| On this date in: |
| 1564 |
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa. |
| 1764 |
The city of St. Louis was established. |
| 1898 |
The U.S. battleship Maine blew up in Havana harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the U.S. closer to war with Spain over the issue of Cuban independence. |
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| AP Photo |
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| 1933 |
President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that claimed the life of Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak. |
| 1952 |
A funeral was held at Windsor Castle for Britain’s King George VI, who had died nine days earlier. |
| 1965 |
Canada’s new maple leaf flag was unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa. |
| 1971 |
Britain and Ireland “decimalised” their currencies, making one pound equal to 100 new pence instead of 240 pence. |
| 1989 |
The Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan after more than nine years of military intervention. |
| 2002 |
Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier were awarded a gold medal to resolve a judging controversy at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. |
| 2005 |
Defrocked priest Paul Shanley was sentenced in Boston to 12 to 15 years in prison on child rape charges. |
| 2008 |
Business tycoon Steve Fossett, 63, was declared dead five months after his small plane vanished over California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. (His remains were discovered later in the year.) |
| 2011 |
Protesters swarmed Wisconsin’s capitol after Gov. Scott Walker proposed cutbacks in benefits and bargaining rights for public employees. |
