February is the shortest month, and that is a good thing. As usual, this month is cold, bleak and wearing. With little sunlight, we are left to find a few good things about the 28 days allotted to February.
It is the month of love, since the 14th is Valentine’s Day. Across the land cards, candy and words of eternal devotion will be in evidence. But that day pales as we get older and we don’t get the many cards given because our teacher orders us to make sure each of our classmates knows we are their valentine, even if we can’t stand them!
It is fashionable these days to look to the future. Our political leaders are always boasting what they can do for us in the coming days. We, as individuals, looked to this year as a new beginning for our own personal fortunes. Sometimes our plans do come true, at least to some extent. But sometimes it is also good take time from future expectations and present circumstances and look to the past. We need to spend time looking not to where we want to be nor to where we are but to see where we have come from and remember the places and people of days gone by. That is what we shall do in this essay; the past is full of fascinating events and personalities, both in our nation and in our world.
February is the month of U. S. Presidents. On the 15th this year we celebrate Presidents’ Day, a time to celebrate the 46 men (sorry, ladies) who have occupied the Oval Office. Two years ago (2019) I posted an essay about Presidents, and listed my choice for the five greatest and five worst Presidents in United States history. February boasts the birthdays of three of my choices of the five best: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. If you want to see the reasons, access the February 2019 section of this website.
But the month also lays claim to several more people, men and women, who have impacted world history. Following will be a short synopsis of ___ these people, divided into their fields of endeavor.
Since February is Black History Month, we begin with two of the most significant leaders of the struggle to include African Americans into American society.
Born 14 February 1818 was the incomparable Frederick Douglass. At birth a slave, Douglass escaped from his master and began a life of work to free his people from the degradation of that “peculiar” institution. He fled his life of bondage at age 18, having suffered much at the hands of his “owner”. Virtually self-educated, Douglass became a leading abolitionist in the states of New York and Massachusetts, met with Presidents and Congressmen and lectured frequently in the free states before the Civil War. During the War, he helped organize the first unit of black soldiers to fight, the 54thMassachusetts.
Douglass championed women’s rights, began and edited several newspapers both before and after the War. Eventually he became a diplomat, serving for a short time in Santo Domingo and Haiti. He was known for his oratory and incisive writing and acclaimed as one of the most influential former slaves.
Rosa Parks, born on 4 February 1913, became an American hero by simply not moving. On 1 December 1955, she sat in the “white” section of a municipal bus in Montgomery, Alabama and refused to move to the “colored” bloc of seats, which, of course, were at the back. Arrested for this egregious violation of law, Parks became the focal point of the Montgomery bus boycott, which eventually won desegregation of the buses and started the “modern” civil rights movement. For her simple act of courage, she deserves her place in the pantheon of great Americans.
Our second group includes those who influenced thinking and science over the several centuries of “modern” history.
Born on 19 February 1473, Nicholas Copernicus was a mathematician and astronomer who claimed the world was not the center of the universe, but the sun was. This was at odds with the accepted dogma of the Catholic Church, but his heresy seemed to not excite too much opposition.
But Galileo Galilei, who was born on 15 February 1564, did not escape the wrath of the authorities when he became a prominent exponent of that same idea of heliocentrism. He was truly a “Renaissance man”, as his expertise included physics, engineering, astronomy and mathematics. He invented the telescope and other various instruments. Forced to recant his belief in the sun as the center of our universe, he lived under house arrest for much of his life, though privately he continued to believe in his theories.
Charles Darwin was another scientific figure who was born in February, on the 12th in 1809. (Coincidentally, he came into the world the same day as did Abraham Lincoln, though he was in England.) His great contribution, as most know, was the theory of evolution, which was popularized by his work, On the Origin of Species, published in 1859. With others, Darwin was a proponent of natural selection, which, over time, produced the amazing diversity of species in the world. Although widely accepted in the academic community, there is a large section of people who still believe in a created universe, but Darwin is regarded as a “great” individual because of his beliefs.
Literary figures also called February the month of their birth. All those we look at are familiar to most who have been educated in pre-2000 America.
Victor Hugo was one of France’s greatest literary figures. Born on 26 February 1802, he wrote in a wide variety of forms: lyrics, epic poems, novels, history, essays, political speeches, dramas and prose. We know him now as the writer of two of the most famous works to come out of France: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables.
One American, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, makes the February list by being born on 27 February 1807. He produced The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, The Song of Hiawatha and Evangeline, all of which have been studied in American schoolrooms. Not as well know but important was his translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy for Americans.
Charles Dickens cannot be forgotten in February’s giants. The author of The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and David Copperfield, Dickens also wrote one enduring work of historical fiction, A Tale of Two Cities. Perhaps the most popular was his short novella, A Christmas Carol, which is still read and studied in America and has been the subject of numerous movies and tv shows. No Christmas is complete without some iteration of this story. One of the great writers of English letters, he penned 15 novels, five novellas and hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles. He championed social reforms, and lectured in many places, including in America (a place of which he was not fond!).
For the sports fans out there, we would be remiss if we neglected to include some of the most talented and famous stars in American sports.
Four of these, born in February, were: baseball’s George Herman (Babe) Ruth, born on the 6th in 1895; also a home run hitter, Henry (Hank) Aaron, born on the 5th in 1934 (who just died last week); Jimmy Brown, the greatest runner in pro football, born on the 17th in 1936; and perhaps the most celebrated basketball player in NBA history, Michael Jordan, who came into this world on the 17th in 1963.
We hope this short foray into the past will show those who are unhappy with the present day American political and social landscape that our world has produced many great people. Our hope and prayer is that the world’s best days are not behind us.
Celebrate and honor those who served in our highest political office, but others have contributed to our society as we enjoy it today. Happy President’s Day!!
Oh, and another note — this essay is being created on an IMac computer; thanks to Stephen Jobs, born on 7 February 1955, who cofounded the Apple computer company.