150 years ago, on Feb. 28, 1854, the Republican Party was born, in Ripon, Wisconsin. It was an amalgam of 50 dissident Whigs, Free Soilers and northern Democrats. The Party name was suggested by Alvan Bovay, a Ripon lawyer, in a February 4 letter to famed New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley. The Party's first nominating convention was held July 6, 1854, in Jackson, Mich.
125 years ago, on Feb. 10, 1879, the first electric arc light was used, in a California theater.
On Feb. 22, 1879, Frank Winfield (F.W.) Woolworth held a Washington's Birthday Sale by opening his first 5-Cent Store in Utica, N.Y. Pledging to sell "nothing that cost more than a nickel," Woolworth packed his store with cheap goods. That store failed, but he succeeded later in 1879 with another discount variety store in Lancaster, Pa. Expanded to include items that cost up to a dime, he called it a 5-and-10-cent store. By 1904, he had opened 120 stores in 21 states. Alas, in the Age of Wal-Mart, Woolworth met its match and closed its last store in 1997, after a 118-year run.
100 years ago, on Feb. 7, 1904, the second biggest fire in U.S. history (after Chicago in 1871) broke out in Baltimore, Md. On Feb. 23, 1904, the U.S. gained control of the Panama Canal Zone for just $10 million.
75 years ago, on Feb. 2, 1929, the Federal Reserve announced a ban on bank loans for margin trades, but traders barely blinked, as they opened up margin accounts with their brokers, leading up to the stock market crash. On February 14, Al Capone's thugs, posing as police, killed the "Bugs" Moran gang, in what became known as the Valentine's Day Massacre.
50 years ago, on Feb. 23, 1954, the first mass inoculation with the Salk vaccine took place, in Pittsburgh, Pa.
25 years ago, February 1979, was not a good month for American interests overseas. On Feb. 1, 1979, the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran after 15 years in exile. On February 8, President Carter severed military ties with Nicaragua, in an attempt to oust the Somoza regime. It worked, but backfired, ending with a murdered Somoza, and Communist Sandinistas running Nicaragua during the 1980s. And on February 14, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped in Kabul, and killed when Afghan forces tried to free him. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan at the end of 1979.
