Today's Highlight in History:
On Feb. 21, 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated.
On this date:
In 1828, a printing press later used to print the first newspaper for American Indians arrived at the Cherokee Council in Echota, Ga.
In 1846, Sarah G. Bagley became the first female telegrapher as she took charge at the newly opened telegraph office in Lowell, Mass.
In 1848, former President John Quincy Adams suffered a stroke on the floor of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. He died two days later.
In 1866, Lucy B. Hobbs became the first woman to graduate from a dental school, the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati.
In 1878, the New Haven, Conn., Telephone Company published the first phone directory. It listed 50 subscribers.
In 1907, poet W.H. Auden was born in York, England.
In 1916, the World War I Battle of Verdun began in France as German forces attacked; the French were able to prevail after 10 months of fighting.
In 1925, The New Yorker magazine made its debut.
In 1934, Nicaraguan guerrilla leader Cesar Augusto Sandino was killed by members of the Nicaraguan national guard.
In 1947, Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds.
In 1953, Francis Crick and James D. Watson discovered the double helix structure of the DNA molecule.
In 1965, black Muslim leader and civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death inside the Audubon Ballroom in New York by assassins identified as members of the Nation of Islam.
In 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2 1/2 to 8 years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up.
In 1988, TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart tearfully confessed to his congregation in Baton Rouge, La., that he was guilty of an unspecified sin, and said he was leaving the pulpit temporarily. Reports linked Swaggart to a prostitute.
Jimmy SwaggertIn 1989, President George H.W. Bush called Ayatollah Khomeini's death warrant against "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie "deeply offensive to the norms of civilized behavior."
In 1992, Kristi Yamaguchi of the United States won the gold medal in ladies' figure skating at the Albertville Olympics; Midori Ito (of Japan won the silver, Nancy Kerrigan of the U.S. the bronze.
In 1994, longtime CIA counterintelligence officer Aldrich Ames and his wife were arrested and charged with selling information to the Soviet Union and Russia.
In 1995, a Russian commission estimated as many as 24,400 civilians had died in the two-month uprising in the separatist republic of Chechnya. Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada.
In 1999, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reported little progress toward a Kosovo peace settlement during talks in Rambouillet, France.
In 2000, consumer advocate Ralph Nader announced his entry into the presidential race, bidding for the nomination of the Green Party.
In 2002, the State Department declared Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl dead a month after he'd been abducted by Islamic extremists in Pakistan.
In 2004, the International Red Cross visited former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was in US custody.
In 2005, President George W. Bush, in Belgium for a NATO summit, scolded Russia for backsliding on democracy and urged Mideast allies to take difficult steps for peace. Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton wrapped up their tour of tsunami-ravaged nations with a visit to the Maldives. Israel freed 500 Palestinian prisoners in a goodwill gesture. Heavy snowfall in Indian-controlled Kashmir claimed more than 100 lives with dozens missing. Also in 2005, leaders of the world's 78 million Anglicans, including U.S. Episcopalians, met in Northern Ireland to consider the growing division over homosexuality.
In 2006, President George W. Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, and pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.
In 2007, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he wanted to start returning some of the country's 7,200 soldiers home from Iraq by the end of the year. Also in 2007, nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan signed a treaty in New Delhi aimed at preventing the accidental use of atomic weapons.
In 2008, Serb rioters broke into the US Embassy in Belgrade and set fire during protests against Western support for an independent Kosovo. President George W. Bush concluded his six-day African tour in Liberia, where he offered help to lift the country from years of ruinous fighting. A Venezuelan plane crashed in the Andes, killing all 46 on board. Author Robin Moore, who wrote "The French Connection" and "The Green Berets," died in Hopkinsville, Ky., at age 82. Former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham, who was removed in a 1988 impeachment trial, died in Phoenix at age 83.
In 2009, in a last full day of talks in Asia, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stressed American and Chinese cooperation on the economy and climate change. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul to discuss the ongoing American strategic review of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. A reported 96 miners were trapped by an early morning explosion in an underground coal mine in northern China. The miners were among a crew of 436 working in a mine at Gujiao City. Also in 2009, federal investigators interviewed U.S. Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., latest step in the controversy over Burris' appointment to the Senate by former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Today's Birthdays: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is 86. Movie director Bob Rafelson is 77. Actress Rue McClanahan is 76. Actor Gary Lockwood is 73. Actor-director Richard Beymer is 71. Actor Peter McEnery is 70. U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) is 70. Film/music company executive David Geffen is 67. Actor Alan Rickman is 64. Actress Tyne Daly is 64. Actor Anthony Daniels is 64. Tricia Nixon Cox is 64. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) is 63. Rock musician Jerry Harrison (The Heads) is 61. Actress Christine Ebersole is 57. Actor William Petersen is 57. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 55. Country singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 52. Actor Jack Coleman is 52. Actor Christopher Atkins is 49. Rock singer Ranking Roger is 49. Actor William Baldwin is 47. Rock musician Michael Ward is 43. Actress Aunjanue Ellis is 41. Blues musician Corey Harris is 41. Country singer Eric Heatherly is 40. Rock musician Eric Wilson is 40. Rock musician Tad Kinchla (Blues Traveler) is 37. Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is 31. Singer Charlotte Church is 24. Actress Ellen Page (Film: "Juno") is 23. Actor Corbin Bleu is 21.
Those Born On This Date Include: Mexican revolutionary and military commander Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna (1794); Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801); German bacteriologist August von Wassermann, who developed the blood test for syphilis (1866); classical guitarist Andres Segovia (1893); writer Anais Nin (1903); filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (1925); humorist Erma Bombeck (1927).
Today In Entertainment February 21
In 1985, Whitney Houston released her self-titled debut album.
In 1990, pop duo Milli Vanilli won Best New Artist at the 32nd annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. (However, Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan were stripped of the award in Dec. 1990 after it was revealed that neither of them actually sang on the "Girl You Know It's True" album.)
In 1992, the Run-DMC rape trial came to an abrupt end in Cleveland when the judge threw out the case. The woman who accused Run of raping her admitted she had no evidence to support her claim.
In 1995, Bruce Springsteen performed live with the E Street Band for the first time in seven years.
Thought for Today: "In scandal, as in robbery, the receiver is always as bad as the thief." — Lord Chesterfield, English author and statesman (1694-1773).
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