Today in History
Today is Thursday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2017. There are 311 days
left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Feb. 23, 1942, the
first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a
Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near Santa Barbara,
California, causing little damage. On this date: In 1836, the siege of
the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas. In 1848, the sixth president of
the United States, John Quincy Adams, died in Washington, D.C., at age
80. In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union. In 1903,
President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with Cuba to lease the
area around Guantanamo Bay to the United States. In 1927, President
Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission,
forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission. In 1945, during
World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where
they raised a pair of American flags (the second flag-raising was
captured in the iconic Associated Press photograph.) In 1954, the first
mass inoculation of schoolchildren against polio using the Salk vaccine
began in Pittsburgh as some 5,000 students were vaccinated. In 1965,
film comedian Stan Laurel, 74, died in Santa Monica, California. In
1970, Guyana became a republic within the Commonwealth of Nations. In
1989, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 11-9 along party lines
to recommend rejection of John Tower as President George H.W. Bush's
defense secretary. (Tower's nomination went down to defeat in the full
Senate the following month.) In 1992, the XVI Winter Olympic Games
ended in Albertville, France. In 1997, a 69-year-old Palestinian
teacher opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York's
Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six others
before shooting himself to death. Ten years ago: A Mississippi grand
jury refused to bring any new charges in the 1955 slaying of Emmett
Till, the black teenager who was beaten and shot for supposedly
whistling at a white woman, declining to indict the woman, Carolyn
Bryant Donham, for manslaughter. Democrat Tom Vilsack abandoned his bid
for the presidency. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport became the
first in the United States to begin testing new X-ray screening
technology that could see through people's clothes. Forty-six countries
attending a conference in Oslo, Norway, agreed to push for a global
treaty banning cluster bombs. Five years ago: President Barack Obama,
speaking in Miami, sought to confront public anxiety over rising
gasoline prices as he promoted the expansion of domestic oil and gas
exploration, as well as the development of new forms of energy. Sandra
Fluke (rhymes with "look"), a Georgetown University law student, spoke
about the need for health coverage that included birth control during
an unofficial Democratic-sponsored hearing on Capitol Hill; her
comments drew a savage verbal assault from radio talk show host Rush
Limbaugh, who accused Fluke of being a "slut" (Limbaugh later
apologized). One year ago: Donald Trump won the Nevada Republican
caucuses; Marco Rubio finished second while Ted Cruz placed third. A
26-year-old gunman killed four family members and torched their house
in Phoenix before being shot dead by authorities. Today's Birthdays:
Actor Peter Fonda is 77. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Fred
Biletnikoff is 74. Author John Sandford is 73. Country-rock musician
Rusty Young is 71. Actress Patricia Richardson is 66. Former NFL player
Ed "Too Tall" Jones is 66. Rock musician Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) is
65. Singer Howard Jones is 62. Rock musician Michael Wilton
(Queensryche) is 55. Country singer Dusty Drake is 53. Actress Kristin
Davis is 52. Tennis player Helena Sukova is 52. Actor Marc Price is 49.
TV personality/businessman Daymond John (TV: "Shark Tank") is 48.
Actress Niecy Nash is 47. Rock musician Jeff Beres (Sister Hazel) is
46. Country singer Steve Holy is 45. Rock musician Lasse (loss)
Johansson (The Cardigans) is 44. Actress Kelly Macdonald is 41. Actor
Josh Gad is 36. Actress Emily Blunt is 34. Actor Aziz Ansari is 34.
Actress Dakota Fanning is 23. Thought for Today: "Never doubt that a
small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.
Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead, American
anthropologist (1901-1978).
