 Today's
Highlight in History:
On February 16th, 1862, during the Civil War,
some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at
Fort Donelson, Tennessee. (Union General
Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him
the nickname "Unconditional Surrender
Grant.") On this date:
In 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur
led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn
the US Navy frigate "Philadelphia,"
which had fallen into the hands of pirates.
In 1868, the
Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was
organized in New York City.
In 1918, Lithuania
proclaimed its independence.
In 1923, the
burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently
unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.
In 1945, American
troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the
Philippines during World War Two.
In 1948, NBC TV
began airing its first nightly newscast,
"The Camel Newsreel Theatre," which
consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.
In 1959, Fidel
Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow
of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1968, the
nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was
inaugurated, in Haleyville, Alabama.
In 1987, John
Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of
being "Ivan the Terrible," a guard at
the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. (Demjanjuk
was convicted, but the conviction ended up being
overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.)
In 1994, at least
217 people were killed when a powerful earthquake
shook Indonesia's Sumatra island.
Ten years ago:
Former President Reagan began two days of giving
a videotaped deposition in Los Angeles for the
Iran-Contra trial of former national security
adviser John Poindexter.
Five years ago:
Four people were killed when tornadoes tore
through rural north Alabama. In a dark and
defensive address to his nation, Russian
President Boris Yeltsin berated his military
leaders for big losses and human rights abuses in
Chechnya, but insisted Russia had to use force to
defend its unity.
One year ago:
Enraged Kurds seized embassies and held hostages
across Europe following Turkey's arrest of
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. Testimony
began in the Jasper, Texas, trial of John William
King, charged with murder in the gruesome
dragging death of James Byrd Junior. (King was
later convicted and sentenced to death.)
每日格言
"I am content to
define history as the past events of which we
have knowledge and refrain from worrying about
those of which we have none -- until, that is,
some archeologist digs them up."
--
Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian
(1912-1989).
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