TODAY in
Today is Tuesday, February 13, the 44th day of 2018. There are 321 days left in the year. 1542 Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII of England, is executed for adultery. 1689 William and Mary are proclaimed co- rulers of England.
1739 Battle of Karnal: The army of Iranian ruler Nader Shah defeats the forces of the Mughal emperor of India, Muhammad Shah. 1861 In Gaeta the capitulation of the fortress decreeing the end of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies is signed. 1913 The 13th Dalai Lama proclaims Tibetan independence following a period of domination by Manchu Qing dynasty and initiated a period of almost four decades of independence.
1920 The Negro National League is formed. 1931 The British Raj completes its transfer from Calcutta to New Delhi. 1954 Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game. 1967 American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain.
1975 Fire at the World Trade Centre in New York.
1981 A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky.
1983 A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people. 1990 German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two- stage plan to reunite Germany.
1991 Gulf War: Two laserguided “smart bombs” destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed. 1996 The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal ( MaoistCentre). 2007 Taiwan Opposition leader Ma Ying- jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. 2008 Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. 2011 For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries- old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. 2012 The European Space Agency ( ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe’s spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.