Some quick and decidedly unscientific research I did recently reveals that Mainers comprising the NSNSNSNS (non-skiing, non-snowmobiling, non-snowboarding, non-skating) portion of the state’s population have reason to take heart this weekend. That’s because their least favorite season has, at least by the astronomical definition, passed its halfway point. The current winter began with the solstice this past December 21st at 10:03 AM, and will conclude with this year’s vernal equinox, which arrives at 10:46 AM Eastern Time Friday, March 20th. That makes February 4th the start of winter’s second half.
Historically the 35th day of the year hasn’t always been worth celebrating. No fewer than five major earthquakes have occurred on February 4th. The year and location of these cataclysms: Sicily (1069), Ecuador (1797), Guatemala/Honduras (1976), Iran (1997), and Afghanistan (1998). The best available estimates put the combined death toll of this quintet of natural disasters at nearly 100,000.
It’s not just seismic events that are responsible for February 4th’s less-than- desirable reputation. John Rogers was burned at the stake on that date in 1555, becoming the first of more than 280 Protestant martyrs who met their fiery demise under the rule of Queen Mary I (AKA “Bloody Mary”) of England. Nippon Airlines Flight 60 plunged into Tokyo Bay on February 4, 1966, ending the lives of 133 unfortunate souls. On February 4, 1938, Adolf Hitler appointed himself supreme military commander of Germany’s fearsome Wehrmacht, a move destined to have catastrophic consequences for much of the world in the decade or so that followed.
To be fair, a few notables were born on the 4th of February, like Charles Lindbergh (1902), Rosa Parks (1913), Betty Friedan, (1921), Dan Quayle (1947), and Alice Cooper (1948). All in all though, there doesn’t seem to be much about February 4th worth celebrating.
February 5th, on the other hand, is unquestionably worthy of commemoration. The world’s first synthetic plastic was introduced on that date in 1907. The Apollo 14 astronauts landed on the moon on February 5, 1971. The world’s largest-ever gold nugget, which weighed 241 pounds and ten ounces, was discovered in Victoria, Australia on February 5, 1869. And that’s appropriate, given the gold mine of Hall of Fame athletes born on that date. They include Baseball Hall of Fame members Hank Aaron (1934) and Roberto Alomar (1968), American football’s Roger Staubach (1942), Jose Maria Olazabal (1966), a winner of over thirty professional golf tournaments on multiple continents, and current soccer stars Cristiano Reynaldo (1985) and Neymar (1992).
That list, however, pales in comparison to the number of impact makers born on February 6th. There’s Japanese emperor Daigo (885), American vice-president (and, for serial fault-finders, killer of Alexander Hamilton) Aaron Burr (1756), baseball legend Babe Ruth (1895), American president Ronald Reagan (1911), archeologist/anthropologist Mary Leakey (1913), socialite/actress Zsa Zsa Gabor (1917), journalist/author Tom Brokaw (1940), and Jamaican singer/songwriter (but not Maine-based comedian) Bob Marley (1945). Also born on February 6th: three 1980’s-era assistant baseball coaches on the staff of the legendary Jim Dolan, Hall of Fame mentor at Joel Barlow High School in Redding, CT; two current difference-making educators at Maine’s Kennebunk High School: and hundreds of other world-changers too numerous to mention in an essay of just 600 words, and who aren’t famous enough to rate their own Wikipedia page.
I had hoped to further explore whether or not the start of winter’s second half is having the same uplifting effect on members of the NSNSNSNSNSNS community as it is for NSNSNSNS Mainers, but unfortunately I was unable to locate enough non- smoking Nova Scotians to yield any truly meaningful data on the subject.
Andy YoungReturn to main page
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