• On March 16, 461 A.D. Saint Patrick dies after a life of hardships. He was abducted by Irish pirates at 16 and escaped 6 years later by following the voices in his dreams. He is held as the patron saint of Ireland and converted thousands of people to Christianity. 
• On March 21, 1943, Henning von Tresckow and Rudolf von Gertsdorff failed to kill Hitler for the second time. Hilter was scheduled to take a tour of an exhibition of captured Soviet flags and weaponry and the plan was to plant a bomb within that would explode when Hitler was near. Rudolf von Gertsdorff volunteered to become a suicide bomber when he realized that security was too tight to plant a bomb that would kill Hitler. However, after being glued to Hitler’s side for the tour, the short 10-minute fuse wasn’t long enough and Hitler had slipped out the door before the bomb could explode. Von Gertsdorff had to defuse the bomb in the restroom, where it is said he diffused it with only seconds to spare. 
• On March 21, 1963, Alcatraz closed after transferring its last prisoners. Alcatraz was in operation for 29 years but eventually closed because the cost of operation was too expensive. 
• On March 15, 1965, President Lydon B. Johson urges Congress to pass legislation that would guarantee equal voting rights for all. This speech was delivered eight days after Martin Luther King Jr. and over 400 followers were attacked when marching from Selma to Montgomery to register to vote.  
• On March 20, 1995, a terrorist organization called Aum Shinrikyo (supreme truth), a Japanese doomsday cult, killed 12 people and injured more than 5,500 when they secretly released a dangerous nerve gas called Sarin gas at the height of Tokyo morning rush hour. Most of the survivors recovered fully, but many were left with permanent damage to their lungs, eyes, and digestive systems. 

• On Feb. 24, 1886, The House of Representatives voted to impeach President Andrew Johnson due to his removal of the Secretary of War which was said to be a violation of the Tenure of Office Act that stated that the president couldn’t fire anyone who had already been approved by Congress.

• On Feb. 25, 1870, Congress sworn in the first African American congressman. Hiram Rhodes Revels was elected after he served the union by helping them form African American regiments, created a school for freedmen, as well as served as chaplain to the Union army. After the civil war, Revels was stationed to Mississippi where he was later chosen to replace the seat previously held by the former president of the confederacy.

• On Feb. 23, 1954, The first polio vaccine, an injection developed by Dr. Jonas Salk, was administerd to a group of children who went to Arsenal Elementary School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Now, after the vaccine has been improved on, only the world’s poorest and most marginalized communities contract polio.

• On Feb. 26, 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed, causing the death of 6 people and injuring more than 1,000 people. This terrorist attack was meant to send the North Tower crashing into the South Tower.

• On Feb. 28, 1953, scientists James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick from Cambridge University announced that they’ve discovered the double-helical structure of DNA, with the help of Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins.

• On Feb. 29, 1940, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American actress to win an Oscar. McDaniel was awarded the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award. She was also one of the first African American women to sing on the radio.

• On Feb. 26, 2012, neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman fatally shot Travon Martin, a 17-year-old who was walking back from a convenience store. This sparked a concern that George Zimmerman had shot Martin just because he was black, and brought the Florida “stand your ground law” to national attention.

On Feb. 17, 1820, The Senate allows Missouri to enter the union as a slave state and Maine to enter as a free state. This is known as the Missouri Compromise and was done to maintain the balance between abolitionists and slave-owners and prevent a civil war.

The Communist Manifesto was published this week on February 21, 1848, by Karl Marx. This book has inspired many and is arguably the world’s most influential political manuscripts.

Ten weeks after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which allowed certain areas to be labeled as military zones, authorizing the removal of anyone from these military zones, “as deemed necessary or desirable.” This was the beginning of internment camps for Japanese Americans. By June, about 112,000 Japanese Americans were evicted from the west coast and held in “relocation centers”.

On Feb. 21, 1965,  Malcolm X was assassinated. Malcolm X lived as a hoodlum but is said to have abandoned that life and embraced Islam while in prison. When Malcolm X was released, he joined the Nation of Islam. In 1963, however, he left the NOI in order to make the pilgrimage to Mecca as well as advocate the equality of all within the Islamic faith. Malcolm X worked toward that ideal for the rest of his life until he was assassinated in Manhattan’s Audubon Ballroom by people who were said to be affiliated with the Nation of Islam.

On Feb. 20, 1985, Ireland defied the catholic church by allowing the sale of contraceptives. This was a highly controversial vote and marks the first-ever defeat of the catholic church in Irish history.

On Feb. 18, 2010,  WikiLeaks published the first documents leaked by Chelsea Manning. These documents included a detailed account of a discussion held among American diplomats and Icelandic government officials. While this barely registered with the public, partly due to WikiLeaks being unknown, Chelsea Manning continued sending sensitive information to Wkileaks— in fact, this was the first of around 750,000 sensitive documents.

On February 14, 270 AD, St. Valentine was beaten with clubs and beheaded for defying Claudius (who had outlawed all marriage and engagements in Rome) by performing marriages between young lovers in secret.

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On February 13, 1633, Galileo Galilei faced a trail of theologians in Rome in suspicion of heresy due to advocating the  “false doctrine” of Copernican theory. The church found him guilty and he lived the rest of his days on house arrest at his home in Arcetri, Italy.

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On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. Lincoln is credited with saving the union and freeing the slaves.

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On February 10, 1847, Mormons, attempting to escape religious discrimination in their home of Nauvoo, Illinois fled to Utah. After their founder, Joseph Smith was killed and their homes destroyed, they became convinced that they would never find peace in the United States. Following the new leader Brigham Young, the second president of the Ladder Day Saints found refuge in the Salt Lake Valley which was the territory of Mexico.

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On February 15, 1933, FDR was getting ready to attend a two-week cruise with a wealthy friend before his inauguration when an Italian immigrant named Giuseppe Zangara shouts, “Too many people are starving!” and fired his gun 6 times. FDR survived, but 5 others were hit. Zangara claimed to not hate FDR but hated all who were rich.

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On February 10, 1996, world chess champion Garry Kasparov lost his first Chess Game game with Deep Blue, a computer developed by IBM that had the ability to evaluate 200 million moves per second. This is credited with moving technology forward, has computer scientists pushed computers to be able to complete complex calculations that aided in the development of many fields of science.

Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from Geneva Medical College on January 23, 1849, and became the first woman to receive a medical degree. She dedicated her life to saving others and campaigned for reform until she died in 1910.

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The world’s largest diamond was found at Cullinan, South Africa in 1905. The diamond weighed 3,106.75 (1.4lbs) and was eventually cut into 9 large stones.

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Kennedy was the first to address the American people using live national TV on January 25, 1961, without delay or editing.

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Roe v. Wade was a monumental supreme court case that changed the lives of many women and still impacts everyone today. On January 22, 1973, the court ruled that women have a fundamental right to there bodies that allows them to choose whether or not to have an abortion. This struck down the Texas abortion ban as unconstitutional and gave women the freedom to choose.

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On January 21, 1977, Jimmy Carter fulfilled a campaign promise and gave unconditional pardons to all the men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam war. Hundreds of thousands of men evaded the draft by changing their identities, hiding in their home, failing to register with their Selective Service boards, and even moving to Canada.

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The Iran hostage crisis ended on January 20, 1981, when 52 U.S. citizens were released. The same day, Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, defeating Jimmy Carter in reelection.   

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The first full day of the Trump presidency in 2017, women from all around the world gathered in order to send the message to the new administration that women’s rights are human rights. This is now known as the largest single-day protest in U.S. history as upwards of 5,246,670 people participated in this march worldwide.

Recently, Michigan State Police (MSP) suspended the use of their breathalyzer equipment due to potential fraud of documents concerning DUI’s. MSP uses breathalyzers from a company called Intoximeters.

According to an official statement, the fraud was committed by Intoximeter employees that were contracted to calibrate the Datamaster DMT equipment in 2018. All 203 of these instruments are out of service until they can all be inspected and properly calibrated. Until then, it is instructed that police use other means of testing such as urine and blood samples.

Michigan State Police has launched a criminal investigation on the matter, but some lawyers have called for an independent investigation to take place due to the belief that MSP has a conflict of interest among the contractors. One of these lawyers, Neil Rockind says, “The idea that we’re even having a conversation about whether it’s appropriate to have the Michigan State Police conduct a criminal investigation of its own breath testing program and its own contractors is sort of ludicrous.”

While this case is still developing, many are wondering if their DUI cases since 2018 have the possibility of being impacted by this. Houghton County is not one of the areas that are affected by this recent development, nevertheless, this event calls into question the reliability of breathalyzers in convicting possible drunk drivers.

According to The New York Times, almost every police station in America generates skewed results with their breathalyzer equipment. These instruments are sensitive and have to be carefully calibrated, making errors in testing more likely. This prompted Judges in Massachusetts and New Jersey to throw out upwards of 30,000 results in 2019. There was even one machine in Massachusetts that was found with rats nesting inside.

Many factors can lead to this piece of equipment being faulty, such as sex, body weight, breathing patterns, what the person ate, as well as how much the person ate, and body temperature. This is why many experts say it should not be the sole evidence that shows guilt and even call for its use to be disbanded.

In fact, one study found that when comparing blood results with breathalyzer results, the breathalyzer results are significantly lower. This means that police could be letting dangerous drivers back on the road due to inaccurate, low breathalyzer results.

Breathalyzers may offer the most speedy, convenient testing but research shows that it is not accurate. Urine and blood tests usually require a lab, and having to bring the person suspected of a DUI into a lab can be time-consuming and costly. Adding to this, urine and blood testing can be more invasive.

Is this worth the added accuracy? Some argue that blood and urine tests can be just as inaccurate. The tests sometimes require the use of different beakers and bottles throughout the process which has the possibility of increasing the change of error. Adding to this, poor record-keeping and organizational procedures must be followed in order to make sure the results are the most accurate it can be.

Breathalyzers may not be as accurate as once thought. This leads to many of us rethinking the use of them by our Michigan State police. Studies show that blood testing for alcohol content is more accurate but more costly and inconvenient. Urine testing is another alternative to breathalyzers but may be even less accurate than breath tests.