TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, FEB. 12, the 43rd day of 2018. There are 322 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin, now LaRue, County, Ky.
In 1554, Lady Jane Grey, who had claimed the throne of England for nine days, and her husband, Guildford Dudley, were beheaded after being condemned for high treason.
In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.
In 1914, groundbreaking took place for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. A year later on this date, the cornerstone was laid.
In 1924, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” premiered in New York.
In 1940, the radio play “The Adventures of Superman” debuted with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.
In 1959, the redesigned Lincoln penny — with an image of the Lincoln Memorial replacing two ears of wheat on the reverse side — went into circulation.
In 1963, a Northwest Orient Airlines Boeing 720 broke up during severe turbulence and crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing all 43 people aboard.
In 1973, Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam
conflict took place.
In 1980, the FBI announced that about $5,800 of the $200,000 ransom paid to hijacker “D.B. Cooper,” before he parachuted from a Northwest Orient jetliner in 1971, was found by an 8-year-old boy on a riverbank of the Columbia River in Washington state.
In 1993, in a crime that shocked and outraged Britons, two 10-year-old boys lured 2-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping mall near Liverpool, England, then beat him to death.
In 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Bill Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Movie director Franco Zeffirelli is 95. Movie director Costa-Gavras is 85. Basketball Hallof-Famer Bill Russell is 84. Actor Joe Don Baker is 82. Author Judy Blume is 80. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is 76. Actor Cliff DeYoung is 72. Actor Michael Ironside and rock musician Steve Hackett are 68. Actor-talk show host Arsenio Hall is 62. Actor John Michael Higgins is 55. Actress Christine Elise is 53. Actor Josh Brolin and singer Chynna Phillips are 50. Rock musician Jim Creeggan (Barenaked Ladies) is 48. Actor Jesse Spencer is 39. Actresses Sarah Lancaster and Christina Ricci are 38. NFL quarterback Robert Griffin III is 28. Actress Jennifer Stone is 25. Actresses Baylie and Rylie Cregut (TV: “Raising Hope”) are eight.