Today in history

On Feb. 14, 1924, the ComputingTabulating- Recording Co. of New York was formally renamed International Business Machines Corp., or IBM.

In 1014, Henry II was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome by Pope Benedict VIII.

In 1778, the American ship Ranger carried the recently adopted Stars and Stripes to a foreign port for the first time as it arrived in France.

In 1859, Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.

In 1895, Oscar Wilde's final play, " The Importance of Being Earnest," opened at the St. James's Theatre in London.

In 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was established. ( It was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in 1913.)

In 1912, Arizona became the 48th state of the Union as President William Howard Taft signed a proclamation.

In 1929, the " St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down.

In 1949, Israel's Knesset convened for the first time.

In 1963, Federico Fellini's art- house classic " 8 ½ " was first released in Italy.

In 1979, Adolph Dubs, the U. S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by Muslim extremists and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.

In 1984, 6- year- old Stormie Jones became the world's first heart- liver transplant recipient at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh ( she lived until Nov. 1990). Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean of Britain won the gold medal in ice dancing at the Sarajevo Olympics.

In 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of " The Satanic Verses," a novel condemned as blasphemous.

Ten years ago: Guerrillas overwhelmed a police station west of Baghdad, killing 23 people and freeing dozens of prisoners. Twenty- eight people were killed when the glass- andconcrete roof of an indoor water park in Moscow collapsed.

“Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” — Jack Benny ( born this date in 1894, died

in 1974).