TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, FEB. 13, the 44th day of 2023. There are 321 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1935, a jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.) In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.) In 1965, during the Vietnam War, President Lyndon B. Johnson authorized Operation Rolling Thunder, an extended bombing campaign against the North Vietnamese. In 1972, “Cabaret,” directed by Bob Fosse, based on John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical of the same name, starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, was released. In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, New York.
In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed. In 2002, John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, to conspiring to kill Americans, and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in September 2019 after serving 17 years of that sentence.) In 2011, Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves welcomed cautiously by protesters who’d helped topple President Hosni Mubarak. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Kim Novak is 90. Actor Stockard Channing and talk show host Jerry Springer are 79. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is 77. Singer Peter Gabriel is 73. Rock musician Peter Hook is 67. Actor Neal McDonough and singer Freedom Williams are 57. Actor Kelly Hu is 55. Rock singer Singer Robbie Williams is 49. Singer-songwriter Feist is 47. R&B performer Natalie Stewart and actor Mena Suvari are 44.