Happy Birthday Harold Arlen
Composer Harold Arlen was born Hyman Arluck on February 15, 1905, in Buffalo, New York. He composed over 500 songs during his lifetime, including “Over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz.
This Day in History
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Happy Birthday to Richard Allen
Minister, writer, and educator Richard Allen was born on February 14, 1760, in the Colony of Delaware. He went on to found the first independent black church in the United States, the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
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Founding of the NAACP
On February 12, 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded in New York City. It’s America’s oldest and largest civil rights group.
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America’s First Bicycle Club
On February 11, 1878, the Boston Bicycle Club (BBiC) was founded. It was the first bicycle club in the US and it organized the first bicycle race in the country, among many other firsts.
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Happy Birthday, Alfred “Chief” Anderson
Happy Birthday to Alfred “Chief” Anderson. Called the Father of Black Aviation, he was a trailblazer who set many records and trained the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II.
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Happy Birthday Chester Carlson
By the time Carlson was eight years old, both of his parents were sick, which left him responsible with working to support the family. In his teens, he would work two or three hours before school, and then several more hours after classes finished for the day.
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First U.S. Aerial Victory
On February 5, 1918, US pilot Stephen W. Thompson shot down a German aircraft, making him the first person in the American military to shoot down an enemy plane.
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First U.S. Winter Olympics
The third Winter Olympic Games open in Lake Placid, New York. They were the first games held in the US and showed the world that the US could host the games as well as European nations.
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The Battle of Manila
The WWII Battle of Manila begins. It was the first and most violent urban fighting of the war in the Pacific, but the Allies were victorious.
