February 15th, 1928: They weren’t quite “sea planes” yet — they were called “flying boats.” Today two of them left Pearl Harbor for the first ever tour of every harbor and port in the Hawaiian Islands, flights covering 1,500 miles in all. One plane’s first stop was Kahului Harbor. The motivation for the flying boat trips was to measure the potential for “military and commercial aviation” in the Hawaiian islands. We find this interesting, not the least because the trips came not 18 years after the discovery of flight.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — February 15th

• 1804: New Jersey becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery 
• 1842: The first adhesive postage stamps are used in the U.S.
• 1869: The charges of treason made against Jefferson Davis are dropped 
• 1917: The San Francisco Public Library (Main Branch at Civic Center) is dedicated 
• 1918: Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania adopt the Gregorian calendar 
• 1965: The first computer dating service begins in a joint effort by Harvard & MIT in Cambridge, MA
• 1967: The first anti-bootleg recording laws are enacted 
• 1970: The “Chicago Seven” are convicted of contempt of court 
• 2002: President GW Bush approves Nevada’s Yucca Mountain as the site for long-term disposal of thousands of tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste 

BORN ON THIS DAY — February 15th

• 1564: Galileo Galilei, astronomer/physicist
• 1748: Jeremy Bentham, philosopher/economist
• 1812: Charles Lewis Tiffany,  jeweler  
• 1820:  Susan B. Anthony, suffragette
• 1861: Alfred North Whitehead, mathematician/philosopher 
• 1874: Ernest H Shackleton,  explorer 
• 1882: John Barrymore, actor 
• 1914: Kevin McCarthy, avtor 
• 1927: Harvey Korman, actor
• 1929: Graham Hill, auto racer
• 1931: (Patricia) Claire Bloom, actress 
• 1935: Susan Brownmiller, feminist author   
• 1951: Jane Seymour, actress
• 1951: Melissa Manchester, singer
• 1954 Matt Groening: cartoonist  
• 1960: Mikey Craig, rock bassist (Culture Club) 
• 1975: Jake E Lee, rocker (Badlands)