TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1933

Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire; Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, used the fire to justify suspending civil liberties.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1922

The Supreme Court, in Leser v. Garnett, unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of women to vote.

1939

The Supreme Court, in National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., effectively outlawed sit-down strikes.

1942

The Battle of the Java Sea began during World War

II; Imperial Japanese naval forces scored a decisive victory over the Allies.

1951

The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.

1968

At the conclusion of a CBS News special report on the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite delivered a commentary in which he said the conflict appeared “mired in stalemate.”

1973

Members of the American Indian Movement occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890massacre of Sioux men, women and children.

1991

Operation Desert Storm came to a conclusion as 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.

2003

Children’s television host Fred Rogers died in Pittsburgh at age 74.

2015

Actor Leonard Nimoy, 83, known for playing Mr. Spock in “Star Trek,” died.