MOMENTS IN TIME

Feb 06, 20130

The History Channel

• On Feb. 21, 1828, the first printing press designed to use the newly invented Cherokee alphabet arrives at New Echota, Ga. A young Cherokee, Sequoyah, had invented the written language, consisting of 86 characters. Within months, the first Indian language newspaper in history was printed. It was called the Cherokee Phoenix.

• On Feb. 24, 1836, in San Antonio, Texas, Colonel William Travis issues a call for help on behalf of Texan troops defending the Alamo, an old Spanish mission and fortress under attack by the Mexican army. Only 32 men from the nearby town of Gonzales responded to Travis’ call for help.

• On Feb. 23, 1885, a 19-year-old man named John Lee is sent to the gallows in Exeter, England, for the murder of a rich older woman. After the noose was put around his neck the lever malfunctioned three times. The authorities, mystified at the gallows’ inexplicable malfunction, decided to ascribe it to an act of God. Lee was sent to prison instead.

• On Feb. 18, 1930, Pluto is discovered at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz., by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh. In 2006, however, the International Astronomical Union announced that Pluto would no longer be considered a planet due its relatively small mass, just one-sixth that of Earth’s moon.

• On Feb. 22, 1959, Lee Petty defeats Johnny Beauchamp at the just-opened Daytona International Speedway in Florida to win the first-ever Daytona 500. The race was so close that Beauchamp was initially named the winner. Three days later, with the assistance of news photographs, Petty was officially named the champ.

• On Feb. 19, 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn awaits reunion with his family after exile from Russia. Publication of “The Gulag Archipelago,” a detailed history of the Soviet prison system, prompted Russia to exile the 55-year-old author.

• On Feb. 20, 1985, in a highly controversial vote, the Irish government defies the powerful Catholic Church and approves the sale of contraceptives. The Irish Supreme Court found that a constitutional right to marital privacy covered the use of contraceptives.