On February 16, 1862, Union forces under general Ulysses S. Grant Captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee.  It was one of the first major Union victories of the Civil War and earned Grant the nickname “Unconditional Surrender” Grant.

Members of the Nation’s first Negro Navigation Cadets, who will receive their commissions in the Army Air Forces on February 26th, visited City Hall as guests of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia this afternoon. They are shown on the steps of City Hall as the mayor greeted their commanding officer, Maj. Galen B. Price. 02/16/1944

The telegram describes the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana harbor on the evening of February 15, 1898, a pivotal event leading up to the Spanish-American War.

This evening gown was designed by Roxanne of Samuel Winston, under the Neiman Marcus label. It is made of white peau-de-soie with a bodice of white bugle and crystal beads. The gown was worn by Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson at the Inaugural Gala, 1965; the visit of His Excellency Ayub Khan, President of Pakistan, December [...]

Happy Birthday, Bess Truman!  She was born on February 13, 1885.  The picture below is her at about age 4 1/2. In anticipation of Valentine’s Day, you might also want to check out love letters from Harry Truman to Bess Truman spanning 1910 to 1957, available on the Truman Presidential Library website at http://www.trumanlibrary.org/bessltr.htm.  I [...]

Dated February 13, 1804, this acknowledges the receipt of $7,500,000 in stock certificates by James Leonard to be used towards the purchase of Louisiana.

In the series, “Photographs Relating to the Administration, Family, and Personal Life of Harry S. Truman,” we’ve found online a photograph from February 12, 1947 at a commemoration of Lincoln’s Birthday with a large crowd of African American school children on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Photograph of a large group of black children [...]