TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1653

New Amsterdam — now New York City — was incorporated.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1876

The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York.

1887

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, held its first Groundhog Day festival.

1913

New York City’s rebuilt Grand Central Terminal officially opened to the public at one minute past midnight.

1925

The legendary Alaska Serum Run ended as the last of a series of dog mushers brought a life-saving treatment to Nome, the scene of a diphtheria epidemic, six days after the drug left Nenana.

1942

A Los Angeles Times column by W.H. Anderson urged security measures against Japanese-Americans, arguing that a Japanese-American “almost inevitably ... grows up to be a Japanese, not an American.”

1943

The remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered in a major victory for the Soviets in World War II.

1988

President Ronald Reagan pressed his case for additional aid to the Nicaraguan Contras a day ahead of a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives.

1990

In a dramatic concession to South Africa’s black majority, President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

2002

Inside the World Economic Forum in New York, foreign economic leaders criticized the United States for protectionist policies while outside, thousands of protesters demonstrated against global capitalism.