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 Today's
highlight in history:
On Feb. 27, 1933, Germany's parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, used the fire as justification for suspending civil liberties.
On this date:
In 1801, the District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.
In 1807, poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.
In 1861, in Warsaw, Russian troops fired on a crowd protesting Russian rule over Poland; five marchers were killed.
In 1922, the Supreme Court, in Leser v. Garnett, unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.
In 1939, the Supreme Court, in National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., outlawed sit-down strikes.
In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.
In 1960, the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)
In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. (The occupation lasted until May.)
In 1979, Jane M. Byrne confounded Chicago's Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A. Bilandic to win their party's mayoral primary. (Byrne went on to win the election.)
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush declared that "Kuwait is liberated, Iraq's army is defeated," and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight, Eastern time.
Ten years ago: With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son.
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Five years ago: The Bush administration lowered the national terror alert from orange to yellow. Iraq agreed in principle to destroy its Al Samoud II missiles, two days before a U.N. deadline. Former Bosnian Serb leader Biljana Plavsic was sentenced by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, to 11 years in prison. Children's television host Fred Rogers died in Pittsburgh at age 74.
One year ago: A suicide bomber struck Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney, who was rushed to a bomb shelter. (Twenty-three people were killed; Cheney was unhurt.) The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 416.02 points, the worst drop since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
Today's birthdays: Actress Joanne Woodward is 78. Actress Elizabeth Taylor is 76. Consumer advocate Ralph Nader is 74. Actress Barbara Babcock is 71. Actor Howard Hesseman is 68. Actress Debra Monk is 59. Rock singer-musician Neal Schon (Journey) is 54. Rock musician Adrian Smith (Iron Maiden) is 51. Actor Timothy Spall is 51. Rock musician Paul Humphreys (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) is 48. Country singer Johnny Van Zant (Van Zant) is 48. Rock musician Leon Mobley (Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals) is 47. Basketball Hall-of-Famer James Worthy is 47. Actor Adam Baldwin is 46. Actor Grant Show is 46. Rock musician Mike Cross (Sponge) is 43. Actor Donal Logue is 42. Rhythm-and-blues singer Chilli (TLC) is 37. Rock musician Jeremy Dean (Nine Days) is 36. Rhythm-and-blues singer Roderick Clark is 35. Country-rock musician Shonna Tucker (Drive-By Truckers) is 30. Chelsea Clinton is 28. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bobby Valentino is 28. Singer Josh Groban is 27. Actress Kate Mara is 25.
Thought for today: "All that is human must be retrograde if it does not advance."
-- Edward Gibbon, English historian (1737-1794)
[Associated Press]
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