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 23: “Southampton Diet Doctor” Stuart Berger died of obesity and a drug overdose on this date in 1994.
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.
February 18: Glass artist Louis Comfort Tiffany (of Tiffany lamp fame) was born on this date in 1848; his father, who founded Tiffany & Co., died on this date in 1902.
February 17: On this date in 1950, Charles “Mile-A-Minute” Murphy, who in 1889 became the first person to pedal a bicycle one mile in less than one minute, died.
