TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, FEB. 11, the 42nd day of 2023. There are 323 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation. In 660 B.C., tradition holds that Japan was founded as Jimmu ascended the throne as the country’s first emperor. In 1847, American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio. In 1937, a six-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union. In 1963, American author and poet Sylvia Plath was found dead in her London flat, a suicide; she was 30. In 1975, Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party. In 1979, followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran. In 1990, South African activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in captivity.
In 2006, Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded Harry Whittington, a companion during a weekend quail-hunting trip in Texas. In 2008, the Pentagon charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks. In 2020, the World Health Organization gave the official name of COVID-19 to the disease caused by the coronavirus that had emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Bandleader Sergio Mendes is 82. Actor Philip Anglim is 71. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is 70. Actor Carey Lowell is 62. Singer Sheryl Crow is 61. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is 59. Actor Jennifer Aniston is 54. Actor Damian Lewis is 52. Actor Marisa Petroro is 51. Singer D’Angelo is 49. Actor Brice Beckham is 47. Rock vocalist Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park) is 46. Singer-actor Brandy is 44. Country musician Jon Jones (The Eli Young Band) and actor Matthew Lawrence are 43. R&B singer Kelly Rowland is 42. Actor Natalie Dormer is 41. Actor Taylor Lautner is 31.