History & Celebrations Today – February 2

Celebrations Today – February 2

Holidays and observances

Celebrations Today – USA: February 2

National Groundhog Day
National Heavenly Hash Day
National California Kiwifruit Day
National Candlemas
National Crêpe Day
National Groundhog Job Shadow Day
National Hedgehog Day
National Marmot Day
National Self Renewal Day
National Sled Dog Day
National Tater Tot Day
World Play Your Ukulele Day
World Wetlands Day

Today in US History: February 2

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

There shall be firm and universal peace between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic…Article I, Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, signed February 2, 1848.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in village of Guadalupe Hidalgo on February 2, 1848, ending the Mexican War and extending the boundaries of the United States west to the Pacific Ocean.

The terms of the agreement confirmed U.S. claims to Texas and established the border between the U.S. and Mexico at the Rio Grande and the Gila River. The treaty also granted the U.S. more than 525,000 square miles of former Mexican territory that includes present-day California, Nevada, Utah, most of New Mexico and Arizona, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In exchange, the U.S. paid Mexico $15 million for the territory and agreed to assume the claims of American citizens against the Mexican government, a sum of approximately $3 million. This treaty, along with the 1853 Gadsden Purchase, completed the continental expansion of the United States.

Logo

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the treaty signing, the Library of Congress created the online exhibition The Guadalupe Hidalgo Treaty, 1848. It includes page images of the original treaty housed in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division as well as the area map used during the negotiations from the Geography and Map Division.

The Mexican War began with a dispute over the United States annexation of Texas. In January 1846, President James K. Polk, a strong advocate of westward expansion, ordered Zachary Taylor to occupy disputed territory between the Nueces and Rio Grande rivers. Mexican troops attacked Taylor’s forces, and Congress approved a declaration of war on Mexico on May 13, 1846. With the capture, by General Winfield Scott, of Mexico City on September 14, 1847, the fighting subsided.

Colonel L.A. Norton
Colonel Lewis Adelbert Norton,
from the Preface to Life and Adventures of
Col. L. A. Norton
, 1887.
“California as I Saw It”: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849-1900

William T. Sherman caught war fever after hearing of Zachary Taylor’s victory at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma on May 8, 1846. He soon left his post as a recruiting officer in Pittsburgh and set out for New York, where he boarded a ship bound for California in hopes of joining the fighting. Sherman, who became a famous Union general in the Civil War, describes his journey and experiences of the Mexican War in Part I of his memoir, Recollections of California: 1846-1861.

Lewis Adelbert Norton, a veteran of the Canadian rebellion of 1837-39, responded to the declaration of war by raising a volunteer regiment in Kane County, Illinois. He describes his war experiences in Chapters XI through XXIV of his story, Life and Adventures of Col. L. A. Norton. Browse index of Authors in “California as I Saw It”: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849-1900 to locate Norton’s memoirs of the war.

Search on Mexican War in “California as I Saw It”: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849-1900 to locate more recollections of the conflict.

Also, be sure to see the Today in History feature on the Battle of Buena Vista, fought near Monterrey, Mexico, in 1847.

Today in History – February 2-External Links

Today’s Weather in History
Today in Earthquake History
This Day in Naval History
Today’s Document from the National Archives
Today’s Events, Births & Deaths –Wikipedia
Today in History by AP
On this Day -1950 to 2005 – Today’s Story–BBC
On This Day: The New York Times
This Day in History –History.com
Today in Canadian History – Canada Channel
History of Britain that took place On This Day
Russia in History –Russiapedia