Your Daily Reference

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On This Day:
Thursday February 15, 2007

This is the 46th day of the year, with 319 days remaining in 2007.

Fact of the Day: Confederate states

In the U.S. Civil War, eleven Confederate states formed a government that seceded from the Union in 1860-1861 until defeated in the spring of 1865. The original seven states that seceded in late-1860 and early-1861 were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas; after the war began in 1861 Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia joined them. The Confederacy had a population of 9 million people, including nearly 4 million slaves, while the Union had a population of over 20 million people. The Confederate States of America was headed by President Jefferson Davis and Vice President Alexander H. Stephens.

Holidays

• Feast day of St. Tanco or Tatto, St. Agape of Terni, St. Walfrid or Galfrid.
• Japan: Kamakura.
• United States: Susan B. Anthony Day.
• United States: USS Maine Memorial Day.
• Lupercalia.

Events

• 1758 - The first mustard, made by Benjamin Franklin, went on sale in America.
• 1804 - New Jersey became the last northern state to abolish slavery.
• 1842 - In New York City, adhesive postage stamps were used for the first time.
• 1879 - President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.
• 1898 - The USS Maine, sent to Cuba on a friendly visit, exploded and sank in Havana harbor, killing 260 crew members. The origin of the explosion is unknown. This incident led to the Spanish-American War.
• 1932 - George Burns and Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on "The Guy Lombardo Show" on CBS radio, where they stayed for 18 years before moving their act to television.
• 1933 - An assassin aiming at President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt had his aim deflected and instead killed Anton J. Cermak, mayor of Chicago.
• 1942 - British forces in Singapore surrendered to Japanese, after their worst defeat of World War II.
• 1965 - The new Canadian maple leaf national flag was raised above Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
• 1969 - R. G. Edwards of the Cambridge Physiological Laboratory, Cambridge, England, made the first in vitro fertilization of human egg cells.
• 1971 - Great Britain and Ireland switched to decimal-based currency.
• 1978 - Boxer Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali to win the heavyweight boxing crown.

Births

• 1564 - Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer.
• 1797 - Henry Steinway, American piano maker.
• 1820 - Susan B. Anthony, American suffragist.

Deaths

• 1965 - Nat King Cole, American singer and musician.