This is President's Day.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus in 1473; British actor David Garrick in 1717; Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi in 1876; actress Merle Oberon in 1911; jockey Eddie Arcaro in 1916; novelist Carson McCullers in 1917; actor Lee Marvin in 1924; singers William "Smokey" Robinson in 1940 (age 67) and Lou Christie in 1943 (age 64); author Amy Tan in 1952 (age 55); actors Jeff Daniels in 1955 (age 52), Justine Bateman in 1966 (age 41), and Benicio Del Toro in 1967 (age 40); singer Seal in 1963 (age 44); and Britain's Prince Andrew in 1960 (age 47).
In 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus, the father of modern astronomy, was born in Torun, a city in north-central Poland.
In 1807, Aaron Burr, a former U.S.
vice president, was arrested in Alabama on charges of plotting to annex Spanish territory in Louisiana and Mexico to be used toward the establishment of an independent republic.
In 1878, Thomas Edison patented the first gramophone.
In 1922, vaudeville star Ed Wynn became the first big name in show business to sign for a regular radio show.
In 1942, as a security measure during World War II, the U.S. government began relocating Japanese-Americans living in coastal Pacific areas to internment camps located in remote areas of several states.
They were allowed to return to their homes in January 1945.
In 1945, U.S.
Marines landed on the island of Iwo Jima, opening one of the bloodiest battles in the Pacific during World War II.
In 1986, the U.S.
Senate endorsed the U.N. convention against genocide, 37 years after U.
S. President Harry Truman first sought approval of the accord.
In 1991, Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin demanded the resignation of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
In 1997, China's "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping died at age 92.
In 2003, all 289 aboard were killed an Iranian military transport plane when it crashed in a mountainous region of southeastern Iran.
In 2004, former Enron Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling was indicted on fraud, conspiracy and insider trading charges.
In 2005, Iran was reported to be making ready for a possible U.S. attack or at least appearing to prepare for war to dissuade Washington from such an attack.
Also in 2005, U.S. Roman Catholic officials said they received 1,092 charges of clergy sex abuse, most involving boys.
In 2006, more than 1,000 people were listed as missing two days after a landslide wiped out a village on the Philippine island of Leyte.
Also in 2006, the Israeli government voted to halt the monthly transfer of tens of millions of dollars in tax payments to the Palestinian Authority, now run by the Hamas militant party.
A thought for the day: it was Henry Ward Beecher who said, "Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven.
"
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 20, the 51st day of 2007 with 314 to follow.
Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces.
They include American Revolutionary War hero William Prescott in 1726; photographer Ansel Adams in 1902; Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin in 1904; TV emcee John Daly in 1914; fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt in 1924 (age 83); film director Robert Altman in 1925; former race car driver Bobby Unser in 1934 (age 73); singers Nancy Wilson in 1937 (age 70) and Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1941 (age 66); actors Sidney Poitier in 1927 (age 80), Sandy Duncan in 1946 (age 61), Peter Strauss in 1947 (age 60) and Jennifer O'Neill in 1948 (age 59); heiress Patty Hearst Shaw in 1954 (age 53); former basketball star Charles Barkley in 1963 (age 44); actors French Stewart ("3rd Rock from the Sun") in 1964 (age 43) and Andrew Shue in 1967 (age 40); and model Cindy Crawford in 1966 (age 41).
In 1809, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was no greater than that of any individual state of the Union.
In 1848, Karl Marx's influential "Communist Manifesto" was published in London by a group called the Communist League.
In 1938, Anthony Eden resigned as Britain's foreign secretary to protest the "appeasement" policy of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain toward Nazi Germany.
In 1962, U.S. astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth.
He landed safely after three orbits in a Mercury spacecraft.
In 1991, U.S.
troops penetrated Iraq, capturing as many as 500 Iraqi soldiers.
Also in 1991, the United States approved a $400 million loan guarantee to Israel for housing Soviet Jewish immigrants but banned use of the money in the occupied territories.
In 1992, Israeli armored ground forces withdrew from Lebanese villages following a one-day strike.
Israel defended the incursion as necessary, but the U.N. secretary-general protested the assault.
Also in 1992, an FDA panel urged limiting access to silicone gel-filled breast implants.
In 1998, Tara Lipinski, 15, of the United States became the youngest person to win an Olympic gold medal in figure skating.
In 2002, U.
S, President George W. Bush said in Seoul that the United States had no intention of attacking North Korea and would work toward reunification efforts.
In 2003, 100 people were killed and many more were injured when fire broke out during a rock concert at a West Warwick, R.
I., nightclub.
Also in 2003, the Pentagon announced that 1,700 U.
S. troops would be sent to the Philippines to take on an extremist Muslim group.
In 2004, conservatives won the majority of seats in the Iraq parliamentary election.
Also in 2004, an estimated 4,500 people were left homeless after fire swept through an area of Nairobi, Kenya.
And, a San Francisco judge refused to issue a temporary restraining order that would have halted the city's same-sex marriages.
In 2005, the Israeli Cabinet gave Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the go-ahead to evacuate the Gaza Strip and four settlements in the northern West Bank.
In 2006, the Danish newspaper that published controversial cartoons of Muslim Prophet Mohammed and triggered widespread, angry and often deadly protests, ran a full-page apology in Saudi papers.
Also in 2006, a reported 66 Mexican miners were trapped underground following a coal mine explosion 85 miles from the Texas-Mexico border. A dozen others were rescued.
A thought for the day: "Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart." Pablo Casals said that.
Today is Wednesday, Feb.
21, the 52nd day of 2007 with 313 to follow.
Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces. They include Mexican revolutionary and military commander Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (conqueror of the Alamo) in 1794; Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman in 1801; German bacteriologist August von Wassermann, who developed the blood test for syphilis, in 1866; poet and author W.
H. Auden in 1907; filmmaker Sam Peckinpah in 1925; humorist Erma Bombeck in 1927; actors Rue McClanahan in 1934 (age 73), Gary Lockwood in 1937 (age 70), and Tyne Daly in 1946 (age 61); film/record executive David Geffen in 1943 (age 64); Tricia Nixon Cox, daughter of former President Richard Nixon, in 1946 (age 61); actors Kelsey Grammer in 1955 (age 52), Christopher Atkins in 1961 (age 46), William Baldwin in 1963 (age 44), and Jennifer Love Hewitt in 1979 (age 28); and singer Charlotte Church in 1986 (age 21).
In 1828, a printing press later used to print the first newspaper for American Indians arrived at the Cherokee Council in Echota, Ga.
In 1878, the New Haven, Conn., Telephone Company published the first phone directory. It listed 50 subscribers.
In 1885, the Washington Monument, a 555-foot-high marble obelisk built in honor of America's revolutionary hero and first president, was dedicated in Washington.
In 1916, the Germans launched the Battle of Verdun, World War I's single longest battle. It lasted almost 10 months and left more than 1 million soldiers on both sides dead.
In 1934, Nicaraguan guerrilla leader Cesar Augusto Sandino was killed by members of the Nicaraguan national guard.
In 1965, Black Muslim leader Malcolm X was assassinated at a rally in New York City.
In 1992, the CIA promised full cooperation in any government effort to declassify documents relating to the Kennedy assassination.
Also in 1992, actor Paul Reubens, a.k.a.
Pee-wee Herman, produced an anti-drug video, fulfilling his sentence on a 1991 indecent exposure charge.
In 1993, two 10-year-old boys were charged with abducting and killing a 2-year-old boy in a crime that shocked Britain.
In 1994, longtime CIA counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames and his wife were arrested and charged with selling information to the Soviet Union and Russia.
In 1995, a Russian commission estimated as many as 24,400 civilians had died in the two-month uprising in the separatist republic of Chechnya.
In 2002, a former Roman Catholic priest was sentenced to prison for child molestation as a widening scandal involving alleged sexual abuse of children by priests brought anguish to the church worldwide.
In 2003, Israel sent troops supported by tanks, armored personnel carriers, jeeps and bulldozers into the Gaza Strip, setting up security checks and closing off roads to Palestinians.
In 2005, heavy snowfall in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed more than 100 lives with dozens missing.
Also in 2005, leaders of the world's 78 million Anglicans, including U.S.
Episcopalians, met in Northern Ireland to consider the growing division over homosexuality.
In 2006, U.S.
President George Bush said he would veto any congressional attempt to derail a controversial deal allowing a Middle Eastern company owned by the United Arab Emirates to run six major U.S. seaports.
Lawmakers demanded the deal be blocked.
A thought for the day: David Russell said, "The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn."
Today is Thursday, Feb.
22, the 53rd day of 2007 with 312 to follow.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Pisces. They include George Washington, first president of the United States, in 1732; German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in 1788; poet, diplomat and editor James Lowell in 1819; Englishman Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and German physicist Heinrich Hertz, discoverer of radio waves, both in 1857; poet Edna St.
Vincent Millay in 1892; actor and TV producer Sheldon Leonard in 1907; Robert Pershing Wadlow, at 8 ft. 11.1 inches tall, the tallest person in recorded history, in 1918; actors Robert Young in 1907, John Mills in 1908 and Paul Dooley in 1928 (age 79); U.
S. Sen. Edward M.
Kennedy, D-Mass., in 1932 (age 75); filmmaker Jonathan Demme in 1944 (age 63); former basketball star "Dr. J" Julius Erving in 1950 (age 57); and actors Kyle MacLachlan in 1959 (age 48), Jeri Ryan ("Star Trek: Voyager") in 1968 (age 39) and Drew Barrymore in 1975 (age 32).
In 1819, a treaty with Spain ceded Florida to the United States.
In 1862, Jefferson Davis was inaugurated as president of the Confederate States of America.
In 1879, Woolworth, the first chain store, opened in Utica, N.
Y.
In 1972, U.S.
President Richard Nixon arrived in Beijing on a historic visit to China. It was the first presidential visit to the world's most populous country.
In 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down an unarmed Libyan commercial airliner, killing 106 of the 113 people aboard.
In 1980, in one of the most dramatic upsets in Olympic history, the underdog U.S. hockey team, made up of collegians and second-tier professional players, defeated the defending champion Soviet team, regarded as the world's finest, 4-3 at the XIII Olympic Winter Games in Lake Placid, N.
Y.
In 1987, the United States, Japan, West Germany, Britain, France and Canada agreed to cooperate to stem the decline of dollar.
Also in 1987, artist Andy Warhol died of heart failure at age 58.
In 1991, Iraq began setting fire to dozens of oil facilities in occupied Kuwait.
In 1993, the U.N.
Security Council voted to form an international war crimes tribunal to try those accused of such offenses during the ethnic fighting in the former Yugoslavia.
In 1995, at a news conference, British Prime Minister John Major and his Irish counterpart, John Bruton, unveiled a plan they hoped would bring peace to Northern Ireland.
In 1998, Iraq averted U.
S. military intervention when it agreed to allow U.N.
weapons inspectors to resume their work.
In 2002, the General Accounting Office, investigative arm of Congress, sued U.S.
Vice President Dick Cheney in an effort to find out who met with him and his task force while they were developing a proposed national energy policy.
In 2003, U.S, President George W.
Bush said time has run out for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's non-compliance with disarmament mandates.
In 2004, rebels attacked a refugee camp in northern Uganda, killing at least 192 people.
In 2005, a powerful earthquake struck Iran with a heavy loss of life.
The number of those killed differed widely with some reports placing the toll at more than 500.
In 2006, a terrorist attack destroyed the golden dome atop the most revered Shitte shrine in Iraq, the al-Askari Mosque in Samara, touching off a wave of sectarian violence. Reports placed the number of dead at nearly 140 during the first two days after the attack.
Also in 2006, the South Dakota Legislature voted to ban all abortions unless the mother's life is at risk.
A thought for the day: it was the Roman poet Ovid who advised, "Let your hook be always cast. In the pool where you least expect it, will be fish.
"
Today is Friday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2007 with 311 to follow.
The moon is waxing.
The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces.
They include German composer George Frideric Handel in 1685; Meyer Amschel Rothschild, European banker and founder of the Rothschild financial dynasty, in 1744; black writer and philosopher W.E.B.
DuBois in 1868; film director Victor Fleming ("Gone With The Wind," "Wizard of Oz") in 1883; journalist-author William Shirer in 1904; journalist Sylvia Chase in 1938 (age 69); actor Peter Fonda in 1939 (age 68); rock musician Johnny Winter, brother of Edgar Winter, in 1944 (age 63); and actress Patricia Richardson ("Home Improvement") in 1951 (age 56).
In 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast of California and fired 25 shells at an oil refinery near Santa Barbara.
In 1945, six members of the 5th Division of the U.
S. Marines planted a U.S.
flag atop Mount Suribachi on the strategically important Pacific island of Iwo Jima at the end of one of World War II's bloodiest battles.
In 1982, Canada, Japan and the Common Market nations of Europe joined the United States in economic and diplomatic sanctions against Poland and the Soviet Union, to protest imposition of martial law in Poland.
In 1991, military forces in Thailand overthrew the elected government and imposed martial law.
In 1994, Bosnia's warring Croats and Muslims signed a cease-fire agreement. The Croats agreed to pull back from the Muslim city of Mostar, which had been under siege.
In 1995, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 4,000 for the first time -- at 4,003.
33.
In 1996, two sons-in-law of Saddam Hussein, who had fled Iraq to exile in Jordan, returned after being pardoned and told they'd be safe back home. The next day, they were killed -- within hours of an Iraqi government announcement that their wives, Saddam's daughters, were granted divorces.
In 1997, Scottish scientists introduced Dolly the cloned sheep to the world. She was the first mammal successfully cloned from a cell from an adult animal.
Also in 1997, a gunman identified as a Palestinian teacher shot and killed a tourist from Denmark and wounded six other people on the observation deck of the Empire State Building before turning the gun on himself.
In 1998, a series of tornadoes raked central Florida, killing 42 people and injuring more than 200 others.
In 1999, a jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted self-described white supremacist John King in the June 1998 killing of a black man who'd been dragged to his death behind a pickup truck. King was sentenced to death two days later.
In 2003, Israeli attacks on Hamas-related facilities in Gaza and the West Bank over the past week left at least 40 Palestinians dead.
In 2005, official efforts to identify victims from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York ended on this date, leaving more than 1,000 bodies unidentified.
Also in 2005, the death toll from the heavy snowfall and avalanches in Kashmir reached 300.
In 2006, the snow-covered roof of a Moscow market collapsed, killing at least 60 people and injuring more than two dozen others.
A thought for the day: Ben Sweetland said, "We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own.
"
Today is Saturday, Feb. 24, the 55th day of 2007 with 310 to follow.
Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces.
They include Wilhelm Grimm, historian and, with his brother Jacob, compiler of "Grimm's Fairy Tales," in 1786; painter Winslow Homer in 1836; John Phillip Holland, inventor of the modern submarine, in 1841; Irish author George Moore in 1852; baseball shortstop and Hall of Famer Honus Wagner in 1874; Adm. Chester Nimitz, World War II commander of U.S.
forces in the Pacific, in 1885; actors Abe Vigoda in 1921 (age 86); James Farentino in 1938 (age 69), Barry Bostwick in 1945 (age 62), James Edward Olmos in 1947 (age 60) and Helen Shaver in 1951 (age 56); Steven Jobs, founder of the Apple computer company, in 1955 (age 52); TV personality Paula Zahn in 1956 (age 51); and the Kienast quintuplets of Liberty Corner, N.J., in 1970 (age 37).
In 1920, a group of Germans organized the National Socialist party, forerunner of the Nazi party later led by Adolf Hitler.
In 1922, Henri Landru, better known as "Bluebeard," was executed in France for killing 10 of his girlfriends.
In 1945, U.
S. troops liberated the Philippine city of Manila from the Japanese.
In 1946, Juan Peron was elected president of Argentina.
In 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional an Indianapolis law that defined pornography as discrimination against women.
In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the right to satirize public figures when it voted 8-0 to overturn a $200,000 settlement awarded the Rev.
Jerry Falwell over the parody of him in Hustler Magazine.
In 1989, nine people were killed when a 10-by-40-foot section of a United Airlines 747 ripped away from the jetliner's outer skin while en route from Hawaii to New Zealand.
In 1991, U.
S.-led forces began a lightning, multipronged ground assault against Iraq.
In 1992, General Motors announced a record $4.
5 billion loss in 1991 and said it will close 21 plants and idle 74,000 workers over four years.
Also in 1992, the U.S Postal Service unveiled two designs for a commemorative stamp honoring Elvis Presley -- one showing him as young rock-and-roll singer, the other at the height of his success in Las Vegas.
In 1993, rock veteran Eric Clapton took home seven Grammys for his emotion-packed "Tears In Heaven" and bluesy "Layla."
In 1995, diver Greg Louganis, who won four gold medals in the Olympic Games in 1984 and 1988, revealed he had AIDS.
n 1996, Cuba shot down two unarmed planes flown by pilots belonging to a Cuban exile group who were looking for boat people to rescue.
In 1997, a nationally televised funeral for China's "paramount leader" Deng Xiaoping was held at a military hospital in Beijing.
In 2001, Colin Powell arrived in the Middle East on his first overseas trip as U.S.
secretary of State.
In 2002, the Winter Olympics concluded at Salt Lake City, Utah, with the United States winning 34 medals, 10 of them gold, its most medals in Winter Games history and one less than medals champ Germany.
In 2003, at least 260 people were killed in an earthquake in northwest China as the tremor flattened thousands of houses and other buildings.
The quake measured 6.8 on the Richter scale.
Also in 2003, Britain and Spain submitted a resolution to the U.
N. Security Council declaring that Iraq's Saddam Hussein has missed a "final opportunity" to disarm peacefully.
In 2004, U.
S. President George W. Bush called for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages in the United States.
Also in 2004, an earthquake struck Morocco, killing about 600 people and injuring hundreds more.
In 2005, Pope John II underwent a tracheotomy at a Rome hospital to ease the 84-year-old pontiff's breathing problems.
In 2006, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo declared a state of emergency and ordered the arrest of military officers suspected of plotting a coup.
A thought for the day: Harry Millner said, "There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but only one view."
Today is Sunday, Feb. 25, the 56th day of 2007 with 309 to follow.
The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Jupiter. The evening stars are Venus, Saturn and Uranus.
Those born on this day are under the sign of Pisces. They include French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in 1841; Italian operatic tenor Enrico Caruso in 1873; U.S.
News RSS