TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2018 On this day in history:

1846 - Free Aborigines on Flinders Island in Bass Strait write a petition addressed to Queen Victoria concerning the mistreatment of indigenous people.

1846 - The colony of North Australia is proclaimed by Letters Patent.

1876 - Julius Wolff was credited with being the first to can sardines.

1924 - Swimmer Johnny Weissmuller set a world record in the 100-yard freestyle. 1933 - Newsweek was first published.

1944 - During World War II, the Battle of Eniwetok Atoll began. US forces won the battle on February 22, 1944.

1947 - The Voice of America began broadcasting to the Soviet Union.

1972 - Production of the humble Volkswagen Beetle surpasses that of the Model T Ford.

1979 - The Sino-Vietnamese War begins.

1996 - NASA’s Discovery Program begins as the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft lifts off on the first mission ever to orbit and land on an asteroid, 433 Eros.

1996 - The 8.2 Mw Biak earthquake shakes the Papua province of eastern Indonesia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). A large tsunami followed, leaving one-hundred sixty-six people dead or missing and 423 injured.

1996 - World chess champion Garry Kasparov beat the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue in Philadelphia, PA.

2006 - A massive mudslide occurs in Southern Leyte, Philippines; the official death toll is set at 1,126.

2008 - Kosovo declares independence as the Republic of Kosovo.

2011 - Libyan protests begin. In Bahrain, security forces launched a deadly pre-dawn raid on protesters in Pearl Roundabout in Manama, the day is locally known as Bloody Thursday.

2015 - Eighteen people are killed and 78 injured in a stampede at a Mardi Gras parade in Haiti.

2016 - Military vehicles explode outside a Turkish Armed Forces barracks in Ankara, Turkey, killing at least 29 people and injuring 61 others.