February 5 Birthday
On February 5, 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt announced his plan to expand the Supreme Court from nine to fifteen justices. The Court had struck down key New Deal legislation, and Roosevelt proposed that he be allowed to appoint a new justice for every sitting justice over seventy. There were six. The plan was politically disastrous. Roosevelt had just won the largest electoral landslide in history — 46 of 48 states — but his own party rebelled. The Senate Judiciary Committee called the plan "a needless, futile, and utterly dangerous abandonment of constitutional principle." The plan died in committee. Ironically, the Court began upholding New Deal legislation anyway — "the switch in time that saved nine" — and Roosevelt would eventually appoint eight justices, more than any president since Washington. Apollo 14 landed on the Moon on February 5, 1971, near the Fra Mauro crater. Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell spent thirty-three hours on the surface, collecting ninety-four pounds of rocks. Shepard famously smuggled a golf club head and two balls aboard the lunar module. On the surface, he hit one ball that traveled, he estimated, "miles and miles and miles" — in reality, about 200 yards in the one-sixth gravity. Mitchell conducted an unauthorized experiment in extrasensory perception during the flight, attempting to send images to receivers on Earth. The results were statistically insignificant. Mitchell later founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences to study consciousness. He was the sixth man to walk on the Moon. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 was promulgated on this day by President Venustiano Carranza. It was the first constitution in the world to include social rights — the right to education, to health, to housing. Article 27 declared that all land and water in Mexico belonged originally to the nation, which could grant concessions. Article 123 established an eight-hour workday, the right to unionize, and a minimum wage. These provisions influenced constitutions worldwide, including the 1936 Soviet Constitution. The 1917 Constitution is still in force, though it has been amended over 700 times. Hank Aaron, born this day in 1934, broke Babe Ruth's all-time home run record on April 8, 1974. He received thousands of death threats and hate mail in the months leading up to the record — people who did not want a Black man to hold it. He had to have police protection. He hit 755 home runs in his career, a record that stood until Barry Bonds broke it in 2007 amid steroid allegations. Aaron's consistency was his genius: he never hit more than 47 in a season, but he hit 20 or more for twenty consecutive years. People born on February 5 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Amethyst and the birth flower is Violet. Historical events on February 5 include 1917: Mexican Constitution of 1917 adopted, still in force today, 1937: FDR announces plan to pack the Supreme Court, 1971: Apollo 14 lands on the Moon. Famous people born on February 5 include Hank Aaron (1934), Robert Peel (1788), Roger Staubach (1942).