Today in history

Today’s highlight

On Feb. 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now Larue) County, Kentucky.

On this date

1909: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, was founded.

1912: Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty.

1973: Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.

1999: The Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.

2006: Figure skater Michelle Kwan effectively retired from competition as she withdrew from the Turin Olympics due to injury.

2013: IOC leaders dropped wrestling for the 2020 Games in a surprise decision to scrap one of the oldest sports on the Olympic program.

2019: Mexico’s most notorious drug lord, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, was convicted in New York of running an industrial-scale smuggling operation; a jury, whose members’ identities were kept secret as a security measure, had deliberated for six days.

2022: President Joe Biden called on President Vladimir Putin to pull back more than 100,000Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders and warned that the U.S. and its allies would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if Russia invaded. (Russia would invade Ukraine eight days later.)

Today’s birthdays

Author Judy Blume is 85. Actor Michael Ironside is 73. Rock musician Steve Hackett is 73. Rock singer Michael Mcdonald is 71. Actor Joanna Kerns is 70. Actor-talk show host Arsenio Hall is 67. Actor Josh Brolin is 55. Singer Chynna Phillips is 55. Rock musician Jim Creeggan (Barenaked Ladies) is 53. Actor Christina Ricci is 43. Actor Jennifer Stone is 30.