Today In History
Today is Thursday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2023. There are 324 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY
On Feb. 16, 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
ON THIS DATE
› 1862: The Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee ended as some 12,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”
› 1918: Lithuania proclaimed its independence from the Russian Empire. (Lithuania, which was occupied by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, then the Soviet Union again during World War II, renewed its independence in 1990).
› 1923: The burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.
› 1945: American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.
› 1960: The nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton departed New London, Connecticut, on the first submerged circumnavigation by a vessel.
› 1996: Eleven people were killed in a fiery collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland commuter train in Silver Spring, Maryland.
› 1998: A China Airlines Airbus A300 trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board, plus seven on the ground.
› 2001: The United States and Britain staged air strikes against radar stations and air defense command centers in Iraq.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Jazz/pop singer-actor Peggy King is 93. Actor William Katt is 72. Actor LeVar Burton is 66. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 65. International Tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe is 64. Rock musician Andy Taylor is 62. Rock musician Dave Lombardo (Slayer) is 58. Actor Sarah Clarke is 52. Olympic gold medal runner Cathy Freeman is 50. Actor Mahershala Ali is 49. Electronic dance music artist Bassnectar is 45. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 41. Actor Chloe Wepper is 37. Pop-rock singer Ryan Follese (Hot Chelle Rae) is 36. Sen. John Ossoff, D-Ga., is 36. Rock musician Danielle Haim is 34. Actor Elizabeth Olsen is 34.