This date in history

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1804: The captured frigate USS Philadelphia is boarded and burned at Tripoli in a skillfully conducted operation. 1st Lieutenant Stephan Decatur Jr. and 60 men, predominantly US Marines!, disguised as Maltese or Arab seamen (talk about special ops Here! boarded and set fires aboard the 38 gun frigate and escaped in the aftermath's confusion. After learning of Decatur's daring capture and destruction of Philadelphia without suffering a single fatality, British Vice Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson, at the time, claimed that it was "the most bold and daring act of the Age." (naturally I would never dispute Lord Nelson's opinion!) Decatur's daring and successful burning of Philadelphia made him an immediate national hero in the US. Upon hearing the news of their victory in Tripoli, Pope Pius VII publicly declared that "the United States, in their , had done more to humble and humiliate the anti-Christian barbarians on the African coast in one night than all the European states had done for a long period of time." (not a very pious outlook your Holiness! )The USS Philadelphia burns as Decatur escapes in a captured Tripoitan ketch. Stephan Decatur Jr

[Jimbuna]

1972 - British Parliament votes to join European Common Market.

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WIERD: 1546: Martin Luther dies- age 62; The revolt he started as the Protestant Reformation together with the slaughter of the Thirty Years War spelled the doom of Catholic Hegemony in Western civilization. The war from 1615 -1648 killed 8 million people and decimated German state populations by 35-66%. Having attended a small Lutheran college in the Midwest...the result to me is inestimable! Luther took on the the establishment of his day and was excommunicated and declared a heretic. 1962: J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," dies in Princeton, NJ also at the age of 62. Without him, there's no me, as daddy was slated for the invasion of Japan and had few illusions about surviving...two bombs later, WWII ended... when he opposed the military use of the atomic weapon he had invented , he too was declared a heretic and lost his security clearance; "he and many of the Manhattan Project staff were very upset about the bombing of Nagasaki, as they did not feel the second bomb was necessary from a military point of view. He traveled to Washington on August 17 to hand-deliver a letter to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson expressing his revulsion and his wish to see nuclear weapons banned. In October 1945 Oppenheimer was granted an interview with President Truman. The meeting went badly, after Oppenheimer remarked he felt he had "blood on my hands." The remark infuriated Truman and put an end to the meeting. Truman later told his Undersecretary of State Dean Acheson "I don't want to see that son-of-a-bitch in this office ever again." Wiki Rule 1: IMHO if your going to be an anti-establishment 'son-of-a-bitch' to a Pope or a president...size matters!

[Jimbuna]

1964 - UK flies ½ ton of The Beatles wigs to the US.

[Sailor Steve]

1807 Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. Despite later being acquitted, public opinion will force him to live out the remainder of his life in privacy.

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1976: Gerald Ford does a little post-Nixon official healing.
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation
In this Bicentennial Year, we are commemorating the anniversary dates of many great events in American history. An honest reckoning, however, must include a recognition of our national mistakes as well as our national achievements. Learning from our mistakes is not pleasant, but as a great philosopher once admonished, we must do so if we want to avoid repeating them.
February 19th is the anniversary of a sad day in American history. It was on that date in 1942, in the midst of the response to the hostilities that began on December 7, 1941, that Executive Order 9066 was issued, subsequently enforced by the criminal penalties of a statute enacted March 21, 1942, resulting in the uprooting of loyal Americans. Over one hundred thousand persons of Japanese ancestry were removed from their homes, detained in special camps, and eventually relocated.
The tremendous effort by the War Relocation Authority and concerned Americans for the welfare of these Japanese-Americans may add perspective to that story, but it does not erase the setback to fundamental American principles. Fortunately, the Japanese-American community in Hawaii was spared the indignities suffered by those on our mainland.
We now know what we should have known then--not only was that evacuation wrong, but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans. On the battlefield and at home, Japanese-Americans -- names like Hamada, Mitsumori, Marimoto, Noguchi, Yamasaki, Kido, Munemori and Miyamura -- have been and continue to be written in our history for the sacrifices and the contributions they have made to the well-being and security of this, our common Nation.
The Executive order that was issued on February 19, 1942, was for the sole purpose of prosecuting the war with the Axis Powers, and ceased to be effective with the end of those hostilities. Because there was no formal statement of its termination, however, there is concern among many Japanese-Americans that there may yet be some life in that obsolete document. I think it appropriate, in this our Bicentennial Year, to remove all doubts on that matter, and to make clear our commitment in the future.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GERALD R. FORD, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim that all authority conferred by Executive Order 9066 terminated upon the issuance of Proclamation 2714, which formally proclaimed the cessation of hostilities of World War II on December 31, 1946.
I call upon the American people to affirm with me this American Promise -- that we have learned from the tragedy of that long-ago experience forever to treasure liberty and justice for each individual American, and resolve that this kind of action shall never again be repeated.
IN WITNESS THEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this nineteenth day of February in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth.

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Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

1807 Former U.S. vice president Aaron Burr is arrested in Alabama for treason. Despite later being acquitted, public opinion will force him to live out the remainder of his life in privacy.

THANKS for that! Reminds me of one of the cutest ads: Came across this gem but it's who's on a ten-dollar bill that settles the issue! A fortune seeking, womanizing, bastard, genius... not unlike his political rival Burr in many respects:

[Sailor Steve]

1913 The first prize is inserted into a Cracker Jack box.

[Jimbuna]

1938 - UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden resigns, says PM Chamberlain appeased Germany.

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1922 - Great Britain grants Egypt independence.

[Friscobay]

Feb.21,1836. Republic of Texas Col. James W. Fannin begins fortification of the Goliad presidio after receiving intelligence that three Mexican divisions had crossed the Rio Grande and were moving north.

[Jimbuna]

2006 - At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery ever, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or 78€ million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.

[Von Tonner]

On this day in 1945, US marines and a navy corpsman fighting Japanese forces on Iwo Jima raised the American Stars and Stripes atop Mount Suribachi, making one of the single most historical photographs in history.

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1904 - US acquired control of the Panama Canal Zone for $10 million.

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2008 - Fidel Castro retires as the President of Cuba after nearly fifty years.