Today in History
Today is Sunday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2022. There are 321 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 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. He was released in September 2019 after serving 17 years of that sentence.)
In 2011, Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who’d 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.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama unveiled a record $3.8 trillion election-year budget plan, calling for stimulus-style spending on roads and schools and tax hikes on the wealthy to help pay the costs. Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire signed a measure making her state the seventh to legalize same-sex marriage.
Five years ago: 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. Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, died after two women smeared a nerve agent on his face an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Murder charges against the women were eventually dropped, and they returned home to Vietnam and Indonesia; four North Koreans who fled Malaysia on the day after the killing were named as co-conspirators.)
One year ago: 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. Although he voted “not guilty,” Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell delivered a scalding denunciation of Trump in a speech from the Senate floor, calling the former president “morally responsible” for the attack on the Capitol.
Today’s Birthdays: Actor Kim Novak is 89. Actor Bo Svenson is 81. Actor Stockard Channing is 78. Talk show host Jerry Springer is 78. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is 76. Singer Peter Gabriel is 72. Actor David Naughton is 71. Rock musician Peter Hook is 66. Actor Matt Salinger is 62. Singer Henry Rollins is 61. Actor Neal McDonough is 56. Singer Freedom Williams is 56. Actor Kelly Hu is 54. Rock singer Matt Berninger (The National) is 51. Country musician Scott Thomas (Parmalee) is 49. Singer Robbie Williams is 48. Singer-songwriter Feist is 46. R&B performer Natalie Stewart is 43. Actor Mena Suvari (MEE’-nuh soo-VAHR’-ee) is 43. Actor Katie Volding is 33. Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (also known as Prince Michael Jackson I) is 25.
Copyright © 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
