Today is an anniversary of a powerful act of God, in a legal sense. The NZ city of Christchurch, home to friends of mine, was humbled by an earthquake on this day in 2011. Three years on and she is rebuilding, but there is still pain. One friend of mine recounted how their parents had a collection of crystal glass figurines. An earlier earthquake had damaged much, but the figurines were ok. But on this day, in 2011, the figurines were no more. Landmarks over a hundred years old were taken. It is a reminder that nothing is owned by anyone forever. Do not build your homes on sand.
Some will argue about the existence of religious stories, including biblical accounts. Personally, I can think of few things more stupid than hoping to find Noah's Ark. I am a fundamentalist Christian, I believe in the word of God. But I respectfully point out the Bible is not a science textbook, but a text from many authors, inspired by God, writing of man's relationship with God. The Mosaic stories are not first hand accounts of events, but based on older stories illustrating how God revealed himself to his chosen people. The precise meaning of Noah's flood is not the archaeological event of a flood, but the salient point that God tired of people rejecting Him and took his anger out on creation .. and promised his faithful not to do so again. The correlation with Christchurch 2011 called an act of God is a legal definition for insurers, not a religious statement for her people. Which isn't to say God wasn't present. I believe he was. And although my friends lost their crystal glass, and have much to rebuild, they kept everything they will value for eternity.
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Happy birthday and man happy returns Irene Marija Podrebersek and Murielle Sassine. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
- 1300 BC – Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh (d. 1213 BC)
- 1040 – Rashi, French rabbi (d. 1105)
- 1645 – Johann Ambrosius Bach, German composer (d. 1695)
- 1645 – Johann Christoph Bach, German pianist (d. 1693)
- 1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799)
- 1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
- 1810 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)
- 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general (d. 1941)
- 1857 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (d. 1894)
- 1886 – Hugo Ball, German author and poet (d. 1927)
- 1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English founder of the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
- 1908 – John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Jesús Iglesias, Argentinian race car driver (d. 2005)
- 1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver
- 1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (d. 2006)
- 1992 – Alexander Merkel, German footballer
Matches
- 705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang Dynasty.
- 1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
- 1797 – The Last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales
- 1847 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops defeat 15,000 Mexicans.
- 1856 – The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh.
- 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and dime Woolworth stores.
- 1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.
- 1915 – World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
- 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.
- 1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.
- 1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
- 1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
- 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
- 1974 – Samuel Byck tries and fails to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon.
- 1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
- 1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1997 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
- 2011 – An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude strikes Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people.
Despatches
- 556 – Maximianus of Ravenna, Italian bishop (b. 499)
- 1071 – Arnulf III, Count of Flanders (b. 1055)
- 1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (b. 1454)
- 1797 – Baron Münchhausen, German military officer (b. 1720)
- 2002 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916)
I hope Jane Hutcheon isn’t made to pay for not flying at my throat
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (12:24pm)
I am astonished and grateful that the ABC just let me speak yesterday without
ringing a leper’s bell over my head, peppering me with attempted
gotchas, running abusive Twitter graffiti over the screen or inserting
repeated reminders to viewers of my manifest evil and unfitness for
polite company - the kind of thing I got earlier in the week from ABC
774..
I now worry for Jane Hutcheon, host of One Plus One, who is coming under some criticism for letting me on her show. I suspect she will get even more for not trying to nail me to the floor and flay me, preferring instead to let me try to explain what I believe and why, for better or worse.
UPDATE
Thanks for all who wrote in today (even the couple with criticisms). Bowled over by your kindness.
===I now worry for Jane Hutcheon, host of One Plus One, who is coming under some criticism for letting me on her show. I suspect she will get even more for not trying to nail me to the floor and flay me, preferring instead to let me try to explain what I believe and why, for better or worse.
The full interview can be seen here. I’d thank Jane personally for treating me like a normal guest, but I worry she’d then fret over whether she’d been too soft.
UPDATE
Thanks for all who wrote in today (even the couple with criticisms). Bowled over by your kindness.
Why did a Labor Government protect Craig Thomson? A question for the royal commission
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (12:15pm)
Jacqueline Maley is perfectly correct on an issue I believe the royal commission must investigate:
===Labor had literally years to deal with the problem [of Craig Thomson]. Allegations had been swirling [about his corruption] for a long time even before Fairfax’s reporting. Fair Work Australia started its own investigation in 2010.Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill:
Any party official who had done due diligence would have detected the stench that surrounded Thomson, and yet he was preselected twice - once in 2007 and again in 2010.
The only conclusion voters, and Labor Party members (who ultimately ended up paying [nearly $350,000 in legal expenses] for Thomson’s expensive legal frolic) can reach is that Labor knew, but it didn’t care.
AB, in light of the phone call industrial registrar Doug Williams says he received from Gillard’s chief of staff in 2009, it would be fair to say Labor knew and certainly did ‘care’ - just in a different sense to the way most fair-minded people would care.
And while Maley is correct in saying FWA didn’t start its investigation until 2010, it would be fairer to say it should have finished it in 2010, after Doug Williams’ work on the matter a year earlier.
Steyn bites Mann
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (12:04pm)
Wonderful. Mark Steyn is countersuing Michael “Hockey Stick” Mann for suing him over some of the mockery Mann so richly deserves:
(Thanks to reader ev425128.)
===As a result of Plaintiff’s campaign to silence those who disagree with him on a highly controversial issue of great public importance, wrongful action and violation of the Anti-SLAPP Act, Steyn has been damaged and is entitled to damages, including but not limited to his costs and the attorneys’ fees he has incurred and will incur in the future in defending this action, all in an amount to be determined at trial, but in any event, not less than $5 million, plus punitive damages in the amount of $5 million.Steyn’s new book - Lights Out: Islam, Free Speech And The Twilight Of The West - is available here.
(Thanks to reader ev425128.)
The Left’s all-in brawl for personal advantage … and a nice mirror
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (11:51am)
Socialist Julie Burchill has had enough of the new tribalism of the Left - the “intersectionality” of different interest groups struggling for advantage:
===It’s easy for me to sentimentalise those days when the trade unions held sway, chiming as they did with the calf country of my communism, but whatever their beery and sandwichy limits, they were far better than what replaced them; the politics of diversity. While working-class left-wing political activism was always about fighting the powerful, treating people how you would wish to be treated and believing that we’re all basically the same, modern, non-working-class left-wing politics is about… other stuff. Class guilt, sexual kinks, personal prejudice and repressed lust for power…(Thanks to reader the Old and Unimproved Dave.)
[Mine] was an instinctive desire to defend the socialism of my dead father. Because intersectionality is actually the opposite of socialism! Intersectionality believes that there is ‘no such thing as society’ — just various special interests.
In my opinion, we only become truly brave, truly above self-interest, when fighting for people different from ourselves. My hero as a kid was Jack Ashley — a deaf MP who became the champion of rape victims. These days, the likes of those who went after Suzanne would probably dismiss him as a self-loathing cis-ableist. Intersectionality, like identity politics before it, is pure narcissism.
Does the Abbott Government really want its own cabinet documents exploited by a Shorten Government?
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (11:42am)
Wrong way, go back:
It could also have a dangerously chilling effect on cabinet deliberations in future.
===The Abbott government will make cabinet documents from the former government available to the royal commission into the abandoned home insulation scheme in an unprecedented move that could provoke a legal challenge.This royal commission already looks far too much like victors’ justice. Breaching a tradition of cabinet confidentiality will further that impression, and make the reality of it more likely in future.
Attorney-General George Brandis outlined the plan to make cabinet documents available in a letter to his predecessor, Mark Dreyfus, who says it turns 113 years of established practice on its head..
Lawyers representing former prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard and several former cabinet ministers who have been summoned to appear before the commission are believed to be considering legal action, which would see the courts decide if cabinet confidentiality should be waived in the public interest.
It could also have a dangerously chilling effect on cabinet deliberations in future.
Labor lies to claim credit for stopping the boats
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (11:26am)
Labor immigration spokesman Richard Marles says Labor deserves the credit for the boats stopping:
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
===RICHARD MARLES: ... The policy difference which has had the effect is the PNG arrangement which Labor put in place and the best thing that this Government is doing is continuing on prosecuting the PNG arrangement.Richard Marles last year said Labor wouldn’t turn back the boats as the Abbott Government promised:
Indonesia has been consistent all along in saying they didn’t want to see boats turned back, which was why we always felt that Tony Abbott going to the election this year with a policy of turning the boats back was simply pie in the sky. It was never going to happen as an ongoing policy because Indonesia didn’t want it… It is impossible for Australia to dictate terms to Indonesia on this. They are our neighbours.Inescapable conclusion? That Labor would never have been able to stop the boats as the Abbott Government has:
NAVAL and Customs patrol vessels have turned or towed at least three asylum-seeker vessels back towards Indonesia in the past fortnight....Labor needs to be called out on its farcical suggestion it would have succeeded as the Abbott Government now has.
Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday no asylum-seeker boats had made it to Australia for 64 days.... Mr Morrison said in the corresponding 64-day period in 2012-13, 1847 people arrived on 32 boats.
(Thanks to reader Peter.)
Our health crisis is as simple as 3, 10, 15
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (11:23am)
Reader Andrew of Randwick on the only figures we need to know in this debate on our massive health spending:
The question is not about the $6 contribution.The question should be about the numbers: 3, 10 and 15.
===The question is not about the $6 contribution.The question should be about the numbers: 3, 10 and 15.
- GDP and thus taxes are growing at 3%Those three numbers are the question. Unless we change, the whole government budget will be taken over by health spending.
- Overall health costs are growing at 10%
- Sub-set diagnostics costs are growing at 15% (because they are now there and legal warfare)
A decade on, and McGuinness was right to warn of Mark Scott
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (11:14am)
Media Watch Dog pays tribute to the acuteness of the late P.P. McGuinness,
who in 2006 wrote this warning that the appointment of Mark Scott as
managing director of the ABC promised no change to the over-mighty state
broadcaster’s Leftist bias:
===Scott is ... a guarantee of one thing. While he is at the helm, the ABC will not change its editorial culture…(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
Scott will not be idle. He is an able exponent of management change and of organisational change. The already quite extensive activity of the ABC in the rapid technical development of broadcasting and of related areas will continue. No doubt he will, as a believer in organisational growth, support the imperialistic drive that has taken the ABC into areas far beyond its original brief and often beyond the limits of its legislative charter…
So the ABC remains in safe hands. There is no revolutionary, no ideologue, no hot-eyed burning reformer to disturb its ageing and placid dissemination of the small-l liberal platitudes of the past 30 years.
The feminists, the gay-rights advocates, the ecumenical searches for the meaning of life, the anti-Catholics, the advocates of Papuan independence, the supporters of Fidel Castro and similar Third World dictators and murderers, the America haters can rest secure. So can the Howard haters, long protected by McDonald at the ABC.
After all, Scott has protected for years that rabid, elderly hater of Howard, Alan Ramsey at the SMH, as he declines in perpetual hymns of Keatingesque hate (only the other day he called Howard a toad). He has allowed The Age to dispose of any semblance of balance, not even pretending to occasional balance on the opinion page (but, like the SMH, never in the news or letters pages).
If global warming were really serious there’d be no need for these lies
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (9:13am)
Professor Bjorn Lomborg agrees man is heating the planet - but he’s still astonished that so many UN and OECD officials tell untruths about global warming:
===Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan takes the prize for the most extreme rhetoric, claiming not curbing global warming is “a terrible gamble with the future of the planet and with life itself"…
Both Annan and [Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the OECD last month] cited Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines last November as evidence of increased climate-change-related damage.
Never mind that the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found “current datasets indicate no significant observed trends in global tropical cyclone frequency over the past century” and reported “low confidence” that any changes in hurricanes in recent (or future) decades had anything to do with global warming…
Similarly, Gurria tells us that Hurricane Sandy, which slammed into New York City in 2012, is an example of inaction on climate change, costing the US “the equivalent of 0.5 per cent of its GDP” each year.
In fact, the US currently is experiencing the longest absence of intense landfall hurricanes since records began in 1900, while the adjusted damage cost for the US during this period, including Hurricane Sandy, has fallen slightly.
[United Nations climate chief, Christiana] Figueres claims “that current annual losses worldwide due to extreme weather and disasters could be a staggering 12 per cent of annual global GDP”.
But the study she cites shows only a possible loss of 1 per cent to 12 per cent of gross domestic product in the future, and this is estimated not globally but within just eight carefully selected, climate-vulnerable regions or cities…
Figueres sees “momentum growing towards” climate policies as countries such as China “reduce coal use”. In the real world, China accounts for almost 60 per cent of the global increase in coal consumption from 2012 to 2014, according to the International Energy Agency…
Figueres’s weak grasp on the facts has led her not only to conclude China is “doing it right” on climate change, but also to speculate that China has succeeded because its “political system avoids some of the legislative hurdles seen in countries including the US”. In other words, the UN’s top climate official seems to be suggesting an authoritarian political system is better for the planet.
ABC lacks the balance of Fox News
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (9:06am)
Gerard Henderson, who will be my first guest on the new NewsWatch segment of the Bolt Report from Sunday week, makes a comparison:
===THE ABC declines to acknowledge the point. But a greater plurality of views can be heard on Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News channel in the US than on the taxpayer-funded broadcaster in Australia. The ABC does not have one conservative presenter or producer or editor for any of its prominent television or radio or online outlets…Memo to self: invite ABC boss on as a guest for NewsWatch.
The difference between the ABC and Fox News is perhaps most marked in their coverage of the media.
Since the ABC1 Media Watch program began in 1989, it has had a succession of leftist or left-of-centre presenters who use the public broadcaster as a pulpit from which they lay down the law on journalistic standards: namely, Stuart Littlemore, Richard Ackland, Paul Barry, David Marr, Liz Jackson, Monica Attard, Jonathan Holmes and Barry (again).
Littlemore ... boasted in his book The Media and Me (ABC, 1996) how, as a journalist on This Day Tonight (the predecessor of 7.30), he had used the public broadcaster to campaign against “conservative values” in general and the Coalition in particular. Marr, when presenter of Media Watch, declared that “the natural culture of journalism” is “soft leftie” and anyone who did not fit into this category should “find another job” ...
Fox News’s coverage of journalism involves a debate with experienced commentators expressing varying positions.
Last weekend MediaBuzz focused on the media’s coverage of Hillary Clinton. Presenter Howard Kurtz presided over a debate between the left-of-centre Michelle Cottle and the right-of-centre Amy Holmes, with panellist Lauren Ashburn taking a neutral position. Kurtz facilitated the discussion, while refraining from preaching.
Can one in 18 Australians really be too sick to ever work?
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (8:50am)
Australia has just over 15 million people of working age. I find it impossible to believe that 832,000 of them - or one in every 18 - are too sick to ever do a stroke of work when this is a rich country with an excellent health system:
===NEW surge in the number of disability pensioners to record levels will spark an Abbott government push for a radical welfare restructure that diverts people with mental illnesses from becoming permanent DSP recipients.
The latest figures show there were 832,024 DSP recipients in December, a rise of more than 10,000 since June last year and eclipsing the previous record of 831,908 in December 2011.
The number of DSP recipients with a mental illness has increased by about 90,000 over the past 10 years, to 256,380…
Confronted with widespread calls for the government to lift the general unemployment payment by $50 a week, Mr Andrews said he conceded there were vast differences between the payment rates of Newstart Allowance and the DSP but said the government was not in a position to raise the dole payment because of the fiscal position.
“It is a perverse incentive for people to get on the DSP because the payment is higher,” Mr Andrews said.
Shorten’s problem: he’s insincere and can’t fake sincerity
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (7:46am)
Bill Shorten’s problem
has long been that he can’t fake sincerity. That problem becomes
crippling when his policies aren’t sincere, either.
Dennis Shanahan:
Shorten record is shocking, exposing him as a mere opportunist. What makes that charge so deadly is that opportunistic and insincere is exactly the reputation he must shrug, having first knifed Kevin Rudd to install Julia Gillard, and then, after swearing loyalty to Gillard, knifing Gillard to install Rudd.
===Dennis Shanahan:
Labor’s response under Bill Shorten as Opposition Leader has been to oppose a royal commission into union corruption, adopt the ACTU’s feeble line of suggesting it’s just a “few bad apples”, accuse the Abbott government of wanting to “cut to the bone” and to blame the Coalition for the failure of Holden, Toyota and Alcoa, accusing the Prime Minister of not caring for workers or fighting for jobs.It’s actually even worse. Shorten is defending the unpopular carbon tax his party before the election actually promised to scrap. He’s opposing $5 billion in spending cuts his party before the election actually promised to pass. He’s attacking the Government for a 6 per cent unemployment rate that Labor in government itself predicted. He’s denouncing union corruption while fighting a royal commission to root it out. He’s blaming the government for car makers closing when the first two big ones to fall fell under Labor. He’s giving Labor policies the credit for the Government stopping the boats these past nine weeks when Labor never managed to achieve that feat itself in its last five years in government. He attacked the Government for not giving SPC Ardmona a $25 million subsidy when the company has since admitted it could survive without it.
It is also Labor’s strategy to continue to support the carbon tax and, with the Greens, prevent its repeal, along with the mining tax, in the Senate despite a resounding loss at the election last year…
Shorten’s political line on jobs is that “one job has been lost every three minutes under the Abbott government”, that Joe Hockey “goaded” Holden into leaving Australia and that there should have been federal government assistance for Holden and the SPC Ardmona cannery in Victoria.
This line is failing the “pub test”. It goes against common sense and voters demonstrably don’t believe it or support the intentions.
Shorten record is shocking, exposing him as a mere opportunist. What makes that charge so deadly is that opportunistic and insincere is exactly the reputation he must shrug, having first knifed Kevin Rudd to install Julia Gillard, and then, after swearing loyalty to Gillard, knifing Gillard to install Rudd.
Will warmists keep quoting Rupert Murdoch, their guru?
Andrew Bolt February 22 2014 (12:10am)
Somehow I doubt warmists will keep quoting Rupert Murdoch at me, and will try to forget they ever did. But let’s remind them…
In 2006 the Sydney Morning Herald gleefully announced a convert to its cause:
===In 2006 the Sydney Morning Herald gleefully announced a convert to its cause:
Rupert Murdoch, powerfully converted to the climate change cause, says that business and government need to confront it and that the Kyoto Protocol should be rewritten…The Left ever since have demanded Murdoch journalists and other sceptics fall into line with the warmists’ new hero:
The conversion of Mr Murdoch, whose media empire includes The Times, The Australian, The New York Post and Fox News, and who is a not infrequent guest of prime ministers and presidents, is a radical shift from his previous scepticism.
Even though he was still not entirely certain about it, “the planet deserves the benefit of the doubt”, he said.
Entrepreneur Dick Smith, at the launch of his book on population policy, declared this week that Murdoch’s Australian newspapers were defying their boss’s global warming stand ("give the planet the benefit of the doubt") and needed bringing to heel. Murdoch, in short, had to tell us what to write.ABC hosts cited Murdoch as their new authority to cow even politicians into silence:
“Rupert, I ask you to come back to Australia,” Smith cried.
“Come back and take the reins, your editors are losing the plot and need to be reminded that you accept we must transform the way we use energy and that we need to act now.”
The ABC’s Jon Faine this morning gave [sceptic] Senator Steve Fielding a taste of the treatment he must expect from the ABC’s global warming faithful.... He asked whether Fielding’s “religious approach” was interfering with his thinking.Even professional alarmist Tim Flannery cited Murdoch as his muse:
He demanded to know why Fielding did not agree with Rupert Murdoch and give the planet “the benefit of the doubt”. (Mudoch, incidentally, is the one authority Faine cited.)
I’m afraid even John Howard was quoting Rupert Murdoch to justify his desperate conversion before his 2007 defeat:
To quote Rupert Murdoch, ‘You’ve got to give the planet the benefit of the doubt’...
We should, in the words of Rupert Murdoch, give the planet the benefit of the doubt, given the dangers of climate change.In 2009 then Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull quoted him, too, to demand his party back Labor’s emissions trading scheme:
If we were to, if this legislation is knocked back Kevin Rudd will have no choice but to go to a double dissolution election… The party would be, look we would be wiped out....Senator Nick Xenophon was still quoting Murdoch as recently as last week:
You know, as Rupert Murdoch famously said, and Rupert Murdoch is a hard-headed, naturally sceptical person I think as we all know, he said you’ve got to give the planet the benefit of the doubt, and that is the only responsible course of action.
My view is this: I do believe that climate change is real and that we need to – as Rupert Murdoch once famously said – give the planet the benefit of the doubt.And ABC and Fairfax journalists looked forward to me dropping my own scepticsm and mockery of Earth Hour in deference to my boss:
Last November, while in Japan, [Murdoch] announced his change of heart [on global warming]. “… I believe it is now our responsibility to take the lead on this issue,” he said then…As I said in 2006:
So News Corp cutting back to zero emissions would be the equivalent, Murdoch said, of turning off London for five days. It was an interesting analogy, given some of his columnists in Australia had criticised Earth Hour ... The Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt, a climate change sceptic, seemed exasperated that anyone would think the announcement would change his mind.
Now, critics who once scoffed that I merely wrote on Murdoch’s alleged orders are demanding to know why this time I have not.So how many Leftists will today urge sceptics and Murdoch employees to heed the latest and best thoughts of the man they once quoted so freely?
The ABC’s Media Watch complains I’m “resisting”. ABC host Jon Faine protests that I’m an “idiot” for holding out. Age gossip writers insist I’m “nutty”.
Murdoch’s comments apply specifically to the claimed links between global warming and the snow and rain we’re now seeing. But I suspect he has noted the failure of the planet to warm as predicted, and rightly concluded it’s the warmists we should doubt instead.
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It is tragic. Mental illness/depression is no joke. She was beautiful. And strong. And she told her story before she left. But I would have preferred she grew old, and experienced the joy of life. - ed===
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February 22: Feast of Cathedra Petri (Catholicism)
- 705 – Empress Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China in her own right, abdicated the throne, restoring the Tang Dynasty.
- 1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, in which he advocated Copernican heliocentrism, was delivered to his patron, Grand Duke Ferdinando.
- 1980 – At the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, theUnited States ice hockey team defeated the Soviet Union in an unlikely victory that became known as the Miracle on Ice.
- 1997 – Scientists at The Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the birth of acloned sheep named Dolly, the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell, seven months after the fact.
- 2011 – Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people marched in protest(pictured) in Manama against the deaths of seven people killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
Events[edit]
- 705 – Empress Wu Zetian abdicates the throne, restoring the Tang Dynasty.
- 1371 – Robert II becomes King of Scotland, beginning the Stuart dynasty.
- 1495 – King Charles VIII of France enters Naples to claim the city's throne.
- 1632 – Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
- 1651 – St. Peter's Flood: A storm surge floods Germany coast, drowning 15.000 people.
- 1744 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Battle of Toulon begins.
- 1797 – The Last Invasion of Britain begins near Fishguard, Wales.
- 1819 – By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
- 1821 – Greek War of Independence: Alexander Ypsilantis crosses the Prut river at Sculeni into the Danubian Principalities.
- 1847 – Mexican–American War: The Battle of Buena Vista – 5,000 American troops defeat 15,000 Mexicans.
- 1848 – The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
- 1853 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.
- 1855 – The Pennsylvania State University is founded in State College, Pennsylvania(as the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania)
- 1856 – The Republican Party opens its first national meeting in Pittsburgh.
- 1862 – Jefferson Davis is officially inaugurated for a six-year term as the President of the Confederate States of America in Richmond, Virginia. He was previously inaugurated as a provisional president on February 18, 1861.
- 1872 – The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee.
- 1879 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and dime Woolworth stores.
- 1889 – United States President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
- 1899 – Filipino forces led by General Antonio Luna launch counterattacks for the first time against the American forces during the Philippine–American War. The Filipinos fail to regain Manila from the Americans.
- 1904 – The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina, the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
- 1909 – The sixteen battleships of the Great White Fleet, led by USS Connecticut, return to the United States after a voyage around the world.
- 1915 – World War I: Germany institutes unrestricted submarine warfare.
- 1921 – After Russian forces under Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg drive the Chinese out, the Bogd Khan is reinstalled as the emperor of Mongolia.
- 1924 – U.S. President Calvin Coolidge becomes the first President to deliver a radio broadcast from the White House.
- 1942 – World War II: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as the Japanese victory becomes inevitable.
- 1943 – World War II: Members of the White Rose resistance, Sophie Scholl, Hans Scholl, and Christoph Probst are executed in Nazi Germany.
- 1944 – World War II: American aircraft mistakenly bomb the Dutch towns of Nijmegen, Arnhem, Enschede and Deventer, resulting in 800 dead in Nijmegen alone.
- 1948 – Communist revolution in Czechoslovakia.
- 1957 – Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam survives a communist shooting assassination attempt in Ban Me Thuot.
- 1958 – Egypt and Syria join to form the United Arab Republic.
- 1959 – Lee Petty wins the first Daytona 500.
- 1972 – The Official Irish Republican Army detonates a car bomb at Aldershot barracks, killing seven and injuring nineteen others.
- 1973 – Cold War: Following President Richard Nixon's visit to the People's Republic of China, the two countries agree to establish liaison offices.
- 1974 – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit begins in Lahore, Pakistan. Thirty-seven countries attend and twenty-two heads of state and government participate. It also recognizes Bangladesh.
- 1974 – Samuel Byck tries and fails to assassinate U.S. President Richard Nixon.
- 1979 – Independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom.
- 1980 – Miracle on Ice: In Lake Placid, New York, the United States hockey team defeats the Soviet Union hockey team 4–3.
- 1983 – The notorious Broadway flop Moose Murders opens and closes on the same night at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre.
- 1986 – Start of the People Power Revolution in the Philippines.
- 1994 – Aldrich Ames and his wife are charged by the United States Department of Justice with spying for the Soviet Union.
- 1995 – The Corona reconnaissance satellite program, in existence from 1959 to 1972, is declassified.
- 1997 – In Roslin, Scotland, scientists announce that an adult sheep named Dolly has been successfully cloned.
- 2002 – Angolan political and rebel leader Jonas Savimbi is killed in a military ambush.
- 2006 – At least six men stage Britain's biggest robbery, stealing £53m (about $92.5 million or €78 million) from a Securitas depot in Tonbridge, Kent.
- 2011 – An earthquake measuring 6.3 in magnitude strikes Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 185 people.
- 2011 – Bahraini uprising: Tens of thousands of people march in protest against the deaths of seven victims killed by police and army forces during previous protests.
Births[edit]
- 1300 BC – Ramesses II, Egyptian pharaoh (d. 1213 BC)
- 1040 – Rashi, French rabbi (d. 1105)
- 1403 – Charles VII of France (d. 1461)
- 1440 – Ladislaus the Posthumous, son of Albert II of Germany (d. 1457)
- 1500 – Rodolfo Pio da Carpi, Italian cardinal (d. 1564)
- 1612 – George Digby, 2nd Earl of Bristol, English politician (d. 1677)
- 1645 – Johann Ambrosius Bach, German composer (d. 1695)
- 1645 – Johann Christoph Bach, German pianist (d. 1693)
- 1705 – Peter Artedi, Swedish naturalist (d. 1735)
- 1714 – Louis-Georges de Bréquigny, French scholar (d. 1795)
- 1732 – George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States (d. 1799)
- 1756 – Georg Friedrich von Martens, German jurist and diplomat (d. 1821)
- 1761 – Erik Tulindberg, Finnish composer (d. 1814)
- 1778 – Rembrandt Peale, American painter (d. 1860)
- 1788 – Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
- 1796 – Alexis Bachelot, French priest (d. 1837)
- 1796 – Adolphe Quetelet, Belgian mathematician, astronomer, and sociologist (d. 1874)
- 1806 – Józef Kremer, Polish philosopher (d. 1875)
- 1810 – Frédéric Chopin, Polish pianist and composer (d. 1849)
- 1817 – Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
- 1819 – James Russell Lowell, American poet (d. 1891)
- 1824 – Pierre Janssen, French astronomer (d. 1907)
- 1825 – Jean-Baptiste Salpointe, French-American archbishop (d. 1898)
- 1836 – Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, Indian scholar, academic, and reformer (d. 1906)
- 1839 – Francis Pharcellus Church, American publisher (d. 1906)
- 1840 – August Bebel, German politician (d. 1913)
- 1849 – Nikolay Yakovlevich Sonin, Russian mathematician (d. 1915)
- 1857 – Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, English general (d. 1941)
- 1857 – Heinrich Hertz, German physicist (d. 1894)
- 1863 – Charles McLean Andrews, American historian (d. 1943)
- 1864 – Jules Renard, French author (d. 1910)
- 1874 – Bill Klem, American baseball umpire (d. 1951)
- 1878 – George Bryant, American archer (d. 1938)
- 1878 – Walther Ritz, Swiss physicist (d. 1909)
- 1879 – Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted, Danish chemist (d. 1947)
- 1880 – John Daly, Irish runner (d. 1969)
- 1881 – Joseph B. Ely, American politician, 52nd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1956)
- 1881 – Albin Prepeluh, Slovenian journalist and politician (d. 1937)
- 1882 – Eric Gill, English sculptor (d. 1940)
- 1883 – Marguerite Clark, American actress (d. 1940)
- 1886 – Hugo Ball, German author and poet (d. 1927)
- 1887 – Savielly Tartakower, Polish chess player (d. 1956)
- 1888 – Owen Brewster, American politician, 54th Governor of Maine (d. 1961)
- 1888 – Edgar Johan Kuusik, Estonian architect (d. 1974)
- 1888 – Raymond Lawler, American soccer player (d. 1946)
- 1889 – Olave Baden-Powell, English founder of the Girl Guides (d. 1977)
- 1889 – R. G. Collingwood, English philosopher and historian (d. 1943)
- 1890 – Beatriz Michelena, American actress and singer (d. 1942)
- 1891 – Vlas Chubar, Russian politician (d. 1939)
- 1892 – Edna St. Vincent Millay, American poet and playwright (d. 1950)
- 1895 – Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian politician (d. 1979)
- 1897 – Karol Świerczewski, Polish general (d. 1947)
- 1898 – Thillaiaadi Valliammai, South African activist (d. 1914)
- 1899 – Dwight Frye, American actor (d. 1943)
- 1899 – George O'Hara, American actor (d. 1966)
- 1899 – Dechko Uzunov, Bulgarian painter (d. 1986)
- 1900 – Luis Buñuel, Spanish director and producer (d. 1983)
- 1900 – Seán Ó Faoláin, Irish author (d. 1991)
- 1900 – James Sisnett, Barbadian super-centenarian (d. 2013)
- 1902 – Fritz Strassmann, German physicist (d. 1980)
- 1903 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian author and playwright (d. 1990)
- 1903 – Ain-Ervin Mere, Estonian military officer (d. 1969)
- 1903 – Robert Weede, American opera singer (d. 1972)
- 1906 – Humayun Kabir, Indian educator and politician (d. 1969)
- 1906 – Helge Kjærulff-Schmidt, Danish actor (d. 1982)
- 1907 – Sheldon Leonard, American actor (d. 1997)
- 1907 – Robert Young, American actor (d. 1998)
- 1908 – Rómulo Betancourt, Venezuelan politician, 56th President of Venezuela (d. 1981)
- 1908 – John Mills, English actor (d. 2005)
- 1911 – Bill Baker, American baseball player (d. 2006)
- 1913 – Buddy Tate, American saxophonist and clarinet player (d. 2001)
- 1913 – Ranko Marinković, Croatian author (d. 2001)
- 1914 – Renato Dulbecco, Italian virologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 2012)
- 1914 – Henry Reed, English poet (d. 1986)
- 1917 – Jane Bowles, American playwright (d. 1973)
- 1917 – Reed Crandall, American illustrator (d. 1982)
- 1918 – Sid Abel, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 2000)
- 1918 – Charlie Finley, American businessman (d. 1996)
- 1918 – Don Pardo, American announcer
- 1918 – Robert Wadlow, American giant (d. 1940)
- 1921 – Jean-Bédel Bokassa, Central African politician, 2nd President of the Central African Republic (d. 1996)
- 1921 – Wayne C. Booth, American critic (d. 2005)
- 1921 – David Greene, English-American director (d. 2003)
- 1921 – Giulietta Masina, Italian actress (d. 1994)
- 1922 – Jesús Iglesias, Argentinian race car driver (d. 2005)
- 1922 – Apostolos Santas, Greek soldier (d. 2011)
- 1922 – Marshall Teague, American race car driver (d. 1959)
- 1923 – Norman Smith, English record producer (d. 2008)
- 1923 – Bleddyn Williams, Welsh rugby player (d. 2009)
- 1925 – Edward Gorey, American illustrator and poet (d. 2000)
- 1925 – Gerald Stern, American poet
- 1926 – Kenneth Williams, English actor (d. 1988)
- 1926 – Bud Yorkin, American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor
- 1927 – Florencio Campomanes, Filipino political scientist and chess player (d. 2010)
- 1927 – Donald May, American actor
- 1927 – Guy Mitchell, American singer (d. 1999)
- 1928 – Clarence 13X, American religious leader, founded the Nation of Gods and Earths (d. 1969)
- 1928 – Texas Johnny Brown, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2013)
- 1928 – Paul Dooley, American actor
- 1928 – Bruce Forsyth, English television host
- 1928 – Axel Strøbye, Danish actor (d. 2005)
- 1929 – James Hong, American actor and director
- 1929 – Rebecca Schull, American actress
- 1930 – James McGarrell, American painter
- 1930 – Marni Nixon, American singer
- 1932 – Ted Kennedy, American politician (d. 2009)
- 1933 – Katharine, Duchess of Kent
- 1933 – Bobby Smith, English footballer (d. 2010)
- 1934 – Sparky Anderson, American baseball player and manager (d. 2010)
- 1935 – Sven Inge, Swedish painter (d. 2008)
- 1935 – Valdis Muižnieks, Latvian basketball player
- 1936 – J. Michael Bishop, American biologist, Nobel Prize laureate
- 1936 – Ádám Bodor, Hungarian author
- 1936 – Ernie K-Doe, American singer (d. 2001)
- 1936 – Izaly Zemtsovsky, American-Russian musicologist
- 1937 – Joanna Russ, American author and activist (d. 2011)
- 1938 – Steve Barber, American baseball player (d. 2007)
- 1938 – Ishmael Reed, American author, poet, and playwright
- 1938 – Pierre Vallières, Canadian journalist (d. 1995)
- 1938 – Barry Dennen, American actor, singer, and writer
- 1940 – Judy Cornwell, English actress
- 1940 – Johnson Mlambo, South African politician
- 1940 – Billy Name, American photographer
- 1940 – Chet Walker, American basketball player
- 1941 – Giorgos Arvanitis, Greek cinematographer
- 1941 – Hipólito Mejía, Dominican politician, 52nd President of the Dominican Republic
- 1942 – Christine Keeler, English model and dancer
- 1943 – Terry Eagleton, English philosopher and critic
- 1943 – Horst Köhler, German politician, 9th President of Germany
- 1943 – Otoya Yamaguchi, Japanese ultranationalist who assassinated Inejiro Asanuma (d. 1960)
- 1944 – Jonathan Demme, American director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1944 – Robert Kardashian, American lawyer (d. 2003)
- 1944 – Tom Okker, Dutch tennis player
- 1945 – Oliver, American singer (d. 2000)
- 1945 – Leslie Charleson, American actress
- 1945 – Mall Vaasma, Estonian mycologist (d. 2009)
- 1947 – Carol Burns, Australian actress
- 1947 – Maurizio De Angelis, Italian singer
- 1947 – Harvey Mason, American drummer (Fourplay and The Headhunters)
- 1947 – Richard North Patterson, American author
- 1948 – John Ashton, American actor
- 1948 – Dennis Awtrey, American basketball player
- 1948 – Linda de Suza, Portuguese-French singer and actress
- 1949 – Niki Lauda, Austrian race car driver
- 1949 – Olga Morozova, Russian tennis player
- 1950 – Julius Erving, American basketball player
- 1950 – Lenny Kuhr, Dutch singer-songwriter
- 1950 – Miou-Miou, French actress
- 1950 – Genesis P-Orridge, English singer-songwriter and poet
- 1950 – Julie Walters, English actress
- 1951 – Ellen Greene, American singer and actress
- 1951 – Sivasubramaniam Raveendranath, Sri Lankan Tamil academic
- 1952 – Albert Bryant, Jr., American general
- 1952 – Cyrinda Foxe, American model and actress (d. 2002)
- 1952 – Bill Frist, American physician and politician
- 1953 – Graham Lewis, English bass player (Wire and Dome)
- 1953 – Nigel Planer, English actor
- 1955 – David Axelrod, American political adviser
- 1955 – Gordon Banks, American guitarist and producer
- 1955 – Tim Young, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1956 – Hugh Hewitt, American lawyer, author, and radio host
- 1957 – Willie Smits, Dutch biologist and activist
- 1958 – Dave Spitz, American bass guitarist (Black Sabbath and Great White)
- 1959 – Jiří Čunek, Czech politician
- 1959 – Kyle MacLachlan, American actor
- 1960 – Charles Cullen, American serial killer
- 1961 – Akira Takasaki, Japanese guitarist, songwriter, and producer (Lazy and Loudness)
- 1961 – Lowell Liebermann, American composer, pianist, and conductor
- 1962 – Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host (d. 2006)
- 1962 – Lenda Murray, American bodybuilder
- 1962 – Les Wallace, Scottish darts player
- 1963 – Donald Braswell II, American tenor and actor
- 1963 – Devon Malcolm, English cricketer
- 1963 – Vijay Singh, Fijian golfer
- 1964 – Ed Boon, American video game programmer
- 1964 – Gigi Fernández, Puerto Rican tennis player
- 1965 – Chris Dudley, American basketball player
- 1965 – Dean Karr, American director and photographer
- 1965 – Pat LaFontaine, American ice hockey player
- 1966 – Rachel Dratch, American actress
- 1966 – Brian Greig, Australian politician
- 1966 – Thorsten Kaye, German actor
- 1966 – Aiden Shaw, English porn actor
- 1967 – Psicosis II, Mexican wrestler
- 1967 – Anthony Hardwood, Hungarian-American porn actor
- 1967 – Alf Poier, Austrian comedian
- 1967 – Serghei Stroenco, Moldovan footballer and manager (d. 2013)
- 1968 – Shawn Graham, Canadian politician, 31st Premier of New Brunswick
- 1968 – Bradley Nowell, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Sublime) (d. 1996)
- 1968 – Elna Reinach, South African tennis player
- 1968 – Jeri Ryan, American actress
- 1968 – Jayson Williams, American basketball player
- 1969 – Joaquín Cortés, Spanish dancer
- 1969 – Thomas Jane, American actor, director, and producer
- 1969 – Clinton Kelly, American television host
- 1969 – Hans Klok, Dutch magician
- 1969 – Brian Laudrup, Danish footballer
- 1970 – Dominic Roussel, Canadian ice hockey player
- 1970 – Ravi Vakil, Canadian-American mathematician
- 1971 – Super Caló, Mexican wrestler
- 1971 – Lea Salonga, Filipino actress and singer
- 1972 – Michael Chang, American tennis player
- 1972 – Laurence Leboucher, French cyclist
- 1972 – Claudia Pechstein, German speed skater
- 1973 – Philippe Gaumont, French cyclist (d. 2013)
- 1973 – Claus Lundekvam, Norwegian footballer
- 1973 – Juninho Paulista, Brazilian footballer
- 1973 – Scott Phillips, American drummer (Creed, Alter Bridge, and Projected)
- 1973 – Einar Kristian Tveitå, Norwegian discus thrower
- 1974 – James Blunt, English singer-songwriter and captain
- 1974 – Chris Moyles, English radio and television host
- 1975 – Alun Armstrong, English footballer
- 1975 – Drew Barrymore, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
- 1976 – Faan Rautenbach, South African rugby player
- 1977 – Timo Rose, German director and producer
- 1977 – Hakan Yakin, Swiss footballer
- 1978 – Jenny Frost, English singer and dancer (Precious and Atomic Kitten)
- 1979 – Brett Emerton, Australian footballer
- 1979 – Lee Na-young, South Korean actress
- 1979 – Jo Pitt, Scottish horse rider (d. 2013)
- 1980 – Shamari Fears, American singer-songwriter and actress (Blaque)
- 1980 – Kang Sung-hoon, South Korean singer (Sechs Kies)
- 1981 – Jeanette Biedermann, German singer-songwriter and actress
- 1981 – Fredson Câmara Pereira, Brazilian footballer
- 1982 – Jenna Haze, American porn actress and director
- 1982 – Dichen Lachman, Nepalese-Australian actress and producer
- 1982 – Shawntae Spencer, American football player
- 1982 – Robert Weiner, Jr., American water polo player
- 1983 – Jennifer Ketcham, American porn actress, director, and blogger
- 1983 – Shaun Tait, Australian cricketer
- 1984 – Tommy Bowe, Irish rugby player
- 1984 – Branislav Ivanović, Serbian footballer
- 1984 – Georgios Printezis, Greek basketball player
- 1985 – Hameur Bouazza, Algerian footballer
- 1985 – Kein Einaste, Estonian skier
- 1985 – Sean Garballey, American politician
- 1985 – Georgios Printezis, Greek basketball player
- 1985 – Larissa Riquelme, Paraguayan model and actress
- 1986 – Miko Hughes, American actor
- 1986 – Rajon Rondo, American basketball player
- 1987 – Lesley Cantwell, New Zealand race walker (d. 2013)
- 1987 – Han Hyo-joo, South Korean actress and model
- 1987 – Sergio Romero, Argentinian footballer
- 1988 – Jonathan Borlée, Belgian sprinter
- 1988 – Kevin Borlée, Belgian sprinter
- 1988 – Efraín Juárez, Mexican footballer
- 1988 – Ximena Navarrete, Mexican model and actress, Miss Universe 2010
- 1988 – Sebastian Tyrała, Polish footballer
- 1988 – Ana Veselinović, Montenegrin tennis player
- 1989 – Alia Sabur, American educator
- 1989 – Anna Sundstrand, Swedish singer, dancer, and actress (Play)
- 1989 – Franco Vázquez, Argentinian footballer
- 1990 – Luca Profeta, Italian footballer
- 1990 – Scott Winkler, Norwegian ice hockey player (d. 2013)
- 1992 – Alexander Merkel, German footballer
Deaths[edit]
- 556 – Maximianus of Ravenna, Italian bishop (b. 499)
- 606 – Pope Sabinian
- 965 – Otto, Duke of Burgundy (b. 944)
- 1071 – Arnulf III, Count of Flanders (b. 1055)
- 1111 – Roger Borsa, Italian son of Robert Guiscard (b. 1060)
- 1371 – David II of Scotland (b. 1324)
- 1511 – Henry, Duke of Cornwall (b. 1511)
- 1512 – Amerigo Vespucci, Italian cartographer and explorer (b. 1454)
- 1627 – Olivier van Noort, Dutch navigator (b. 1558)
- 1674 – Jean Chapelain, French poet and critic (b. 1595)
- 1680 – La Voisin, French fortune teller (b. 1640)
- 1690 – Charles Le Brun, French painter (b. 1619)
- 1727 – Francesco Gasparini, Italian composer (b. 1661)
- 1731 – Frederik Ruysch, Dutch physician and anatomist (b. 1638)
- 1732 – Francis Atterbury, English bishop (b. 1663)
- 1742 – Charles Rivington, English publisher (b. 1688)
- 1797 – Baron Münchhausen, German military officer (b. 1720)
- 1799 – Heshen, Chinese official (b. 1750)
- 1816 – Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian (b. 1723)
- 1875 – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter (b. 1796)
- 1875 – Charles Lyell, Scottish geologist (b. 1797)
- 1888 – Anna Kingsford, English doctor and activist (b. 1846)
- 1890 – John Jacob Astor III, American businessman (b. 1822)
- 1890 – Carl Bloch, Danish painter (b. 1834)
- 1892 – Herman Koeckemann, German apostolic (b. 1828)
- 1897 – Charles Blondin, French acrobat (b. 1824)
- 1898 – Heungseon Daewongun, Regent of King Gojong (b. 1820)
- 1903 – Hugo Wolf, Austrian composer (b. 1860)
- 1904 – Leslie Stephen, English author and critic (b. 1832)
- 1913 – Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist (b. 1857)
- 1914 – Thillaiaadi Valliammai, South African activist (b. 1898)
- 1921 – Salim Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti sheikh (b. 1864)
- 1923 – Théophile Delcassé, French politician (b. 1852)
- 1930 – William Jeremiah Tuttle, American swimmer and water polo player (b. 1882)
- 1934 – Willem Kes, Dutch violinist and conductor (b. 1856)
- 1939 – Antonio Machado, Spanish poet (b. 1875)
- 1942 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian journalist and author (b. 1881)
- 1943 – Christoph Probst, German activist (b. 1919)
- 1943 – Hans Scholl, German activist (b. 1918)
- 1943 – Sophie Scholl, German activist (b. 1921)
- 1944 – Kasturba Gandhi, Indian wife of Mahatma Gandhi (b. 1869)
- 1945 – Osip Brik, Russian author and critic (b. 1888)
- 1956 – Alexandros Svolos, Greek politician (b. 1892)
- 1958 – Abul Kalam Azad, Indian scholar and politician (b. 1888)
- 1960 – Paul-Émile Borduas, Canadian painter (b. 1905)
- 1961 – Nick LaRocca, American trumpet player (Original Dixieland Jass Band) (b. 1889)
- 1965 – Felix Frankfurter, American jurist (b. 1882)
- 1968 – Peter Arno, American cartoonist (b. 1904)
- 1970 – Eddie Selzer American film producer (b. 1893)
- 1973 – Jean-Jacques Bertrand, Canadian politician, 21st Premier of Quebec (b. 1916)
- 1973 – Elizabeth Bowen, Anglo-Irish novelist (b. 1899)
- 1973 – Katina Paxinou, Greek actress (b. 1900)
- 1974 – Samuel Byck, American criminal (b. 1930)
- 1976 – Angela Baddeley, English actress (b. 1904)
- 1976 – Florence Ballard, American singer (The Supremes) (b. 1943)
- 1978 – Hal Borland, American author (b. 1900)
- 1978 – Phyllis McGinley, American children's author (b. 1905)
- 1979 – Sigrid Schauman, Finnish painter (b. 1877)
- 1980 – Oskar Kokoschka, Austrian poet and playwright (b. 1886)
- 1981 – Michael Maltese, American screenwriter (b. 1908)
- 1982 – Josh Malihabadi, Indian-Pakistani poet (b. 1898)
- 1983 – Adrian Boult, English conductor (b. 1889)
- 1983 – Romain Maes, Belgian cyclist (b. 1913)
- 1984 – David Vetter, American victim of SCID (b. 1971)
- 1985 – Salvador Espriu, Spanish poet (b. 1913)
- 1985 – Alexander Scourby, American actor (b. 1913)
- 1985 – Efrem Zimbalist, Russian violinist, composer, and conductor (b. 1889)
- 1987 – Andy Warhol, American painter and photographer (b. 1928)
- 1989 – Moisés da Costa Amaral, East Timorese politician (b. 1938)
- 1990 – Evald Seepere, Estonian boxer (b. 1911)
- 1994 – Papa John Creach, American musician (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and The Dinosaurs) (b. 1917)
- 1995 – Ed Flanders, American actor (b. 1934)
- 1997 – Joseph Aiuppa, American gangster (b. 1907)
- 1998 – Abraham A. Ribicoff, American politician, 80th Governor of Connecticut (b. 1910)
- 1999 – William Bronk, American poet (b. 1918)
- 1999 – Menno Oosting, Dutch tennis player (b. 1964)
- 2000 – Fernando Buesa, Spanish politician (b. 1946)
- 2001 – Les Medley, English footballer (b. 1920)
- 2002 – Roden Cutler, Australian lieutenant and politician, 32nd Governor of New South Wales (b. 1916)
- 2002 – Chuck Jones, American animator, screenwriter, and producer (b. 1912)
- 2002 – Daniel Pearl, American journalist (b. 1963)
- 2002 – Jonas Savimbi, Angolan military leader, founded UNITA (b. 1934)
- 2003 – Daniel Taradash, American screenwriter (b. 1913)
- 2004 – Roque Máspoli, Uruguayan footballer (b. 1917)
- 2004 – Andy Seminick, American baseball player (b. 1920)
- 2005 – Zdzisław Beksiński, Polish painter and sculptor (b. 1929)
- 2005 – Lee Eun-ju, South Korean actress (b. 1980)
- 2005 – Simone Simon, French actress (b. 1910)
- 2006 – Atwar Bahjat, Iraqi journalist (b. 1976)
- 2006 – Anthony Burger, American pianist and singer (the Kingsmen Quartet) (b. 1961)
- 2007 – George Jellicoe, 2nd Earl Jellicoe, English admiral (b. 1918)
- 2007 – Dennis Johnson, American basketball player (b. 1954)
- 2007 – Samuel Hinga Norman, Sierra Leonean politician (b. 1940)
- 2007 – Howard Ramsey, American soldier (b. 1898)
- 2008 – Henk Bruna, Dutch publisher (b. 1916)
- 2008 – Nunzio Gallo, Italian singer (b. 1928)
- 2009 – Candido Cannavò, Italian journalist (b. 1930)
- 2010 – Fred Chaffart, Belgian businessman (b. 1936)
- 2010 – Robin Davies, Welsh actor (b. 1954)
- 2010 – Steffi Sidney, American actress (b. 1935)
- 2011 – Nicholas Courtney, Egyptian-English actor (b. 1929)
- 2012 – Frank Carson, Irish comedian and actor (b. 1926)
- 2013 – P. Chuba Chang, Indian politician (b. 1965)
- 2013 – Bob Corbin, American politician (b. 1922)
- 2013 – George Ives, American actor (b. 1926)
- 2013 – Atje Keulen-Deelstra, Dutch speed skater (b. 1938)
- 2013 – Neil Mann, Australian footballer (b. 1924)
- 2013 – Claude Monteux, American flute player and conductor (b. 1920)
- 2013 – Enver Ören, Turkish businessman (b. 1939)
- 2013 – Mario Ramírez, Puerto Rican baseball player (b. 1957)
- 2013 – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German pianist and conductor (b. 1923)
- 2013 – Hari Shankar Singhania, Indian businessman (b. 1933)
- 2013 – Behsat Üvez, Turkish singer-songwriter (b. 1959)
Holidays and observances[edit]
- Birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Robert Baden-Powell and Olave Baden-Powell, and its related observance:
- Celebrity Day (Church of Scientology)
- Christian Feast Day:
- Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom in 1979.
“The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” -Romans 13:9-10
===
Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
February 21: Morning
"He hath said." - Hebrews 13:5
If we can only grasp these words by faith, we have an all-conquering weapon in our hand. What doubt will not be slain by this two-edged sword? What fear is there which shall not fall smitten with a deadly wound before this arrow from the bow of God's covenant? Will not the distresses of life and the pangs of death; will not the corruptions within, and the snares without; will not the trials from above, and the temptations from beneath, all seem but light afflictions, when we can hide ourselves beneath the bulwark of "He hath said"? Yes; whether for delight in our quietude, or for strength in our conflict, "He hath said" must be our daily resort. And this may teach us the extreme value of searching the Scriptures. There may be a promise in the Word which would exactly fit your case, but you may not know of it, and therefore you miss its comfort. You are like prisoners in a dungeon, and there may be one key in the bunch which would unlock the door, and you might be free; but if you will not look for it, you may remain a prisoner still, though liberty is so near at hand. There may be a potent medicine in the great pharmacopoeia of Scripture, and you may yet continue sick unless you will examine and search the Scriptures to discover what "He hath said." Should you not, besides reading the Bible, store your memories richly with the promises of God? You can recollect the sayings of great men; you treasure up the verses of renowned poets; ought you not to be profound in your knowledge of the words of God, so that you may be able to quote them readily when you would solve a difficulty, or overthrow a doubt? Since "He hath said" is the source of all wisdom, and the fountain of all comfort, let it dwell in you richly, as "A well of water, springing up unto everlasting life." So shall you grow healthy, strong, and happy in the divine life.
Evening
"Understandest thou what thou readest?" - Acts 8:30
We should be abler teachers of others, and less liable to be carried about by every wind of doctrine, if we sought to have a more intelligent understanding of the Word of God. As the Holy Ghost, the Author of the Scriptures is he who alone can enlighten us rightly to understand them, we should constantly ask his teaching, and his guidance into all truth. When the prophet Daniel would interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream, what did he do? He set himself to earnest prayer that God would open up the vision. The apostle John, in his vision at Patmos, saw a book sealed with seven seals which none was found worthy to open, or so much as to look upon. The book was afterwards opened by the Lion of the tribe of Judah, who had prevailed to open it; but it is written first--"I wept much." The tears of John, which were his liquid prayers, were, so far as he was concerned, the sacred keys by which the folded book was opened. Therefore, if, for your own and others' profiting, you desire to be "filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," remember that prayer is your best means of study: like Daniel, you shall understand the dream, and the interpretation thereof, when you have sought unto God; and like John you shall see the seven seals of precious truth unloosed, after you have wept much. Stones are not broken, except by an earnest use of the hammer; and the stone-breaker must go down on his knees. Use the hammer of diligence, and let the knee of prayer be exercised, and there is not a stony doctrine in revelation which is useful for you to understand, which will not fly into shivers under the exercise of prayer and faith. You may force your way through anything with the leverage of prayer. Thoughts and reasonings are like the steel wedges which give a hold upon truth; but prayer is the lever, the prise which forces open the iron chest of sacred mystery, that we may get the treasure hidden within.
===
Tryphena and Tryphosa
Scripture Reference: Romans 16:12
Name Meaning: Delicate or dainty one
As Paul links these two Christian ladies together, we shall think of them as one-which they were in many ways. Probably they were twin sisters in the flesh, as well as in Christ, or very near relatives, and belonged to the same noble Roman family. They must have been conspicuous in the service of the church at Rome-perhaps deaconnesses-otherwise Paul would not have singled them out for his expression of gratitude for their devoted labor in the Lord.
Their names, characteristically pagan, are in contrast to their significance. Having a similar resemblance in appearance and constitution, if twins, they were given names having a like meaning. Being of noble birth they "lived delicately," that is, in plenty and pleasure and luxury. Lightfoot says that, "It was usual to designate members of the same family by derivatives of the same root." "Delicate" may, of course, refer to physical weakness, and as tender and delicate women, Tryphena and Tryphosa stand out as early examples of incessant and arduous labors in the service of the church.
Whether of gentle and refined manners, or delicate in health, or both, these active workers carved a niche for themselves in Paul's portrait gallery of saints. Early Christian inscriptions in cemeteries used chiefly for the servants of the emperor contain both of these female names, and so can be identified as being among "the saints of Caesar's household" (Philippians 4:22). How we bless God for the record of those early "honourable women which were Greeks" (Acts 17:12) who became humble followers of the Lamb!
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Felix
[Fē'lĭx] - happy, prosperous.
A cruel Roman governor of Judea, appointed by the Emperor Claudius, whose freedman he was (Acts 23:24-26; Acts 24:2-27; Acts 25:14). Felix is described by Tacitus as a bad and cruel governor, even though the title of "most excellent" was given to him.
The Man Who Procrastinated
As a true preacher, Paul pressed home the truth until it pricked the conscience of Felix so much so that he "trembled." He did not resent Paul's plain speaking but postponed the interview "till a more convenient season." Such a "convenient season," however, did not come, and Felix became a type of many whose consciences are stirred by the preached Word, but whose hopes of eternal security are ruined by a like procrastination. The two sworn enemies of the soul are "Yesterday" and "Tomorrow."
Yesterday slays its thousands. Past sins plunge many into darkness and despair. Priceless opportunities were trampled upon, and the harvest is past. But God says there is mercy still and free forgiveness through repentance.
Tomorrow slays its tens of thousands. Vows, promises, resolutions are never fulfilled. "Some other time," many say, when urged to repent and believe. They fail to realize that now is the acceptable time. How pitiful it is that the convenient season never dawns for them! The pathway to their hell is strewn with good resolutions, and as they cross "The Great Divide," the mocking voice cries out: "Too late! Too late!"
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Today's reading: Numbers 1-2, Mark 3:1-19 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Numbers 1-2
The Census
1 The LORD spoke to Moses in the tent of meeting in the Desert of Sinai on the first day of the second month of the second year after the Israelites came out of Egypt. He said: 2"Take a census of the whole Israelite community by their clans and families, listing every man by name, one by one. 3 You and Aaron are to count according to their divisions all the men in Israel who are twenty years old or more and able to serve in the army...."Today's New Testament reading: Mark 3:1-19
Jesus Heals on the Sabbath
1 Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. 2 Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. 3 Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, "Stand up in front of everyone."
4 Then Jesus asked them, "Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?" But they remained silent....
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