Today in History

1875 – Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen premieres in Paris.

1918 – Germany, Austria and Russia sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, which ends Russian participation in World War I.

1931 – ‘‘The Star-Spangled Banner’’ becomes the official national anthem of the United States.

1952 – The US Supreme Court upholds a New York state law that prohibits communists from teaching in public schools.

1960 – Barry Crump’s A Good Keen Man, left, is first published.

1974 – A Turkish airliner crashes in forest near Paris, killing 346 people.

1991 – Motorist Rodney King is severely beaten by Los Angeles police in a scene captured by an amateur videographer.

1993 – Health pioneer Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, dies in the US, aged 86.

1999 – An estimated 74 million US viewers watch Monica Lewinsky confess the details of her affair with

President Clinton in a TV interview.

2002 – Swiss citizens vote to become the 190th member of the United Nations, in a break with the nation’s longstanding tradition of isolationism and neutrality.

2004 – The French Senate passes a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools.

2014 – The trial of South African runner Oscar Pistorius over the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp begins in Pretoria.

2020 – Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden racks up big wins on ‘‘Super Tuesday’’ to revive his flagging campaign.

Birthdays

Alexander Graham Bell, Scottish/US inventor (1847-1922); Charles Ponzi, Italian/US fraudster (1882-1949); Jean Harlow, US actress, (1911-37); Miranda Richardson, UK actor (1958-); Jackie Joyner-Kersee, US athlete (1962-); Brian Cox, UK physicist (1968-); Ronan Keating, Irish singer (1977-); Jessica Biel, US actress (1982-); Camila Cabello, Cuban/US singer (1997-).