TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Monday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2023. There are 321 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history
On Feb. 13, 1935, a jury in New Jersey found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)
On this date
In 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.)
In 1933, the Warsaw Convention, governing airlines’ liability for international carriage of persons, luggage and goods, went into effect.
In 1972, “Cabaret,” directed by Bob Fosse, based on John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical of the same name, starring Liza Minnelli and Michael York, was released.
In 1980, the 13th Winter Olympics opened in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, allied warplanes destroyed an underground shelter in Baghdad that had been identified as a military command center; Iraqi officials said 500 civilians were killed.
In 2000, Charles Schulz’s final “Peanuts” strip ran in Sunday newspapers, the day after the cartoonist died in his sleep at his Santa Rosa home at age 77.
In 2002, John Walker Lindh pleaded not guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. (Lindh later pleaded guilty to lesser offenses and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He was released in September 2019 after serving 17 years of that sentence.)
In 2011, Egypt’s military leaders dissolved parliament, suspended the constitution and promised elections in moves cautiously welcomed by protesters who’d helped topple President Hosni Mubarak.
In 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, the influential conservative and most provocative member of the U.S. Supreme Court, was found dead at a private residence in the Big Bend area of West Texas; he was 79.
Ten years ago: Beginning a long farewell to his flock, a weary Pope Benedict XVI celebrated his final public Mass as pontiff, presiding over Ash Wednesday services inside St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican.
Five years ago:
President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, said he had paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to an adult film star who claimed to have had a sexual relationship with Trump.
Today’s birthdays
Actor Kim Novak is 90. Actor Stockard Channing is 79. Talk show host Jerry Springer is 79. Singer Peter Gabriel is 73. Musician Peter Hook is 67. Actor Matt Salinger is 63. Singer Henry Rollins is 62. Actor Neal McDonough is 57. Singer Freedom Williams is 57. Singer Matt Berninger (The National) is 52. Musician Scott Thomas (Parmalee) is 50. Singer Robbie Williams is 49. Actor Mena Suvari is 44. Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (aka Prince Michael Jackson I) is 26.