February 22 birthdays & history

Famous people born on February 22

• 1732George Washington, American general and politician, 1st President of the United States
• 1788Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher and author
• 1857Heinrich Hertz, German physicist, philosopher, and academic
• 1975Drew Barrymore, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
• 1900Luis Buñuel, Spanish-Mexican director and producer
• 1962Steve Irwin, Australian zoologist and television host
• 1949Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver
• 1864Jules Renard, French author and playwright
• 1974James Blunt, English singer-songwriter and guitarist
• 1944Jonathan Demme, American director, producer, and screenwriter

What happened on February 22

• 1371Robert II became King of Scots as the first monarch of the House of Stewart.
• 1819By the Adams–Onís Treaty, Spain sells Florida to the United States for five million U.S. dollars.
• 1848The French Revolution of 1848, which would lead to the establishment of the French Second Republic, begins.
• 1856The United States Republican Party opens its first national convention in Pittsburgh.
• 1872The Prohibition Party holds its first national convention in Columbus, Ohio, nominating James Black as its presidential nominee.
• 1879In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of five-and-dime Woolworth stores.
• 1881Cleopatra's Needle, a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk is erected in Central Park, New York.
• 1889President Grover Cleveland signs a bill admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
• 1904The United Kingdom sells a meteorological station on the South Orkney Islands to Argentina; the islands are subsequently claimed by the United Kingdom in 1908.
• 1959Lee Petty won the first edition of the Daytona 500, a NASCAR auto race at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida.
• 1997Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland announced the existence of Dolly, a female sheep who was the first mammal to have successfully been cloned from an adult cell.
• 1998The cherry-throated tanager, a critically endangered bird which had not been definitively sighted in over a century, was rediscovered in Conceição do Castelo, Brazil.

Also observed on February 22

• Independence Day, celebrates the independence of Saint Lucia from the United Kingdom in 1979.
• Founding Day (Saudi Arabia)
• National Cat Day (Japan)