TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, FEB. 15, the 46th day of 2023. There are 319 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:

On this date in 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court. In 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the U.S. closer to war with Spain.

In 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks later.

In 1944, Allied bombers destroyed the monastery atop Monte Cassino in Italy. In 1950, Walt Disney’s animated film “Cinderella” premiered in Boston. In 1961, 73 people, including an 18-member U.S. figure skating team en route to the World Championships in Czechoslovakia, were killed in the crash of a Sabena Airlines Boeing 707 in Belgium.

In 1992, a Milwaukee jury found that Jeffrey Dahmer was sane when he killed and mutilated 15 men and boys. (The decision meant that Dahmer, who had already pleaded guilty to the murders, would receive a mandatory life sentence for each count; Dahmer was beaten to death in prison in 1994.)

In 2003, millions of protesters around the world demonstrated against the prospect of a U.S. attack on Iraq.

In 2005, defrocked priest Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges.

In 2020, the U.S. government said Americans on board a cruise ship under quarantine in Japan because of the coronavirus would be flown back home on a chartered flight, but that they would face another two-week quarantine; about 380 Americans were aboard the Diamond Princess.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Jane Seymour and singer Melissa Manchester are 72. “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening is 69. Actorcomedian Steven Michael Quezada is 60. Actors Alex Borstein and Renee O’Connor are 52. Actor-director Miranda July is 49.