Today in history

On Feb. 27, 1801, the District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.

In 1807 poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born in Portland, Maine.

In 1861 Russian troops in Warsaw fired on a crowd of marchers protesting Moscow’s rule over Poland, killing five Poles.

In 1902 author John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, Calif.

In 1922 the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed the right of women to vote.

In 1933 Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, caught fire. (The Nazis, blaming the Communists, used the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.)

In 1939 the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed sit-down strikes.

In 1960 the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the Soviets, 3-2, at the Winter Games in Squaw Valley, Calif. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)

In 1972 President Richard Nixon and Premier Chou En-lai issued the Shanghai Communique at the conclusion of Nixon’s visit to China.

In 1973 members of the American Indian Movement began their occupation of the Oglala Sioux settlement at Wounded Knee, S.D., site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. The siege continued into early May. Also in 1973 the Nixon administration accused North Vietnam of violating the Paris peace accords by delaying the release of American prisoners of war.

In 1981 Chrysler Corp. reported a 1980 loss of $1.7 billion.

In 1982 Wayne Williams was found guilty of slaying two of 28 young blacks found dead over a two-year

period in the Atlanta area.

In 1986 the U.S. Senate approved telecasts of its debates on a trial basis.

In 1991 President George H.W. Bush declared that “Kuwait is liberated, Iraq’s army is defeated,” and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight.

In 1999 Nigerians elected Olusegun Obasanjo president as the country marked the final phase of its return to democracy.

In 2001 President George W. Bush went before Congress with a $1.9 trillion spending plan that would sharply reduce growth in many government programs while leaving room to give Americans the biggest tax cut in two decades.

In 2003 Fred Rogers, whose public television show “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” taught and entertained millions of children for three decades, died in Pittsburgh; he was 74.

In 2004 a study on the Roman Catholic Church’s sexual-abuse scandal, commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, was released; church bishops and seminaries are excoriated for their “shameful” handling of allegations leveled at more than 4,000 priests from 1950 to 2002.

In 2005 the Iraqi government announced the capture of Sabawi Ibrahim alHassan, Saddam Hussein’s half-brother and former adviser. Also in 2005 Academy Awards went to “Million Dollar Baby,” director Clint Eastwood, best actress Hilary Swank and supporting actor Morgan Freeman.

In 2008 William F. Buckley Jr., the author and conservative commentator, was found dead at his home in Stamford, Conn.; he was 82.

In 2010 a massive, magnitude 8.8 earthquake rocked central Chile, killing about 500 people and causing an estimated $30 billion in damage.