History of the Week: Longfellow, Buffalo Bill, R.Livingston, Han Dynasty, Constantine, Salem Witches, Reichstag, H.McDaniel, &More

The late, great Winston Churchill once advised, “Study history, study history. In history lies all the secrets of statecraft.” Our politics and thus our society are in such crisis today partly because so many Americans are either ignorant of or deliberately rewriting history. We need to correct that problem. Below are some of the important births, deaths, and events that occurred this past week in history.

February 25

1570 – Pope Pius V issues the bull Regnans in Excelsis, excommunicating heretic English Queen Elizabeth I and absolving her orthodox subjects of loyalty to her.

1862 – The first U.S. Legal Tender Act aims to provide money to fund the Civil War, issuing fiat money

February 26

1522 – Cuauhtémoc, the last Aztec emperor, dies.

1802 – French writer Victor Hugo is born. Most famous for his novels The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables.

1813 – Death of “Robert R. Livingston, ‘The Chancellor,’ [who was] a Founding Father and served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He also helped negotiate the Lousiana Purchase.”

1846 – Internationally acclaimed Wild West star “Buffalo Bill” Cody is born. Scout, soldier, and showman, eventually Bill portrayed himself in a play, launching his show business career!

February 27

c.280 – Constantine I is born. Also known as Constantine the Great, he was a Roman emperor who famously legalized Christianity after a military victory achieved through the Christian symbol.

1807 – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, arguably the quintessential American poet, is born.

1933 – The infamous Reichstag fire, in which the German parliament building burned.

February 28

202 BC – Reported date on which former peasant Liu Bang was crowned emperor of China as Gaozu, founding the Han dynasty.

1991 – An approximately 100-hour ground war ends with the U.S. winning a decisive victory against Iraq and Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm.

February 29

1692 – The first arrest warrants are issuedin Salem, Massachusetts, ahead of what is now infamously known in history as the Salem Witch Trials. Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba (a slave woman) were accused of being witches who cursed two local girls.

1940 – Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black actress (or actor) to win an Oscar. She received the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of “Mammy” in the 1939 film Gone with the Wind.

March 1

1780 – “Pennsylvania passed ‘An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery,’ which stopped the importation of slaves into the State, required all slaves to be registered, and established that all children born in the State were free regardless of race or parentage. While individuals who were slaves before 1780 remained in slavery, this Act was the first Act abolishing slavery in a democratic society. This Act became the model for abolition laws across the Northern states [American Battlefield Trust].”

1781 – The Articles of Confederation are ratified, establishing the loose unity of the American states.