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Master Juba (c. 1825 – 1852 or 1853) was an African-American dancer. He was one of the first black performers in the United States to play onstage for white audiences and the only one of the era to tour with a white minstrel group. He began his career in Manhattan's Five Points neighborhood and moved to minstrel shows in the mid-1840s. His act featured a sequence in which he imitated famous dancers, then closed by performing in his style. In 1848, he became a sensation in Britain for his dance style, but writers treated him as an exhibit on display. Juba's popularity faded and he died in 1852 or 1853, likely from overwork and malnutrition. He was largely forgotten by historians until a 1947 article by Marian Hannah Winter popularised his story. Juba's dancing style was percussive, varied in tempo and expressive. It likely incorporated European folk steps and African-derived steps used by plantation slaves. Juba was highly influential in the development of tap, jazz, and step-dancing styles. ( Full article... )

Charter of the College of William & Mary

• ... that the College of William & Mary was established by royal charter (pictured) 333 years ago today?
• ... that Richard Lee Morton became the head of the College of William & Mary's history department after two years of teaching?
• ... that Chandler Court and Pollard Park , which were designed and occupied by William & Mary faculty, have been called "two of Williamsburg's most appealing twentieth-century neighborhoods"?
• ... that Denver Mills , the first underclassman to be captain of the William & Mary football team, also played in the army and a single NFL game?
• ... that William & Mary's president was unable to get the college to fund the William and Mary Quarterly , so he paid for it himself?
• ... that Orlando Jones , the maternal grandfather of Martha Washington, was one of William & Mary's first students?
• ... that five speeches by William & Mary students helped to move Virginia's capital and establish Williamsburg?
• ... that Althea Hunt founded the William & Mary Theatre, but discouraged students from trying to make a career of it?
• ... that Thomas Jefferson pushed William & Mary to hire a man with little linguistic ability as its first professor of modern languages?

Laura Fernández Delgado

• The Winter Olympics open in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
• Attacks on two villages by Islamist gunmen in Kwara State, Nigeria, kill at least 162 people.
• Laura Fernández Delgado (pictured) is elected as the president of Costa Rica.
• Clashes between the Balochistan Liberation Army and the armed forces in several districts of Balochistan, Pakistan, leave at least 225 people dead.
• The US Department of Justice releases over three million documents from the Epstein files .

February 8 : Feast day of Saint Josephine Bakhita (Catholicism); Military Foundation Day in North Korea (1948)

Denis Sassou Nguesso

• 1601 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, led a failed rebellion against Queen Elizabeth I of England.
• 1910 – William D. Boyce established the Boy Scouts of America , expanding the Scout Movement into the United States.
• 1965 – After taking evasive action to avoid a mid-air collision just after taking off from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, Eastern Air Lines Flight 663 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 84 people on board.
• 1979 – Denis Sassou Nguesso (pictured) was chosen as the new President of the Republic of the Congo after Joachim Yhombi-Opango was forced from power.
• 1981 – Rhodesian Bush War: Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army cadres in Gwelo attacked Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army troops, killing over 60 of them and starting the 1981 Entumbane uprising .