On this day, Feb. 17
1801 The U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president.
1815 The United States and Britain exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.
1863 The International Red Cross was founded in Geneva.
1864 During the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, S.C., by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.
1897 The forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting in Washington.
1944 During World War II, U.S. forces invaded Eniwetok Atoll, encountering little initial resistance from Imperial Japanese troops. (The Americans secured the atoll less than a week later.)
1972 President Richard M. Nixon departed the White House with his wife, Pat, on a historic trip to China.
1988 Lt. Col. William Higgins, a Marine Corps officer serving with a United Nations truce monitoring group, was kidnapped in southern Lebanon by Iranian-backed terrorists (he was later slain by his captors).
1995 Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings (he was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison).
2013 Danica Patrick won the Daytona 500 pole, becoming the first woman to secure the top spot for any Sprint Cup race.
2015 Vice President Joe Biden opened a White House summit on countering extremism and radicalization, saying the United States needed to ensure that immigrants were fully included in the fabric of American society to prevent violent ideologies from taking root at home. Lindsay Today’s birthdays: Actor Christina Pickles,
89. Actor Brenda Fricker, 79. Actor Becky
Ann Baker, 71. Actor Rene Russo, 70. Actor Richard Karn, 68. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips, 62. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan, 61. Actor-comedian Larry, the Cable Guy, 61. TV personality Rene
Syler, 61. Movie director Michael Bay, 60. Singer Chante Moore, 57. Actor Dominic Purcell, 54. Olympic gold and silver medal skier Tommy Moe, 54. Actor Denise Richards, 53. Rock singer-musician Billie Joe Armstrong (Green Day), 52. Actor Jerry O’Connell, 50. Actor Kelly Carlson, 48. Actor Ashton Holmes, 46. Actor Conrad Ricamora, 45. Actor Jason Ritter, 44. TV personality Paris Hilton, 43. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 43. TV host Daphne Oz, 38.