Today in history

On Feb. 20, 1437, Scotland’s King James I was murdered by political enemies in the Scottish city of Perth.

In 1790 died.

Holy

Roman

Emperor

Joseph

II

In 1809 the Supreme Court ruled that the power of the federal government is greater than that of any one state.

In 1839 Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia.

In 1895 abolitionist Frederick died in Washington; he was 77.

Douglass

In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded “idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons” from being admitted to the United States.

In 1924 fashion designer Gloria was born in New York.

In 1927 Miami.

actor

Sidney

Poitier

Vanderbilt

was born in

In 1933 the U.S. House completed congressional action on an amendment to repeal Prohibition.

In 1944 during World War II, U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as “Big Week.”

In 1960 basketball great was born in Leeds, Ala.

Charles

Barkley

In 1962 astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, circling the globe three times inside the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

In 1974 Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee voted to test President Richard Nixon’s willingness to cooperate with its impeachment inquiry, asking the White House for specific items of Watergate evidence.

In 1978 Cyprus agreed to free Egyptian commandos who survived an airport fight with Cypriot troops while trying to free hostages on an airliner in Lanarca, Cyprus.

In 1981 the space shuttle Columbia cleared the final major hurdle to its maiden launch as the spacecraft fired its three engines in a 20-second test.

In 1985 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher told a joint session of Congress that Western military strength brought the Soviets to the bargaining table in Geneva.