TODAY IN HISTORY
On Feb. 27, 1933, Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire; Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, used the fire to justify suspending civil liberties.
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In 1922, the Supreme Court, in Leser v. Garnett, upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of women to vote.
In 1939, the Supreme Court, in National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp., effectively outlawed sit-down strikes.
In 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.
In 1968, at the conclusion of a CBS News special report on the Vietnam War, Walter Cronkite delivered a commentary in which he said the conflict appeared “mired in stalemate.”
In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. (The occupation lasted until the following May.)
In 1982, Wayne Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young Blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period. (Williams, who was also blamed for 22 other deaths, has maintained his innocence.)
In 1991, Operation Desert Storm came to a conclusion as President George H.W. Bush declared that “Kuwait is liberated, Iraq’s army is defeated,” and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight, Eastern Time.
In 1998, with the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch’s first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as any first-born son.
In 2003, children’s television host Fred Rogers died in Pittsburgh at age 74.
Ten years ago: Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I who’d also survived being a civilian prisoner of war in the Philippines in World War II, died in Charles Town, West Virginia, at age 110.
Five years ago: A violent altercation between Ku Klux Klan members and counter-protesters in Anaheim, California, left three people stabbed.
One year ago: President Donald Trump declared that a widespread U.S. outbreak of the virus was not inevitable, even as top health authorities at his side warned that more infections were coming.