February 28

Samuel W. McCall

Samuel Walker McCall (February 28, 1851 – November 4, 1923) was a member of the United States House of Representatives, and the 47th Governor of Massachusetts. He was born in East Providence Township, Pennsylvania on February 28, 1851.

He was editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser, and was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He was a delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1888, 1900, and 1916. McCall was elected as a Republican to the Fifty-third and to the nine succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1893 to March 3, 1913). He served as chairman of the Committee on Elections No. 3 (Fifty-fourth Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1912, and resumed the practice of law in Boston. In 1914, he published a biography of his friend Thomas B. Reed

He was elected Governor of Massachusetts 1916-1918. After retiring from elected office, he engaged in literary pursuits and died in Winchester on November 4, 1923. His interment was in Wildwood Cemetery.

 

JOHN ALDEN CARPENTER
(1876-1951)

 

Born in Park Ridge, Illinois, Carpenter was raised in a musical household. He was educated at Harvard University, where he studied under John Knowles Paine, and was president of the Glee Club and wrote music for the Hasty-Pudding Club. Showing great promise as a composer, he journeyed to London to study under Sir Edward Elgar, later returning to the United States to study under Bernhard Ziehn in Chicago. It was there he earned a comfortable living as vice-president of the family business, a mill supply company. He was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia music fraternity.

February 27

Kate Mara was born February 27, 1983. She is an American television, stage and film actress. She moved from the stage to her first film, Random Hearts, in 1999. Other roles include appearances in Brokeback Mountain (2005), and on the Fox television series 24, as computer analyst Shari Rothenberg. She appeared in such feature films as We Are Marshall (2006), Shooter (2007), Transsiberian (2008), Stone of Destiny (2008) and The Open Road (2009).

Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was a prolific American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for his novel The Young Lions (1948) about the fate of three soldiers during World War II that was made into a film starring Marlon Brando. Though Shaw's work received widespread critical acclaim, the success of his commercial fiction ultimately diminished his literary reputation.

February 26

Alexandria Susan "Ally" Hilfiger (born February 26, 1985, New York City) is an American heiress, socialite, model, stylist, film and television producer and former reality show star.Hilfiger is the daughter of Tommy Hilfiger. She split her childhood between Greenwich, Connecticut, where she attended Convent of the Sacred Heart(although she spent one year attending The Eagle Hill School), and Manhattan, where she attended the Professional Children's School.At age thirteen, she performed on Broadway in Abby's Song. At age seventeen, she produced the World War II film, Proud.In 2003, she starred with then-best friend Jaime Gleicher in MTV's reality show Rich Girls, which the two co-produced. The show only aired for one season.

Kara Monaco (born February 26, 1983 in Lakeland, Florida) is an American model. She was chosen as Playmate of the Month by Playboy magazine in June, 2005. She appeared on the cover of the June 2006 issue of Playboy as the 2006 Playmate of the Year.

Monaco has appeared in various reality TV series such as The Girls Next Door, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, and Big Brother 14. Besides her Playmate appearance, she has been a part of various other Playboy related media such as the 2006 Playmates at Play swimsuit calendar andPlayboy Special Edition Girls of Summer.

Mark Alan Dacascos (born February 26, 1964) is an American actor and martial artist. He won numerous karate and various styles of kung fuchampionships between the ages of 7 and 18.

Beginning in January 2005, Dacascos has portrayed the Chairman on Food Network's television series Iron Chef America. This role was previously played by Takeshi Kaga in the original Japanese Iron Chef, and Dacascos' character is presented as Kaga's nephew, though the actors are not related. Some of his other roles include the recurring character of Wo Fat in the CBS series Hawaii Five-0, Kung Lao in the Kevin Tancharoen web-series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, Eric Draven in The Crow: Stairway to Heaven, Eubulon, the Advent Master, on Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, the role of "Mani" in the French film Brotherhood of the Wolf and the lead role of "Crying Freeman" in the film of the same name.

Dacascos competed in season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. His partner was Lacey Schwimmer. That season had 16 couples and Lacey and Mark took 6th place, being eliminated in the 7th episode.

February 25

Kimberly Ann Caldwell (born February 25, 1982) is an American singer, actress, and television hostess, from Katy, Texas who was the seventh place finalist on the second season of American Idol. She used to work as an entertainment correspondent and hosted various shows on the TV Guide Network. She released her debut album Without Regret on April 19, 2011.

February 24

Barry Bostwick

 Barry Knapp Bostwick (born February 24, 1945) is a Tony Award winning American actor of stage and screen. He is known for playing Brad Majors in the 1975 cult classic The Rocky Horror Picture Show, replacing Peter Scolari as Mr. Tyler in the sitcom What I Like About You, and playing mayor Randall Winston in the sitcom Spin City. He has also had considerable fame in musical theater.

February 23

 Hannah Dakota Fanning (born February 23, 1994), known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress who rose to prominence after her breakthrough performance at age seven in the 2001 film I Am Sam. Her performance earned her a nomination for a Screen Actors Guild Award at age eight in 2002, making her the youngest nominee in history. As a child actress, she went on to appear in high-profile films such as Man on Fire (2004), War of the Worlds (2005) and Charlotte's Web (2006).
Fanning then began the transition to more adult roles with Hounddog (2007) and The Secret Life of Bees (2008). Her recent film roles have included the titular character in the fantasy/horror animated children's movie Coraline (2009), Cherie Currie in the drama The Runaways (2010) and Jane Volturi in The Twilight Saga (2009–12).

 

February 22

Rembrandt Peale (February 22, 1778 – October 3, 1860) was an American artist and museum keeper. A prolific portrait painter, he was especially acclaimed for his likenesses of presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Peale's style was influenced by French Neoclassicism after a stay in Paris in his early thirties.

George Washington

Portrait of Rosalba Peal

Drew Blyth Barrymore (born February 22, 1975) is an American actress, film director, screenwriter, producer, and model. She is a descendant of the Drew family and Barrymore family of iconic American stage and cinema actors, and she is the granddaughter of film legend John Barrymore.

She first appeared in an advertisement when she was 11 months old. Barrymore made her film debut in Altered States in 1980. Afterwards, she starred in her breakout role in Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. She quickly became one of Hollywood's most recognized child actresses, going on to establish herself in mainly comic roles.

Following a turbulent childhood which was marked by recurring drug and alcohol abuse and two stints in rehab, Barrymore wrote the 1990 autobiography, Little Girl Lost. She successfully made the transition from child star to adult actress with a number of films including Poison Ivy, Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, and Everyone Says I Love You. Subsequently, she established herself in romantic comedies such as The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates.

In 1997 she and business partner Nancy Juvonen formed the production company Flower Films, with its first production the 1999 Barrymore film Never Been Kissed. Flower Films has gone on to produce the Barrymore vehicle films Charlie's Angels, 50 First Dates, and Music and Lyrics. Barrymore's more recent projects include He's Just Not That into You, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Everybody's Fine and Going the Distance.A recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Barrymore appeared on the cover of the 2007 People magazine's 100 Most Beautiful issue.

February 21

         The Washington Monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885.It  is an obelisk on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate the first American president, General George Washington.
        The monument, made of marble, granite, and bluestone gneiss, is both the world's tallest stone structure and the world's tallest obelisk, standing 555 feet 51⁄8 inches (169.294 m).Taller monumental columns exist, but they are neither all stone nor true obelisks.

        Construction of the monument began in 1848, but was halted from 1854 to 1877, and finally completed in 1884. The hiatus in construction happened because of co-option by the Know Nothing party, a lack of funds, and the intervention of the American Civil War. A difference in shading of the marble, visible approximately 150 feet (46 m) or 27% up, shows where construction was halted. Its original design was by Robert Mills, an architect of the 1840s, but his design was modified significantly when construction resumed. The cornerstone was laid on July 4, 1848; the capstone was set on December 6, 1884, and the completed monument was dedicated on February 21, 1885.
      Due to a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that occurred on August 23, 2011, 84 miles southwest of Washington, D.C., the Washington Monument was closed to assess and repair the damage.

February 20

In New York City the Metropolitan Museum of Art opens.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art (colloquially The Met), located in New York City, is the largest art museum in the United States with among the most significant art collections. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided among seventeen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is by area one of the world's largest art galleries. There is also a much smaller second location at "The Cloisters" in Upper Manhattan that features medieval art.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870 by a group of American citizens. The founders included businessmen and financiers, as well as leading artists and thinkers of the day, who wanted to open a museum to bring art and art education to the American people. It opened on February 20, 1872, and was originally located at 681 Fifth Avenue.

Kurt Cobain

 Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20) was an American musician and artist, best known as the lead singer, guitarist and primary songwriter of the grunge band Nirvana. Cobain formed Nirvana with Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1985 and established it as part of the Seattle music scene, having its debut album Bleach released on the independent record label Sub Pop in 1989.

After signing with major label DGC Records, the band found breakthrough success with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from its second album Nevermind (1991). Following the success of Nevermind, Nirvana was labeled "the flagship band" of Generation X, and Cobain hailed as "the spokesman of a generation". Cobain, however, was often uncomfortable and frustrated, believing his message and artistic vision to have been misinterpreted by the public, with his personal issues often subject to media attention. He challenged Nirvana's audience with its final studio album In Utero (1993)

During the last years of his life, Cobain struggled with heroin addiction, illness and depression. He also had difficulty coping with his fame and public image, and the professional and lifelong personal pressures surrounding himself and his wife, musician Courtney Love. On April 8, 1994, Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, the victim of what was officially ruled a suicide by a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. The circumstances of his death at age 27 have become a topic of public fascination and debate. Since their debut, Nirvana, with Cobain as a songwriter, has sold over 25 million albums in the U.S., and over 50 million worldwide.

February 19

Dorothy Janis (February 19, 1912– March 10, 2010) was an American silent film actress.

Born as Dorothy Penelope Jones in Dallas, Texas, her short film career began when she was visiting a cousin, who was working on a film for Fox Film Corporation in 1927. Her beauty was noticed at once and she was asked to make a screen test. Janis went on to make five films: four silents and one talkie.
The one talkie was Lummox (1930) based on the Fannie Hurst novel. This film, released by United Artists, only exists as a single nitrate print at the British Film Institute. Janis was best known for playing opposite Ramon Novarro in the MGM film The Pagan (1929), for which MGM publicity portrayed her as half-Cherokee. The Pagan, directed by W. S. Van Dyke, was a part-sound film, with music and sound effects only, and featured "Pagan Love Song" on the soundtrack.
Janis retired in 1930 and married bandleader Wayne King in 1932. The vice president of the Music Corporation of America, W. H. Stein, was best man. Janis and King were married for 53 years, until King's death in 1985. She lived in Paradise Valley, Arizona from 2004 up until her death on March 10, 2010 at the age of 98. She was survived by her son, Wayne; her daughter, Penny Pape; 6 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. She was laid to rest in the All Saints Episcopal Church Cemetery in Phoenix, Arizona.

February 18

John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor, dancer, and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Travolta's acting career declined through the 1980s. His career enjoyed a resurgence in the 1990s with his role in Pulp Fiction, and he has since continued starring in Hollywood films, including Face/Off, Ladder 49, and Wild Hogs. Travolta was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in Get Shorty.

February 17

Chord Paul Overstreet (born February 17, 1989) is an American actor, singer and musician, best known for his role as Sam Evans on the television series Glee.

Overstreet began to pursue his passion of performing after his high school graduation in 2007. After two unsuccessful years, Overstreet started his acting career on the web seriesPrivate, as Josh Hollis.He was also featured in an episode of iCarly iSpeed Date (for a few minutes) and the unaired pilot of No Ordinary Family. His first film role was that of Teenage Boy in the 2009 thriller The Hole, and he starred in the 2011 film A Warrior's Heartas Dupree, alongside Ashley Greene and Kellan Lutz.

Overstreet plays the character of Sam Evans, a transfer student and athlete, on the television showGlee. He landed the role after auditioning with Commodores' "Easy" and Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Want to Be". He later sang "Billionaire" by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars as a studio test, and eventually sang this in the season premiere "Audition", along with "Every Rose Has Its Thorn" byPoison. He played the role of Rocky in the The Rocky Horror Picture Show-themed episode "The Rocky Horror Glee Show".

On April 21, 2011, the video for Hot Chelle Rae's "Tonight Tonight‬" was released on YouTube and featured a series of cameos of Overstreet alternately making out with a girl (whom he stole from the lead singer) on an office copier, DJing at a club, then playing guitar and mugging for the crowd with his brother, bandmember Nash.

On July 1, 2011, TVLine's Michael Ausiello broke the news that Overstreet's contract option to become a series regular on Glee had not been picked up for season 3, but that he could possibly come back as an occasional guest star. In reaction to the announcement, fans launched a campaign to promote Overstreet's cover of "Billionaire" and various tags related to the actor, most notably "#dontcutthechord", began trending on Twitter. The song made its way into the iTunes Top 5 "Glee" charts during the campaign.

At the 2011 Comic-Con event, Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk reported that they had offered Overstreet a ten-episode deal with a possibility to become a series regular at mid-season, but that Overstreet had declined the option. Overstreet later stated to Ausiello during an interview that he had decided to leave the show to focus on his music career, explaining, "They offered me the chance to come back for a few episodes, but there was nothing guaranteed so I decided to dive into the music thing."

It was reported on October 18, 2011, and confirmed by series co-creator Ryan Murphy six days later, that Overstreet would be returning to Glee as a recurring character starting with the season's eighth episode. That episode, "Hold On to Sixteen", which featured Overstreet's character Sam, aired on December 6, 2011. On July 23, it was confirmed that Overstreet will be a series regular for thefourth season of Glee.

February 16

Richard James "Dick" McDonald was born inFebruary 16, 1909. He and his brother,Maurice James "Mac" McDonald  were early American fast food pioneers, who established the first McDonald's restaurant at 1938 North E Street and West 14th Street in San Bernardino, California in 1940. They introduced the "Speedee Service System" in 1948.

The McDonald Brothers were of Irish origin and have a proven Irish genealogy back to their great-grandparents. In the US Federal Census of 1910, both brothers (Maurice as "Morris") appear in Manchester ward 8, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, and their father Patrick J. McDonald is shown as originating from Ireland, having emigrated in 1877 as a baby. Their mother Margarete is also shown as Irish born, emigrating to the USA in 1884 as a child. In 1937, Patrick opened "The Airdrome" restaurant on Huntington Drive (Route 66) near the airport in Monrovia, California. In 1940, the entire restaurant was moved 40 miles (64 km) east to San Bernardino and renamed "McDonald's". McDonald's is now one of the most popular chains of public restaurants in the world.

February 15

Charles Lewis Tiffany  was born on  February 15 , 1812 and founded Tiffany & Co. in New York City in 1837. A leader in the American jewelry trade in the nineteenth century, he was known for his jewelry expertise, created the country's first retail catalog, and, in 1851, he introduced the English standard of sterling silver.

Susan B. Anthony Day is a commemorative holiday to celebrate the birth of Susan B. Anthony and the Women's suffrage in the United States. The day is on February 15. It has been historically celebrated since 1920, after 31 of 48 states had ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, giving women the right to vote when fully ratified later that year. In the state of Wisconsin, Susan B. Anthony Day is an established state holiday, which was enacted into law April 15, 1976, from the 1975 Laws of Wisconsin, Chapter 307, section 20. Likewise, this holiday is also commemorated in Florida as a legal state holiday.  In West Virginia, this day is celebrated on Election Day on even years. One of the reasons this holiday is not celebrated at a national level, like Martin Luther King Jr. Day is due to strong opposition. According to an article from the Seattle Times in 1985, the feminist movement is the one pushing hardest for this holiday. Other holidays that are not commemorated on an official federal level are St. Patrick's Day and Arbor Day.

February 14

Herbert Aaron Hauptman was born on February 14, 1917. He was an American mathematician and Nobel laureate. He pioneered and developed a mathematical method that has changed the whole field of chemistry and opened a new era in research in determination of molecular structures of crystallized materials. 

                                                                                Works

Hauptman has authored over 170 publications, including journal articles, research papers, chapters and books. In 1970, Hauptman joined the crystallographic group of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute (formerly the Medical Foundation of Buffalo) of which he became Research Director in 1972. Until his death, he served as President of the Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute as well as Research Professor in the Department of Biophysical Sciences and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University at Buffalo. Prior to coming to Buffalo, he worked as a mathematician and supervisor in various departments at the Naval Research Laboratory from 1947. He received his B.S. from City College of New York, M.S. from Columbia University and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.

February 13

February 13

February 13, 2013

1914 – Copyright: In New York City the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is established to protect the copyrighted musical compositions of its members.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization(PRO) that protects its members' musical copyrights by monitoring public performances of their music, whether via a broadcast or live performance, and compensating them accordingly.

ASCAP collects licensing fees from users of music created by ASCAP members, then distributes them back to its members as royalties. In effect, the arrangement is the product of a compromise: when a song is played, the user does not have to pay the copyright holder directly, nor does the music creator have to bill a radio station for use of a song.

February 12

Christina Ricci is an American actress. Ricci received initial recognition and praise as a child star for her performance as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and Addams Family Values (1993), and her role as Kat Harvey inCasper (1995). Ricci made a transition into more adult-oriented roles with The Ice Storm(1997), followed by an acclaimed performance in Buffalo '66 (1998) and then The Opposite of Sex (1998), for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. She continued her success with well-received performances in Sleepy Hollow (1999), Monster(2003), Penelope (2006) and Black Snake Moan (2007). In 2006 Ricci was nominated for an Emmy award for her role as a paramedic in the ABC drama Grey's Anatomy. In 2011–12 she played Maggie Ryan in the television show Pan Am.

Jennifer Lindsay Stone (born February 12, 1993) is an American actress best known for playing Harper Finkle on the Disney Channel series Wizards of Waverly Place andHarriet Welsh in the Disney Channel film Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars and Abby Hanover in "Mean Girls 2"

Stone's break came when she was cast as Martha in New Line Cinema's Secondhand Lions. She received a Young Artist Award nomination for her role in Secondhand Lions as well as a nomination for her 2005 guest appearance on House, M.D. She guest appeared on Line of Fire and Without a Trace. In February 2007, she joined the main cast of Disney'sWizards of Waverly Place as Harper. She has made YouTube videos with Wizards co-starsSelena Gomez and David Henrie, and created her own YouTube channel.

In 2009, she had a voice role in the Disney Channel Original Movie Dadnapped. She also lent her voice to Phineas and Ferb as the voice of Amanda, Candace's daughter in the future in 2 episodes. In 2010, she played the main character in the film Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars. In 2011, she was in the film Mean Girls 2 playing Abby Hanover.

February 10

Battle of Elizabeth City

    The Battle of Elizabeth City of the American Civil War was fought in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Roanoke Island. It took place on 10 February 1862, on the Pasquotank River near Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The participants were vessels of the U.S. Navy's North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, opposed by vessels of the Confederate Navy's Mosquito Fleet; the latter were supported by a shore-based battery of four guns at Cobb's Point (now called Cobb Point), near the southeastern border of the town. The battle was a part of the campaign in North Carolina that was led by Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and known as the Burnside Expedition. The result was a Union victory, with Elizabeth City and its nearby waters in their possession, and the Confederate fleet captured, sunk, or dispersed.

Elizabeth City lies near the mouth of the Pasquotank River, where it flows into Albemarle Sound from the north. North of the city is the Dismal Swamp Canal. To the east is the southern segment of the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, separated from the Pasquotank River by only a narrow neck of land. Much of the food and forage delivered from North Carolina to southeastern Virginia was transported along these two canals. In particular, Norfolk, Virginia depended upon continued access to the canals for its subsistence. So long as the North Carolina Sounds remained in Confederate hands, Norfolk could be well supplied despite the blockading efforts of the Union Navy at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay.

That changed, however, in early February 1862. In a battle fought on 7–8 February, the joint operation of a Union Army division under Major General Ambrose E. Burnside and a naval flotilla under Flag Officer Louis M. Goldsborough captured Roanoke Island, a position in Croatan Sound that had previously shielded the sounds from Federal depredations. Earlier, Union ships trying to enforce the blockade on the canals would have had to enter Pamlico Sound through Hatteras Inlet, then pass several Confederate batteries on Roanoke Island before they could get into Albemarle Sound. With the elimination of the batteries, however, all that stood in the way of the Union Navy was the Mosquito Fleet of the Confederate States Navy.