Feb. 16 – Gold at the Oslo Winter Olympics
In the 1952 Winter Olympics, the United States received gold and silver medals in the 500m speed skating. Ken Henry took the gold ahead of teammate Don McDermott. Norwegian Hjalmar Anderson dominated in the remaining three speed skating events
Feb. 17 – Invention of the early bicycle
Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patents “draisine” or the early bicycle. He designed and built a two-wheeled, wooden vehicle that was straddled and propelled by walking swiftly. Drais called his invention the laufmaschine or “running machine.”
Feb. 18 – American baseball executive birthday
American baseball executive and general manager for Seatle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox, Lou German, was born on this day in Providence, RI in 1929.
Feb. 19 – Sweden wins at figure skating
Gillis Grafstrom of Sweden won his 3rd consecutive gold medal for figure skating at the St. Moritz Winter games in 1928. He was one of the only two athletes to win gold at both the Winter and Summer Olympic Games and finished with medals in four consecutive Olympic Games, receiving gold in the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Games and silver in 1932 in Lake Placid.
Feb. 20 – Second NHL tie
Montreal and Ottawa of the Canadian Division of the NHL, battled out the second 0-0 tie in NHL History in 1926. The dominant goalies were Clint Benedict of the Montreal Maroons and Alex Connell of the Ottawa Senators.
Feb. 21 – More money for baseball
Baseball announced a minimum annual salary of $10,000 in 1968. At this time, a dollar was worth today’s $7.58.
Feb. 22 – Golf first introduced to America
In 1888, Scottish immigrant John Reid, the so-called “Father of American Golf”, transported equipment from Scotland to a cow pasture in Yonkers, NY and demonstrated the game of golf to friends. This pasture became St. Andrews Golf Club of Yonkers in 1889.
