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February 4, 2010

February, you just never know

Carl Keith Greene

February, the month of presidents, St. Valentine and all those other things of history.

For instance, on Feb. 1, 1790, the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York.

Feb. 2, 1709, saw British sailor Alexander Selkerk rescued after being marooned on a desert island for five years, thus “Robinson Crusoe” was written.

On Feb. 3, 1699, the Colony of Massachusetts issued paper money for the first time in America to pay its soldiers for fighting against Quebec.

England agreed to end hostilities against the U.S., following its surrender at Yorktown. on Feb. 4, 1783.

Feb. 5, 1861, the first moving picture peep show machine was patented by Samuel Goodale.

And on that date in 1870, the first motion picture was shown to a theater audience in Philadelphia.

Feb. 6, 1778, France officially recognized the new nation known as the United States of America.

And on Feb. 7, 1812, an 8.2 earthquake on the New Madrid fault in western Kentucky shook most of the eastern part of the country.

And thus were happenings during various first weeks of February in our history.

February is a fickle month. It can bring us tons of snow, rays of sunshine or each within an hour of each other.

It seems that in February, Mother Nature continuously changes her mind: rain today, snow tomorrow and enough sunlight for a good tan the following day.

It’s a month that makes us consider the dread of winter that is coming to an end and the expectations of spring and summer.

The groundhog has emerged by now and reportedly seen his/her shadow. That means rather than spring coming early in 42 days, spring will wait and arrive in six weeks.

Our newsroom weather wizard, Les Dixon, has forecast bad weather for the next six weeks: snow, rain, cold weather and perhaps really bad stuff.

Now Les is usually fairly accurate. He studies the weather information on the Internet.

I suspect though he just has a knee that aches when bad weather is on the way.

Les is one of those guys who was born with sports in his blood. He’s from Laurel County, so that counts for a lot of that sporty blood.

But back to February. It’s interesting how many famous people were born in February. On the first, Kentucky pop singer Don Everly, the second saw the nativity of writers Ayn Rand and James Joyce and one of my favorite guys, Tom Smothers.

Gertrude Stein on the third along with Betty Friedan and London lawyer Warren Noble Scoville.

Rosa Parks came into this world on the fourth and on the fifth, ballplayer Hank Aaron and writer Andrew Greeley.

The next day in an earlier year, Babe Ruth was born as was Aaron Burr in 1756.

Charles Dickens was born on the seventh, Lana Turner on the eighth, Carole King and William Henry Harrison on the ninth. Then in 1964 came Glenn Beck and, earlier in the century, Lon Chaney Jr., on the 10th.

Sarah Palin came into the world on Feb. 11, 1964.

This could go on and on.

Along with Abraham Lincoln on the 12th came Lorne Greene, Ted Mack of the famous Amateur Hour and Charles Darwin.

On the 13th, Jerry Springer, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Bess Truman saw the light of day, and on the 14th were born Jimmy Hoffa, Jack Benny and Frederick Douglass.

So that’s the first half of February. I’ll try to pick up the list of interesting people born in February again before the month is over.

Hope your spring comes earlier than the groundhog has forecast, snow is no longer a problem and Caribbean weather (without the hurricanes) comes to the Tri-County area this weekend and lasts until spring is officially here.

I know I can hardly wait. Stay warm.

Carl Keith Greene is a writer for the Times-Tribune. He can be reached at cgreene@thetimestribune.com

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