On Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell urged the U.N. Security Council to move against Iraq, saying that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was harboring terrorists - claims that later turned out to be false.
1631 British clergyman Roger Williams arrived in Salem, Mass., seeking religious freedom. He founded the colony of Rhode Island.
1783 Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.
1811 George, Prince of Wales, was named the Prince Regent due to the insanity of his father, Britain's King George III.
1881 Phoenix, Ariz., was incorporated.
1887 Verdi's opera "Otello" premiered at La Scala in Milan, Italy.
1897 The Indiana House of Representatives passed, 67-0, a measure redefining the method for determining the area of a circle, which would have effectively altered the value of pi. (The bill died in the Indiana Senate.)
1917 Congress passed, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto, a law severely curtailing the immigration of Asians. Mexico's constitution was adopted.
1924 The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips"
1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposed a Judiciary Reorganization Bill that would have increased the number of Supreme Court justices; critics charged that he was attempting to "pack" the high court with justices who would side with his New Deal policies. (The measure failed in Congress.)
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1958 Gamel Abdel Nasser was nominated to become the first president of the new United Arab Republic.
1972 Bob Douglas becomes the first African American elected to the BasketballHall of Fame.
1971 Apollo 14 astronauts Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walked on the moon for four hours.
1973 services were held at Arlington National Cemetery for Army Lt. Col. William B. Nolde, the last official American combat casualty before the Vietnam cease-fire.
1981 U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in a nationwide address, said the United States was in "the worst economic mess since the Great Depression" and called for sweeping spending and tax cuts. [The beginning of the end. — Ed.]
1986 world oil prices plunged toward $15 per barrel from $30 three months earlier after OPEC failed to curb production. Prices dropped to $9 by the summer of 1986.
1988 The Arizona House of Representatives impeached Gov. Evan Mecham, who was later convicted in the state Senate and removed from office. Panamanian military leader Gen. Manuel Noriega was indicted on bribery and drug trafficking charges in Florida.
1989 Radio Moscow announced the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.
1990 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed the Communist Party give up its monopoly on power in the Soviet Union. Two days later, the party's Central Committee agreed.
1992 euthanasia advocate Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian was freed on bond following his arrest in the assisted suicides of two women.
1994 White separatist Byron De La Beckwith was convicted in Jackson, Miss., of murdering civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963. He was sentenced to life in prison. Also in 1994, a mortar shell fell onto a crowded market in Sarajevo, Bosnia, killing 69 people and injuring 200.
1996 A judge ordered U.S. President Bill Clinton to testify in the Whitewater land dispute trial. He later did so via videotape.
1997 Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced a $10 billion merger with Dean Witter.
1999 Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson was sentenced in Rockville, Md., to a year in jail for assaulting two motorists following a traffic accident (he ended up serving 3 1/2 months).
2000 Right-wing leader Joerg Haider (yohrg HY'-dur) told a deeply divided Austria not to worry about international sanctions, saying the new governing coalition that included his Freedom Party would soon prove its democratic credentials to the world.
2001 Four disciples of Osama bin Laden went on trial in New York in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.
2002 A federal grand jury indicted John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," alleging that he was trained by Osama bin Laden's network and that he conspired with the Taliban to kill Americans.
UPI Version: In 2003, making a case for U.N.-endorsed military action in Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Saddam Hussein regime of deceiving U.N. weapons inspectors and having ties with the al-Qaida terrorist network. [Proud of yourself, Rev. Moon? — Ed.]
2004 Speaking out strongly against his war critics, U.S. President George W. Bush said Iraq's nightmare was over and the United States was safer because he made the decision to go to war. CIA Director George Tenet offered a forceful defense of prewar intelligence in a speech at Georgetown University. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf pardoned the country's top nuclear scientist for leaking weapons technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
2005 A Moroccan family of four was charged in Spain in the March 11 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people. Togo President Gnassingbe Eyadema (nyah-SING'-bay ee-yah-DEE'-mah) died after a fatal heart attack; he was 69. Steve Young and Dan Marino were elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
2006 The Pittsburgh Steelers won a record-tying fifth Super Bowl with a 21-10 win over the Seattle Seahawks. Also in 2006, the violent Muslim protest against Danish-published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed spread to Turkey, Indonesia, India, Thailand and New Zealand, & Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran was halting all voluntary cooperation in regards to Tehran's nuclear program.
2007 Astronaut Lisa Nowak was arrested after driving 1,000 miles from Houston to Orlando, Fla., to mount a bizarre attack on a romantic rival.
2008 On "Super Tuesday," Barack Obama took a slim lead in delegates over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest while John McCain outscored all of his opponents combined in the delegate battle for the Republican nomination. Also in 2008, Mike McConnell, the U.S. director of national intelligence, warned Congress that al-Qaida had progressed to the point that it could carry out an attack in the United States. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a guru to the Beatles who introduced the West to transcendental meditation, died at his home in the Dutch town of Vlodrop; he was thought to be 91.
2009 The United States Navy guided missile cruiser Port Royal runs aground off Oahu, Hawaii, damaging the ship as well as a coral reef. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. USA Swimming suspended Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps for three months after a photo showing him inhaling from marijuana pipe became public.
Today's Birthdays: Country singer Claude King is 87. The Reverend Andrew M. Greeley is 82. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Hank Aaron is 76.
Those Born On This Date Include: Former British Prime Minister Robert Peel, founder of the London Police Force, (1788); evangelist Dwight Moody (1837); Scotsman John Dunlop, inventor of the pneumatic tire, (1840); outlaw Belle Starr (1848); aviation pioneer Gabriel Voisin (1880); U.S. statesman Adlai E. Stevenson (1900); actor John Carradine (1906); novelist William Burroughs (1914);
Today In Entertainment History
In 1919, screen legends Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith form United Artists.
In 1940, Glenn Miller and his orchestra recorded "Tuxedo Junction" for RCA Victor's Bluebird label.
In 1957, Bill Haley and His Comets arrived in London for a tour and were mobbed by fans.
In 1972, Paul Simon released his first solo single following his breakup with Art Garfunkel. The song, "Mother and Child Reunion," became a top five hit.
In 1992, a blues band accompanied Willie Dixon's funeral procession in Chicago. More than 100 mourners followed the horse-drawn hearse that was carrying his body. Dixon died of heart failure about a week earlier.
In 1996, actress Elizabeth Taylor filed for divorce from her seventh husband, Larry Fortensky, citing irreconcilable differences.
In 1998, guitarist Tim Kelly of Slaughter was killed in a traffic accident in northwestern Arizona. He was 34.
In 2001, actor Tom Cruise and actress Nicole Kidman announced their separation after 11 years of marriage.
Thought for Today: "The greater the philosopher, the harder it is for him to answer the questions of common people." — Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish author (1846-1916).
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