Today in History for Feb. 2, 2015

Alonzo Chappel painting of Greene and Steele.

Feb. 2, 1046 - Monks recorded the onset of a severe cold snap, which may have been the start of the Little Ice Age.


Feb. 2, 1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

Feb. 2, 1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.

Feb. 2, 1781 - American General Nathanael Greene received two bags of coins from Elizabeth Maxwell Steele at her tavern in Salisbury, N.C. The event was later memorialized in a painting by Alonzo Chappel. She gave him the money to supply him and his army after learning he was penniless.

Feb. 2, 1803 - Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston was born in Washington, Ky. Johnston was considered one of the best Confederate commanders until he was killed at the Battle of Shiloh, Tennessee, the first major engagement in the West.

Feb. 2, 1833 Lewis Sewall became postmaster at Burnt Corn, Ala.


Feb. 2, 1834 - Itinerant Methodist minister and author Lorenzo Dow passed away in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. at the age of 56. Passing down the Old Federal Road through Conecuh and Monroe Counties, he is believed to have delivered the first Methodist sermon in Alabama in 1803.

Feb. 2, 1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on Dec. 29, 1845.

Feb. 2, 1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used the pseudonym “Mark Twain” for the first time.

Feb. 2, 1864 – During the Civil War, Federal operations began in the vicinity of Whitesburg, Ala.

Feb. 2, 1870 - The "Cardiff Giant" was revealed in court to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, N.Y., was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.

Feb. 2, 1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (now known as the National League) was formed in New York. The teams included were the Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays.

Feb. 2, 1887 - The beginning of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pa.

Feb. 2, 1895 – Pro Football Hall of Famer George Halas was born in Chicago, Ill.

Feb. 2, 1908 – The sanctuary at Evergreen Baptist Church in Evergreen, Ala. was dedicated.

Feb. 2, 1913 – In Lovecraftian fiction, Wilbur Whateley of Dunwich was born to Lavinia Whateley and an unknown father. He first appeared in “The Dunwich Horror” by H.P. Lovecraft.

Feb. 2, 1915 – W.M. Robinson, who lived near Paul, shot and killed John Holmes. Sheriff A.A. Williams arrested Robinson and transported him to Evergreen, Ala.

Feb. 2, 1920 – According to The Evergreen Courant, on this day the “groundhog surely failed to see his shadow,” and “we shall now see if this portends an early spring or the end of winter, whichever it means, if it means anything.”

Feb. 2, 1934 - Alabama author Wade H. Hall was born in Union Springs, Ala.

Feb. 2, 1952 – A British York transport, carrying 33 passengers and crew, vanished on the northern edge of the Bermuda Triangle while on its way to Jamaica.

Feb. 2, 1959 – The Dyatlov Pass incident occurred in the northern Ural mountains.

Feb. 2, 1963 – In an incident attributed to the Bermuda Triangle, the Marine Sulphur Queen, a 425-foot freighter, vanished without message, clues or debris while en route to Norfolk, Va. from Beaumont, Texas with all hands. The ship was last heard from near the Dry Tortugas.

Feb. 2, 1968 – Marine PFC Allen Twiggs Merritt IV of Atmore, Ala. and Army Warrant Officer Horace Gilbert Giddens Jr. of Andalusia, Ala. were killed in action in Vietnam.

Feb. 2, 1982, Alabama author Annie Vaughan Weaver died in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Feb. 2, 1988 - Alabama author Richard Chase died in Claremont, Calif.

Feb. 2, 2003 - Alabama author Mildred Lee died in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Feb. 2, 2014 – Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away at the age of 46 in Manhattan, N.Y. He portrayed Truman Capote in 2005’s “Capote” and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for role.