Today is Shrove (preceding Ash Wednesday) Tuesday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2016. There are 326 days left in the year.
On this date:
In 1773, the ninth president of the United States, William Henry Harrison, was born in Charles City County, Virginia.
In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected provisional president of the Confederate States of America at a congress held in Montgomery, Alabama.
In 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau was established.
In 1942, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II. Daylight-saving “War Time” went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward.
In 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged the State Department was riddled with Communists.
In 1964, The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” broadcast from New York by CBS.
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