Today is Thursday, Feb. 2, the 33rd day of 2017. There are 332 days left in the year. This is Groundhog Day.
Today’s highlight:
On Feb. 2, 1887, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, held its first Groundhog Day festival.
On this date:
In 1653, New Amsterdam — now New York City — was incorporated.
In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, was signed.
In 1914, Charles Chaplin made his movie debut as the comedy short “Making a Living” was released by Keystone Film Co.
In 1925, the legendary Alaska Serum Run ended as the last of a series of dog mushers brought a life-saving treatment to Nome, the scene of a diphtheria epidemic, six days after the drug left Nenana.
In 1942, a Los Angeles Times column by W.H. Anderson urged security measures against Japanese-Americans, arguing that a Japanese-American “almost inevitably … grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”
In 1959, public schools in Arlington and Norfolk, Virginia, were racially desegregated without incident.
In 1964, Ranger 6, a lunar probe launched by NASA, crashed onto the surface of the moon as planned, but failed to send back any TV images.
In 1971, Idi Amin, having seized power in Uganda, proclaimed himself president.
In 1990, in a dramatic concession to South Africa’s black majority, President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.
Ten years ago: A grim report from the world’s leading climate scientists and government officials said that global warming was so severe, it would “continue for centuries” and that humans were to blame. Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued an order making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
Associated Press
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