Moments in Time – Feb. 14, 2018

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• On Feb. 27, 1776, Commander Richard Caswell leads 1,000 Patriot troops in the successful Battle of Moores Creek over 1,600 British Loyalists. It was the first American victory in the first organized campaign of the Revolutionary War.
• On Feb. 28, 1784, John Wesley charters the first Methodist Church in the United States. Although he was an Anglican, Wesley saw the need to provide church structure for his followers after the Anglican Church abandoned its American believers.
• On March 3, 1863, during the Civil War, Congress passes a conscription act that produces the first wartime draft of U.S. citizens. The act called for registration of all males between the ages of 20 and 45. Exemptions from the draft could be bought for $300.
• On March 2, 1944, a train stops for more than 30 minutes in a tunnel near Salerno, Italy, and more than 500 people on board suffocate and die. The locomotives were burning low-grade coal substitutes, which produced an excess of odorless and toxic carbon monoxide, asphyxiating the passengers.
• On March 4, 1952, Ernest Hemingway completes his short novel “The Old Man and the Sea,” telling his publisher it was the best writing he’d ever done. The critics agreed: The book won the Pulitzer Prize and became one of his bestselling works.
• On March 1, 1961, President John Kennedy issues an executive order establishing the Peace Corps. Although many in Congress and the U.S. public, were skeptical about the program’s costs and the effectiveness, thousands of young Americans flocked to serve in dozens of nations.
• On Feb. 26, 1993, a bomb explodes in the parking garage beneath the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people died and 1,000 were injured by the powerful blast. The FBI discovered that the bombers were not terrorists but jewel thieves.

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