NAACP founded

(Wikipedia) The Race Riot of 1908 in Lincoln's hometown of Springfield, Illinois had highlighted the urgent need for an effective civil rights organization in the U.S. This event is often cited as the catalyst for the formation of the NAACP. Mary White Ovington, journalist William English Walling and Henry Moscowitz met in New York City in January 1909 and the NAACP was born. Solicitations for support went out to more than 60 prominent Americans, and a meeting date was set for February 12, 1909. This was intended to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln, who emancipated enslaved African Americans. While the meeting did not take place until three months later, this date is often cited as the founding date of the organization. Continued

A World War II airman finally comes home

(Baltimore Sun) In the photo from 1943, Tech. Sgt. Charles A. Bode and his fellow airmen gaze into the camera, some shirtless, some smiling, looking to modern eyes like cast members of the musical "South Pacific." But the B-24 bomber crew would soon embark on a very real mission during the intense combat for the Pacific in World War II. The men took off from a port in New Guinea on Nov. 20, 1943; after a routine radio check, the 11 crewmen were never seen or heard from again. Continued

William Fox Talbot

(Wikipedia) William Henry Fox Talbot was a British inventor and a pioneer of photography, born on February 11, 1800 and died on September 17, 1877. He was the inventor of calotype process, the precursor to most photographic processes of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was also a noted photographer who made major contributions to the development of photography as an artistic medium. His work in the 1840s on photo-mechanical reproduction led to the creation of the photoglyphic engraving process, the precursor to photogravure. Talbot is also remembered as the holder of a patent which, some say, affected the early development of commercial photography in Britain. Additionally, he made some important early photographs of Oxford, Paris, and York. Continued

Businesses now open in old Baltimore County Jail

(Towson Times) Brody Bond, who graduated from Towson High School before he earned a degree in communications studies from James Madison University, is proud to say the company he and friend Greg Rittler, a CPA, founded was the first tenant to move into the old Baltimore County Jail. Since Jan. 1, the newly remodeled building on the corner of Bosley Avenue and Towsontown Boulevard has been the new home of Blue Ocean Ideas, a firm that specializes in digital advertising, website design, video and social media for clients. Their new digs have come up in the world. The old jail is now called Bosley Hall, and it’s an office building. Continued

Treaty of Paris (1763)

(Wikipedia) The Treaty of Paris, often called the Peace of Paris, or the Treaty of 1763, was signed on 10 February 1763, by the kingdoms of Great Britain, France and Spain, with Portugal in agreement. It ended the French and Indian War/Seven Years' War. The treaty marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside Europe. Continued

The Meteor procession of February 9, 1913

(Wikipedia) The meteor procession of February 9, 1913, was a unique meteoric phenomenon reported from locations across Canada, the north-eastern United States, Bermuda and from several ships at sea, including one off Brazil, giving a total recorded track of some 5659 miles (9105 km). The meteors were particularly unusual in that there was no apparent radiant, that is to say, no apparent point in the sky from which the meteors appeared to originate. The observations were analysed in detail, later the same year, by the astronomer Clarence Chant, leading him to conclude that as all accounts were positioned along a great circle arc, the source had been a small, short-lived natural satellite of the Earth. Continued

Pictured: "Meteoric Display of February 9, 1913, as seen near High Park. Drawn by Gustave (sic) Hahn" (Toronto Star)

Laura Ingalls Wilder

On every side now the prairie stretched away empty to a far, clear skyline. The wind never stopped blowing, waving the tall prairie grasses…And all the afternoon, while Pa kept driving onward, he was merrily whistling or singing. The song he sang oftenest was:

Oh, come to this country,
And don't you feel alarm,
For Uncle Sam is rich enough
To give us all a farm!

Laura Ingalls Wilder,
By the Shores of Silver Lake Continued

The Schoolhouse Blizzard

(Wikipedia) The Schoolhouse Blizzard, also known as the Schoolchildren's Blizzard or the Children's Blizzard, hit the U.S. plains states on January 12, 1888. The blizzard came unexpectedly on a relatively warm day, and many people were caught unaware, including children in one-room schoolhouses.
The stories:

• Plainview, Nebraska: Lois Royce found herself trapped with three of her students in her schoolhouse. By 3 p.m., they had run out of heating fuel. Her boarding house was only 82 yards (75 m) away, so she attempted to lead the children there. However, visibility was so poor that they became lost and all the children froze to death. The teacher survived, but her feet were frostbitten and had to be amputated.
  
  
• Holt County, Nebraska: Etta Shattuck got lost on her way home, and sought shelter in a haystack. She remained trapped there until her rescue three days later. She soon died due to complications from surgery to remove her frostbitten limbs.
  
  
• In Great Plains, South Dakota, the children were rescued. Two men tied a rope to the closest house, and headed for the school. There, they tied off the other end of the rope, and led the children to safety.
  
  
• Mira Valley, Nebraska: Minnie Freeman safely led thirteen children from her schoolhouse to her home, one half mile (800 m) away.^[1][2] The rumor she used a rope to keep the children together during the blinding storm is widely circulated, but one of the children claims that is not true. She took them to the boarding house she lived at about a mile away and all of her pupils survived. Many children in similar conditions around the Great Plains were not so lucky, as 235 people were killed, most of them children who couldn't get home from school. That year, "Song of the Great Blizzard: Thirteen Were Saved" or "Nebraska's Fearless Maid", was written and recorded in her honor by W.M. Vincent and published by Lyon & Healy.
  
  
• Ted Kooser, Nebraska poet, has recorded many of the stories of the Schoolhouse Blizzard in his book of poetry, "The Blizzard Voices".
  
  
• In 1967 a haunting mosaic mural by Jeanne Reynal was created for the west wall of the north bay in the Nebraska State Capitol building in Lincoln, Nebraska. It captures much of the mood and drama of the storm. The mural, executed in a semi-abstract style, portrays an incident that occurred in which a school teacher, Minnie Freeman, is supposed to have tied her children together with a clothes line and led them through the terrifying tempest to safety. Continued

Photo: Trout School, Felton, PA. (Falmanac).

The USO: Home Away from Home

(LoC) The United Service Organizations, popularly known as the USO, was chartered on February 4, 1941, in order to provide recreation for on-leave members of the U.S. armed forces and their families. The idea of coordinating civilian volunteer efforts on behalf of the rapidly growing armed forces was first proposed, in 1940, by General George C. Marshall.
At the recommendation of President Franklin Roosevelt, the task was put in the hands of existing public service organizations. The USO, Inc., was organized by representatives of five private social service organizations: the Salvation Army, the YMCA, the National Board of the YWCA, the National Jewish Welfare Board, and the National Catholic Community Service. A sixth organization, the Travelers Aid Association of America, joined in March 1941. Continued

Middle River, a small crossroads in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland. FSA (Farm Security Administration) housing project (later administered by the National Housing Agency) for Glenn L. Martin aircraft workers. Mrs. Helen Bird, USO (United Service Organization) traveler's aide, giving information to a newcomer in the Glenn L. Martin trailer village (John Collier/FSA/OWI/Library of Congress)

Lancaster preacher was chaplain of York's Civil War Army Hospital

(Cannonball) The Rev. James Allen Brown, one of eight children of Quaker parents from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, served as the chaplain of the military hospital for most of the war, serving from 1862 until 1864. His was a massive chore, as the facilities housed more than 14,000 different patients during the war, with the majority there during Brown's tenure as chaplain. Perhaps as many as 200 patients died; Reverend Brown officiated at many of the funerals for those fatalities who were buried in York's Prospect Hill Cemetery. Continued

Joseph E. Johnston

(Wikipedia) Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 – March 21, 1891) was a career U.S. Army officer, serving with distinction in the Mexican-American War and Seminole Wars, and was also one of the most senior general officers in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Johnston was trained as a civil engineer at the U.S. Military Academy. He served in Florida, Texas, and Kansas, and fought with distinction in the Mexican-American War and by 1860 achieved the rank of brigadier general as Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army. When his native state of Virginia seceded from the Union, Johnston resigned his commission, the highest-ranking officer to join the Confederacy. Continued

Top Photo: Johnston's grave at Green Mount Cemetery, Baltimore (Find A Grave/Russ Dodge).

Historical origins of Groundhog Day

(Wikipedia) - An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry, dated February 4, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania storekeeper James Morris:

Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate."

In the United States the tradition may also derive from a Scottish poem:

As the light grows longer
The cold grows stronger
If Candlemas be fair and bright
Winter will have another flight
If Candlemas be cloud and snow
Winter will be gone and not come again
A farmer should on Candlemas day
Have half his corn and half his hay
On Candlemas day if thorns hang a drop
You can be sure of a good pea crop

This tradition also stems from similar beliefs associated with Candlemas Day and Groundhog Day. Candlemas, also known as the Purification of the Virgin or the Presentation, coincides with the earlier pagan observance Imbolc. Continued

Photo: Marumari/Wikipedia, some rights reserved.

Ice breaker works the Chesapeake Bay

York building getting a new life on North George Street

(YDR) A North George Street building that's been vacant since the 1950s will have new life thanks to a York County developer.
When York County began building the new judicial center, Randall Hirsch of Hirsch Partnership said he saw opportunity in the vacant, crumbling building across the street at the corner of North George Street and West Clarke Avenue. ... Hirsch said he thinks the building was built between the early 1830s and 1860s. Continued

Lillian E. Fishburne

(Wikipedia) Lillian Elaine Fishburne (born March 25, 1949) was the first African-American female to hold the rank of Rear Admiral in the United States Navy. She was appointed to the rank of Rear Admiral (Lower Half) by President of the United States Bill Clinton and was officially promoted on February 1, 1998. RDML Fishburne retired from the Navy in February 2001.

Rear Admiral (retired) Fishburne was born March 25, 1949 at Patuxent River, Maryland and raised in Rockville, Maryland. She was commissioned an Ensign upon completion of Women Officers School at Newport, Rhode Island in February 1973. Continued