🗃️ In 2020, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up President Donald Trump’s prepared remarks at the conclusion of his State of the Union address.

On February 23, 1861, President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrived in Washington, D.C., under tight security ahead of his inauguration slated for March 4. By that time, seven southern states had seceded from the Union as they believed Lincoln’s election posed a threat to the institution of slavery.

On February 23, 1945, U.S. Marines raised the American flag atop Mount Suribachi—the highest, most strategic point on Iwo Jima—during the bloody battle against Japanese forces. Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the now-iconic moment.

On February 23, 1962, President John F. Kennedy inspected the spacecraft Friendship 7 in Cape Canaveral, just three days after John Glenn became the first American to orbit Earth aboard it.

“For in a government of laws and not of men, no man, however prominent or powerful, and no mob, however unruly or boisterous, is entitled to defy a court of law.” — President John F. Kennedy, September 1962

🗃️ In January 1984, President Ronald Reagan hosted Democratic presidential candidate Jesse Jackson at the White House after Jackson successfully secured the release of Navy Lt. Robert Goodman, who had been imprisoned in Syria. A CBS News report detailed the event.

🗃️ In an ad for his 1988 presidential campaign, a narrator says Jesse Jackson will "change the course of the country."

On February 21, 1940, civil rights icon and longtime congressman John Lewis was born in Alabama.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson joined Nelson Mandela in 1990 on his eight-city tour across the United States as he sought to end apartheid in South Africa following his release from prison.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a young Jesse Jackson in 1967.

🗃️ In an ad for Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign, an Iowa farmer said the Reverend helped him save his farm from foreclosure, declaring, “We need him!”

🗃️ After placing second in the race for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, Jesse Jackson urged his supporters at the Democratic National Convention to “Keep hope alive.”

In 2008, Jesse Jackson visibly wept in Chicago’s Hyde Park as the presidential election was called for Barack Obama.

In 1984, Jesse Jackson became the first Black candidate to win a presidential primary contest and qualify for the ballot in all 50 states. Campaigning under the slogan “Now Is The Time,” Jackson won more than three million votes and four contests in the Democratic primary.

In an essay titled What Is Leadership?, Dwight Eisenhower wrote in 1948 that “Every leader should have enough humility to accept, publicly, the responsibility for the mistakes of the subordinates he has himself selected and, likewise, to give them credit, publicly, for their triumphs.”

On February 16, 1997, John F. Kennedy Jr. appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press to discuss his political magazine, “George.” Unveiled two years earlier, Kennedy said he wanted the publication to serve at the intersection of politics and pop culture, with the slogan “Not Just Politics As Usual.”

On February 15, 1933, just weeks before his inauguration, President-elect Franklin Roosevelt survived an assassination attempt in Miami, Florida. Roosevelt had just delivered an impromptu speech to an assembled crowd when Giuseppe Zangara fired five shots at him.

On February 15, 1995, President Bill Clinton and former Presidents George H. W. Bush and Gerald Ford participated in the opening round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic at Indian Wells Country Club in California.

In February 2010, Vice President Joe Biden led a U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.

On February 14, 2012, President Barack Obama hosted Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in the Oval Office. At the time, Xi was the heir apparent to Chinese leader Hu Jintao.

On February 14, 1920, the League of Women Voters was founded in Chicago. The organization sought to promote civic education for women and was established just six months before the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which prohibited states from denying women the right to vote.

Although he did not know his exact birth date, having been born into slavery in Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14.

On February 13, 1961, President John F. Kennedy was photographed with his hand to his face as he learned by phone of the assassination of former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba.

In 1838, a young Abraham Lincoln warned that if America were to lose its freedom, it would be due to internal erosion, stating, “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

On February 12, 1999, President Bill Clinton was acquitted by the Senate following a five-week impeachment trial on perjury and obstruction charges.

On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Hodgenville, Kentucky. He would go on to become the 16th president of the United States and lead the country through the Civil War.

On February 11, 1961, President John F. Kennedy was photographed in the Oval Office by The New York Times’ George Tames, capturing what would become one of the most enduring images of his presidency.

On February 11, 1993, President Bill Clinton nominated Janet Reno to serve as attorney general. One month later, her nomination was unanimously approved by the Senate, making her the first woman to serve as America’s top law enforcement official.

On February 10, 1989, Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic Party, becoming the first Black American to lead a major U.S. political party.

On February 10, 1976, President Gerald Ford became the first president to officially recognize February as National Black History Month. In a formal message, Ford urged Americans to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of black Americans.”

On February 10, 2007, Senator Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for president in Springfield, Illinois.

1/ Speaking in February 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that upon his death, he did not want “a long funeral.”

🗃️ On February 9, 2010, First Lady Michelle Obama launched “Let’s Move!”, a nationwide initiative aimed at reducing childhood obesity and encouraging healthier lifestyles among America’s youth. A 2014 CNN report documented the program’s progress on its four-year anniversary.

In February 1963, President John F. Kennedy addressed the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C. Quoting Episcopal priest Phillips Brooks, Kennedy said, “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men. Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.”

President Barack Obama watched Super Bowl XLIII in the White House Family Theater on February 1, 2009. Attendees included administration officials and staff, as well as a bipartisan group of lawmakers. The Pittsburgh Steelers would go on to win the game against the Arizona Cardinals, 27–23.

🗃️ On February 7, 2012, President Barack Obama hosted a school science fair at the White House, an event he made annual during his time in office. Speaking to the children who participated, Obama said America was a nation of “tinkers and dreamers and believers in a better tomorrow.”

On February 7, 2006, President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, former Presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter with his wife Rosalynn, Senator Hillary Clinton, and Senator Ted Kennedy joined in prayers at Coretta Scott King’s funeral in Lithonia, Georgia.

🗃️ On February 6, 2000, First Lady Hillary Clinton announced her candidacy to succeed New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Clinton would go on to win the general election, making her both the first First Lady to be elected to office and the first woman to represent New York in the U.S. Senate.

🗃️ In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in 1996, former President George H. W. Bush said “character matters” and that a president should have a “moral compass.”

On February 6, 2005, former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush attended Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Florida. The New England Patriots would go on to win the game against the Philadelphia Eagles, 24-21.

In a ceremony at the White House in February 2016, President Barack Obama said, “Black History Month shouldn’t be treated as though it is somehow separate from our collective American history,” adding, “It’s about taking an unvarnished look at the past so we can create a better future.”

On February 5, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was photographed by Alexander Gardner as the end of the Civil War approached. He would be assassinated in Ford’s Theatre two months later.

On February 4, 2013, President Barack Obama traveled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to call on Congress to pass gun control legislation in the aftermath of the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

On February 4, 1945, the “Big Three” Allied leaders met for the Yalta Conference to discuss postwar order in Europe, the terms for Soviet entry into the war against Japan, and the formation of the United Nations.

On February 4, 1913, civil rights icon Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.

🗃️ On February 3, 2016, President Barack Obama made his first official visit to a U.S. mosque while in office, telling members of the Baltimore-area congregation, “You’re part of America too.”

On February 3, 1995, American astronaut Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a space shuttle.

On January 3, 1870, the Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, guaranteeing the right to vote regardless of race. However, the guarantee would not be fully realized until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

President Barack Obama is pictured by White House photographer Pete Souza behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office on February 2, 2009. Obama, nearly two weeks into his term, spoke to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

🗃️ On February 2, 1977, President Jimmy Carter delivered his first “fireside chat” from the White House Library. Just two weeks into his term and donning a wool cardigan, Carter urged Americans to reduce their electricity consumption amid a national energy crisis.