February 28

Coaching legend Dean Smith born (1931); Record 106 million people watch series finale of "M*A*S*H" (1983); Gulf War ends (1991); HBD basketball star Luka Dončić (1999); RIP actress Jane Russell (2011).

February 25

Hiram Revels becomes first African American in US Congress (1870); Beatles guitarist George Harrison born (1943); Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, defeats Sonny Liston to win his first world heavyweight title (1964); HBD actress Téa Leoni (1966); RIP playwright and poet Tennessee Williams (1983).

February 26

French poet and author of "Les Misérables" Victor Hugo born (1802); "Livery Stable Blues" by the Original Dixieland Jass Band becomes first jazz recording created (1917); Pianist and singer-songwriter Fats Domino born (1928); Singer Johnny Cash born (1932); Trayvon Martin killed, starting a series of protests about racism across the country (2012).

Joan Didion

In 2005, Joan Didion (1934-2021) published her memoir about the recent, sudden death of her husband, fellow writer John Gregory Dunne. About two months before the book's publication, Didion also lost the couple's only child, daughter Quintana Roo. When she adapted her book on grief “The Year of Magical Thinking” — a National Book Award winner — into a one-woman Broadway show starring Vanessa Redgrave, she broadened its scope to consider the two great losses of her life. With these lines, Didion reflects that life’s most meaningful moments aren’t likely to feel grand or cinematic — profound events are still surrounded by normal context. Didion compels us to embrace each mundane-seeming moment, because we never know when things are going to change.

February 24

Marbury v. Madison establishes principle of judicial review in the US (1803); HBD Nike cofounder Phil Knight (1938); Steve Jobs born (1955); Fidel Castro retires as president of Cuba (2008); RIP "Hidden Figures" NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson (2020).

February 23

Gutenberg Bible is published (1455); RIP President John Quincy Adams (1848); Sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois born (1868); Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima photo taken (1945); HBD actress Emily Blunt (1983).

February 22

President George Washington born (1732); Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin born (1962); HBD Drew Barrymore (1975); "Miracle on Ice" as the US defeats the Soviet Union in hockey at Winter Olympics (1980); RIP artist Andy Warhol (1987).

February 21

 "The Communist Manifesto" is published by Karl Marx (1848);  Musician Nina Simone born (1933); NASCAR founded (1948); Malcolm X assassinated (1965); RIP Billy Graham (2018).

February 19

US Marines invade Iwo Jima (1945); HBD NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (1959); HBD Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Peace Prize winner for CRISPR genome editing (1964); RIP American author Harper Lee (2015); RIP German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (2019)

February 18

RIP artist Michelangelo (1564); “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” published in the US (1885); Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovers Pluto (1930); HBD television personality Vanna White (1957); Auto racing legend Dale Earnhardt killed in crash at Daytona 500 (2001).

February 17

Football legend and actor Jim Brown born (1936); Vanguard 2 launched as first weather satellite (1959); HBD Michael Jordan (1963); Volkswagen Beetle passes Ford Model T to become world’s bestselling car (1972); RIP golf great Mickey Wright (2020).

February 16

Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun's burial chamber is unsealed (1923); Fidel Castro becomes prime minister of Cuba (1959); HBD tennis great John McEnroe (1959); HBD actress Elizabeth Olsen (1989); HBD musician The Weeknd (1990).

February 15

Astronomer Galileo Galilei born (1564); Women's rights activist Susan B. Anthony born (1820); RIP musician Nat King Cole (1965); Soviet-Afghan War ends as all Soviet troops depart Afghanistan (1989); Millions of people in 600 cities protest Iraq War (2003).

February 14

RIP Saint Valentine (269); Abolitionist Frederick Douglass born (1818); Pale Blue Dot photo taken by Voyager 1 (1990); Dolly the sheep dies; was first cloned mammal (2003); Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting; 17 killed and 17 injured (2018).

February 12

Abraham Lincoln born (1809); Charles Darwin born (1809); NAACP founded (1909); HBD American basketball player Bill Russell (1934); HBD American author Judy Blume (1938); RIP Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (2000).

February 11

Inventor Thomas Edison born (1847); HBD Jennifer Aniston (1969); Iranian Revolution begins as Ayatollah Khomeini comes to power (1979); Nelson Mandela released from prison after 27 years in South Africa (1990); RIP Whitney Houston (2012).

Jack Sarfatti

(born September 14, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Working largely outside academia, most of Sarfatti's publications revolve around quantum physics and consciousness.

Sarfatti was a leading member of the Fundamental Fysiks Group, an informal group of physicists in California in the 1970s who, according to historian of science David Kaiser, aimed to inspire some of the investigations into quantum physics that underlie parts of quantum information science. Sarfatti co-wrote Space-Time and Beyond (1975; credited to Bob Toben and Fred Alan Wolf) and has self-published several books.

February 10

French and Indian War ends (1763); Ron Brown elected chair of Democratic National Committee, first African American to head a major American political party (1989); RIP “Roots” author Alex Haley (1992); RIP American playwright Arthur Miller (2005); RIP Hollywood legend and diplomat Shirley Temple (2014).

February 9

President William Henry Harrison born (1773); RIP poet and playwright Paul Laurence Dunbar (1906); "The Color Purple" author Alice Walker born (1944); Record 73 million watch The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (1964).

February 8

Author Jules Verne born (1828); Boy Scouts of America is founded (1910); Hollywood legend Lana Turner born (1921); Actor James Dean born (1931); Nasdaq stock market index opens (1971).

February 7

Charles Dickens born (1812); US bans all Cuban imports and exports (1962); HBD Garth Brooks (1962); "Beatlemania" arrives in America (1964); RIP author and pilot Anne Morrow Lindbergh (2001).

February 5

Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland announces invention of first synthetic plastic, Bakelite (1909); Welsh actor and director Michael Sheen born (1969); Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo born (1985); Brazilian soccer player Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior born (1992); RIP American actor Kirk Douglas (2020). 

February 4

George Washington elected first president of the US (1789); Aviation innovator Charles Lindbergh born (1902); Rosa Parks born (1913); RIP pianist and entertainer Liberace (1987); Facebook is founded (2004).

February 3

RIP printing press inventor Johannes Gutenberg (1468); American novelist Gertrude Stein born (1874); Musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper are killed in plane crash (1959); Luna 9 becomes first spacecraft to make soft landing on the moon (1966).

February 2

New Amsterdam (present-day New York) becomes a city (1653); First Groundhog Day celebrated (1887); First Groundhog Day celebrated (1887); First Groundhog Day celebrated (1887); HBD Shakira (1977); RIP Hollywood legend Gene Kelly (1996); Philip Seymour Hoffman dies of drug overdose (2014).

February 1

"Oxford English Dictionary" debuts (1884); Film legend Clark Gable born (1901); Harriet Tubman becomes first Black woman on US postage stamp (1978); HBD Harry Styles (1994); Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrates on reentry, all seven astronauts killed (2003).