On this day, Feb. 11
660 B.C. tradition holds that Japan was founded as Jimmu ascended the throne as the country’s first emperor.
1847 American inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born in Milan, Ohio.
1937 A six-week-old sit-down strike against General Motors ended, with the company agreeing to recognize the United Automobile Workers Union.
1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.
1963 American author and poet Sylvia Plath was found dead in her London flat, a suicide; she was 30.
1975 Margaret Thatcher was elected leader of Britain’s opposition Conservative Party.
1979 Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power in Iran. 1990 South African Black activist Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years in prison.
2006 Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded Harry Whittington, a companion during a weekend quail-hunting trip in Texas.
2008 The Pentagon charged Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other detainees at Guantanamo Bay with murder and war crimes in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.
2011 Egypt exploded with joy after pro-democracy protesters brought down President Hosni Mubarak, whose resignation ended three decades of authoritarian rule. 2012 Singing superstar Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel room bathtub in Beverly Hills, Calif., on the eve of the Grammy Awards at age 48.
2013 With a few words in Latin, Pope Benedict XVI did what no pope had done in more than half a millennium: announced his resignation.
The bombshell came during a routine morning meeting of Vatican cardinals. The 85year-old pontiff was succeeded by Pope Francis. 2018 A Russian passenger plane crashed into a snowy field six minutes after taking off from Moscow, killing all 65 passengers and six crew members.
2020 The World Health Organization gave the official name of COVID-19 to the disease caused by the coronavirus that had emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan. 2021 At the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump, Democrats asserted that Mr. Trump had incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol, put his own vice president in danger and expressed solidarity with rioters who sought to overturn the 2020 election in his name.
2023 Rescue crews pulled more survivors, including entire families, from toppled buildings despite diminishing hopes as the death toll of the magnitude-7.8 earthquake that struck a border region of Turkey and Syria five days earlier surpassed 28,000. It would eventually reach more than 50,000.
Today’s birthdays: Gospel singer Jimmy Carter, 92. Actor Tina Louise, 90. Bandleader Sergio Mendes, 83. Actor Philip Anglim, 72. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, 71. Actor Catherine Hickland, 68. Rock musician David Uosikkinen (The Hooters), 68. Actor Carey Lowell, 63. Singer Sheryl Crow, 62. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 60. Actor Jennifer Aniston, 55. Actor Damian Lewis, 53. Actor Marisa Petroro, 52. Singer D’Angelo, 50. Actor Brice Beckham, 48. Rock vocalist Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park), 47. Singer-actor Brandy, 45. Country musician Jon Jones (The Eli Young Band), 44. Actor Matthew Lawrence, 44. R&B singer Kelly Rowland, 43. Actor Natalie Dormer, 42. Singer Aubrey O’Day, 40. Actor Q’orianka Kilcher, 34. Actor Taylor Lautner, 32.