On 24 February 1912, 12 members of the Daughters of Zion Study Circle met at New York City under the leadership of Henrietta Szold. A constitution was drafted to expand the study group into a national organization called Hadassah (Hebrew for myrtle and the biblical name of Queen Esther) to foster Jewish education in America and to create public health nursing and nurses’ training in Palestine. Hadassah is now the largest women’s volunteer organization in the US, with 1,500 chapters rooted in healthcare delivery, education and vocational training, children’s villages and services and land reclamation in Israel.
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Open That Bottle Night. A night to finally drink that bottle of wine that you’ve been saving for a special occasion that never seems to come. Annually, the last Saturday in February.
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On 25 February 1841, the Impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir was born at Limoges, France. Renoir’s paintings are known for their joy and sensuousness as well as the light techniques he employed in them. In his later years he was crippled by arthritis and would paint with the brush strapped to his hand. He died at Cagnes-sur-Mer, Provence, France, 17 December 1919.
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On 26 February 1919, by an act of Congress, the Grand Canyon National Park was established. An immense gorge cut through the high plateaus of northwest Arizona by the raging Colorado River and covering 1,218,375 acres, Grand Canyon National Park is considered one of the most spectacular natural phenomena in the world.
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On 27 February 2006, President George W. Bush signed a proclamation declaring a seven-acre plot at the corners of Duane and Elk streets in Lower Manhattan, New York, to be a national monument. From the 1690s to the 1790s, this land served as a cemetery for both free and enslaved Africans and is believed to be the resting place of more than 15,000 people.
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On 27 February 1897, opera singer Marian Anderson was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Anderson’s talent was evident at an early age. Her career stonewalled by the prejudice she encountered in the US, she moved to Europe, where the magnificence of her voice and her versatility as a performer began to establish her as one of the world’s finest contraltos.
Preventing Anderson’s performance at Washington’s Constitution Hall in 1939 on the basis of her color, the Daughters of the American Revolution unintentionally secured for her the publicity that would lay the foundation for her success in the States. Her performance was rescheduled, and on 9 April 1939 (Easter Sunday), 75,000 people showed up to hear her sing from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The performance was simultaneously broadcast by radio. In 1955 Anderson became the first African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. The following year President Dwight Eisenhower named her a delegate to the United Nations. She performed at President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and in 1963 received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Anderson died 8 April 1993, at Portland, Oregon.
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On 28 February 1983, after concluding a run of 255 episodes, this 2 ½-hour finale of M*A*S*H was the most-watched television show at that time: 77 percent of the viewing public was tuned in. The show premiered in 1972.
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28 February is National Tooth Fairy Day. Why shouldn’t the tooth fairy have her own day? Every kid in the country knows about her and every parent is her assistant. Celebrate the hard work she does on the graveyard shift and brush, floss and read books about the tooth fairy in her honor!
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Rare Disease Day is celebrated on the last day of February to raise awareness among the general public and decision-makers about the impact of rare diseases. Most rare diseases have no cure and many go undiagnosed. Patient organizations work on the local and national level to encourage researchers and decision makers to do more for those living with rare diseases. Read more at https://www.rarediseaseday.org/.
On the first day of each month, the genealogy community is urged to back up their genealogy data and all computer data.
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First celebrated in 1991, March marks the celebration of the contributions of Irish-Americans to the nation’s history. Read more at http://irishamericanheritagemonth.com/.
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Mar 1, 1932. Twenty-month-old Charles A. Lindbergh, Jr, the son of Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, was kidnapped from their home at Hopewell, NJ. Even though the Lindberghs paid a $ 50,000 ransom, their child’s body was found in a wooded area less than five miles from the family home on May 12. Bruno Richard Hauptmann was charged with the murder and kidnapping. He was executed in the electric chair Apr 3, 1936.
As a result of the kidnapping and murder, the Crime Control Act was passed on May 18, 1934, authorizing the death penalty for kidnappers who take their victims across state lines.
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The Multiple Sclerosis Association of America seeks to raise awareness of MS, an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system. They hope to help people understand the symptoms and relapses of the disease. Read more at https://mymsaa.org/.
Mar 1– 31. A time for reexamining and celebrating the wide range of women’s contributions and achievements that are too often overlooked in the telling of US history.
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President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order on 1 March 1961 officially establishing the Peace Corps on this date. The Peace Corps has sent more than 200,000 volunteers to 139 countries to help people help themselves. The volunteers assist in projects such as health, education, water sanitation, agriculture, nutrition and forestry.
March is a time to recognize the work of the Red Cross and community heroes. Read mores at http://www.redcross.org/about-us/red-cross-month.
The Massachusetts Bay Colony village of Salem had experienced a strange February in which several teen-aged girls exhibited bizarre behavior and attributed their ailments to witches. Three women were then arrested on 28 February 1692. One of the accused, Tituba, a West Indian slave, broke down under questioning on 1 March and admitted to being a witch. Soon the teen-aged girls accused four other residents, and by the end of April, 19 women had been accused of witchcraft and were languishing in jail— including a four-year-old child. Massachusetts governor Sir William Phips, seeking to control the growing terror, ordered trials held.
In October, the special court was dissolved after growing protests of the trials’ unjust proceedings. By then, 19 people had been hanged, 5 had died in jail, 1 had been tortured to death and more than 150 had been imprisoned. Two dogs were also executed. On 14 January 1697, Judge Samuel Sewall publicly apologized and a court-ordered day of atonement began. In 1711, all those accused of witchcraft were pardoned by the colony’s legislature.
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In March, Social Workers celebrate the valuable contributions they make as advocates for local citizens who need help bringing order to the chaos in their lives. Read mores at https://www.socialworkers.org/News/Social-Work-Month.
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St. David’s Day celebrates the patron saint of Wales (Dewi Sant). Welsh tradition calls for the wearing of a leek on this day.
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In this spring “Festival of Color,” people run through the streets throwing brightly hued powders and colored water at each other in celebration of the end of winter and also for the triumph of good over evil. Huge bonfires are built on the eve of Holi. Because there is no one universally accepted Hindu calendar, this holiday may be celebrated on a different date in some parts of India, but it usually falls in March around the full moon in the lunar month of Phalguna. Holi begins in the evening and runs through the following day.
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Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr. Seuss
Born 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Theodor Seuss Geisel, creator of The Cat in the Hat and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, was born at Springfield, MA. Known to children and parents as Dr. Seuss, his books have sold more than 200 million copies and have been translated into 20 languages. His career began with And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, which was turned down by 27 publishing houses before being published by Vanguard Press. His books included many messages, from environmental consciousness in The Lorax to the dangers of pacifism in Horton Hatches the Egg and Yertle the Turtle’s thinly veiled references to Hitler as the title character.
He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 “for his contribution over nearly half a century to the education and enjoyment of America’s children and their parents.” He died 24 September 1991, at La Jolla, CA.
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Mar 2, 1965. The perennially popular family film musical, starring Julie Andrews as Maria Von Trapp, premiered on this date at New York City. Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, the film won five Oscars, including awards for Best Picture and Best Director (Robert Wise).
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World Day of Prayer – This is an ecumenical initiative of Christian women in over 170 countries who share a day of prayer and programs aiming for understanding of other cultures, needs of women in various countries, and how their sisters worldwide understand Biblical passages. World Day of Prayer takes place on the first Friday of March. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Day_of_Prayer.
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Born on 3 March 1847. Inventor of the telephone, born at Edinburgh, Scotland, Bell acquired his interest in the transmission of sound from his father, Melville Bell, a teacher of the deaf. Bell’s use of visual devices to teach articulation to the deaf contributed to the theory from which he derived the principle of the vibrating membrane used in the telephone. On Mar 10, 1876, Bell spoke the first electrically transmitted sentence to his assistant in the next room: “Mr Watson, come here, I want you.”
Bell’s other accomplishments include a refinement of Edison’s phonograph, the first successful phonograph record and the audiometer. He also continued exploring the nature and causes of deafness. He died near Baddeck, NS, Canada, 2 August 1922.
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Mar 3, 1820. In February 1819 a bill was introduced into the U.S. Congress that would admit Missouri to the Union as a state that prohibited slavery. At the time there were 11 free states and 10 slave states. Southern congressmen feared this would upset the balance of power between North and South. As a compromise, on this date Missouri was admitted as a slave state but slavery was forever prohibited in the northern part of the Louisiana Purchase. In 1854 this act was repealed when Kansas and Nebraska were allowed to decide on slave or free status by popular vote.
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