February 9 In November, while the Japanese forces massed for a major offensive against the American positions, the Allied fleet finally managed to gain naval superiority, and the First Division was relieved by the US Fourteenth Marine Corps under General Alexander M. Patch. It was now the turn of the Japanese troops to desperately hang on to their positions on Guadalcanal. In late January of 1943, Japanese command ordered an evacuation of the island and by the end of the first week of February it was complete. On this day US command can finally declare Guadalcanal secure; the first major Japanese land defeat in WW2. (Bradle
1267 The Synod of Breslau orders the Jews of Silesia to wear special caps.
1499 France and Venice sign a treaty against Milan.
1554 At the Battle at London, Sir Thomas Wyatt is defeated.
1567 Death: Lord Darnley, the second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, murdered in his sick-bed in a house in Edinburgh when the house blows up. (Bradley)
1667 Treaty of Andrussovo: Russia and Poland sign a peace treaty ending thier conflict.
1674 Charles II of England signs the Treaty of Westminster, ending the war with the Dutch.
1744 Battle at Toulon: The French and Spanish against the English fleet of Admiral Matthews. "English Admiral Mathews entered the navy in 1690, and rose to be captain of his own ship in 1703. By 1722 he had risen to command of a squadron against pirates in the East Indies, but in 1724 he retired from active service, aged 48. In 1736 he was appointed commissioner of the navy at Chatham, and in 1742 he was created vice-admiral of the red. His return to active service during the War of the Austrian Succession was not a success. In 1742 he was plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia and the Italian states, and when the admiral in command in the Mediterranean retired, Mathews, then aged 66 he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean with orders to prevent the French and Spanish fleets leave Toulon. Unfortunately, he was barely on speaking terms with his second in command, Richard Lestock. In 1744, the combined fleet left Toulon. Mathews, with a slightly larger fleet quickly caught them, but the ensuing battle of Toulon (11 February 1744) was a failure. Lestock refused to obey Mathews' orders, claiming not to have understood them, and the French and Spanish were able to escape without suffering serious damage. After the battle, Mathews resigned, but public outrage lead to a court martial, which lasted from 1745-7. Both Mathews and Lestock, along with nine of their captains and four lieutenants were on trial. Despite being most to blame, Lestock was honourably aquitted (although he died in 1746), while Mathews was dismissed, although as he had already resigned this was of little personal conseqence, and he considered the result to have be due to parliamentary faction rather than the facts of the case."
1763 French-Indian War: The Peace of Paris cedes the whole of Canada and various islands in the West Indies to Britain. French trading stations captured in India are restored but not refortified. Spain cedes Florida to England. France compensates Spain by giving up the Louisiana country west of the Mississippi. New Orleans is given by Louis XV to Charles III of Spain in a secret treaty. Prussia is now a major power in Europe, France has lost an empire and is approaching the French Revolution and Britain has an empire on which "the sun never sets." (Bradley)
1773 Birth: William Henry Harrison, 9th US president, in Berkeley, Charles City County, Virginia. "...William Henry Harrison served the shortest time of any American President -- only thirty-two days. He also was the first President from the Whig Party. He had won his nickname, "Old Tip," as the tough commanding general of American forces who defeated hostile Native Americans at the Battle of Tippecanoe in the Ohio River Valley in 1811. Harrison, the youngest of seven children, was born on February 9, 1773, only two years before the American Revolution. His family was among the richest and the most politically prominent in the colony. Harrison's father had served three terms as governor. When young Harrison reached adulthood, he chose a career in the military, a decision that disappointed his father, who had wanted him to become a physician. Serving in the Northwest Territories under General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, Harrison advanced to captain and commander of Fort Washington, near present-day Cincinnati. By the late 1790s, he enjoyed a substantial reputation among white settlers as an Indian fighter. President John Adams appointed Harrison secretary of the Northwest Territory in 1798. Two years later, Adams named him governor of the Indian Territory -- present day Indiana and Illinois. Presidents Jefferson and Madison kept him in that position for twelve years. While governor, Harrison negotiated many treaties with the Native Americans of the region, and most of them deprived the Indians of their lands for little money in return. These treaties were signed after Harrison had defeated the tribes in battle, and the peace of the victor was not gentle. For example, when Harrison signed the Treaty of Fort Wayne, the United States acquired three million acres of land with a single document. In another case, he paid the Indians one penny for each 200 acres in a deal that transferred 51 million acres to the United States. When the proud Shawnee chief Tecumseh tried to organize resistance to the advancing white settlers, Harrison led a force of 950 men against his Indian Confederacy, defeating 650 warriors at Tippecanoe Creek on November 7, 1811. During the War of 1812, Harrison, then a general in the American army, engaged a combined British and Indian force of 1,700 men in the battle at the Thames River in 1813. When the smoke had cleared, Tecumseh, who had joined the British, lay dead -- his body mutilated and torn apart. Harrison became a national hero..."
1775 US Revolutionary War: The English Parliament declares the Massachusetts colony to be in rebellion.
1799 The USS Constellation captures the French frigate Insurgente off the West Indies.
1801 France and Austria sign the Peace of Luneville, effectively ending the Holy Roman Empire. Note: Upon hearing the news, Voltaire declares: "It was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire."
1807 The French Sanhedrin is convened by Napoleon Bonaparte.
1819 Birth: Lydia E. Pinkham, patent-medicine maker and entrepeneur.
1822 The American Indian Society is organised.
1825 The House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as the 6th US president. "...Four men campaigned for the presidency in 1824: former Secretary of War William H. Crawford of Georgia, House Speaker Henry Clay of Kentucky, Tennessee's General Andrew Jackson, and John Quincy Adams. Crawford won the Republican congressional caucus nomination. This was a landmark election, the first in which popular vote actually mattered. Sixteen states had moved to choose presidential electors by popular vote while six still left the choice up to the state legislature. After a fierce campaign, Jackson took a plurality in the popular vote, followed, in order, by Adams, Clay, and Crawford. In the electoral college, however, Jackson had thirty-two votes fewer than he needed to prevail. Acting under the Twelfth Amendment, the House of Representatives met to select the President. Speaker of the House Clay threw his support behind Adams and gave him the election by a single vote. Soon thereafter, Adams named Clay secretary of state. It was a bad beginning. Jackson resigned from the Senate and vowed to unseat Adams in 1828. Adams believed strongly that it was constitutional and appropriate for the federal government to sponsor broad programs to improve American society and prosperity. He backed Henry Clay's proposed "American System," envisioning a national marketplace in which North and South, town and country were tied together by trade and exchange. To realize this vision, Adams proposed to Congress an ambitious program involving the construction of roads, canals, educational institutions, and other initiatives. Lacking congressional allies, Adams was unable to maneuver most of these programs into law. Congress also blocked many of his foreign initiatives. His support of the so-called Abominable Tariff of 1828, which protected American interests but caused higher prices, cost him popularity among the voters..."
1846 Birth: William Maybach, German engineer; will design the first Mercedes automobile.
1849 Giuseppe Mazzini proclaims Rome a republic.
1861 US Civil War: Jefferson F. Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America, and Alexander Stephens as vice-president.
1861 US Civil War: The Confederate Provisional Congress declares all laws under the US Constitution are consistent with the constitution of the Confederate states.
1861 US Civil War: Tennessee votes against secession.
1863 The fire extinguisher is patented by Alanson Crane.
1864 Union General George Armstrong Custer weds Elizabeth Bacon in their hometown of Monroe, Michigan.
1866 Birth: George Ade, journalist, playwright, humorist.
1867 Nebraska becomes the 37th US state.
1870 President Grant signs the bill establishing the US Federal Meteorological Service.
1871 The US Federal fish protection office is authorised by Congress.
1881 German Fieldmarshal Count Helmuth von Moltke declares this day: "I hold that war is the last, but wholly legitimate, means by which the state maintains its existence, independence, and honor."
1885 The first Japanese immigrants arrive in Hawaii.
1886 President Cleveland declares a state of emergency in Seattle because of anti-Chinese violence.
1893 Canal builder De Lesseps and others are sentenced to prison for fraud.
1895 Volleyball is invented by W. G. Morgan in Massachusetts.
1904 Russo-Japanese War: In the second day of the conflict, the Russian ships Variag and Korietz are sunk off Korea as Japanese troops land near Seoul.
1906 Natal proclaims a state of siege in the Zulu uprising.
1909 The first US federal legislation prohibiting narcotics is enacted. The law is blatantly racist, as Chinese opium, the smoking variety, is prohibited while the various elixirs and potions preferred by white folks are not restricted.
1909 France and Germany reach agreement over Morocco, with Germany recognising French special interests there in return for economic concessions.
1909 The first forestry school is incorporated, at Kent, Ohio.
1909 Birth: Dean Rusk; U.S. Secretary of State under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
1915 President Wilson warns Germany that the US will hold it "to a strict accountability" for "property damaged or lives lost." German submarine warfare is taking a heavy toll on neutral shipping, including American. Note: U-boat captains are in a difficult position because they cannot safely surface to allow enemy crews to board liferafts before being sunk. The fragile U-boats themselves are easily sunk by small-caliber deck guns.
1916 WW1: Conscription begins in Great Britain as the Military Service Act becomes effective.
1918 WW1: The US Army chaplain school is organised at Fort Monroe, Virginia.
1918 WW1: Bukharin leads the so-called Left Communist opposition to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which he says is a betrayal of the quest for international socialist revolution. Note: He will later accept Lenin's policies.
1920 An International treaty recognises Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard.
1922 The US Congress establishes the World War Foreign Debt Commission.
1922 The Italian government of Bonomi falls.
1923 Dobrolet, the Soviet state airline, is formed. It will be renamed Aeroflot in 1932.
1924 Nakhichevan ASSR is constituted within Azerbaijan SSR.
1925 Haifa Technion opens in Israel.
1925 Weimar: German Minister Stresemann proposes a security treaty with France.
1926 The teaching of the theory of evolution is forbidden in Atlanta, Georgia schools.
1929 The Litvinov protocol, a pact for the renunciation of war, is signed in Moscow between Russia, Poland, Romania, Estonia and Latvia.
1931 Birth: Robert Morris, sculptor.
1932 The US airship Columbia crashes during a storm at Flushing, New York.
1934 The Balkan Pact to prevent encroachment by the great powers is signed by Romania, Greece, Yugoslavia and Turkey.
1935 Jean Szembeck, Polish Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, tells Josef Beck, Poland's Foreign Minister, that Lipski told him Goering and his generals are "developing great plans for the future, suggesting almost a German-Polish alliance against Soviet Russia."
1937 Church and Reich: Nazi officials close all Catholic schools in Bavaria.
1938 The Goga government in Romania is dissolved. The new government, headed by Dr. Miron Christea, nullifies some of Goga's anti-Jewish legislation.
1939 WW2: The Belgian Spaak government falls.
1939 Death: Pope Pius XI.
1939 Church and Reich: For the tenth anniversary of the Lateran Treaty, Pope Pius XI drafts a discourse that is said to have condemned totalitarianism in the strongest terms. After his death, his successor, Pius XII, chooses not to deliver the speech. (Lewy)
1939 WW2: Hitler addresses his Generals: "I have taken it upon myself to solve the German problem; the German living space problem. Take good note of that; as long as I live, this ideal will govern my every action. Take heed too: the moment I believe that I can make a killing, I'll always strike immediately and I won't hesitate to go to the very brink. Because I'm convinced this problem has to be solved, one way or the other. I'll never shrug my shoulders and say: "Oh dear! I'll leave that for whomever comes after me..."
1940 Holocaust: First of four mass deportations of Poles to Siberia. About 220,000 civil servants, government officials, police, small farmers and forest workers are taken.
1941 WW2: British troops conquer El Agheila.
1941 Holocaust: Nazi collaborators destroy a pro-Jewish café called Alcazar, in Amsterdam for refusing to hang 'No Entry for Jews' signs in front of the cafe.
1941 WW2: In a speech directed at acheiving the support of the United States, Winston Churchill declares: 'Put your confidence in us...give us the tools and we will finish the job'.
1942 WW2: The French passenger liner Normandie burns and sinks at its pier in New York City.
1942 WW2: Soap goes on ration in Britain for the first time.
1942 WW2: Chiang Kai-shek meets with Sir Stafford Cripps, the British viceroy in India.
1942 WW2: Daylight Savings War Time goes into effect in the US.
1942 WW2: Japanese troops land near Makassar, South Celebes.
1943 Diary of Leon Gladun: "Return from hospital."
1943 WW2: FDR orders a minimum 48 hour work week in the war industries.
1943 WW2: After six months of bloody jungle fighting, the US Fourteenth Marine Corps announce that the Japanese have evacuated Guadalcanal and that the area is secure. In preparation for the great Allied offensive aimed at the heart of Japan, the capture of Guadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands located east of New Guinea, is considered a strategic necessity. On the 2,510-square-mile island, the Japanese possess an air base which puts their long-range aircraft in range of New Caledonia, a Pacific island group that the Japanese could possibly employ to isolate Australia. On 7 August 1942, 11,000 men of the US First Marine Division commanded by General Alexander A. Vandergrift assaulted the island, and took the airfield with little effort, renaming it Henderson Field. However, the Allied fleet failed to achieve naval superiority in the waters around the Solomon Islands and the marines at the airfield were not reinforced as planned. At night, hundreds of Japanese reinforcements and tons of supplies would arrive in the so-called "Tokyo Express" - an ingenious landing program involving the use of small Japanese speedboats that evaded the Allied naval defenses. Japanese forces on Guadalcanal launched several bloody offensives out of the jungle against the perimeter of Henderson Field, but the US First Marine Division managed to hang on.
1944 Birth: Alice Walker, Pulitzer prize winning author; The Color Purple.
1944 WW2: German U-boats U-734 and U-238 are sunk off Ireland.
1945 WW2: WAAF Margaret Horton fails to let go of a Spitfire after she completed ground checks at RAF Hibaldstow in Lincolnshire and it takes off with her clinging to the tail.
1946 Joe Stalin announces a new five-year plan for the Soviet Union, calling for production boosts of 50 percent.
1946 The Dutch Labor Party, or Dutch Social Democratic Party, is formed.
1947 Bank robber Willie Sutton escapes from jail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
1950 Nut For A Blind Squirrel: Demagogic US Senator Joseph McCarthy declares that he has evidence there are individuals in the State Department who are card-carrying members of the Communist Party. Widely and correctly vilified for his underhanded methods, these particular charges will eventually be proven to have some merit.
1953 General Walter Bedell Smith ends his term as 4th director of the CIA. Allen W. Dulles, becomes acting director.
1953 The French destroy six Viet Minh war factories hidden in the jungles of Vietnam.
1955 The US federations of trade unions merge into the AFL/CIO.
1955 Leonard Wibberley's novel, The Mouse That Roared, is published on this date in Boston by Little Brown.
1963 The first Boeing 727 makes its maiden flight. It will become the world's most popular way to fly. 1,832 of the aircraft are built before production stops in 1984.
1964 The Nam: The US embassy in Moscow is stoned by Chinese and Vietnamese students.
1969 The first ever commercial flight of a Boeing 747 takes place this day, ushering in the age of the Jumbo Jet.
1972 British Prime Minister Edward Heath's Conservative goverment declares a national state of emergency after a month-long miners' strike and power stoppages begin to cripple industry.
1977 Spain establishes diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union.
1978 Canada announces it is expelling 13 Soviet diplomats who it says had tried to recruit a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.
1981 General Wojciech Jaruzelski takes over from Josef Pinkowski as Polish prime minister during the Solidarity crisis.
1987 Twenty years after the first woman was admitted to the New York Stock Exchange, the Exchange Luncheon Club decides to install a ladies rest room. Before this, the women had to walk down a flight of stairs.
1991 Lithuanians vote by a huge majority to restore the Soviet republic's pre-WW2 independence.
1993 Dateline NBC is forced to publicly apologise, and NBC president Michael Gartner resigns becuse of a scandal caused by Dateline rigging a GM truck with explosives to simulate a 'scientific' crash-test demo.
1994 Nelson Mandela becomes the first black president of South Africa.
2001 A British health trust apologises to plastic surgery patients for selling their surplus skin for chemical weapons research without a full explanation.
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