February 22 · This Day in America
A team of American college kids should not be on the same sheet of ice as the Soviet national team — a machine that had won gold four straight Olympics and just beaten NHL all-stars. It is Lake Placid, the Cold War is cold, Americans are anxious and hostages are held in Tehran. The Soviets lead. The Soviets are supposed to win. And then they don't. The kids climb back, take a 4-3 lead in the third period, and goaltender Jim Craig holds. As the final seconds drain, Al Michaels asks the only question that matters: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" The arena does not so much cheer as detonate. It was, in the end, a hockey game. It was also the precise moment a whole country remembered how it felt to believe an underdog could win. They took the gold two days later.
Source: www.history.com
Also on this day · 1732
At Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia, a planter's son is born who will one day command an army he can barely feed, win a revolution, and then — most astonishing of all — hand power back and go home. The world had few models for a victorious general who simply walked away. He chose to be one. The republic still rests on that decision.
Source: www.mountvernon.org