DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2022. There are 321 days left in the year. On this date in:
1633: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.)
1933: The Warsaw Convention, governing airlines’ liability for international carriage of persons, luggage and goods, went into effect.
1935: A jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)
1939: Justice Louis D. Brandeis retired from the U.S. Supreme Court. (He was succeeded by William O. Douglas.)
1965: During the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, an extended bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese.
1980: The 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.
1991: During Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
1996: The rock musical “Rent,” by Jonathan Larson, opened off-broadway less than three weeks after Larson’s death.
2000: Charles Schulz’s final “Peanuts” strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died in his sleep at his California home at age 77.
2002: John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in September 2019 after serving 17 years of that sentence.)
2011: Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who’d helped topple President Hosni Mubarak.
2013: Beginning a long farewell to his flock, a weary Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final public Mass as pontiff, presiding over Ash Wednesday services inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Actor Kim Novak is 89. Actor Bo Svenson (“Walking Tall”) is 81. Actor Stockard Channing is 78. Talk show host Jerry Springer is 78. Singer Peter Gabriel is 72. Actor David Naughton is 71. Bassist Peter Hook of New Order and Joy Division is 66. Actor Matt Salinger is 62. Singer Henry Rollins is 61. Actor Neal Mcdonough (“Boomtown”) is 56. Singer Freedom Williams (C & C Music Factory) is 56. Actor Kelly Hu (“Martial Law”) is 54. Singer Matt Berninger of The National is 51. Bassist Todd Harrell (3 Doors Down) is 50. Drummer Scott Thomas of Parmalee is 49. Singer Feist is 46. MC Natalie Stewart of Floetry is 43. Actor Mena Suvari is 43.