This Day in History Feb. 15

Feb. 17

1621 Miles Standish appointed 1st commander of Plymouth colony
1691 Thomas Neale granted British patent for American postal service
1801 An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved when Jefferson is elected President of the US and Burr, VP by the US House of Representatives
1818 Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents "draisine" (early bicycle)
1819 US House of Representatives passes the Missouri Compromise for the 1st time
1864 "HL Hunley" sinks Union ship "Housatonic" (1st submarine to sink an enemy ship)
1865 Columbia SC burns down during the Civil War
1865 Battle of Charleston SC
1867 1st ship passes through Suez Canal
1870 Mississippi becomes 9th state re-admitted to US after Civil War
1878 1st telephone exchange in San Francisco opens with 18 phones
1911 1st amphibian flight to & from a ship, by Glenn Curtiss, San Diego
1913 1st minimum wage law in US takes effect (Oregon)
1933 US Senate accept Blaine Act ending prohibition
1934 1st high school auto driving course offered (State College PA)
1940 British destroyers board German Altmark off Norway
1944 Battle of Eniwetok Atoll begins
1944 US begins night bombing of Truk
1959 1st weather satellite launched, Vanguard 2, 9.8 kg
1965 US Ranger 8 launched, will transmit 7,137 lunar pictures
1966 French satellite Diapason D-1A launch into Earth orbit
1967 Kosmos 140 (Soyuz test) launches into Earth orbit
1972 President Nixon leaves Washington DC for China
1972 British Parliament votes to join European Common Market
1979 China invades Vietnam
1989 6-week study of Arctic atmosphere shows no ozone "hole"

Wow! Something actually happened in the year that I was born. Not very exciting but opening the first auto driving course in college that year was a first step toward Driver's Ed programs as we know them today.