January: 

On January 1, 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln free the slaves in the states rebelling against the Union. On January 1, 1892, Ellis Island in New York harbor opened. Over 20 million new arrivals to America were processed until Ellis Island’s closing in 1954. On January 1, 1942, twenty-six countries signed the United Nations Declaration, in Washington D.C., reaffirming their opposition to the axis powers. On January 3, 1777, General George Washington defeated the British at Princeton during the American Revolution. On January 4, 1790, President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address. On January 10, 1776, Common Sense, a fifty-page pamphlet by Thomas Paine, was published. On January 20, 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated to an unprecedented fourth term as president. On January 25, 1959, an American Airlines Boeing 707 made the first scheduled transcontinental U.S. flight, traveling from California to New York. On January 28, 1986, the U.S. Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds into the flight, killing seven persons, including Christa McAuliffe, a teacher who was to be the first ordinary citizen in space. On January 3, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul Von Hindenburg. On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in New Delhi, India.

February:

On February 1, 1960, in Greensboro, North Carolina, four African American students sat down and ordered coffee at a lunch counter inside a Woolworth’s store. They were refused service but did not leave. Instead, they waited all day. The scene was repeated over the next few days, with protests spreading to other southern states, resulting in the eventual arrest of over 1,600 persons for participating in sit-ins. On February 6, 1962, King George VI of England died. Upon his death, his daughter Princess Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Her actual coronation took place on June 2, 1953. On February 11, 1990, in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, at age 71, was released from prison after serving 27 years of a life sentence on charges of attempting to overthrow the apartheid government. In April 1994, he was elected president in the first all-race elections. On February 18, 1865, Fort Sumter in South Carolina was returned to the Union after nearly a year and a half under Confederate control during the American Civil War. The fort had been the scene of the first shots of the war. On February 20, 1962, Astronaut John Glenn became the first American launched into orbit; he traveled aboard the “Friendship 7” spacecraft.

March:

On March 1, 1961 – President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps, an organization sending young American volunteers to developing countries to assist with health care, education, and other basic human needs. On March 4, 1681 – King Charles II of England granted a huge tract of land in the New World to William Penn to settle an outstanding debt. The area later became Pennsylvania. On  March 5, 1770 – The Boston Massacre occurred as a group of rowdy Americans harassed British soldiers who then opened fire, killing five and injuring six. On March 10, 1862, the first issue of U.S. government paper money occurred as $5, $10, and $20 bills began circulation.  On March 11, 1918, the ‘Spanish’ influenza first reached America as 107 soldiers become sick at Fort Riley, Kansas. One-quarter of the U.S. population eventually became ill from the deadly virus, resulting in 500,000 deaths. The death toll worldwide approached 22 million by the end of 1920. On March 23, 1775, Patrick Henry ignited the American Revolution with a speech before the Virginia convention in Richmond, stating, “I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!”

This article originally appeared in the March 2021 edition of The Nazareth, Volume XCIII, No. 3.