Today in History
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2023. There are 322 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 13, 1935, a jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)
On this date:
In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.)
In 1933, the Warsaw Convention, governing airlines’ liability for international carriage of persons, luggage and goods, went into effect.
In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the U.S. Supreme Court. (He was succeeded by William O. Douglas.)
In 1965, during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, an extended bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese.
In 1972, the film “Cabaret,” directed by Bob Fosse, based on John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical of the same name, starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, was released.
In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.
In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
In 1996, the rock musical “Rent,” by Jonathan Larson, opened off-Broadway less than three weeks after Larson’s death.
In 2000, Charles Schulz’s final “Peanuts” strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died in his sleep at his California home at age 77.
In 2002, John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.)
In 2011, Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who had helped topple President Hosni Mubarak.
In 2013, beginning a long farewell to his flock, a weary Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final public Mass as pontiff, presiding over Ash Wednesday services inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
In 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, the influential conservative and most provocative member of the U.S. Supreme Court, was found dead at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas; he was 79.
In 2017, President Donald Trump’s embattled national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned following reports he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia.
In 2018, President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said he had paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a porn actress who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Trump.
In 2021, former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate at his second impeachment trial, the first to involve a former president, in which he was accused of inciting the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6; seven Republicans joined all 50 Democrats in voting to convict, but it was far from the two-thirds threshold required.
In 2022, playing in their home stadium, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl.
In 2023, David Jude Jolicoeur aka Trugoy the Dove, one of the founding members of the hip-hop trio De La Soul, died at age 54.
Today’s birthdays: Actor Kim Novak is 91. Actor Bo Svenson is 83. Actor Stockard Channing is 80. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is 78. Singer Peter Gabriel is 74. Actor David Naughton is 73. Rock musician Peter Hook is 68. Actor Matt Salinger is 64. Singer Henry Rollins is 63. Actor Neal McDonough is 58. Singer Freedom Williams is 58. Actor Kelly Hu is 56. Rock singer Matt Berninger (The National) is 53. Country musician Scott Thomas (Parmalee) is 51. Singer Robbie Williams is 50. Singer-songwriter Feist is 48. R&B performer Natalie Stewart is 45. Actor Mena Suvari (MEE’-nuh soo-VAHR’-ee) is 45. Actor Katie Volding is 35. Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (also known as Prince Michael Jackson I) is 27.
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