Today in history

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Today is Tuesday, Feb. 13, the 44th day of 2018. There are 321 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 13, 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.)

On this date:

In 1542, the fifth wife of England’s King Henry VIII, Catherine Howard, was executed for adultery.

In 1741, Andrew Bradford of Pennsylvania published the first American magazine. “The American Magazine, or A Monthly View of the Political State of the British Colonies” lasted three issues.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln was officially declared winner of the 1860 presidential election as electors cast their ballots.

In 1914, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, also known as ASCAP, was founded in New York.

In 1933, the Warsaw Convention, governing airlines’ liability for international carriage of persons, luggage and goods, went into effect.

In 1935, a jury in Flemington, 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.)

In 1943, during World War II, the U.S. Marine Corps Women’s Reserve was officially established.

In 1968, actress Mae Marsh, known mostly for her silent film work (“The Birth of a Nation”; “Intolerance”), died in Hermosa Beach, California, at age 73.

In 1974, Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union.

In 1988, the 15th Winter Olympics opened in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In 1998, Dr. David Satcher was sworn in as the 16th Surgeon General of the United States during an Oval Office ceremony.

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: Under oath and sometimes blistering questioning, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens told Congress: “I have never taken steroids or HGH,” while his accuser, former personal trainer Brian McNamee, sat a few feet away. Hollywood writers returned to work a day after voting to end their 100-day strike that had disrupted the TV season and canceled awards shows. Japanese movie director Kon Ichikawa died in Tokyo at age 92.

Five 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.

One year ago: President Donald Trump’s embattled national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned following reports he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia. The Senate confirmed David Shulkin to be secretary of Veterans Affairs and Steven Mnuchin to be treasury secretary. Kim Jong Nam, the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, died after falling ill at an airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; two women are accused of killing him by smearing a nerve agent onto his face. Actor Harrison Ford mistakenly landed his single-engine plane on a taxiway of John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California, after passing over an American Airlines jet.

Today’s Birthdays: U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager (ret.) is 95. Actress Kim Novak is 85. Actor George Segal is 84. Actor Bo Svenson is 77. Actress Carol Lynley is 76. Singer-musician Peter Tork (The Monkees) is 76. Actress Stockard Channing is 74. Talk show host Jerry Springer is 74. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is 72. Singer Peter Gabriel is 68. Actor David Naughton is 67. Rock musician Peter Hook is 62. Actor Matt Salinger is 58. Singer Henry Rollins is 57. Actor Neal McDonough is 52. Singer Freedom Williams is 52. Actress Kelly Hu is 50. Rock singer Matt Berninger (The National) is 47. Rock musician Todd Harrell (3 Doors Down) is 46. Country musician Scott Thomas (Parmalee) is 45. Singer Robbie Williams is 44. Singer-songwriter Feist is 42. Rhythm-and-blues performer Natalie Stewart is 39. Actress Mena Suvari (MEE’-nuh soo-VAHR’-ee) is 39. Rock musician Dash Hutton (Haim (HY’-ehm)) is 33. Actress Katie Volding is 29. Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. (also known as Prince Michael Jackson I) is 21.

Thought for Today: “To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can have.” — Theodore H. White, American political writer (1915-1986).

By The Associated Press

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