February 4, 1789Washington unanimously elected by Electoral College to first and second terms
On this day in 1789, George Washington becomes the first and only president to be unanimously elected by the Electoral College. He repeated this notable feat on the same day in 1792.
The peculiarities of early American voting procedure meant that although Washington won unanimous election, he still had a runner-up, John Adams, who served as vice president during both of Washington’s terms. Electors in what is now called the Electoral College named two choices for president. They each cast two ballots without noting a distinction between their choice for president and vice president. Washington was chosen by all of the electors and therefore is considered to have been unanimously elected. Of those also named on the electors’ ballots, Adams had the most votes and became vice president.
1861 States meet to form Confederacy
In Montgomery, Alabama, delegates from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana convene to establish the Confederate States of America.
As early as 1858, the ongoing conflict between the North and the South over the issue of slavery led Southern leadership to discuss a unified separation from the United States. By 1860, the majority of the slave states were publicly threatening secession if the Republicans, the anti-slavery party, won the presidency. Following Republican Abraham Lincoln’s victory over the divided Democratic Party in November 1860, South Carolina immediately initiated secession proceedings. On December 20, its legislature passed the “Ordinance of Secession,” which declared that “the Union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved.” After the declaration, South Carolina set about seizing forts, arsenals, and other strategic locations within the state. Within six weeks, five more Southern states had followed South Carolina’s lead.
Born on February 3 1809 Felix Mendelssohn, German composer and pianist (Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream).
1811 Horace Greely, founder of the New York Tribune and abolitionist.
1821 Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman to get an MD from a U.S. medical school.
1874 Gertrude Stein, poet and novelist (Three Lives, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas).
1894 Norman Rockwell, artist and illustrator who painted scenes of small-town America. Most of his work appeared in the The Saturday Evening Post.
1898 Alvar Aalto, Finnish architect.
1907 James A. Michener, novelist (Tales of the South Pacific).
1909 Simone Weil, philosopher, member of the French resistance in WWII.
