TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, FEB. 23, the 54th day of 2017. There are 311 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1942, the first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, Calif., causing little damage.

In 1836, the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1848, the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, died in Washington, D.C., at age 80.

In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with Cuba to lease the area around Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised a pair of American flags (the second flag-raising was captured in the iconic Associated Press photograph.)

In 1954, the first mass inoculation of schoolchildren against polio using the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh as

some 5,000 students were vaccinated.

In 1965, film comedian Stan Laurel, 74, died in Santa Monica, Calif.

In 1992, the XVI Winter Olympic Games ended in Albertville, France.

In 1997, a 69-year-old Palestinian teacher opened fire on the 86thfloor observation deck of New York’s Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six others before shooting himself to death.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Peter Fonda is 77. Pro and College Football Hall-of-Famer Fred Biletnikoff is 74. Author John Sandford is 73. Country-rock musician Rusty Young is 71. Actress Patricia Richardson and former NFL player Ed “Too Tall” Jones are 66.