On This Day:
Friday February 27, 2015 This is the 58th day of the year, with 307 days remaining in 2015. Fact of the Day: shaking hands In early times, people carried weapons in their right hands. When someone wanted to show another that they wished to be friendly, they extended an empty right hand showing that it held no weapon. To make sure that neither could suddenly draw a weapon, they grasped each other's hand firmly until sure they were in agreement. The actual shaking of the hands may have been for the purpose of dislodging any hidden weapons.
Holidays Feast day of St. Alnoth, St. Herefrith of Louth, and St. Leander of Seville.
Dominican Republic: Independence Day.
Events 1801 - The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
1879 - American chemists Ira Remsen and Constantine Fahlberg announced their discovery of saccharin.
1883 - Oscar Hammerstein of New York City patented the first practical cigar-rolling machine.
1897 - Great Britain agreed to United States arbitration in a border dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana, defusing a diplomatic crisis.
1922 - The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, providing for female suffrage, was unanimously declared constitutional.
1933 - The burning down of the Reichstag building in Berlin offered the Nazis, who blamed the Communists, the opportunity to suspend personal liberty.
1939 - The U.S. Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.
1974 - "People" magazine debuted.
1991 - President George Bush declared the end of the Gulf War. Kuwait was declared liberated.
1997 - Divorce became legal in Ireland; it had been the only nation in Europe in which divorce was illegal.
2002 - A Muslim mob attacks a train a few minutes after it leaves the Godhra railway station, killing at least 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya.
2005 - Pre-pay price capping on the Transport for London oyster card is introduced.
2007 - The general strike against Lansana Conté in Guinea ends.
Births 274 - Constantine, Roman emperor.
1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet.
1886 - Hugo Black, American politician and Supreme Court associate justice.
1902 - John Steinbeck, American writer.
1932 - Elizabeth Taylor, American Academy Award-winning actress.
1934 - Ralph Nader, American consumer activist.
1959 - Johnny Van Zant, American Southern rock vocalist.
1964 - Todd Bodine, race car driver born in Chemung, New York.
1973 - Ali Tabatabaee, one of two main vocalists in the band Zebrahead.
Deaths 1936 - Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist, psychologist, and physician, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904.
1989 - Konrad Lorenz, Austrian zoologist, credited for establishing the science of ethology.
1998 - George H. Hitchings, American scientist, recipient of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
2003 - Fred Rogers, the host of TV's "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood."
2006 - Otis Chandler, best known as the publisher of the Los Angeles Times between 1960 and 1980.
2007 - Bobby Rosengarden, jazz drummer, percussionist, and bandleader.
2008 - William F. Buckley, Jr., an American author and conservative commentator.
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