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.

February 11

Inventors' Day

Inventors' Day is a day of the year set aside by a country to recognise the contributions of inventors. Not all countries recognise Inventors' Day. Those countries which do recognise an Inventors' Day do so with varying degrees of emphasis and on different days of the year.

Ronald Reagan as President of the United States proclaimed February 11, 1983 as National Inventors' Day, Proclamation 5013, to "...call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities".
In recognition of the enormous contribution inventors make to the nation and the world, the Congress, pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution 140 (Public Law 97 - 198), has designated February 11, the anniversary of the birth of the inventor Thomas Alva Edison, who held over 1,000 patents, as National Inventors' Day.

 

February 9

             William Henry Harrison  was the ninth President of the United States (1841), an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when inaugurated, the oldest president to take office until Ronald Reagan in 1981, and last President to be born before the United States Declaration of Independence. Harrison died on his 32nd day in office of complications from pneumonia, serving the shortest tenure in United States presidential history. His death sparked a brief constitutional crisis, but that crisis ultimately resolved many questions about presidential succession left unanswered by the Constitution until passage of the 25th Amendment.

             Before election as president, Harrison served as the first territorial congressional delegatefrom the Northwest Territory, governor of the Indiana Territory and later as a U.S. representative and senator from Ohio. He originally gained national fame for leading U.S. forces against American Indians at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, where he earned thenickname "Tippecanoe" (or "Old Tippecanoe"). As a general in the subsequent War of 1812, his most notable contribution was a victory at the Battle of the Thames in 1813, which brought an end to hostilities in his region.

              After the war, Harrison moved to Ohio, where he was elected to the United States House of Representatives, and in 1824 he became a member of the Senate. There he served a truncated term before being appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Colombia in May 1828. In Colombia, he spoke with Simón Bolívar urging his nation to adopt American-style democracy, before returning to his farm in Ohio, where he lived in relative retirement until he was nominated for the presidency in 1836. Defeated, he retired again to his farm before being elected president in 1840, and died of pneumonia in April 1841, a month after taking office.

              

             Darren Jack Dalton is an American actor, screenwriter, and film producer. Dalton was born in Powell, Wyoming. Dalton's career began in 1982 when cast as Randy Anderson by Francis Ford Coppola during a nationwide talent search for the ground breaking teen ensemble The Outsiders.

             After The Outsiders, Dalton reunited with C. Thomas Howell and Patrick Swayze in Red Dawn, a story of a group of teenagers fighting Soviet Union troops who have invaded the United States. Dalton portrayed Daryl Bates, the son of the mayor.

             After Red Dawn, Dalton's first made-for-television movie was Brotherhood of Justice as a rebellious teenager, followed by Daddy and the short-lived, but critically acclaimed TV ensemble drama The Best Times. He has also had numerous TV guest appearances onHighway to Heaven, Quantum Leap, Alien Nation and as General Custer on Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman. Shortly after, he returned to theatrical releases, such as Dancing in the Forest and The Wolves.

             Turning to screenwriting full time, Dalton did not appear in any other TV shows or movies until 2007's The Stolen Moments of September. After the movie, he fully returned to acting, in War of the Worlds 2, Children of the Hunt, Darkroom (which he also Executive Produced and provided music for), the 3-D zombie thriller Day of the Living and The Day the Earth Stopped which Dalton also wrote and produced, and The Land That Time Forgot, which Dalton adapted from the Edgar Rice Burroughs novel.

February 8

Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty was an American author of short stories and novels. She is now considered by some to have been a forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century.

From 1892 to 1895, she wrote short stories for both children and adults which were published in such magazines as Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The Century Magazine, and The Youth's Companion. Her major works were two short story collections, Bayou Folk (1894) and A Night in Acadie (1897). Her important short stories included "Desiree's Baby", a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana (published in 1893), "The Story of an Hour" (1894), and "The Storm "(1898)."The Storm" is a sequel to "The 'Cadian Ball," which appeared in her first collection of short stories, Bayou Folk. Chopin also wrote two novels: At Fault (1890) and The Awakening (1899), which are set in New Orleans andGrand Isle, respectively. The people in her stories are usually inhabitants of Louisiana. Many of her works are set in Natchitoches in north central Louisiana.

Within a decade of her death, Chopin was widely recognized as one of the leading writers of her time. In 1915, Fred Lewis Pattee wrote, "some of [Chopin's] work is equal to the best that has been produced in France or even in America. [She displayed] what may be described as a native aptitude for narration amounting almost to genius."

King Wallis Vidor (February 8, 1894 – November 1, 1982) was an American film director,film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1979 he was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for his "incomparable achievements as a cinematic creator and innovator." He was nominated five times for a Best Director Oscar, and won eight international film awards during his career.

William "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of theDC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development. In later years, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation,and comics historian Ron Goulart has referred to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger". A DC Comics press release in 2007 stated that, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for DC predecessor National Comics." According to George Roussos, "Bob Kane had [the] ideas while Bill sort of organized them". He also wrote many of the original 1940s Green Lantern stories and would go on to contribute to the development of numerous comic book series.

Finger was posthumously inducted into the comic book industry's Jack Kirby Hall of Famein 1994 and the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 1999. His name provided the basis for the Bill Finger Award, founded by Jerry Robinson and presented annually at Comic-Con International to honor lifetime achievements by comic book writers insufficiently honored for their work in the medium.

February 7

Alfred Merrill Worden (born February 7, 1932) is an American astronaut who was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon.

Education

The son of Merrill and Helen Worden, he was born in Jackson, Michigan. Worden attended Dibble, Griswold, Bloomfield and East Jackson grade schools and completed his secondary education at Jackson High School. He received a bachelor of military science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1955 and master of science degrees in Astronautical/Aeronautical Engineering and Instrumentation Engineering from the University of Michiganin 1963. He also received an honorary doctorate of science in Astronautical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1971.

February 6

Ronald Reagan Day

 

Ronald Reagan Day is a day of recognition that occurs every February 6, starting in 2011, in the state of California for Ronald Reagan, who was that state's Governor from 1967–1975 and President of the United States from 1981–1989.
Ronald Reagan Day has also been declared a state holiday in Wisconsin. For the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birthday in 2011, governors in 21 states issued proclamations designating February 6 Ronald Reagan Day.
Reagan was an American politician who is the only Governor of California to have ever been elected President of the United States, when he won the presidency in 1980.

 

February 5

National Weatherperson's Day, also known as National Weatherman's Day, is observed on February 5 primarily in the United States. It recognizes individuals in the fields of meteorology, weather forecasting and broadcast meteorology, as well as volunteer storm spotters and observers. It is observed on the birthday of John Jeffries, one of the United States' first weather observers who took daily measurements starting in 1774.