Today in History, Today's Birthdays, Entertainment Through The Centuries

Today is Monday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2009. There are 318 days left in the year. This is Presidents' Day. [If you're at home lazing about because your gov't. job gives you the day off today, liberal slacker, why aren't you reading this? — Ed.] Or reading the AP page. Or seeing & hearing the AP video network.Or the UPI Almanac.  Today's Highlight in History: In 1862, during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. (Union General Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant.") On this date: In 1804, Lt. 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, which lasted until World War II (it again declared independence in 1990). In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter. In 1937, Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont, received a patent for nylon. In 1945, American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II. In 1948, NBC-TV aired its first nightly newscast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre," which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels. In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a-half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.In 1968, the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala. In 1977, Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men were killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident. In 1988, seven people were shot to death during an office rampage in Sunnyvale, Calif., by a man who was obsessed with a co-worker. (The gunman, Richard Farley, is under sentence of death.) In 1989, investigators in Lockerbie, Scotland, said a bomb hidden inside a radio-cassette player was what brought down Pan Am Flight 103 the previous December, killing all 259 people aboard and 11 on the ground. In 1998, A China Airlines Airbus A300-600R trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board. Ten years 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.)

In 2002, the operator of a crematory in Noble, Ga., was arrested after dozens of decomposing corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered around the building and surrounding woods.

Five years ago: A confident John Kerry launched a full-throttle attack on President George W. Bush's economic policies, mostly ignoring his Democratic rivals on the eve of the Wisconsin primary. The Walt Disney Co. rejected a takeover bid by Comcast Corporation.

In 2005, the NHL canceled what was left of its season after a round of last-gasp negotiations failed to resolve differences over a salary cap - the issue that led to a lockout.

One year ago: President George W. Bush, on a six-day tour of Africa, made his first stop in Benin before flying on to Tanzania. John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, picked up a total of 50 GOP national convention delegates from Michigan and Louisiana. A car plowed into a group of street-racing fans obscured by a cloud of tire smoke on an isolated Maryland highway, killing eight people.

Today's Birthdays February 16

Singer Patty Andrews is 91. Kim Jong Il, the president of North Korea, is 67. Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 63. Actor Pete Postlethwaite is 63. Actor William Katt is 58. Actor LeVar Burton is 52. Actor-rapper Ice-T ("Law and Order: Special Victims Unit") is 51, as is actress Lisa Loring.Tennis Hall of Fame player John McEnroe is 50. [We won't even pretend to care about those under 50 today. It's difficult enough pretending to care about those who have already celebrated the majority of their birthdays. — Ed.]

Today In Entertainment History February 16

On February 16th, 1962, Bobby Vinton recorded the song "Roses Are Red." He was in danger of being dropped by Epic Records but still owed them two single sides. In 1968, John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives traveled to India to study transcendental meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Later, they were joined by Ringo Starr and his wife and Paul McCartney and his fiancee. [No, Ringo did not like the food. — Ed.] Forty years ago, in 1969, country singers George Jones and Tammy Wynette were married in Ringgold, Ga. They had said they were secretly married six months earlier. In 1974, Elton John released "Bennie and the Jets." In 1975, Cher's musical variety series debuted on CBS. It ran until 1976. In 1982, actress Farrah Fawcett and actor Lee Majors were divorced, after nine years of marriage. In 1990, musician Ike Turner was sentenced to four years in prison on cocaine charges. He began serving his sentence the next day. Four years earlier, Turner had said he had been addicted to cocaine for 15 years. In 2007, Britney Spears shaved her head after a salon owner refused to do it for her.