February 15: This Day in History

Photo/History.com

On this day, February 15, beginning in 1804, several historical events occurred that helped shape our nation and the world. Everything from the abolishment of slavery to Black revolutionaries bursting into a Massachusetts courtroom to free a slave (1851) to General Grant's assault on Fort Donelson, Tennessee (1862) to the making of the first Teddy Bear in 1903.

1804 - New Jersey becomes last northern state to abolish slavery
1805 - Harmony Society is officially formed.
1842 - 1st adhesive postage stamps in US (private delivery company), NYC
1845 - William Parsons, Earl of Rosse, 1st uses 72" (183 cm) reflector
1848 - Sarah Roberts barred from white school in Boston
1851 - Black abolitionists invade Boston courtroom rescuing a fugitive slave
1852 - Great Ormond St Hospital for Sick Children, London, admits 1st patient
1861 - Ft Point completed & garrisoned (but has never fired cannon in anger)
1862 - Grant's major assault on Ft Donelson, Tennessee
1864 - Fire in Rotterdam Neth damages Museum Boymans
1869 - Charges of Treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped
1870 - Ground broken for Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minn
1876 - Historic Elm at Boston blown down
1879 - Congress authorizes women lawyers to practice before Supreme Ct
1882 - 1st cargo of frozen meat leaves NZ for Britain, on SS Dunedin
1891 - AIK is founded at Biblioteksgatan 8 in Stockholm by Isidor Behrens.
1895 - 23 cm (9") of snow falls on New Orleans
1898 - USS Maine sinks in Havana harbor, cause unknown-258 sailors die
1900 - General French relieves Kimberley/Cecil Rhodes
1902 - Underground railway (U-Bahn)
1903 - 1st Teddy Bear introduced in America, made by Morris & Rose Michtom
1905 - 1st race meet at Oaklawn Park (Hot Springs, Ark)
1906 - British Labour Party organizes
1910 - The Boy Scouts of America is founded.
1926 - Contract air mail service begins in US
1930 - Weona beats Toluca in Illinois Basketball Tournament in 10 overtimes
1931 - 1st Dracula movie released
1931 - Spring training site of NY Yankees in St Petersburg is renamed Miller Huggins Field in honor of the team's late manager
1932 - 3rd Winter Olympic games close at Lake Placid, NY
1941 - Duke Ellington 1st records "Take the A Train"
1950 - KENS TV channel 5 in San Antonio, TX (CBS) begins broadcasting
1950 - WM Inge's "Come Back, Little Sheba," premieres in NYC
1950 - WSYR (now WSTM) TV channel 3 in Syracuse, NY (NBC) begins broadcasting
1950 - Walt Disney's "Cinderella" released
1952 - King George VI is buried in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle.
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - 1st US female world figure skating champ (Tenley Albright)
1967 - 1st anti-bootleg recording laws enacted
1967 - D66 (D'66) wins 7 seats in Dutch 2nd Chamber
1967 - Longest dream (REM sleep) on record, Bill Carskadon, Chicago (2:23)
1970 - Dominican DC-9 crashes into sea at Santo Domingo, kills 102
1970 - KAMU TV channel 15 in College Station, TX (PBS) begins broadcasting
1970 - Nationalists disrupt UN session on Congo
1978 - Escaped mass murderer Ted Bundy recaptured, Pensacola, Fla
Heavyweight Boxing Champ Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Boxing Champ Muhammad Ali 1978 - Leon Spinks beats Muhammad Ali in 15 for heavyweight boxing title
1978 - Zaire revises constitution
1979 - 21st Grammy Awards: Just the Way You Are, Taste of Honey wins
1979 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1980 - Eric Heiden skates Olympic record 500m in 38.03 sec
1989 - Soviet military occupation of Afgh nist n ends
1990 - Baseball owners lock out players
1995 - Population of People's Republic of China hits 1.2 billion
1996 - Mortar attack on the US Embassy in Athens, Greece.
1997 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Tara Lipinski
2001 - First draft of the complete Human Genome is published in Nature
2002 - At the Tri-State Crematory in La Fayette, Georgia, investigators find un-cremated bodies disposed of in the woods and buildings on the crematorium's property. The discovery reveals one of the worst incidents of abuse in the funeral service industry.
2012 - United Kingdom unemployment rate reaches 17 year high of 8.4%
2012 - Fire at Comayagua prison, Honduras, kills 358