February 22
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Featured Event
Steve Powell/Getty Images
U.S. men’s hockey team defeats Soviet Union team in “Miracle on Ice”
On this day in 1980, the U.S. men’s ice hockey team, a ragtag team of college players, defeated the Soviet Union’s famed “Red Machine” during the Winter Olympics. Deemed the “Miracle on Ice,” the historic upset, which occurred in the midst of the tense Cold War, boosted morale among Americans. [Read today’s edition of Today in History > >]
Featured Biography
Featured Biography
Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Gift of Jean McGinley Draper, 1954.9.2
In offering to you, my countrymen, these counsels of an old and affectionate friend…if I may flatter myself that they may…warn against the impostures of pretended patriotism—this hope will be a full recompense for the solicitude for your welfare by which they have been dictated.
Called the “Father of His Country,” George Washington, general and commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–83) and first president of the United States (1789–97), was born this day in 1732.
Famous Birthdays
More on February 22
M. Stroud—Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
2021
Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, one of the founders of the Beat movement in San Francisco and owner of the famed City Lights bookstore, died at the age of 101. [Take our quiz about American poets.]
Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo
2014
Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was impeached following widespread protests after he abandoned an association agreement with the European Union. He fled the country and was later accused of embezzlement. [Sort fact from fiction in our quiz about European history.]
Martin Hunter/Getty Images
2011
After enduring more than five months of tremors, Christchurch, New Zealand, and its surrounding area were struck by a massively destructive 6.3 magnitude aftershock. [Test your knowledge of the worst natural disasters in history.]
© John Chadwick—AP/REX/Shutterstock.com
1997
A team of British scientists working under the direction of Ian Wilmut at the Roslin Institute near Edinburgh announced the birth of Dolly the sheep, the first clone of an adult mammal. The momentous event invited controversy, however, about the possible misuses of mammalian cloning technology. [How much do you know about genetics?]
© Walter Arce/Dreamstime.com
1959
NASCAR held the first Daytona 500, which was won by Lee Petty. NASCAR grew unprecedentedly in popularity in the 21st century, and the Daytona 500 became one of the best-attended sporting events in the United States. [Sort fact from fiction in our sports quiz.]
© Jerry Coli/Dreamstime.com
1950
Basketball player Julius Erving, who was one of the most colorful and exciting figures in the game during the 1970s and ’80s, was born. [Find out why basketball hoops are 10 feet high.]
Johannes Simon/Getty Images
1942
Three members of the White Rose, an anti-Nazi group that advocated nonviolent resistance, were beheaded in Munich. In the following months, many more were imprisoned for alleged connections to the group, and others were executed. [Watch a video about the White Rose.]
iStockphoto/Thinkstock
1932
The Purple Heart, a U.S. military decoration originally instituted by George Washington in 1782 to honor bravery in battle, was revived as an award for those wounded or killed in action. [How much do you know about military history?]
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (Digital file no. cph 3g02957)
1847
U.S. General Zachary Taylor led troops against a Mexican force commanded by General Antonio López de Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista during the Mexican-American War. Taylor’s victories in the war made him a popular figure and helped him win the U.S. presidency in 1848. [Take our quiz about the history of warfare.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
1680
Catherine Deshayes, Madame Monvoisin—known as “La Voisin”—was executed in Paris for her involvement in the Affair of the Poisons. A sensational criminal case, the Affair of the Poisons saw numerous people (rich and poor alike) procuring poisons and drugs from female fortune-tellers such as “La Voisin.” [Test your knowledge of French history.]
Image: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
896
Arnulf was crowned Holy Roman emperor by Pope Formosus, who declared the previous emperor, Lambert, deposed. [Take our quiz about kings and emperors.]