On Feb. 16, 1862 The Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee ended as some 12,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant."
1868 The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.
1918 Lithuania proclaimed its independence from the Russian Empire.
1923 The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.
1945 American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.
1959 Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
1961 The U.S. satellite Explorer 9 was launched.
1968 The nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala.
1987 John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being "Ivan the Terrible," a guard at the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. (His conviction was overturned by Israel's Supreme Court.)
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 Authorities in Noble, Ga., arrested Ray Brent Marsh, who had been operating a crematory where hundreds of decomposing corpses were found stacked in sheds and scattered in the woods behind it. (Marsh pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.)
Five years ago The Democratic-controlled House issued a symbolic rejection of President George W. Bush's decision to deploy more troops to Iraq; the nonbinding resolution passed 246-182.
One year ago Bookstore chain Borders filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and said it would close nearly a third of its stores. (Borders closed all of its remaining stores in September 2011.)
Thought for today "I am content to define history as the past events of which we have knowledge and refrain from worrying about those of which we have none — until, that is, some archaeologist digs them up." — Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian (1912-1989)
The Associated Press
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement