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SS Choctaw was a steel-hulled American freighter in service between 1892 and 1915 on the Great Lakes of North America. She was a so-called monitor vessel, containing elements of traditional lake freighters and the whaleback ships designed by Alexander McDougall. Choctaw was built in 1892 by the Cleveland Shipbuilding Company in Cleveland, Ohio. On her regular route between Cleveland and the Michigan cities of Detroit, Escanaba, and Marquette, she carried coal upbound and iron ore downbound. In foggy conditions on July 11, 1915, Choctaw was on Lake Huron upbound for Marquette when she was rammed east of Presque Isle Light by the downbound Canadian canaller Wahcondah. Although Choctaw sank in only 17 minutes, her crew of 22 escaped, and was picked up by Wahcondah. The wreck was located on May 23, 2017, lying on her starboard side with the bow partly buried in the lake bottom. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 10, 2018. (Full article...)

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Rhododendrons at Sheringham Park

... that the woodland garden (example pictured), "colourfully planted with exotic shrubs and herbaceous plants, dominated English horticulture from 1910 to 1960"?
... that American psychoanalyst Helen Block Lewis was one of the first researchers to study the difference between shame and guilt?
... that although it was only formed in late 1939, the French 87th African Infantry Division inflicted 6,600 casualties upon the German forces and fought until the very end of the Battle of France?
... that Joe Felmet was sentenced to a chain gang for his participation in the Journey of Reconciliation, considered a precursor to the Freedom Riders, in 1947?
... that in the late 1800s, Hong Kong's small Jewish community was divided into two groups that would not even pray together?
... that William Rittenhouse is noted for having established the first paper mill in North America in 1690?
... that after Chandigarh fell from being the second-cleanest city in India to the 66th, the residents voted out the incumbent party?
... that the attractions of CTF 2187 included "the fog of war [and] polite insults in the newsletter"?

In the news

Cooper Kupp

In American football, the Los Angeles Rams defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl (MVP Cooper Kupp pictured).
Cyclone Batsirai makes landfall in Madagascar, displacing at least 112,000 people and leaving more than 100 others dead.
In association football, the Africa Cup of Nations concludes with Senegal defeating Egypt in the final.
Indian playback singer and composer Lata Mangeshkar dies at the age of 92.

On this day

February 16: Day of the Shining Star in North Korea; Elizabeth Peratrovich Day in Alaska

Painting of Philadelphia burning by Edward Moran

1804 – First Barbary War: Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a U.S. Navy raid to destroy the captured USS Philadelphia in the harbor of Tripoli (depicted), denying her use to the Barbary States.
1859 – The French government passed a law setting the musical note A₄ to a frequency of 435 hertz, in the first attempt to standardize concert pitch.
1923 – English Egyptologist and archaeologist Howard Carter unsealed Tutankhamun's tomb, KV62, in the Valley of the Kings.
1959 – Fidel Castro was sworn in as Prime Minister of Cuba, beginning his decades-long rule over the country.
2013 – At least 91 people were killed and 190 others injured after a bomb hidden in a water tank exploded at a market in Hazara Town, Pakistan.

Henry Raspe (d. 1247)
Henry Wilson (b. 1812)
Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer (b. 1922)

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Today's featured picture

Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) was an Italian composer best known for his thirty-nine operas. This 1821 lithograph by the French artist Paul Delaroche is entitled Il signor Tambourossini, which is a portmanteau of Rossini's name with tambour (French for 'drum'), caricaturing Rossini's European reputation at the time as a creator of noise. The illustration depicts "Tambourossini" in Oriental dress and playing a trumpet and a bass drum, accompanied by a screeching magpie, and assisted by King Midas, with ass's ears. Both are seen trampling on sheet music and violins, while Apollo, the god of music, flees in the background.

Lithograph credit: Paul Delaroche; restored by Adam Cuerden

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