February 22, 2012

Ash Wednesday

Lent begins (Feb 22-Apr 7).

Santa Lucia: Independence Day

Inconvenience Yourself

Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID (Feb 22-25). See www.uidaho.edu/jazzfest.aspx

Birth anniversary of George Washington (1732-1799), first president of the US.

In 1819, the US acquired Florida from Spain.

In 1879, the first chain store, F.W. Woolworth, opened at Utica, NY. The chain closed in 1997.

In 1934, It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, was released. The romantic comedy was the first film to sweep all major Academy Awards.

Anniversary of the Montgomery Boycott arrests in 1956.

Anniversary of the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980—when the US Olympic hockey team upset the Soviet hockey at the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. The US went on to win gold after defeating Finland two days later.

Birth anniversaries of Boy Scout founder Robert Baden-Powell (1857-1941), US statesman Edward Kennedy (1932-2009), poet and diplomat James Russell Lowell (1819-91), poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), actor John Mills (1908-2005), philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Robert Wadlow, world’s tallest man (1918-40).

Happy Birthday! Drew Barrymore, James Blunt, Michael Te Pei Chang, Jonathan Demme, Julius Erving, Kyle MacLachlan, Jeri Ryan, Vijay Singh, Julie Waters