Today in history

On Feb. 2, 1536, Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

In 1653 New Amsterdam — now New York City — was incorporated.

In 1848 the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican-American War, was signed.

In 1870 the “Cardiff Giant,” supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y., was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.

In 1876 the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York.

In 1943 the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered in a major victory for the Soviets in World War II.

In 1945 President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill departed Malta for the summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

In 1948 President Harry Truman sent to Congress a 10-point civil rights program calling for measures against lynching, poll taxes and job discrimination.

In 1971 Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda, following a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

In 1990 South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

In 1995 the leaders of Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians held an unprecedented summit in Cairo to try to revive the Mideast peace process.

In 2013 former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, who wrote the best-seller “American Sniper,” was gunned down at a shooting range in Texas; he was 38.

In 2014 Academy Awardwinning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died of a drug overdose in his New York City apartment; he was 46.