February 28: Simon Boerum, a Brooklyn farmer who represented New York in the Continental Congresses of 1774 and 1775, was born on February 29, 1724.

February 27: Notorious prisoner of war camp Andersonville, run by the Confederates, opened on this date in 1864; 18 soldiers who are interred at Green-Wood would be released alive from there; one, Michael Wallace, would die from disease in 1865, just months after his release. 

February 26: Born on this date in 1902 in Italy as Umberto Anastasio, he would come to America and become famous as Albert Anastasia, “The Lord High Executioner” of Organized Crime; in 1957, he would be murdered while getting his hair cut at the Park Sheraton Hotel.

February 25: Susan Rotolo, Bob Dylan’s girlfriend 1961-1964, who appeared on the cover of his “The Free Wheelin Bob Dylan” album and inspired him to write “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright” as well as “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” died on this date in 2011.

February 24: Nativist gang leader “Bill the Butcher” Poole, whose life would form the basis for the Daniel Day-Lewis character of William Cutting in the movie “Gangs of New York,” was fatally shot by a rival-gang member at a bar on Broadway on this day in 1855.

February 22: Henry Engelhard Steinway, who was born in Germany on this date in 1797, immigrated to America and established the leading piano company in his adopted country.

February 21: Confederate agent George Nicholas Sanders, who was implicated in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, was born on this date in 1812.

February 20:Charles Feltman, who took a sausage and dressed it up in a bun, thereby inventing the hot dog, died on this date in 1910.

February 19: On this date in 1859, Daniel Sickles was acquitted of murder by reason of temporary insanity; he had killed the lover of his wife, Theresa Bagioli Sickles.