On Feb. 13th, 1935, a jury in Flemington, N.J. found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)
In 1542, the fifth wife of England's King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.
In 1635 The Boston Public Latin School was founded. (It is now the oldest public school in the United States.)
In 1668, Portugal was recognized as an independent nation by Spain.
In 1741, Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. Titled "The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies," it lasted three issues.
In 1861, the first Medal of Honor went to Col. Bernard Irwin, an assistant Army surgeon serving in the first major U.S.-Apache conflict.
In 1914, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, known as ASCAP, was founded in New York.
In 1920, the League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland.
In 1939, Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the U.S. Supreme Court. (He was succeeded by William O. Douglas.)
In 1945, Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden, causing a firestorm that destroyed the city and killed as many as 135,000 people. The Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans. The 49-day battle killed more than 50,000 German troops.
In 1974, the Soviet Union expelled dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1984, Konstantin Chernenko was chosen to be general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, succeeding the late Yuri Andropov.
In 1988, the 15th winter Olympics opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
In 1990, the two Germanys and the Big Four powers agreed to pursue German unity.
In 1991, hundreds of Iraqi civilians were killed when a pair of laser-guided U.S. bombs destroyed an underground facility in Baghdad identified by U.S. officials as a military installation, but which Iraqi officials said was a bomb shelter. Also in 1991, 36 people were killed when an Ash Wednesday mass at a Mexican church turned violent. [Alright, we understand "I went to the fights & a hockey game broke out." Or if drunken get-togethers, sporting events & the like somehow go wrong. And we're no fan of religiosity. But a mass "turned violent?" What he hell, UPI? — Ed.]
In 1993, three men were killed and another wounded in a shooting at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla.
In 1997, the Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time, closing at 7,022.44.
In 1998, Cuba began releasing 299 political prisoners following an appeal by Pope John Paul II. Also in 1998, Nigerian troops overthrew the military junta that had ruled Sierra Leone since ousting the democratically elected government in May 1997.
In 1999, in his weekly radio address, President Bill Clinton said as many as 4,000 American troops would go to Kosovo as part of a NATO peacekeeping force if warring Serbs and ethnic Albanians were to reach a political settlement. A federal judge held American Airlines' pilots union and two top board members in contempt and promised sizable fines against them, saying the union did not do enough to encourage pilots to return to work after a court order.
In 2000, Tiger Woods saw his streak of six consecutive victories come to an end as he fell short to Phil Mickelson in the Buick Invitational.
In 2003, the Bolivian capital of La Paz was plunged into chaos by protests that got out of hand. Fourteen people were killed.
In 2004, President George W. Bush, trying to calm a political storm, ordered the release of his Vietnam-era military records to counter Democrats' suggestions that he'd shirked his duty in the Texas Air National Guard.
In 2005, final results showed clergy-backed Shiites and independence-minded Kurds had swept to victory in Iraq's landmark elections. The AFC won the Pro Bowl, defeating the NFC 38-27. Also in 2005, flooding claimed more than 70 lives in Venezuela and Colombia.
In 2006, a U.N. report accused the United States of violating prisoners' rights at its military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In 2008, Barack Obama won votes in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia by large margins, strengthening his lead over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. On the Republican side, John McCain won all three primaries as well, solidifying his lead over Mike Huckabee. Also in 2008, the U.S. government confirmed reports that trailers supplied to survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita posed a possibly serious health risk because of formaldehyde. Under oath and sometimes blistering questioning, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens told Congress: "I have never taken steroids or HGH."
In 2009, a $787 billion stimulus bill aimed at easing the worst economic crisis in decades cleared both houses of Congress. Peanut Corp. of America, the peanut processing company at the heart of a national salmonella outbreak, filed for bankruptcy. A Continental airlines turbo prop commuter plane crashed into a house near Buffalo, N.Y., killing a reported 50 people, including one person in the house. Also in 2009, more than 30 people died and 84 were injured when a female suicide bomber detonated a device on a major Shiite pilgrimage route in Musayyib, Iraq. [The AP sez at least 40 died.— Ed.]
Today's Birthdays: Former test pilot Charles E. "Chuck" Yeager is 87. Actress Kim Novak is 77. Actor George Segal is 76. Actress Carol Lynley is 68. Singer-musician Peter Tork (The Monkees) is 68. Actress Stockard Channing is 66.
Those Born On This Date Include: Former first lady Bess Truman, wife of U.S. President Harry Truman (1885); artist Grant Wood (1891); writer Georges Simenon (1903); entertainer "Tennessee" Ernie Ford and football coach Eddie Robinson (both 1919) actor Oliver Reed (1938).
Today In Entertainment February 13
In 1961, Frank Sinatra unveiled his own record label, Reprise. Sinatra did not have a very high opinion of rock music, but the label would [eventually] release recordings by The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks.
In 1982, a 300-pound marker on the grave of Lynyrd Skynyrd singer Ronnie Van Zant was stolen from an Orange Park, Fla., cemetery. Police found it two weeks later in a dry river bed.
In 1991, a helicopter carrying actor Kirk Douglas collided with a stunt plane over an airport in California. Douglas suffered cuts and bruises. Two people on the plane were killed.
In 1997, Michael Jackson and then-wife Debbie Rowe became parents of a son named Prince.
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 2005, Ray Charles won eight posthumous Grammy awards for his final album, "Genius Loves Company."
In 2008, Hollywood writers ended their 100-day strike that had disrupted the TV season and canceled awards shows. Japanese movie director Kon Ichikawa died in Tokyo at age 92.
Thought for Today: "To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can have." — Theodore H. White, American political writer (1915-1986).
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