sent it to the states for ratification. Republican President U.S. Grant had made the 15th Amendment a central goal of his administration.
1913 - The pernicious 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified, legalizing federal income tax, something which the Founders had opposed.
1943 - U.S. transport ship USAT Dorchester, headed for Greenland, is struck by torpedoes from a German U-boat and sinks during WWII. The famous “Four Chaplains” went down with the ship, having given their life vests to other troops, their arms linked in prayer. They were: “Lt. George L. Fox (Methodist), Lt. Alexander D. Goode (Jewish), Lt. Clark V. Poling (Dutch Reformed) and Lt. John P. Washington (Roman Catholic).”
February 4
211 - Roman Emperor Septimius Severus, an impactful ruler, dies in England.
960 - Zhao Kuangyin becomes the first emperor of China’s Song Dynasty.
1746 - Tadeusz Kościuszko is born in Poland. He famously fought with the American Patriots during the Revolution, and later returned to Poland and fought unsuccessfully for freedom from the Russians. He survived imprisonment in St. Petersburg to return to America, where he became close with Thomas Jefferson and made his will to ensure his estate would be used to purchase slaves’ freedom. He returned to Europe, hoping to achieve the Poles’ freedom, but his hopes were not realized and he died in Switzerland. NPS describes Kościuszko as known for his “bravery, kindness, patriotism, likeability, and unwavering strength of character.”
1789 - George Washington is unanimously elected the first President of the United States of America by the assembled electors. John Adams is elected as his Vice President.
1861 - Reported date of Apache chief Cochise’s arrest by the U.S. Army for raiding a ranch in Arizona; Cochise escaped and launched the Apache Wars.
1902 - Charles Lindbergh, who would later be the first aviator to accomplish a solo transatlantic airplane flight, is born in Detroit.
February 5
1597 - The 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, led by Paul Miki and including children as young as 12, are martyred in Japan.
1885 - King Leopold II of Belgium makes Congo his personal possession.
2021 - Oscar-winning actor Christopher Plummer, best known for his role of Captain Von Trapp in “Sound of Music,” dies. Other superb performances of his include those in “The Scarlet and the Black” and “Triple Cross.”
February 6
1685 - King Charles II, who had restored the British monarchy after Cromwell’s dictatorship, dies.
1788 - Massachusetts ratifies the U.S. Constitution.
1840 - The Treaty of Waitangi is signed by Māori chiefs with the British in New Zealand.
1895 - Future legendary American baseball player George “Babe” Ruth is born. The National Baseball Hall of Fame says that “as a power-hitting outfielder for the Yankees, Ruth became an icon – transcending sport.”
1911 - Ronald Reagan, later a popular actor and one of the greatest U.S. presidents (whose accomplishments included kneecapping the Soviet Union), is born.
February 7
457 - Thracian soldier Leo I is proclaimed Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor.
1478 - St. Thomas More is born in England. A lawyer, scholar, thinker, writer, husband, father, chancellor, and passionate defender of the faith, he was originally good friends with King Henry VIII but ended up losing his wealth and life after refusing to sanction Henry’s wrongful divorce and heretical break with the Catholic Church. Read my previous article for more details.
1795 - The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, dealing with lawsuits against states, is ratified.
1812 - British novelist Charles Dickens is born. His novels are among the most popular and influential works in the English language, including Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Our Mutual Friend (my personal favorite), David Copperfield, Little Dorrit, Pickwick Papers, and Great Expectations. His Christmas novel A Christmas Carol so shaped the modern celebration of that holiday that he has been called “The Man Who Invented Christmas.”
February 8
1575 - Leiden University, oldest university in the Netherlands, is inaugurated.
1587 - Mary Queen of Scots is unjustly beheaded by her cousin Elizabeth, to whom Mary had turned for sanctuary, as the culmination of the struggle between the Catholic Stuarts (Mary) ousted from Scotland and the Protestant Tudors (Elizabeth) ruling England. Mary’s son James was raised as a Protestant and succeeded Elizabeth as King of England and Scotland. The great Jane Austen, a fervent admirer of Mary’s, wrote that the Scottish queen “bore [sentence of death] with a most unshaken fortitude, firm in her mind; constant in her Religion; and prepared herself to meet the cruel fate to which she was doomed, with a magnanimity that would alone proceed from conscious Innocence.”
1807 - Battle of Eylau ends, the first serious setback for Napoleon.
1820 - William Tecumseh Sherman is born. One of the greatest generals of the American Civil War, Sherman’s highly effective March to the Sea and other campaigns made him hated by the Confederates he defeated, and much of their propaganda about him has remained until this day (including blaming him for burning and destruction the Confederates themselves committed). Sherman was instrumental in the Union victory during the Civil War, and in the process he became friends with Gen. U.S. Grant. During Grant’s presidency, Sherman had command of all U.S. military forces. He refused to run for or accept any political offices.
1861 - Seven states adopt a Constitution for a provisional government of the Confederate States of America in an open act of treachery against the U.S., and explicitly to preserve slavery. The states were Mississippi, South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas. Below is from the Confederate Constitution:
“No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed…No slave or other person held to service or labor in any State or Territory of the Confederate States, under the laws thereof, escaping or lawfully carried into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor…In all such territory the institution of negro slavery, as it now exists in the Confederate States, shall be recognized and protected by Congress and by the Territorial government.”
1904 - The Japanese launch a surprise attack on the Russian navy, starting the Russo-Japanese War.
February 9
1267 - The Synod of Breslau (Silesia) enforces various harsh restrictions against Jews, including requiring them to wear a certain cap and to have ditches or fences between Jewish and Christian dwellings.
1667 - The Treaty of Andrussovo ends the Thirteen Years’ War with Poland and Russia dividing control of Ukraine.
1825 - The U.S. House of Representatives declares John Quincy Adams the winner of the presidential election over Democrat Andrew Jackson.
1861 - Jefferson Davis is unanimously elected as provisional president of the Confederacy. Among his actions in office were the ordering of the mass round-up, enslavement, and/or murder of all blacks encountered by the Confederate Army, as well as the execution of black Union troops’ white officers, which led to numerous Confederate war crimes.
1881 - Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author of Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov, dies.
1943 - The Japanese evacuate Guadalcanal in a victory for the Americans/Allies during WWII. The National WWII Museum notes that the whole “Solomon Islands Campaign cost the Allies approximately 7,100 men, 29 ships and 615 aircraft. The Japanese lost 31,000 men, 38 ships and 683 aircraft.”
1950 - Sen. Joseph McCarthy says the U.S. State Department is infested with Communists. Though McCarthy is still vilified today for the “Red Scare,” he was actually correct about the Communist infiltration.
February 10
1098 - Reported date on which the Crusaders won a victory over Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch.
1676 - During King Philip’s War, the “The Lancaster settlement was attacked by Narragansett, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag warriors, killing many and taking others captive. The raid is one of the most famous of the war due to the work of one of these captives, Mary Rowlandson (l. c. 1637-1711), who was later released and wrote the bestselling captivity narrative The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, which is considered a classic of colonial literature and reliable first-hand account of life in a Native American village.”
1814 - Napoleon’s French forces beat the Russians at the Battle of Champaubert.
1846 - The Battle of Sobraon, the last battle of the First Sikh War, ends with the Indian state of Punjab coming under British control.
1878 - The Pact of Zanjón ends the Ten Years’ War of Cuba’s struggle for independence from Spain and the rebels’ struggle for freedom from slavery.
1967 - The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, detailing what happens when a president or VP dies in, resigns from, or is removed from office, is ratified.
2014 - Shirley Temple dies. She was the most iconic and popular child actor of her era, and later served as a U.S. diplomat.
Did I miss any important events? Let me know in the comments.