On February 21, 1848, a slim political pamphlet appeared in London that would reverberate across continents and centuries. Titled The Communist Manifesto, it was authored by two German intellectuals in exile—Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels—and commissioned by a small revolutionary organization known as the…
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On February 21, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon undertook a groundbreaking journey that would reshape global geopolitics: his visit to the People’s Republic of China. This unprecedented diplomatic effort aimed to normalize relations between two nations that had been ideological rivals since the Communist…
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On February 20, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post published the first installment of what would become one of the most recognizable artistic statements of the Second World War: Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms.” Inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address,…
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On February 20, 1943, The Saturday Evening Post published the first of Norman Rockwell’s Four Freedoms paintings, a series of illustrations inspired by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address. In that speech, Roosevelt outlined his vision for a world based…
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On February 19, 1945, after days of relentless naval and aerial bombardment, approximately 30,000 United States Marines stormed the black volcanic beaches of Iwo Jima, a small, sulfur-scented island in the western Pacific that would become one of the bloodiest battlefields in American military…
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On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, granting the military broad authority to exclude individuals from designated areas. Though the order did not explicitly mention Japanese Americans, it became the legal basis for one of the most severe violations…
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On February 18, 2010, the transparency organization WikiLeaks began publishing the first in what would become one of the largest classified disclosures in American history — a torrent of U.S. government documents provided by the Army intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning. At…
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On February 18, 1979, NASCAR had its coming-out party. For the first time, the Daytona 500 was broadcast live from start to finish on national television, and it delivered in spectacular fashion. Richard Petty took advantage of a dramatic last-lap wreck between Donnie Allison…
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On February 17, 1944, U.S. forces launched a decisive assault on the Eniwetok Atoll in the Marshall Islands, marking another critical step in the Central Pacific drive toward Japan. The operation—part of a broader campaign following the capture of Kwajalein earlier that month—reflected the…
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The presidential election of 1800 was one of the most pivotal and contentious moments in American political history, revealing both the strengths and weaknesses of the nation’s young electoral system. The contest between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both representing the Democratic-Republican Party, resulted…
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