THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Today is Saturday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2022. There are 329 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 5, 2020, the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump, bringing to a close the third presidential trial in American history, though a majority of senators expressed unease with Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine that resulted in the two articles of impeachment. Just one Republican, Mitt Romney of Utah, broke with the GOP and voted to convict.

On this date:

In 1811, George, the Prince of Wales, was named Prince Regent due to the mental illness of his father, Britain’s King George III.

In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed, over President Woodrow Wilson’s veto, an act severely curtailing Asian immigration.

In 1918, during World War I, the Cunard liner SS Tuscania, which was transporting about 2,000 American troops to Europe, was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Irish Sea with the loss of more than 200 people.

In 1922, the first edition of Reader’s Digest was published.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices; the proposal, which failed in Congress, drew accusations that Roosevelt was attempting to “pack” the nation’s highest court.

In 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell stepped onto the surface of the moon in the first of two lunar excursions.

In 1973, services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for U.S. Army Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty before the Vietnam cease-fire took effect.

In 1983, former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie, expelled from Bolivia, was brought to Lyon (lee-OHN’), France, to stand trial. (He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison -- he died in 1991.)

In 1993, President Bill Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act, granting workers up to 12 weeks unpaid leave for family emergencies.

In 1994, white separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Mississippi, of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963, and was immediately sentenced to life in prison. (Beckwith died Jan. 21, 2001 at age 80.)

standpoint of how native communities and English settlers used and viewed the landscape. At the time of English arrival, the New England landscape was not a wilderness; native peoples had been manipulating the landscape for over 1500 years. However, the English saw the landscape as a frightening and mystifying wilderness, while for the Native peoples it was home, and not a wilderness at all. “Entangled Landscape” will also delve deeply into the complexities of language with regard to indigenous communities. Individuals can register for the talk by visiting: https://bit.ly/327C9bC Other Valley Talks will include: February 20: In anticipation of the Museum of Work & Culture’s 25th anniversary exhibition “Hollywood Comes to Woonsocket,” researcher Kathryn Sos-Hayda and Woonsocket Historical Society President Irene Blais share their research on the city’s heyday as a performing arts destination and home of artistic talent. March 6: Scholar Patrick Lacroix discusses the history of pre-1860s Quebecois immigration to the United States, revealing the complex tapestry of kinship and infrastructure that led to large-scale French-Canadian mobility before the U.S. Civil War.

• The Museum of Work & Culture, a division of the Rhode Island Historical Society, will offer its annual Children’s Baking Workshop with Gingersnaps Bakery on Saturday, February 12 at 1pm. This year’s event will have a Valentine’s Day theme and will feature a cookie decorating demonstration with a member of the Gingersnaps Bakery staff, an interactive French Language matching game, baking bingo, and a brief presentation on the history of Valentine’s Day. Baking kits will be available for pickup at the Museum prior to the event and will include: a chef’s hat, apron, recipe card, game printouts, heart-shaped sugar cookies, frosting, and sprinkles so children can follow along and decorate their own cookies. Tickets are $20 per participant. Space is limited, and early registration is strongly encouraged. Tickets are available for purchase at shopmowc.com.

• On February 5, 2022 at 10:00am, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council (WRWC) invites you on a hike along the Woonasquatucket River, on the Still . This hike is part of the now yearround “Explore the Woonasquatucket” recreational series, which offered guided tours of beautiful and historic sites throughout the Woonasquatucket River watershed, with paddle trips, hikes, and bike rides. This flat 2 mile round trip walk will take us along sections of the Woonasquatucket, including Stillwater Pond. We’ll see some of the buildings remaining from Stillwater Village, some remnants of the railroad spur that served the mill complex, and past dams that created these ponds – reminders of RI’s thriving industrial past. “Once the bed of a railroad that linked Providence with Massachusetts towns, the walkway now presents a place for easy, leisurely strolls. In addition to the idyllic scenes of the Woonasquatucket River as it leaves Stump Pond and then flows into Stillwater Pond, you are likely to see waterbirds, songbirds, turtles, frogs and butterflies, or energetic squirrels and deer tracks.” – Smithfield Conservation Commission This series is generously funded by the Cricket Foundation, REI CO-OP, and generous donor support. Visit WRWC.ORG/EVENTS to register for this hike and to see the full “Explore the Woonasquatucket” recreational series schedule. Advance sign-up is required.

• Valley Talks, a series of biweekly historical lectures by the Museum of Work & Culture, a division of the Rhode Island Historical Society, continues Sunday, February 6 at 1pm on Zoom. In this talk, retired National Park Ranger Chuck Arning and member of the Nipmuc community Bruce Curliss discuss the Blackstone Valley, and New England as a whole, from the standpoint of how native communities and English settlers used and viewed the landscape. At the time of English arrival, the New England landscape was not a wilderness; native peoples had been manipulating the landscape for over 1500 years. However, the English saw the landscape as a frightening and mystifying wilderness, while for the Native peoples it was home, and not a wilderness at all. “Entangled Landscape” will also delve deeply into the complexities of language with regard to indigenous communities.