Today in history

On Feb. 15, 1764, the site of present- day St. Louis was established by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau.

In 1564, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa.

In 1898, the U. S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain.

In 1933, President- elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks later.

In 1944, Allied bombers destroyed the monastery atop Monte Cassino ( MAWN'- tay kah- SEE'- noh) in Italy.

In 1952, a funeral was held at Windsor Castle for Britain's King George VI, who had died nine days earlier.

In 1961, 73 people, including an 18- member U. S. figure skating team en route to the World Championships in Czechoslovakia, were killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium.

In 1965, Canada's new mapleleaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa.

In 1971, Britain and Ireland " decimalised" their currencies, making one pound equal to 100 new pence instead of 240 pence.

In 1982, 84 men were killed when a huge oil- drilling rig, the Ocean Ranger, sank off the coast of Newfoundland during a fierce storm.

In 1989, the Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention.

In 1994, just as his trial was about to start, drifter Danny Harold Rolling pleaded guilty to the 1990 murders of five college students in Gainesville, Fla. ( Rolling was executed in Oct. 2006.)

In 2002, a private funeral was held at Windsor Castle for Britain's Princess Margaret, who had died six days earlier at age 71.

Ten years ago: A pair of blazes in China killed at least 93 people. Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the Daytona 500 on the same track where his father was killed three years earlier. The West defeated the East 136- 132 in the NBA All- Star game. Actress Jan Miner, best known as " Madge the Manicurist" in Palmolive TV ads, died in Bethel, Conn., at age 86.

“We live by encouragement and die without it — slowly, sadly and angrily.” — Celeste Holm, American actress ( 1917- 2012).