TODAY IN HISTORY

On Feb. 6, 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, the United States won official recognition and military support from France with the signing of a Treaty of Alliance in Paris.

In 1862, during the Civil War, Fort Henry in Tennessee fell to Union forces.

In 1911, Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois.

In 1922, Cardinal Archille Ratti was elected pope; he took the name Pius XI.

In 1952, Britain’s King George VI, 56, died; he was succeeded by his 25-yearold

daughter, who became Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1998, Carl Wilson, a founding member of the Beach Boys, died at age 51.

In 2008, the Bush White House defended the use of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, saying it was legal — not torture as critics argued — and had saved American lives.