On Feb. 23, 1954, the first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh.
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On Feb. 23, 1868, W.E.B. DuBois, the American sociologist who co-founded the N.A.A.C.P., was born. Following his death on Aug. 27, 1963, his obituary appeared in The Times.
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On This Date
| 1685 | Composer George Frideric Handel was born in Germany. |
|---|---|
| 1822 | Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city. |
| 1836 | The siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas. |
| 1847 | U.S. troops under Gen. Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican general Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista in Mexico. |
| 1848 | John Quincy Adams, the sixth president of the United States, died at age 80 in Washington, D.C., two days after suffering a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives. |
| 1861 | President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore. |
| 1870 | Mississippi was readmitted to the Union. |
| 1954 | The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine began, in Pittsburgh. |
| 1965 | Stan Laurel of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy died at age 74. |
| 1991 | President George H.W. Bush announced that the allied ground offensive against Iraqi forces had begun. |
| 1997 | Scientists in Scotland announced they had cloned an adult mammal, producing a lamb named Dolly. |
| 1999 | A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted white supremacist John William King of murder in the dragging death of an African-American man, James Byrd Jr. |
| 2000 | Carlos Santana won eight Grammy Awards for his album "Supernatural," tying the record set by Michael Jackson in 1983 for "Thriller." |
| 2003 | Norah Jones won five Grammy Awards for the album "Come Away With Me." |
| 2011 | The Obama administration said it would no longer defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, a federal law banning recognition of same-sex marriage. |
Historic Birthdays
W.E.B. DuBois
2/23/1868 - 8/27/1963
American sociologist who helped found the N.A.A.C.P.Go to obituary »
| 70 |
Samuel Pepys 2/23/1633 - 5/26/1703 English diarist and naval administrator |
|---|---|
| 74 |
George Frideric Handel 2/23/1685 - 4/14/1759 German-bn. English composer |
| 87 |
George Frederick Watts 2/23/1817 - 7/1/1904 English painter and sculptor |
| 68 |
Cesar Ritz 2/23/1850 - 10/26/1918 French founder of the Ritz hotel in Paris |
| 90 |
Norman Lindsay 2/23/1879 - 11/29/1969 Australian artist and novelist |
| 88 |
Karl Jaspers 2/23/1881 - 2/26/1969 German Existentialist philosopher |
| 65 |
Victor Fleming 2/23/1883 - 1/6/1949 American motion-picture director |
| 89 |
William Shirer 2/23/1904 - 12/28/1993 American journalist, historian and novelist |
| 74 |
Allan MacLeod Cormack 2/23/1924 - 5/7/1998 South African-bn. Am. Nobel Prize-winning physicist |