Hey, be happy the Romans changed it from Solmonath (Mud month)

Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one.
Except Leap Year; that's the time
When February's days are twenty-nine.


According to the Gregorian calendar, February is the second month of the year, and also the shortest month. February has 28 days until Julius Caesar gave it 29, and 30 days every four years. According to tradition, Augustus, the Roman emperor, took one day off to add one day to August, the month named after him.

Those damn freakin' Romans.

We now have February with 28 days, and 29 on leap years. Sweden had a February 30 in 1712. They tried it but didn't didn't work out. February begins on the same day of the week as March and November in a common year, and on the same day of the week as August in a leap year.

In the northern half of the world, February is a very cold month. There are usually sunny days that show Spring is not too far off. The Southern hemisphere usually enjoy midsummer weather during February.

February Month Observances

* African American History Month (Black History Month)
Remember the joke that Black History Month occurs during the shortest month on the year
* AMD/Low Vision Awareness Month
Making it very difficult to read this posting
* American History Month
Which is sponsored by National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution (who probably did not vote to share the month with Black History Month.)
* Bird Feeding Month (Wild Bird Feeding Month)
(most cats prefer the taste of wild bird over domesticated bird)
* Cat Health Month (US National)
(which is caused by cats celebrating 'Bird Feeding Month' a little too much.
* Candy and Chocolate Lovers Month
(Secretly sponsored by Hallmark and the American Dental Association.
* Children's Dental Health Month and Dental Month
(What did I tell you.)
* National Pet Dental Health Month
(a slightly scary thought that All the dentist are in collusion)
* Condom Month, Creative Romance Month and An Affair to Remember Month
(Also secretly sponsored by Hallmark and the American Dental Association.

Remember kids - There will be a quiz.


Here is your Today in History -
February 1, 1861 -
Texas secedes from the Union, becoming independent once again. Since the articles of statehood passed by the U.S. Congress give Texas this right, it is perhaps the only state whose secession was legal.

I wonder what Dubya's going to do to celebrate?


February 1, 1893 -
Inventor Thomas A. Edison opened the world's first motion picture studio, his Black Maria, in West Orange, New Jersey.


Edison built a glass-enclosed rooftop movie studio in New York City and the Black Maria was closed in January 1901. Edison demolished the building in 1903. The U. S. National Park Service maintains a reproduction of the Black Maria, built in 1954 at what is now the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange.


February 1, 1896 -
The opera La Bohème, written by Giacomo Puccini, premieres in Turin, Italy.



Who know all Cher had to do to win an Oscar 93 years later, was tweeze her eyebrows and cry while she watches this opera.


February 1, 1964 -
Governor Matthew Welsh of Indiana declares Louie, Louie by the Kingmen "pornographic".

And while the FCC couldn't figure out the lyrics, the governor's move backfires by making the song one of the most covered titles in existence.


February 1, 1968 -
In Saigon, South Vietnam's national police chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan summarily executes an accused Viet Cong spy with a bullet to the head.

Unfortunately for the general, he happens to shoot him right in front of NBC cameraman Vo Suu and Associated Press photographer Eddie Adams.


February 1, 1970 -
US Government report reveals that 31% of college students have tried pot.



Now even Olympic Gold Medalist and New Jerseyians do too!!!


On February 1, 1976, Werner Heisenberg died in Munich. Mr. Heisenberg was one of the last century's foremost physicists, a reputation he earned primarily by having confused everybody so completely that most of us remain baffled to this very day.

The famous Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle states that the act of observation changes the state of the thing being observed. This principle is most vividly illustrated by the penis. Mr. Heisenberg studied with Nils Bohr and Albert Einstein before finally branching out into his own area of highly specialized confusion, eventually dubbed quantum physics. He was particularly confused by his efforts to identify the exact location of a given particle while simultaneously identifying another of its characteristics (such as height, weight, or telephone number).

It was confusing mainly because he couldn't do it. Not only that, but he was also able to discover that no one else could do it, either. Ever. No matter how hard they tried. This suggested a disturbing level of certainty about the Uncertainy Principle, making it paradoxical, which finally put an end to such premodern notions as fixedness, regularity, dependability, and reliability. Thanks to Mr. Heisenberg, the world is now a volatile aggregation of baffling incompatibilities.


Oops.

Perhaps anticipating Heisenberg, or a little overeager for Valentine's Day, the Soviet government declared on February 1, 1918, that it was actually February 14, 1918 (The Russian adopt the Gregorian Calendar).


February 1, 1976 -
Irwin Shaw's Rich Man, Poor Man mini-series premiered on ABC, on this date .



The mini series is based on the novel by Shaw; it was originally published as a short story in Playboy Magazine. Hey so some people actually read Playboy.


February 1,1982 -
Late Night With David Letterman debuted on NBC, where it stayed for 11 years . Dave's first guests were Bill Murray and Don Herbert aka Mr. Wizard.



I wonder what ever happened to Dave?


February 1, 2003 -
The Space Shuttle Columbia blows up on re-entry, with its debris hitting homes and businesses in Nacogdoches Texas.



Oops


February 1, 2004 -
During the MTV-provided halftime show of the Superbowl, former boy band member Justin Timberlake conducts an obviously pre-scripted move to expose Janet Jackson's right tit, which oddly sports a ninjitsu-style throwing star as a pasty. The nation is shocked, simply shocked, that a pristine, noncommercial event such as the Superbowl could be ruined by a Jackson.



If only Janet had gone the Pink route -

a body suit and some strategically placed glitter - and we'd never be noting this anniversary.


And so it goes.