FEBRUARY: SHORT BUT MIGHTY

By Edwin Cooney

While every month can be decorated for its politically, socially, and historic progeny, February appears especially significant considering it never has 30 days within its domain.

First there's Punxsutawney Phil, everyone's favorite and only known groundhog or woodchuck. Then there's the birth of Henry Aaron which took place on February 5th, 1934 and Babe Ruth who was born on February 6th, 1895. Four presidents were born in February: Ronald Reagan on February 6th, 1911, William Henry Harrison on February 9th, 1773, Abraham Lincoln on February 12th, 1809, and, of course, George Washington on February 11th or 22nd, 1732 — take your pick.(George Washington was deprived of his 19th birthday, because by the time he reached his 19th birthday, February 1731 had become February 1732, moving from the last month of the Julian calendar to the second month of the new Gregorian calendar.)

All four February presidents left a significant mark on American history. Harrison did so by becoming the first president to die in office thereby allowing Vice President John Tyler to successfully declare himself president. President Washington, in addition to being our first president, personally established the Executive department of the new Federal Government with little or no direction from the Constitution.

President Lincoln saved the Union by never recognizing the legitimacy of the Confederacy, thereby making the Civil War a mere civil rebellion rather than a declared war.

President Reagan is regarded by many (although not by this author) to have won the Cold War by refusing to back down on Premier Gorbachev's insistence that the National Space Defense program, otherwise known as "Star Wars,” be rejected. Realizing they couldn't match American defense expenditures, the Russian government under Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF Treaty in Washington, D.C. in December of 1987.

Three presidential elections were decided in February. George Washington was elected as our first president on February 4, 1789. Thomas Jefferson was elected president in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, February 17th, 1801. John Quincy Adams was elected president on Monday, February 9th, 1825.

February 3rd, 1870 marks the ratification of the 15th Amendment asserting that all citizens have the right to vote. That amendment was ignored by the Jim Crow South until passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. However, it is ironic that February 3rd 1913's ratification of the 16th Amendment empowering the Congress to "lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived” remains on the books when it is as unpopular as it surely is!

Thursday, February 14, 1929 saw the St. Valentine’s Day gang massacre in Chicago. On Wednesday, February 15th, 1933, a large Miami crowd witnessed  the near assassination of President Elect Franklin D. Roosevelt by Giuseppe Zangara. The shooting  resulted in the death of Mayor Anton Cermak of Chicago on Monday, March 6th, two weeks and six painful days later. Zangara was executed for the shooting on March 20th, 1933.

Other February events include the February 22nd, 1932 birth of Edward M. Kennedy, the release by the Soviets of U-2 spy pilot Francis Gary Powers on February 10th, 1962 and, most dramatically, the launching of John Glenn into orbit on Tuesday, February 20th, 1962. Also notable is the February 9th, 1964 appearance by the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. 

During the month of February, however, good things do come to an end as occurred on February 26th, 1935 when the New York Yankees traded Babe Ruth to the Boston Braves following 14 years of baseball glory. (Note: Babe Ruth would retire on June 2nd 1935 and his great Yankee teammate, Lou Gehrig, would die on June 2nd, 1941.)  

Following Mighty February, of course there comes Miraculous March! Perhaps I'll tell you about that sometime sooner or later!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY