Today in History - February 15
Return to home
The ancient Roman feast of Lupercalia. This was
a fertility festival in honor of the pastoral god Lupercus.
(HFA, '96, p.24)(AHD, p.776)
Nirvana Day, the day Buddha died and achieved bliss.
(WSJ, 11/2/98, p.B1)
399BC Feb 15,
Socrates was condemned to death on charges of corrupting the youth and
introducing new gods into Greek thought. A tribunal of 501 citizens
found Socrates guilty of the charge of impiety and corruption of youth.
Socrates b.(469BC) had been the teacher of two leaders who were held
responsible for the Greek‘s loss to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War
(431-404 BC). Plato‘s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo describe Socrates‘
trial, imprisonment and death.
(eawc, p.11)(HNQ, 3/21/00)
37CE Feb 15, Claudius Drusus
Germanicus Caesar Nero (d.68CE), emperor of Rome (54-68), was born.
[see Dec 15]
(MC, 2/15/02)
360 Feb 15, The first Hagia Sophia
was inaugurated by Constantius II. It was built next to the smaller
church Hagia Eirene in Constantinople. Both churches acted together as
the principal churches of the Byzantine Empire.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia)
1368 Feb 14-1368 Feb 15, Sigismund
(d.1437), son of Charles IV, was born in Nuremberg, Germany. He served
as Holy Roman Emperor from 1433-1437.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund%2C_Holy_Roman_Emperor)
1386 Feb 15, Duke Philip the Stout
formed the Council of Flanders.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1386 Feb 15, Christianity was
introduced to Lithuania when Grand Duke Jogaila and Vytautas underwent
a token Baptism at the cathedral in Cracow. Jogaila had married Queen
Jadvyga (12) and was crowned King in Poland. Together they began to
rule from Cracow over Lithuania and Poland. Jogaila submitted to
restrictions that no major decisions could be made without the
authorization of the Polish nobility.
(Dr, 7/96, V1#1, p.5)(Ist. L.H., 1948, p. 69)(DrEE,
11/9/96, p.6)
1495 Feb 15, Lithuanian Grand Duke
Alexander wed Duchess Elena of Moscow.
(LHC, 2/15/03)
1519 Feb 15, Pedro Menendez de
Aviles, explorer (found St. Augustine, Florida), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1563 Feb 15, Ivan IV led Russian
forces in the takeover of Polocka, defended under the leadership of
Stanislav Davaina.
(LHC, 2/15/03)
1564 Feb 15, Italian astronomer
Galileo Galilei (d.1642) was born in Pisa. He was the first modern man
to understand that mathematics can truly describe the physical world.
He said: “The Book of Nature is written in mathematics.” [V.D.-H.K.
dated his death to 1646] He ran afoul of the Catholic Church for
defending the Copernican system, which maintained that the earth
revolves around the sun. He died in Acetri, near Florence.
(V.D.-H.K.p.1200) (TNG,Klein,p.22) (AHD,p.539) (CFA,
'96,Vol 179, p.40) (AP, 2/15/98)(HN, 2/15/99)
1571 Feb 15, Michael Praetorius,
composer (Syntagma music), was born in Kreuzberg, Germany.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1620 Feb 15, Francois Charpentier,
French scholar, archaeologist, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1637 Feb 15, Ferdinand II (58),
King of Bohemia, Hun, German Emperor (1619-37), died. Ferdinand III
succeeded him as Holy Roman Emperor.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(MC, 2/15/02)
1666 Feb 15, Antonio M. Valsalva,
Italian anatomist (eardrums, glottis), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1677 Feb 15, King Charles II
reported an anti-French covenant with Netherlands.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1686 Feb 15, Jean Baptiste Lully's
opera "Armide," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1705 Feb 15, Charles A. Vanloo,
French painter, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1710 Feb 15, Louis XV (d.1774),
King of France, was born. He ruled from 1715-1774.
(HN, 2/15/98) (WUD, 1994, p.848)
1726 Feb 15, Abraham Clark,
Declaration of Independence signer, was born.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1744 Feb 15, John Hadley, inventor
(sextant), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1745 Feb 15, Colley Cibber's
"Papal Tyranny," premiered in London.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1748 Feb 15, Jeremy Bentham
(d.1832), philosopher, originator (Utilitarian), was born in London,
England.
(www.britannica.com)
1758 Feb 15, The 1st mustard
manufactured in America was advertised in Philadelphia.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(HCB, 2003, p. 94)
1764 Feb 15, The city of St. Louis
was established as a French trading post. Pierre Laclede Ligue and
stepson Auguste Chouteau notched a couple of trees that marked the site
for Laclede’s Landing that became St. Louis.
(SFC, 5/12/97, p.T5)(AP, 2/15/98)(440 Int’l.,
2/15/99)
1797 Feb 15, Henry Steinway
(d.1871), German-American piano maker, was born in Germany as Heinrich
Steinweg. He move to the US in 1851. The name was anglicized in 1864.
(WSJ, 7/15/06, p.P8)(http://tinyurl.com/qn6dy)
1798 Feb 15, The first serious
fist fight occurred in Congress.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1799 Feb 15, The 1st US printed
ballots were authorized in Pennsylvania.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1803 Feb 15, John Augustus Sutter
(d.1880), Swiss-US colonist (New Helvetia, Ca., Sutter Mill), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1804 Feb 15, New Jersey became the
last northern state to abolish slavery.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1809 Feb 15, Cyrus Hall McCormick
(d.1884), inventor of the mechanical reaper, was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)(WUD, 1994 p.887)
1820 Feb 15, American suffragist
Susan Brownell Anthony (d.1906) was born in Adams, Mass. Her biography
by Lynn Sherr was titled: “Failure Is Impossible.”
(SFEC, 9/21/97, Par p.4)(AP, 2/15/98)(HN, 2/15/98)
1820 Feb 15, Pierre-Joseph Cambon
(63), member of Committee of Public Safety (French Revolution), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1842 Feb 15, The 1st adhesive
postage stamps in US were made available by a private delivery company
in NYC.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1845 Feb 15, William Parsons, Earl
of Rosse, 1st used a 72" (183 cm) reflector.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1848 Feb 15, Sarah Roberts was
barred from a white school in Boston.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1851 Feb 15, Black abolitionists
invaded a Boston courtroom to rescue a fugitive slave.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1857 Feb 15, Mikhail Ivanovich
Glinka (53), Russian composer (Russlan & Ludmilla), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1861 Feb 15, Alfred North
Whitehead (d.1947), English philosopher (Adv of Ideas) and
mathematician, was born. “We think in generalities, but we live in
detail.” “I have always noticed that deeply and truly religious persons
are fond of a joke, and I am suspicious of those who aren’t.” “It is
more important that a proposition be interesting than that it be true.”
(AP, 4/11/97)(AP, 10/5/97)(AP, 9/8/98)(MC, 2/15/02)
1861 Feb 15, Ft. Point was
completed & garrisoned. It never fired cannon in anger.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1862 Feb 15, Grant [on his 3rd day
there] launched a major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1863 Feb 15, Samuel and Florence
Baker encountered John Speke and James Grant at the frontier village of
Gondokoro (southern Sudan). Speke and Grant said they had found the
Nile’s headwaters at a lake they named Victoria (Kenya, Tanzania,
Uganda).
(ON, 10/01, p.9)
1869 Feb 15, Charges of treason
against Jefferson Davis were dropped.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1870 Feb 15, Ground was broken for
Northern Pacific Railway near Duluth, Minn.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1876 Feb 15, A historic Elm at
Boston was blown down.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1879 Feb 15, President Hayes
signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the
Supreme Court.
(AP, 2/15/98)(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1882 Feb 15, John Barrymore,
actor, was born in Philadelphia. He was sibling to actors Lionel
Barrymore & Ethel Barrymore, father of actors John Drew Barrymore
& Diana Barrymore and grandfather of actor Drew Barrymore.
(HN, 2/15/01)(MC, 2/15/02)
1882 Feb 15, SS Dunedin left New
Zealand with 1st frozen meat for England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1885 Feb 15, Leopold Damrosch
(52), composer, died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1886 Feb 15, Sax Rohmer, author
(Dr. Fu Manchu), was born in England.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1887 Feb 15, Alexander Borodin
(b.1833), Russian composer, died. He had worked on his epic opera
“Prince Igor” for 18 years. It was completed in 1888 by Glazunov and
Rimsky-Korsakov. [see Feb 27]
(WSJ, 9/19/96, p.A18)(WSJ, 5/7/98, p.A21)(WSJ,
2/6/00, p.A16)(MC, 2/15/02)
1890 Feb 15, Robert Ley, German
chemist, MP (NSDAP), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1895 Feb 15, 23 cm (9") of snow
fell on New Orleans.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1898 Feb 15, The U.S. battleship
Maine blew up in Havana Harbor, killing 266-268 sailors and bringing
hordes of Western cowboys and gunfighters rushing to enlist in the
Spanish-American. On the night of February 15, 1898, as she lay at
anchor in Havana Harbor, an explosion--possibly caused by
sabotage--ripped through the ship, killing 267 officers and men. It had
been sent there to menace Imperial Spain and its sinking helped to
precipitate the Spanish-American War. Inconclusive investigations by
the Spanish government and U.S. Navy became irrelevant as popular
American sentiment outpaced diplomacy. On April 25, the U.S. Congress
declared war on Spain to the shouts of "Remember the Maine and to Hell
with Spain!" The true cause of the explosion that sank the battleship
Maine remains a mystery.
(Civilization, July-Aug, 1995, p.14)(NH, 4/97,
p.38)(HT, 5/97, p.64) (AP, 2/15/98)(HN, 2/15/99)(HNPD, 2/15/99)
1899 Feb 15, M Wolf & A
Schwassmann discovered asteroid #442 Eichsfeldia.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1900 Feb 15, The British
threatened to use natives in the Boer War fight.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1903 Feb 15, The 1st Teddy Bear
was introduced in America by Morris & Rose Michtom.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1905 Feb 15, Harold Arlen
(d.1986), composer, arranger and pianist, was born as Hyman Arluck. His
work included “Stormy Weather” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” He was
born Hyman Arluck, the son of a Jewish cantor. In 1996 Edward Jablonski
wrote his second biography titled: “Harold Arlen: Rhythm. Rainbows, and
Blues.”
(WSJ, 6/28/96, p.A7)(HN, 2/15/01)(MC, 2/15/02)
1905 Feb 15, The 1st race meet at
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. was run.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1905 Feb 15, Lewis Wallace (77),
US politician, general, writer (Ben Hur), artist and inventor, died.
His paintings included “The Conspirators,” a depiction of those accused
in the assassination of Pres. Lincoln. He had 8 registered US patents
and was accomplished at playing and making violins. His home in
Crawfordsville, Indiana, is now a museum.
(HT, 3/97, p.66)(MC, 2/15/02)
1906 Feb 15, British Labour Party
organized.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1909 Feb 15, In San Francisco
anarchist Emma Goldman spoke to large audiences in Lyric Hall, at Turk
and Larkin streets. She gave 2 lectures: “The Devil Exonerated” and
“The Psychology of Violence.”
(SSFC, 2/15/09, DB p.50)
1912 Feb 15, The Fram reached
latitude 78ø 41' S, farthest south ever by ship.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1913 Feb 15, The 1st avant-garde
art show in America opened in NYC. [see Feb 17]
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1916 Feb 15, Ian Ballantine,
publisher (Ballantine Books), was born.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1917 Feb 15, The Main Branch of
the SF Public Library at the Civic center was dedicated.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1917 Feb 15, M Wolf discovered
asteroid #865 Zubaida.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 15, The 1st WW I US army
troopship was torpedoed & sunk off Ireland by Germany.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1918 Feb 15, Estonia, Latvia &
Lithuania adopted the Gregorian calendar.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1919 Feb 15, The American Legion
was organized in Paris.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1920 Feb 15, K Reinmuth discovered
asteroid #926 Imhilde.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1922 Feb 15, Marconi began regular
broadcasting transmissions from Essex.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1923 Feb 15, Yelena Bonner, soviet
dissident, wife of Andre Sakharov, was born in Moscow.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1925 Feb 15, The London Zoo
announced it would install lights to cheer up fogged in animals.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1926 Feb 15, Contract air mail
service began in the US.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1930 Feb 15, Wenona beat Toluca in
an Illinois Basketball Tournament in 10 overtimes.
(440 Int’l.,
2/15/99)(www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id36.html)
1931 Feb 15, [Patricia] Claire
Bloom, actress (Charly, Look Back in Anger), was born in London.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1931 Feb 15, The 1st Dracula movie
released.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1932 Feb 15, George Burns and
Gracie Allen debuted as regulars on "Guy Lombardo Show."
(MC, 2/15/02)
1932 Feb 15, US bobsled team
member Eddie Eagan became the only athlete to win gold in both Summer
& Winter Olympics (1920 boxing gold)
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1933 Feb 15, President-elect
Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami. Giuseppa Zangara,
an unemployed New Jersey bricklayer from Italy, fired five pistol shots
at the back of President-elect Franklin Roosevelt's head from only
twenty-five feet away. While all five rounds missed their target, each
bullet found a separate victim. One of these was Mayor Anton Cermak of
Chicago. Gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks
later, on March 20. [see Mar 6, 20]
(WSJ, 5/24/00, p.A24)(AP, 2/15/07)
1934 Feb 15, U.S. Congress passed
the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, allotting new funds for Federal
Emergency Relief Administration.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1936 Feb 15, Sonja Henie, Norway,
won her 3rd consecutive Olympic figure skating gold.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1936 Feb 15, The temp hit
-60ø F (-51ø C) in Parshall, North Dakota for a state
record.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1936 Feb 15, Hitler announced
building of Volkswagens.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1939 Feb 15, Lillian Hellman's
"Little Foxes," premiered in NYC.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1940 Feb 15, Hitler ordered that
all British merchant ships would be considered warships.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1941 Feb 15, Duke Ellington 1st
recorded "Take the A Train."
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1941 Feb 15, K Reinmuth discovered
asteroids #1561 Fricke & #1785 Wurm.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1942 Feb 15, British forces in
Singapore surrendered to Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita. Yamashita
prevailed, when British Lt. Gen. Sir Arthur Percival and 130,000 Empire
troops surrendered. It was the largest surrender in British history.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)
1943 Feb 15, Women's camp Tamtui
on Ambon (Moluccas) was hit by allied air raid.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1943 Feb 15, The Germans broke the
U.S. lines at the Fanid-Sened Sector in Tunisia.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1944 Feb 15, American bombers
attacked the Abbey of Monte Cassino in central Italy in an effort to
neutralize it as a German observation post. In 2003 Matthew Parker
authored "Monte Cassino: The Hardest Fought Battle of World War II."
(HN, 2/15/99)(Econ, 9/20/03, p.80)
1944 Feb 15, Nathan Gordon
(1916-2008), US Navy pilot from Arkansas, and his crew made 4 separate
flying boat landings to rescue a number of aviators from B-52 bombers,
which had been shot down while attacking Japanese positions near
Kavieng harbor on New Ireland Island, Papua New Guinea. Gordon later
became the longest-serving lieutenant governor of Arkansas.
(SFC, 9/15/08, p.B8)
1944 Feb 15, 891 British bombers
attacked Berlin.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1946 Feb 15, The ENIAC, Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Computer, had its official unveiling. It was
created by John Mauchly and Presper Eckert. The first test problem it
solved was concerned with the trajectory of a 155-millimeter shell. The
problem was programmed by Jean Bartik and Betty Holberton who were part
of an all-woman team that had performed the calculations by hand. The
US Army had chosen 6 women, including Frances Holberton (d.2001 at 84),
to program Eniac. Ms. Holberton later created the C-10 instruction code
for the Univac using keyboard commands rather than dials and switches.
(WSJ, 11/15/96,
p.B1)(www.thocp.net/hardware/eniac.htm)(SFC, 12/12/01, p.A27)
1946 Feb 15, Royal Canadian
mounted police arrested 22 as Soviet spies.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1947 Feb 15, John Adams, composer
(Nixon in China), was born in Worcester Mass.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1948 Feb 15, Mao Zedong's army
occupied Yenan.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1950 Feb 15, WM Inge's "Come Back,
Little Sheba," premiered in NYC.
(www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=1867)
1950 Feb 15, Walt Disney's
animated "Cinderella" was released.
(www.imdb.com/title/tt0042332/)(WSJ, 6/28/08, p.W6)
1950 Feb 15, Joseph Stalin and Mao
Tse-tung signed a mutual defense treaty in Moscow.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1953 Feb 15, Tenley Albright (b.
June 18, 1935) became the first American to win the women’s world
figure skating championship at a competition in Davos, Switzerland.
(Internet)
1954 Feb 15, Matt Groening,
cartoonist (The Simpsons), was born.
(HN, 2/15/01)
1954 Feb 15, The 1st bevatron went
into operation in Berkeley, California.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1955 Feb 15, The 1st pilot plant
to produce man-made diamonds announced.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1957 Feb 15, Andrei Gromyko
replaced Dmitri T. Shepilov as the Soviet Foreign Minister.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1958 Feb 15, Sjafroeddin
Prawiranegara formed the anti-government of Middle Sumatra.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1961 Feb 15, 73 people, including
18 figure skaters from the United States, were killed in the crash of a
Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium. The skaters were en route to a
world meet in Czechoslovakia.
(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/99)
1963 Feb 15, Ken Lynch recorded
"Misery." It was the 1st Lennon-McCartney song recorded by someone else.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1964 Feb 15, Beatles' "Meet the
Beatles!," album went #1 & stayed #1 for 11 weeks.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1964 Feb 15, Bill Bradley scored
51 points for Princeton.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1964 Feb 15, Goethe Link
Observatory discovered asteroid #2417 McVittie & #3717.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, Canada replaced the
Union Jack flag with the Maple Leaf in ceremonies in Ottawa.
(CFA, '96, p.40)(HN, 2/15/98)(AP, 2/15/98)(440
Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, John Lennon passed
his driving test.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1965 Feb 15, Nat King Cole (49),
singer (Unforgettable, Mona Lisa), died.
(MC, 2/15/02)
1967 Feb 15, Thirteen US
helicopters were shot down in one day in Vietnam.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1967 Feb 15, The 1st anti-bootleg
recording laws were enacted.
(www.historyorb.com/events/date/1967)
1967 Feb 15, France launched its
Diademe-D satellite into Earth orbit. This followed the launch of
Diademe-C on Feb 8. These satellites were magnetically stabilized which
limited their trackability in the southern hemisphere.
(http://ilrs.gsfc.nasa.gov/satellite_missions/list_of_satellites/di1c_general.html)
1968 Feb 15, Anaheim's Les Salvage
scored 10, 3-pt baskets in an ABA game vs. Denver.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1969 Feb 15, Charles Ellsworth
Russell (b.1906), aka Pee Wee Russell, jazz clarinet player, died in
Alexandria, Va. His albums included “Portrait of Pee Wee” (1958).
(www.britannica.com/eb/article-9064474)(WSJ,
5/17/06, p.D14)
1970 Feb 15, William Kunstler,
Chicago defense attorney, got a four-year sentence on contempt charges
for his conduct during the Chicago Seven trial.
(www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28417105_ITM)
1970 Feb 15, A Dominican DC-9
crashed into sea at Santo Domingo and 102 people were killed.
(http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19700215-0)
1971 Feb 15, Britain abandoned the
unit of the penny on Decimal Day, February 15, 1971, replacing the
shilling with five new pence, so that one pound sterling became divided
into 100 new pence.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C2%A3sd)
1972 Feb 15, A left-leaning
military coup in Ecuador, led by Guillermo Rodríguez Lara,
removed, Pres. Velasco Ibarra from office for the fifth time. Military
rule continued to 1979.
(www.yachana.org/indmovs/chronology.php)(WSJ,
12/6/95, p.A-1)(USAT, 2/11/97, p.5A)
1972 Feb 15, Edgar P. Snow
(b.1905), US journalist and author (Battle for Asia, Red Star Over
China), died in Switzerland.
(http://en.wikipedia.org)
1973 Feb 15, Friendsville Academy
in Tenn. ended a 138-game basketball losing streak.
(http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/jmoriello/2008/02/12/This_Week_in_History_Feb)
1973 Feb 15, The US and Cuba
reached an anti-hijacking agreement.
(SFC, 7/9/96,
p.A8)(www.historyofcuba.com/history/time/timetbl4.htm)
1973 Feb 15, The USSR launched
Prognoz 3 at Baikonur, Kazakhstan, to study solar flares.
(www.astronautix.com/craft/prognoz.htm)
1974 Feb 15, US gasoline stations
threatened to close because of federal fuel policies.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1975 Feb 15, In local elections
78.8% of the residents approved a covenant under which the Northern
Marianas would become a US Commonwealth. In 1976 the US Congress
approved a covenant whereby Saipan became the capital of the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The 34,000 permanent
residents became US citizens but could not vote in US presidential
elections. The CNMI was allowed to set its own tax, immigration and
labor policies. A new government and constitution went into effect in
1978.
(SFEC, 3/7/99,Z1
p.4)(http://macmeekin.com/Library/NMIchron/1971.htm)(WSJ, 2/20/97,
p.A20)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Mariana_Islands)
1976 Feb 15, In Los Angeles
Elizabeth McKeown (67) was beaten, raped and strangled. A young
homicide detective found her body 3 days later in a car trunk. In 2009
John Floyd Thomas Jr. (72), an insurance claims adjuster, was arrested
based on DNA evidence. A series of attacks stopped in 1978, the year
Thomas went to prison for the rape of a Pasadena woman.
(AP, 5/1/09)(SFC, 9/24/09, p.D3)
1977 Feb 15, W. Sebok discovered
asteroid #2491.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids/2401%E2%80%932500)
1978 Feb 15, Leon Spinks beat
Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight crown.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Spinks)
1978 Feb 15, Ted Bundy
(1946-1989), American escaped serial killed, was recaptured in
Pensacola, Fla. Bundy eventually confessed to 29 murders.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Bundy)
1979 Feb 15, The Temple City Kazoo
Orchestra appeared on the Mike Douglas Show.
(http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=T75MC69N2IU)
1980 Feb 15, Eric Heiden (b.1958)
skated to an Olympic record of 500m in 38.03 sec.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_skating_at_the_1980_Winter_Olympics)
1980 Feb 15, Zdenka Vavrova, Czech
astronomer discovered asteroid #3592.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zde%C5%88ka_V%C3%A1vrov%C3%A1)
1981 Feb 15, A rocket-powered ice
sled attained 399 kph on Lake George, NY.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1982 Feb 15, The Ocean Ranger
oil-drilling platform sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a
fierce storm and 84 men were killed.
(AP, 2/15/98)(WSJ, 10/3/01, p.A20)
1983 Feb 15, Norman Thomas
discovered asteroid 3367 Alex, 3413 Andriana, 3525 Paul & 3580.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroids/3301%E2%80%933400)
1984 Feb 15, Ethel Merman (76),
singer, actress (Kid Million), died in her sleep.
(http://imdb.com/name/nm0581062/)
1985 Feb 15, The STS 51-E vehicle
was moved to the launch pad. Deployment of the vehicle aboard the
Challenger was cancelled in March.
(440 Int’l.,
2/15/99)(www.astronautix.com/flights/sts51e.htm)
1985 Feb 15, The World Chess
Championship match in Moscow between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov
was abandoned due to psychological strain. The match was resumed in
September.
(http://tinyurl.com/y9d9nd)
1986 Feb 15, The Philippines
National Assembly proclaimed Ferdinand E. Marcos president for another
six years, following an election marked by allegations of fraud. Marcos
was later ousted.
(AP, 2/15/06)
1987 Feb 15, ABC-TV began
broadcasting "Amerika" mini-series.
(www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/amerika/amerika.htm)
1988 Feb 15, Frederick [Fritz]
Loewe (b.1901), German-born composer (Brigadoon, My Fair Lady,
Camelot), died in California.
(www.imdb.com/name/nm0517350/)
1988 Feb 15, Austrian President
Kurt Waldheim vowed in a televised address not to "retreat in the face
of slanders" concerning his service for the German Army during World
War II.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1988 Feb 15, The Soviet Union was
defeated by Afghanistan, and a total withdrawal by the Soviets
occurred. In 2003 George Crile authored "Charlie Wilson's War: The
Extraordinary Story of the largest Covert Operation in History."
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)(SSFC, 5/25/03, p.M1)
1989 Feb 15, The Soviet Union
announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more
than nine years of military intervention.
(SFC, 9/28/96, p.A8)(AP, 2/15/98)
1990 Feb 15, Professional baseball
owners locked out their players.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1990 Feb 15, President Bush and
the leaders of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru met in Cartagena, Colombia
for a drug-fighting summit.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1991 Feb 15, Iraq proposed a
conditional withdrawal from Kuwait, an offer dismissed by President
Bush as a “cruel hoax.”
(AP, 2/15/01)
1991 Feb 15, Milo Djukanovic began
serving as prime minister of Montenegro. He served until 1998 and held
a 2nd term from 2003-2006.
(Econ, 2/9/08,
p.56)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milo_%C4%90ukanovi%C4%87)
1991 Feb 15, The government of
South Africa and the African National Congress announced an agreement
on terms of the ANC’s decision to suspend its armed struggle against
apartheid.
(AP, 2/15/01)
1992 Feb 15, 100th episode of
"Cops" aired on the Fox network.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1992 Feb 15, A Milwaukee jury
found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15 men
and boys.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)(AP, 2/15/02)
1992 Feb 15, Benjamin L. Hooks
announced plans to retire as executive director of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1992 Feb 15, Pulitzer
Prize-winning composer William Schuman died in New York at age 81.
(AP, 2/15/02)
1993 Feb 15, President Clinton
issued an economic "call to arms," asking Americans to accept a painful
package of tax increases and spending cuts.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1994 Feb 15, US asked Aristide to
adopt a peace plan for Haiti.
(http://tinyurl.com/bwfuh)
1994 Feb 15, US Navy chief Adm.
Frank Kelso II agreed to early retirement because of criticism over the
Tailhook sex abuse scandal.
(AP, 2/15/99)
1994 Feb 15, Drifter Danny Harold
Rolling entered a surprise guilty plea to the 1990 murders of five
college students in Gainesville, Fla. In all, Rolling confessed to
killing eight people, though there may have been more. As a result of
his murder convictions, Rolling was executed by lethal injection on
October 25, 2006.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Rolling#Execution)(AP, 2/15/04)
1994 Feb 15, Viacom won a
hard-fought victory to acquire Paramount Communications.
(AP, 2/15/99)
1995 Feb 15, The FBI arrested
Kevin Mitnick, its "most wanted hacker," and charged him with cracking
security in some of the nation's most protected computers. Mitnick was
released Jan. 21, 2000, after serving five years behind bars.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1995 Feb 15, A fire roared through
a three-story nightclub in Taichung, Taiwan, killing at least 64
people.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1995 Feb 15, Population of
People's Republic of China hit 1.2 billion.
(www.china.org.cn/e-white/familypanning/13-2.htm)
1996 Feb 15, A federal judge
temporarily blocked the Communications Decency Act, saying the
government had to explain what material it considered indecent before
it could enforce the law, designed to protect children from sexually
explicit material on computer networks.
(AP, 2/15/01)
1996 Feb 15, In the Toronto Globe
and Star there was a report by Peter Whelan that “pesticides sprayed on
fields in Argentina were killing tens of thousands of wintering
Swainson’s hawks that nest on the Canadian prairies and the adjacent US
Great Plains.”
(NH, 10/96, p.51)
1996 Feb 15, The Sea Empress
grounded off of Wales and spilled 18 million gallons (72,000 tons) of
oil.
(SFC, 11/20/02,
p.A14)(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/55393.stm)
1996 Feb 15, Russian President
Boris N. Yeltsin announced he would run for re-election.
(AP, 2/15/01)
1997 Feb 15, Tara Lipinski upset
Michelle Kwan at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Nashville,
Tenn., becoming the youngest gold medalist at the nationals.
(AP, 2/15/98)
1997 Feb 15, North Korean defector
Lee Han-young was shot and mortally wounded in South Korea by North
Korean agents, three days after another North Korean defected in
Beijing. He was the nephew of the first wife of Kim Jon Il, who
defected in 1982. Doctors pronounced him brain dead.
(SFC, 2/17/97, p.A1,9)(AP, 2/15/98)
1998 Feb 15, Monica Lewinsky's
attorney, William Ginsburg, continued his harsh criticism of
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr for alleged leaks of information to
the news media, charging on CNN that his client's constitutional rights
were being trampled.
(AP, 2/15/03)
1998 Feb 15, Two Japanese ski
jumpers, Kazuyoshi Funaki and Masahiko Harada, leapt to gold and bronze
medals in the 120-meter event at the Nagano Olympics.
(AP, 2/15/99)
1998 Feb 15, Armed men killed 32
people in 3 weekend attacks. 17 people had their throats slit in Saida,
Algeria.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb 15, In Cyprus Pres.
Glafcos Clerides won the elections with a 50.8% margin.
(SFC, 2/16/98, p.A11)
1998 Feb 15, In the Czech Republic
a young Gypsy woman was pushed into the Elbe River by 3 skinheads. Her
body was recovered 2 days later. It was the 3rd attack on Gypsies in 4
weeks. 3 suspects were detained.
(SFC, 2/18/98, p.C3)
1999 Feb 15, President Clinton
continued his whirlwind visit to Mexico, where he conferred with
President Ernesto Zedillo. Clinton and Pres. Zedillo signed several
accords on economic measures and the drug war.
(AP, 2/15/04)(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 15, Scientists announced
that a new vaccine against malaria would be tested in monkeys.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A3)
1999 Feb 15, Carole Sund (42),
Julie Sund (15) and Silvina Pelosso were last seen at the Cedar Lodge
motel in Portal, Ca. The trio were visiting the area from Eureka.
Carole Sund's wallet and credit cards were found in Modesto on Feb 19.
The FBI acknowledged Feb 21 that the disappearance was being treated as
a kidnapping and a $250,000 reward was offered. Their rented Pontiac
was found burned near Long Barn in Tuolemne County on Mar 18 and 2
burned bodies were found in the trunk. Cary Stayner, motel maintenance
man, later admitted to the murders and faced trial in 2002. Stayner was
convicted on Aug 26 and was sentenced to death Dec 12.
(SFC, 2/23/99, p.A1)(SFC, 3/18/99, p.A1)(SFC,
3/20/99, p.A1)(SFC, 7/25/02, p.A17)(WSJ, 8/27/02, p.A1)(SFC, 12/13/02,
p.A1)
1999 Feb 15, The body of Amadou
Diallo, an unarmed West African gunned down by New York City police,
was returned to his native Guinea.
(AP, 2/15/00)
1999 Feb 15, In Colombia a
right-wing paramilitary group kidnapped 9 officials sent to investigate
reports of a mass grave near Ceja.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
1999 Feb 15, Eritrea reported that
Ethiopia had begun a new round of shelling southwest of Assab.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.C2)
1999 Feb 15, In Nigeria Gen'l.
Olusegun Obasanjo (61) won the nomination for president by the People's
Democratic Party.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 15, In Romania the
Supreme Court sentenced in absentia Miron Cozma, leader of the coal
miners, to an 18 year prison term.
(SFC, 2/16/99, p.A8)
1999 Feb 15, It was reported that
cholera in Bandera, Somalia, has killed at least 60 people and infected
over 250.
(WSJ, 2/16/99, p.A1)
2000 Feb 15, Fox aired “Who Wants
to Marry a Multimillionaire?,” a TV special which drew huge ratings and
much notoriety.
(AP, 2/15/01)
2000 Feb 15, Republican
presidential rivals George W. Bush and John McCain fought over campaign
financing and the tenor of their nomination contest in a testy debate
in Columbia, South Carolina, that included Alan Keyes.
(AP, 2/15/01)
2000 Feb 15, In Argentina it was
reported that a Pres. Fernando de la Rua had ordered a purge of the
military and civilian intelligence apparatus and that over 1,500 agents
had been fired or retired. Fernando de Santibanes, the new head of the
Secretariat of State Intelligence (SIDE), fired a third of his 3,100
member staff a week earlier due to budget cuts.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 15, In Germany the
Christian Democrats were ordered to return over $20 million in state
campaign funds for breaking campaign finance laws.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2000 Feb 15, In Iraq a 2nd UN
official quit in protest that sanctions were undermining humanitarian
efforts.
(WSJ, 2/16/00, p.A1)
2000 Feb 15, In Northern Ireland
the IRA quit talks on disarmament in reprisal for Britain's suspension
of the power-sharing government.
(SFC, 2/16/00, p.A8)
2001 Feb 15, President Bush said
the Pentagon should review its policy on civilian participation in
military exercises like the emergency ascent drill a Navy submarine was
performing when it sank a Japanese fishing vessel off Hawaii.
(AP, 2/15/02)
2001 Feb 15, A UN team confirmed
that the Taliban had nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A17)
2001 Feb 15, In Congo the warring
parties met and Joseph Kabila agreed to initiate talks with rebel
groups. The rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo agreed to
endorse a details withdrawal plan.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A16)
2001 Feb 15, Hans-Joachim Klein, a
former German terrorist, was sentenced to nine years in prison by a
German court for killing three people in a 1975 attack on an OPEC
meeting in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 2/15/02)
2001 Feb 15, In Israel Ehud Barak
agreed to become the defense minister under Ariel Sharon.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.A1)
2001 Feb 15, In Mexico gunmen shot
and killed 12 villagers in the village of Limoncito de Ayala in Sinaloa
state.
(SFC, 2/16/01, p.D2)
2002 Feb 15, Pres. Bush approved
the Nevada Yucca Mountain site for nuclear waste. Nevada filed suit to
block the decision.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A7)
2002 Feb 15, Skating and Olympics
officials awarded Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David
Pelletier a gold medal, while letting the Russian pair, Elena
Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, keep their gold medal, as a way to
resolve a judging controversy that had dominated the Winter Games in
Salt Lake City.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2002 Feb 15, American and Belgian
officials said Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan diamond mine owner, offered
details between al Qaeda and the arms-trading operations of Victor
Bout, a Russian broker described as the head of the world’s largest
arms-trafficking organization.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A4)
2002 Feb 15, Globalstar, a
satellite telephone company, filed for bankruptcy. The company had
spent $4 billion to launch a network of 48 communications satellites.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.B1)
2002 Feb 15, Howard K. Smith (87),
war correspondent and news analyst (ABC co-anchor), died in Bethesda,
Md.
(SFC, 2/19/02, p.A14)
2002 Feb 15, In Britain asylum
seekers rioted at the Yarl’s Wood institution near Bedford and 20
escaped. 10 were soon captured.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A13)
2002 Feb 15, An Israeli commando
leader was killed by a falling wall as his troops demolished a
Palestinian militant’s home in the West Bank. Israel fired rockets at
PLO offices in the Jabalija refugee camp and one security officer was
killed. Israeli Sgt. Lee Nahman Akunis (20) was killed by Fatah gunmen
outside the West Bank village of Skurda.
(SFC, 2/16/02, p.A9)
2003 Feb 15, Millions of
protesters, many of them marching in the capitals of America's allies,
demonstrated against possible US plans to attack Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Tens of
thousands of people gathered in downtown Sydney and around Australia to
protest possible war with Iraq and their country's involvement.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Tens of
thousands of New Zealanders demonstrated against a war in Iraq.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Rattled by an
outpouring of anti-war sentiment, the US and Britain began reworking a
draft resolution to authorize force against Saddam Hussein.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 15, American
warplanes bombed two anti-aircraft missile sites in southern Iraq.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 15, Anti-war
protests drew hundreds of thousands of people in cities around the
world.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2003 Feb 15, It was
reported that 11 million Ethiopians face famine due to drought
affecting 15% of the nation's harvest.
(SFC, 2/15/03, p.A12)
2003 Feb 15, A roadside
bomb exploded next to an Israeli tank in the Gaza Strip, killing all
four soldiers inside. Hamas claimed responsibility.
(AP, 2/15/03)(SSFC, 2/16/03, p.A10)
2003 Feb 15, In India 7 men
from Hindu upper castes were killed at a roadside restaurant the
crime-prone Bihar state. The upper-caste men were apparently killed to
avenge the killings 2 days earlier of 7 lower-caste Dalits.
(AP, 2/16/03)
2003 Feb 15, Nigerian oil
workers launched an indefinite strike that could shut down crude
exports in the world's 6th largest oil exporter.
(AP, 2/15/03)
2004 Feb 15, Dale Earnhardt Jr.
won the Daytona 500 on the same track where his father was killed three
years earlier.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 15, John Kerry won the DC
and Nevada presidential caucuses.
(SSFC, 2/15/04, p.A3)
2004 Feb 15, Actress Jan Miner
(86), best known as "Madge the manicurist" in Palmolive TV ads, died in
Bethel, Conn.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 15, In Brazil gunmen
ambushed a busload of police in Rio and killed 3 officers.
(WSJ, 2/17/04, p.A1)
2004 Feb 15, In northeastern China
a fire swept through a shopping center, killing 51 people and injuring
dozens more. Hours later, a fire in a temple in the country's southeast
killed 39 people. The 2 blazes killed at least 93 people.
(AP, 2/15/04)(AP, 2/15/05)
2004 Feb 15, In India a boat
carrying villagers returning from a picnic capsized in the Ganges
River. 17 people were missing and believed drowned.
(AP, 2/15/04)
2004 Feb 15, Iraqi police arrested
No. 41 on the American military's most-wanted list, Baath Party
official Mohammed Zimam Abdul-Razaq.
(AP, 2/15/04)
2004 Feb 15, In Peru the
government of embattled President Alejandro Toledo appointed a new
lineup of Cabinet ministers as he tries to survive a deepening
political crisis. It was Toledo's fifth shake-up in 30 months.
(AP, 2/16/04)
2005 Feb 15, Defrocked priest Paul
Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on child
rape charges.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2005 Feb 15, Christopher Pittman,
a teen who claimed the antidepressant Zoloft had driven him to kill his
grandparents at age 12, was found guilty in Charleston, S.C., of murder
and sentenced to 30 years in prison.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2005 Feb 15, The Gates Foundation
granted $32 million for 35 new small schools in NYC. Mayor Bloomberg
had recently announced the closure of a number of large, troubled
schools to be replaced by 200 new small schools with pupils capped at
500-600.
(Econ, 3/5/05, p.33)
2005 Feb 15, Brazil’s Chamber of
Deputies chose Severino Cavalcanti, a leader of Congress’s “low
clergy,” as president. The position determines the agenda of Congress
and his selection was seen as a setback to Pres. da Silva
(Econ, 2/19/05, p.36)
2005 Feb 15, The Falcon 7X, a
business jet designed and built by the French aviation company
Dassault, was displayed for the first time. It was the first plane to
be digitally modeled in 3-dimensions and required no prototype.
(Econ, 6/18/05, p.78)(http://tinyurl.com/lxlgt2)
2005 Feb 15, In southern Lebanon
an angry mob attacked Syrian workers and another group threw stones and
set fires outside a Syrian government office in Beirut, blaming
Damascus for the bomb that killed former PM Rafik Hariri.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, The Guam-based
Citizens Security Bank (CSB) ended credit card and other services to
the Bank of Marshall Islands. Residents of the Marshall Islands will be
unable to use their credit cards after the central Pacific nation's
leading bank was cut off from a US partner by the anti-terrorist
Patriot Act.
(AFP, 2/10/05)
2005 Feb 15, In Mexico the bodies
of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were found in
the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of the
deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, In eastern Nepal an
overnight clash between government troops and communist rebels left at
least 12 rebels and 3 soldiers dead.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, It was reported that
major energy firms had committed $20 billion to build a new
gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Qatar to develop the huge natural gas
reserves there.
(WSJ, 2/15/05, p.A1)
2005 Feb 15, In Pakistan gunmen
opened fire on mourners returning from a funeral near a Muslim shrine
on the outskirts of Islamabad, killing at least 2 people and injuring
several others.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2005 Feb 15, The Thailand Cabinet
approved establishing a new infantry division of 12,000 troops to be
based permanently in southern Thailand, where violence blamed on Muslim
insurgents has claimed more than 650 lives in the past year.
(AP, 2/15/05)
2006 Feb 15, Vice President Dick
Cheney accepted blame for accidentally shooting a hunting companion,
calling it “one of the worst days of my life,” but was defiantly
unapologetic in a Fox News Channel interview about not publicly
disclosing the accident until the next day.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2006 Feb 15, A US Republican-led
House committee report, “A Failure of Initiative,” cited major failures
at all levels of government in the handling of Hurricane Katrina.
Several top Bush administration officials were singled out for
criticism. Testifying before the Senate, Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff acknowledged delayed aid and fumbled coordination in
the federal response to Hurricane Katrina.
(SFC, 2/16/06, p.A1)(AP, 2/15/07)
2006 Feb 15, Members of Congress
blasted four US tech giants (Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Cisco Systems
Inc. and Google Inc.) accusing the companies of willingly helping China
oppress internal dissent in return for access to a booming Internet
market.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Ben Bernanke made his
debut before the US Congress as Federal Reserve chairman. He said
inflation is still a risk and suggested that interest rate increases
are not over.
(WSJ, 2/16/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 15, Merril Lynch handed
its $544 million fund operation to Black Rock in exchange for just
under half of the combined firm. Black Hawk financed the $9.8 billion
transaction with its own stock.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.73)
2006 Feb 15, Police in Los
Angeles, Ca., busted 8 people connected to an int’l. car theft ring.
The racket, disguised as a charity group, was linked to Chechnya and
police believed proceeds from the stolen cars was used to finance
Chechen terrorist operations.
(WSJ, 12/29/06, p.A1)
2006 Feb 15, Robert Rich (92),
inventor of frozen non-dairy topping, died. In 1990 he was among the
1st 4 people inducted into the Frozen Food Hall of Fame.
(Econ, 2/25/06, p.89)
2006 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai pressed his Pakistani counterpart on to root out militants
Afghanistan claims have launched a spate of recent cross-border suicide
bombings.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, The beheaded bodies
of two Afghan intelligence agents were found dumped in western
Afghanistan as the first of thousands of British troop reinforcements
arrived in the south. The intelligence agents had been captured in
Farah province two days ago by suspected remnants of the Taliban.
(AFP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, An Australian
television network broadcast photographs and video clips Wednesday that
it said were previously unpublished images of the abuse of Iraqis held
in US military custody at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003. Many of the images
broadcast were more graphic than those previously published, showing
what appear to be dead bodies, as well as wounded people and prisoners
performing sex acts.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, British lawmakers
voted to ban glorifying terrorism, giving PM Tony Blair a badly needed
victory on a measure he said was key to preventing future attacks.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Chilean
environmental agency approved ambitious plans for an open-pit mine high
in the Andes mountains were unanimously, but the project's future
remained unclear because the agency rejected its most controversial
aspect, relocating three glaciers to reach the gold underneath.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, China announced a
plan to combat widespread pollution and leave a better environment for
future generations, citing the need to stave off possible social
instability.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In southern Colombia
hundreds of paramilitary fighters handed in their weapons and renounced
violence in a ceremony. Rebels attacked a crew that was removing coca
plants from one of Colombia's national parks and killed at least six
police guards.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, President Jacques
Chirac ordered the Clemenceau, a decommissioned aircraft carrier, to
return to France after a top administrative court suspended its
transfer to India.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Germany said further
tests had confirmed H5N1 bird flu in two swans, prompting other
European countries to step up efforts to prevent the virus infecting
domestic livestock.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Rene Preval was
declared the winner of Haiti's presidential election under an agreement
between the interim government and electoral council.
(AP, 2/16/06)(Econ, 2/18/06, p.35)
2006 Feb 15, Nermine Othman,
Iraq's human rights minister, said that some 170 Iraqis were tortured
last year in a secret prison in Baghdad and she would recommend
prosecutions of officials, including judges who did not report the
abuses. The torture occurred in Interior Ministry buildings, including
one in Baghdad's Jadriyah district.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, A bomb exploded on a
central Baghdad street, killing three girls and a boy walking to
school. The dead included two sisters and their brother. At least 14
other people, including six policemen, died in car bombings and
shootings across the Iraqi capital. In July, 2006, Spc. Nathan Lynn
(21) of South Williamsport, Penn., was acquitted of voluntary
manslaughter and conspiracy to obstruct justice over the death of Gani
Ahmed Zaben during a Feb. 15 raid on a suspect's house.
(AP, 2/15/06)(AP, 7/23/06)
2006 Feb 15, A Jordanian military
court sentenced to death nine men, including al-Qaida in Iraq leader
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for a plot to carry out a chemical attack against
the kingdom. Al-Zarqawi and three others received the death penalty in
absentia.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In central Mexico a
bus careened off a windy highway and into a ravine in the Sierra Gorda
mountains, killing 23 people and injuring 14.
(AP, 2/16/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Nepal insurgents
ambushed an army patrol near the village of Bibeke, about 150 miles
west of Kathmandu, killing at least three soldiers and injuring two
others.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, More than 70,000
people joined Pakistan's biggest protest yet against Prophet Muhammad
cartoons, burning movie theaters, a KFC restaurant and a South
Korean-run bus station. Three people died and dozens were injured in
two cities.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Pakistan deported
nearly 600 Afghans who had been jailed in the southern city of Karachi
for up to six months on charges of illegal immigration.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Gunmen on a
motorcycle killed three Chinese engineers and their Pakistani driver in
a remote tribal region of southwestern Pakistan.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, In Peru Arndt Hubert
Kupper (36) and Eva Noruzka la Torre (22), a German man and his
Peruvian wife, were arrested for trafficking Peruvian babies to
adoptive parents in Europe through an Internet site.
(AP, 2/18/06)
2006 Feb 15, Russia's foreign
minister said that Iran must eliminate international concerns it could
use its nuclear program to make weapons before Moscow will support
Tehran's right to domestically enrich uranium.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2006 Feb 15, Kurdish protesters
armed with firebombs and stones battled with Turkish police to mark the
seventh anniversary of guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/15/06)
2007 Feb 15, Top US auditors told
Congress that over $10 billion paid to military contractors for Iraq
reconstruction and troop support was either excessive or unsupported by
documents.
(SFC, 2/16/07, p.A13)
2007 Feb 15, A US federal judge
ordered a trial for a suit seeking $105 million from Sudan for aid to
al-Qaeda in the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 in 2000.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 15, Jim Black (72), US
House speaker from North Carolina, pleaded guilty to illegally taking
thousands of dollars from chiropractors while pushing their legislative
agenda. Black was sentenced to 5 years in prison for political
corruption.
(SFC, 7/31/07,
p.A3)(http://preview.tinyurl.com/369jo9)
2007 Feb 15, A new version of the
US $1 coin, paying tribute to American presidents, went into general
circulation. A unknown number were mistakenly struck without their edge
inscription “In God We Trust.” George Washington appeared on the first
coin.
(AP, 2/15/07)(SFC, 3/8/07, p.A2)(AH, 4/07, p.10)
2007 Feb 15, Hundreds of drivers
became stranded on a stretch of eastern Pennsylvania that had been hit
by a monster storm. The National Guard was called in to deliver food
and other necessities to a 50-mile line of vehicles trapped on I-78.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)(AP, 2/16/08)
2007 Feb 15, Hershey Co. said it
would cut about 11 percent of its workforce and reduce the number of
production lines it operates by more than a third as it spends as much
as $575 million to overhaul its manufacturing. The Chicago-based US
chocolate maker also said it will build a new, cost-efficient
manufacturing plant in Monterrey, Mexico.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, JetBlue Airways Corp.
tried to calm a maelstrom of criticism, after passengers were left
waiting on planes at a NY airport for as long as 11 hours during a snow
and ice storm.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Government scientists
struggled to pinpoint the source of the first US salmonella outbreak
linked to peanut butter. Nearly 300 people in 39 states have fallen ill
since August, and federal health investigators said they strongly
suspect Peter Pan peanut butter and certain batches of Wal-Mart's Great
Value house brand, both manufactured by ConAgra Foods. By June the
number of cases grew to over 600 in 47 states.
(AP, 2/16/07)(AP, 6/1/07)
2007 Feb 15, Scientists gathered
in Atlanta, Ga., to find a way to stop a fungus killing the world’s
frogs. Up to 170 species have gone extinct in the past decade.
(WSJ, 2/16/07, p.A1)
2007 Feb 15, Robert Adler (93),
co-inventor of the TV remote control, died in Boise, Idaho. He and
Eugene Polley invented the Zenith Space Command remote control in 1956.
(SFC, 2/17/07, p.A2)
2007 Feb 15, Ray Evans (b.1915),
songwriter and longtime partner with Jay Livingston (d.2001), died.
Their songs included “Whatever Will be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera)” and
“Mona Lisa,” as well as the themes for the TV series “Bonanza” and “Mr.
Ed.”
(SSFC, 2/18/07, p.D7)
2007 Feb 15, A summit of African
leaders opened in Cannes on the French Riviera. The crisis in Darfur
and violence in Guinea overshadowed the summit, as well as perennial
issues of poverty, development and AIDS. France won agreement from
three involved African nations (Sudan, Chad and Central African
Republic) that they would not support armed rebel movements on each
other's territories.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Officials warned of a
potential environmental disaster in Antarctica after fire erupted on a
Japanese whaling ship, as the search continued for a missing crewmen
from the crippled ship. The next day Japanese officials said the ship
posed no environmental threat.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, The Australian
government said it was negotiating with the US on a plan to build a
military satellite communications facility in Perth. Defense Minister
Brendan Nelson said the two nations had negotiated for two years to
build a number of ground-based communications systems around Australia.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, It was reported that
shooting ranges continued to operate in Cambodia despite
government cancellation of licenses in 1997. Tourists were able
to fire 30 rounds with an AK-47 for $30. Other offers included tossing
grenades at chickens for $200 and killing a cow with a rocket-propelled
grenade for $555.
(SFC, 2/15/07, p.14)
2007 Feb 15, A fast-thinking pilot
with passengers in cahoots fooled hijacker Mohamed Abderraman, a
32-year-old Mauritanian, by braking hard upon landing in Gran Canaria,
then accelerating to knock the man down. When he fell, flight
attendants threw boiling water in his face, and about 10 people pounced
on him.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Five Colombian
congressmen, including the brother of the foreign minister, were
arrested in a widening scandal linking the country's political class
and far-right militias drew closer to the president.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, The Security Council
voted unanimously to extend the nearly 18,000-strong UN peacekeeping
force in Congo for two months to give the secretary-general time to
recommend possible changes in its mandate following last year's
successful elections.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, In Egypt police
arrested 80 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, in what appeared to be a
pre-emptive strike against the country's largest Islamic group ahead of
elections and a key parliamentary debate.
(Reuters, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Nadia Abdel Hafez, an
Egyptian woman (37), died of bird flu in a Cairo hospital and a boy, 5,
became the 22nd Egyptian to test positive for the deadly disease.
(Reuters, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Estonian lawmakers
narrowly approved a bill calling for the removal of a Soviet war
memorial from their capital, ignoring Moscow's warning of "irreversible
consequences" for relations between the two countries.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Nokia, the world's
leading maker of mobile phones, said it would shed some 700 jobs, with
Finland taking the brunt of the cuts.
(AFP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, In Germany Ernst
Zundel (b.1939), a far-right activist, was convicted of incitement and
sentenced to the maximum five years in prison for anti-Semitic
activities, including contributing to a Web site dedicated to Holocaust
denial.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, An adviser to Iraq's
prime minister said that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in
Iran, but denied he fled due to fear of arrest during an escalating
security crackdown.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Iraqi and US troops
moved into a Sunni neighborhood in southern Baghdad, while insurgents
struck back with car bombs that killed seven people. In southern Iraq,
British troops sealed off the border with Iran to prevent weapons
smuggling. Terror leader Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub
al-Masri, was wounded and an aide killed in a clash with Iraqi forces
near Balad, north of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/15/07)(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Assailants shot dead
four police officers in the western Mexican city of Aguascalientes, the
latest in a wave of slayings of law enforcement officers across Mexico.
(AP, 2/15/07)
2007 Feb 15, Palestine’s PM Ismail
Haniyeh and his government resigned and President Mahmoud Abbas of
Fatah appointed him to form the new team, based on last week's
agreement in the Muslim holy city of Mecca to split power between the
two rivals.
(AP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, A leftist student
leader was murdered in the central Philippines, amid plans to set up
special tribunals to try people suspected of carrying out extrajudicial
killings. Farly Alcantara (22) was head of the League of Filipino
Students at Camarines Norte State College.
(AFP, 2/16/07)
2007 Feb 15, Russia’s President
Vladimir Putin dismissed Alu Alkhanov, the president of the republic of
Chechnya, and named its widely feared PM Ramzan Kadyrov as acting
president.
(AP, 2/16/07)(Econ, 2/24/07, p.62)
2007 Feb 15, President Paul Kagame
said in an interview published in The Times that Rwanda wants to join
the Commonwealth, the 53-nation grouping of former British colonies, in
what will be seen as a rebuke to France.
(AFP, 2/15/07)
2008 Feb 15, A leading US doctor’s
group endorsed the medical use of marijuana and urged the government to
life a ban.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)
2008 Feb 15, It was reported that
a new computer virus called Mocmex, identified as a Trojan Horse from
China, had been discovered in digital photo frames. It recognized and
blocked antivirus software from over 100 security vendors and collected
passwords for online games.
(SFC, 2/15/08, p.C1)
2008 Feb 15, In Afghanistan bitter
cold, snowstorms and avalanches were reported to have killed 926
people, half of them in the hard hit west, as the country suffered one
of the most brutal winters in decades.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Representatives for
Australian Aborigines confirmed plans to launch the first compensation
lawsuits since a landmark government apology earlier this week for past
abuses.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, A group of Canadian
sex trade workers hoping to set up a legal "co-op" brothel in time for
the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver said they have won approval to
incorporate themselves.
(Reuters, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, A restaurant fire in
eastern China killed 11 people and injured at least 4 others.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Czech President
Vaclav Klaus won a second five-year term. Lawmakers chose him over a
University of Michigan economics professor.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, In northern
Copenhagen gangs of rioters set fire to cars and garbage trucks, the
sixth night of rioting and vandalism that has spread from the capital
to other Danish cities.
(Reuters, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, Two international
rights groups said Egyptian police have stepped up arrests of persons
suspected of having HIV, detaining four men this month in a crackdown
that violates basic human rights.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, In eastern India
hundreds of Maoist militants stormed six police compounds in carefully
coordinated attacks, killing 13 police personnel and one civilian. 11
policemen were injured.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, A 3-year-old
Indonesian boy died of bird flu, the country's second death from the
illness in one day. The two cases, which were apparently unrelated,
brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Iraq 2 suicide
bombers, one apparently armed with a grenade as well as an explosive
vest, killed at least three people and wounded 17 as worshippers left a
Shiite mosque after prayers in the northwestern city of Tal Afar. 3
neighborhood security guards were killed and 2 others injured when US
attack helicopters fired at their checkpoint south of Baghdad.
(AP, 2/15/08)(SFC, 2/16/08, p.A6)
2008 Feb 15, In Mexico City a bomb
exploded near the police headquarters killing one man. A singer and two
members of his staff were tortured and killed just south of the
California border, apparently the latest victims in a string of
slayings of Mexican musicians. The border killings were not reported
until Feb 20.
(WSJ, 2/16/08, p.A1)(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 15, In Gaza City a
powerful blast went off in the house of Ayman Atallah Fayed, a senior
Islamic Jihad activist, killing him, his wife, three sons and three
neighbors.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 15, In the Philippines
thousands of protesters massed in Jakarta with some hurling tomatoes at
images of President Gloria Arroyo and her husband, demanding their
ouster for alleged corruption.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Sova, a Russian human
rights group, said hate crimes in Russia have killed 17 people and
injured more than 50 others since the beginning of the year.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, Serbia's newly
re-elected president Boris Tadic pledged at his inauguration that he
would never stop fighting against independence for Kosovo.
(AP, 2/15/08)
2008 Feb 15, In southeast Turkey
hundreds of Kurdish protesters battled police, leaving a young
demonstrator dead and dozens injured on the ninth anniversary of
guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan's capture.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2009 Feb 15, In Washington state a
16-year-old girl was found dead and another teenage girl was discovered
unconscious in a barracks at Fort Lewis Army base south of Tacoma. In
March Army authorities charged Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt (19) if the drug
overdose of his girlfriend.
(AP, 2/16/09)(SFC, 3/11/09, p.A8)
2009 Feb 15, Illinois Republicans
called for the resignation of Democratic Sen. Roland Burris following
reports of contradicting statements regarding conversations with close
associates of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The next day Burris admitted
that he tried to raise money for Gov. Blagojevich before being
appointed to the US Senate.
(SFC, 2/16/09, p.A5)(WSJ, 2/17/09, p.A3)
2009 Feb 15, Afghan President
Hamid Karzai said his government will take part in a US strategic
review of the war there in a sign of increased cooperation at a time of
strained relations. An appeals court upheld 20-year prison sentences
for two men who published a translation of the Quran that drove
religious leaders to call for their execution. The controversial text
is a translation of Islam's holy book into an Afghan language without
the original Arabic verses alongside. A host of Muslim clerics have
condemned the translation, which was published in 2007 and handed out
for free, as blasphemous and accused its publishers of setting
themselves up as false prophets. A coalition airstrike killed Ghulam
Dastagir and eight other militants in the village of Darya-ye-Morghab.
Dastagir was a powerful Taliban commander who broke a promise to
renounce violence after village elders persuaded President Hamid Karzai
to free him from prison.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, A series of attacks
in Algeria left seven soldiers and a suspected militant dead, as
authorities ratcheted up efforts to secure the country before
presidential elections. An Algerian newspaper reported that security
forces killed a senior member of Al Qaeda's north African wing after a
tip-off from a former militant led them to his hideout. The daily
Ennahar reported that Mourad Bouzid (65), also known as Ami Slimane,
was a charismatic figure instrumental in recruiting and motivating
younger Al Qaeda fighters.
(AP, 2/16/09)(Reuters, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Britain's Sunday
Times reported that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has bought a 4
million pound ($5.6 million) home in Hong Kong. It was bought last
year, as Mugabe's 20-year-old daughter began studying at the University
of Hong Kong. The paper said it was one of several properties the
Mugabes own in Asia but the first to be documented.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, China and Tanzania
signed cooperation agreements worth millions of dollars during a visit
by President Hu Jintao to this east African country aimed to reinforce
ties.
(AFP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, French specialists
unveiled a new weapon against cancer, a molecular "decoy" that mimics
DNA damage and prompts cancerous cells to kill themselves.
(AFP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, Iraqi officials
nullified election results in more than 30 polling stations across the
country due to fraud in last month's provincial balloting, but the
cases were not significant enough to require a new vote in any
province. A bomb hidden in a garbage pile killed one person and injured
18 others in Sadr City. In Mosul one civilian and one police officer
were killed in two separate attacks on police patrols. Police arrested
a would-be suicide bomber south of Baghdad who had explosives under his
clothes and said he was also planning to target pilgrims headed to
Karbala. US Staff Sgt. Dean D. diamond (41) was killed after an
improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
(AP, 2/15/09)(SFC, 2/18/09, p.B5)
2009 Feb 15, Authorities in
Malaysia arrested 26 unmarried Muslim couples in hotel rooms during
Operation Valentine, aimed at curbing illegal premarital sex in this
conservative country.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, A rickety boat
carrying illegal migrants from Morocco capsized in rough seas just off
Spain's Canary Islands and 19 of them drowned. At least three were
missing.
(AP, 2/16/09)
2009 Feb 15, The Taliban announced
a 10-day cease-fire in Pakistan's Swat Valley after freeing a Chinese
hostage during peace talks with the government, while an abducted
American threatened with imminent death by his kidnappers remained
missing.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, In southern Russia a
fire ripped through a wooden apartment building, killing 16 people in
Molodyozhny, a village in the Astrakhan region.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Shots from a Russian
naval vessel sank the Chinese-owned cargo ship the New Star off
Russia's east coast. 8 the 16 crew members on board were killed. The
Sierra Leone-flagged, Chinese-owned vessel New Star had earlier fled
the Russian port of Nakhodka where it had been impounded for alleged
smuggling.
(AFP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 15, In Turkey police
clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators across the country's
predominantly Kurdish southeast during protests marking the 10th
anniversary of a separatist rebel leader's capture.
(AP, 2/15/09)
2009 Feb 15, Venezuela’s President
Hugo Chavez tried for a second time to win the right to seek
re-election far into the future with a referendum widely regarded as a
way to cement socialism. Some 55% percent of the voters approved the
amendment.
(AP, 2/15/09)(AP, 2/16/09)(Econ, 2/21/09, p.39)
Go to http://www.timelinesdb.com
Go to February 16