On this date
In 1798, a feud between two members of the U.S. House of Representatives boiled over as Roger Griswold of Connecticut used a cane to attack Vermont’s Matthew Lyon, who defended himself with a set of tongs. (Griswold was enraged over the House’s refusal to expel Lyon for spitting tobacco juice in his face two weeks earlier.) In 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain. In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks later. In 1965, Canada’s new maple-leaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa.
In 1965, singer Nat King Cole, 45, died in Santa Monica, Calif. In 1989, the Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after nearly a decade of military intervention.
In 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney accepted blame for accidentally shooting a hunting companion but was unapologetic in a Fox News Channel interview about not publicly disclosing the incident until the next day. Ten years ago: President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela won a referendum to eliminate term limits, paving the way for him to run again. Five years ago: President Barack Obama signed measures lifting the federal debt limit and restoring benefits that had been cut for younger military retirees. One year ago: Nikolas Cruz, the suspect in the shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., was ordered held without bond.