Today in Nebraska-February

Feb. 1

1892 - The U.S. Supreme Court settled a dispute over who should be governor of Nebraska, giving the job back to James Boyd and taking it away from John Thayer.

Feb. 2

1853 - Rep. William Richardson of Illinois introduced a bill to organize the Nebraska Territory. It passed in the House but failed in the Senate.

1857 - The territorial legislature approved the city of Omaha’s charter.

Feb. 3

1954 - E.E. Mockett, an end and the captain of the University of Nebraska’s first football team, in 1890, died in Lincoln. He was 86.

Feb. 4

1865 - Indians attacked the Mud Springs Pony Express station near Dalton. U.S. cavalry troops drove off the attackers.

Feb. 5

1975 - Legislature rejected a resolution in support of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Feb. 6

1891 - Gov. James Boyd, whose election had been challenged by incumbent John Thayer, was finally able to give his message to the Legislature.

Feb. 7

1857 - Sarpy County was formed.

Feb. 8

1884 - Vigilantes at Bassett lynched Kid Wade, a member of a horse-thief gang.

1929 - Voters in Hastings approved the showing of movies on Sundays.

1933 - Seven firefighters were killed fighting a fire at the Millard hotel in downtown Omaha. Twenty-two people were hurt.

2008 - The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled the electric chair unconstitutional, leaving the state without a means of carrying out its death penalty.

Feb. 9

1854 - Peter Sarpy and others formed the Bellevue Town Co.

1874 - Lt. Levi Robinson, for whom Fort Robinson was named, was killed by Sioux Indians.

2008 - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois won Nebraska’s first Democratic caucus, edging him closer to rival Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the race to become the party’s presidential nominee.

Feb. 10

1932 - Erastus Benson died. He founded the Benson area of Omaha but never lived there.

Feb. 11

1891 - W.E. Smythe, farm editor of the Omaha Bee, organized the first state irrigation convention in Lincoln.

Feb. 12

1975 - The Agriculture Department removed a scabies cattle quarantine in Otoe, Gage and Saline counties, making the entire state free of the quarantine for the first time since June 1974.

Feb. 13

1988 - Cecil Hartman, a running back on University of Nebraska football teams that defeated Notre Dame in 1922 and 1923, died in Omaha. He was 87.

Feb. 14

1910 - The Fort Kearny Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated a marker for Fort Kearny.

Feb. 15

1869 - The Legislature chartered the University of Nebraska.

1937 - The Legislature declared the American elm the state tree. The state tree was later changed to the cottonwood.

Feb. 16

1954 - The Broken Bow City Council has adopted plans for a $20,000 street lighting addition that will bring the entire business district and approaches to Broken Bow under a modern mercury-vapor type light. The city had been a pioneer with the mercury vapor light.

Feb. 17

1866 - The Saline County Commission had its first meeting at Swan City, a town that lost the county seat in 1871 and later disappeared.

1877 - Wheeler County was created, named for Daniel H. Wheeler, who was a secretary of the state agriculture board.

Feb. 18

1986 - Brian Carr sank a 10-foot jump shot with four seconds left to give Nebraska a 66-64 upset victory over the Oklahoma Sooners.

Feb. 19

1877 - The Legislature declared the grasshopper a public enemy and passed an act requiring all able-bodied citizens from 16 to 60 to perform two days of work eradicating grasshoppers each year.

1877 - The Legislature created Sioux and Hayes counties. Hayes County was named for Rutherford B. Hayes, who took office as president that year.

1883 - The Legislature, which included five men named Brown, created Brown County.

Feb. 20

1855 - The first inaugural ball in Nebraska was held for Gov. Mark Izard at the City Hotel in Omaha.

2008 - TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. Chairman and founder Joe Ricketts announced plans to step down as chairman later in the year.

Feb. 21

1948 - George “Potsy” Clark, 53, named Nebraska coach.

Feb. 22

1855 - The territorial legislature organized Washington County on the 123rd anniversary of the birth of George Washington.

1934 - U.S. Sen. George Norris attended a meeting in Lincoln and urged a constitutional amendment creating a unicameral legislature in Nebraska.

Feb. 23

1963 - Ford Foundation announced grant to University of Nebraska in amount of $297,500.

1988 - Supreme Court ruled, 8-0, the interior secretary had exceeded his authority in 1982 by consigning water from Oahe Reservoir in South Dakota to a proposed coal slurry pipeline from Wyoming to the Gulf coast.

Feb. 24

1975 - Tiny, the celebrated two-ton rhinoceros at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, died.

Feb. 25

1955 - The entire Seward County Selective Service Board resigned to protest a change in a draft registrant’s classification to 1-O, conscientious objector, from 1-A.

2008 - Scott Kleeb, a Yale-educated former ranch hand who teaches history at Hastings College, declared his intention to seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate.

Feb. 26

1846 - Buffalo Bill Cody was born near Leclair in Scott County, Iowa.

1887 - Grover Cleveland Alexander, a baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, was born on a farm near St. Paul, Neb.

2008 - Gov. Dave Heineman signed into a law a statewide smoking ban that will go into effect in June 2009, outlawing smoking in bars, restaurants and most other workplaces.

Feb. 27

2008 - Omaha leaders unveiled their plan for a 24,000-seat downtown stadium to replace Rosenblatt Stadium, bidding to keep the College World Series for many more years.

1895 - The state asked the federal government for a $1.5 million loan to help 100,000 drought-stricken farmers.

Feb. 28

1861 - The Colorado Territory was organized, decreasing the Nebraska Territory by 16,000 square miles.

Feb. 29

1980 - Merlene Ottey, of the University of Nebraska, set a world mark of 23.69 seconds in the 220-yard dash at the U.S. National Indoor Track & Field events at Madison Square Garden in New York City.