Sunday, February 15, 1998
Today's events
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Somali factions are to meet at a national reconciliation conference.
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On the horizon
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On Monday, February 16, deadline is scheduled for
decision in Microsoft Corp. case involving whether temporary
workers should receive benefits.
On Tuesday, February 17, the trial of Jonathan Norman, charged with stalking film director Steven Spielberg, is scheduled to start in Santa Monica, California.
On Wednesday, February 18, multiparty talks on Northern Ireland's future open in Dublin.
On Thursday, February 19, preparatory talks will be held in London for an ASEM leaders summit in April.
On Friday, February 20, the start of the "Women of Color and Allies Summit:
Linking Arms in Dangerous Times" begins in Arlington, Virginia.
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On this day
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In 1368, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor in 1433-37, born. He
was also king of Hungary, Germany, Lombard and Bohemia.
In 1564, Galileo, Italian mathematician, astronomer and
physicist, born. He developed the astronomical telescope with
which he discovered craters on the moon and the satellites of
Jupiter.
In 1637, Emperor Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor, archduke of
Austria and king of Bohemia and Hungary, died.
In 1710, Louis XV, king of France from 1715 to 1774, born.
In 1763, the Treaty of Hubertusburg was signed, ending
hostilities between Austria and Prussia in the Seven Years' War.
In 1898, the Spanish-American War began after the battleship
USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor. The cause of the explosion still remains
a mystery.
In 1922, the Permanent Court of International Justice, sitting
at The Hague in the Netherlands, held its first session.
In 1928, Herbert Henry Asquith, Liberal British prime minister
1908-1916, died. He was responsible for the Parliament Act of
1911 which limited the power of the House of Lords.
In 1933, Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian-born anarchist, failed
in his attempt to assassinate U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt in Miami.
In 1942, in Singapore, a British-led allied force of some
85,000 troops, bombarded and cut off from support and supplies
after a weeklong battle, surrendered to a Japanese invading
force less than half its size.
In 1944, the monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy was bombed by
Allied aircraft.
In 1965, Canada adopted the Red Maple Leaf as its new national
flag.
In 1971, Britain changed over to decimal currency from pounds,
shillings and pence.
In 1984, Ethel Merman, U.S. actress and singer, died. Star of
Broadway musicals including "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Call Me
Madam."
In 1989, more than 100,000 Soviet troops left Afghanistan under a
U.N.-brokered accord 10 years after Moscow sent troops to help
the tottering Marxist government in Kabul.
In 1990, Britain and Argentina restored full diplomatic ties,
affirming reconciliation after their 1982 war for the Falkland
Islands.
In 1992, two Spaniards completed the first east-west balloon
flight across the Atlantic when they arrived in Venezuela from
Spain.
In 1993, the Slovak parliament elected economist Michal Kovac
as newly-independent Slovakia's first president.
In 1994, North Korea ended a yearlong standoff with the
International Atomic Energy Agency, after it allowed the
agency's inspectors to check seven declared nuclear plants.
In 1996, the British government said a three-year inquiry into
arms sales to Iraq before the Gulf War had cleared ministers of
conspiracy and had revealed no official cover-up.
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Newslink
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The USS Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor 100 years ago today, killing 267 crewmen and beginning what became known as the Spanish-American War. Learn more about the war at
The Spanish-American War.
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Holidays and more
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Malaysia marks the Birthday of the Sultan.
Cartoonist Matt Groening is 44.
Actress Jane Seymour is 47.
Actor-comedian Harvey Korman is 71.
Actress Marisa Berenson is 50.
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Sources: Associated Press,
Chase's Calendar of Events 1998, J.P. Morgan
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