THURSDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Thursday, Feb. 23, the 54th day of 2017. There are 311 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On Feb. 23, 1942, the first shelling of the U.S. mainland during World War II occurred as a Japanese submarine fired on an oil refinery near Santa Barbara, Calif., causing little damage.

On this date:

In 1836, the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an agreement with Cuba to lease the area around Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.

In 1945, during World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised a pair of American flags.

In 1954, the first mass inoculation of schoolchildren against polio using the Salk vaccine began in Pittsburgh as some 5,000 students were vaccinated.

In 1989, the Senate Armed Services Committee voted 11-9 along party lines to recommend rejection of John Tower as President George H.W. Bush’s defense secretary.

In 1997, a 69-year-old Palestinian teacher opened fire on the 86th-floor observation deck of New York’ s Empire State Building, killing one person and wounding six others before shooting himself to death.

Ten years ago: A Mississippi grand jury refused to bring any new charges in the 1955 slaying of Emmett Till, the black teenager who was beaten and shot for supposedly whistling at a white woman, declining to indict the woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, for manslaughter.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama sought to confront public anxiety over rising gasoline prices as he promoted the expansion of domestic oil and gas exploration, as well as the development of new forms of energy.

One year ago: Donald Trump won the Nevada Republican caucuses.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Peter Fonda is 77. Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff is 74. Author John Sandford is 73. Former NFL player Ed “Too Tall” Jones is 66. Actress Emily Blunt is 34. Actor Aziz An sari is 34. Actress Dakota Fanning is 23.

Thought for Today: “Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” — Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (1901-1978).