Today in history

Today is Saturday, Feb. 9, the 40th day of 2019. There are 325 days left in the year. In 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes. In 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected provisional president of the Confederate States of America at a congress held in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1942, the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff held its first formal meeting to coordinate military strategy during World War II. Daylightsaving “War Time” went into effect in the United States, with clocks moved one hour forward. The SS Normandie, a former French liner being refitted for the U.S. Navy at a New York pier, caught fire (it capsized early the next morning). In 1943, the World War II battle of Guadalcanal in the southwest Pacific ended with an Allied victory over Japanese forces. In 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, Sen. Joseph Mccarthy, R-wis., charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists.