February 15 Birthdays

February 15 in History

1764

St. Louis, Mo., was founded as a French fur-trading post.

1879

President Rutherford Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

1898

USS Maine blew up in Havana harbor, touching off the Spanish-American War.

1913

The New York Armory Show opened, introducing America to Picasso, Duchamp, and Matisse.

1933

Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak was killed in an assassination attempt on president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami.

1965

The Maple Leaf Flag officially became the new national flag of Canada.

1989

More than 100,000 Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan almost 10 years after the USSR invaded the country.

2002

Olympics officials resolved the judging scandal by awarding Canadian pairs figure skaters Jamie Sale and David Pelletier a gold medal while allowing the Russians, Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze, to keep their medal.

2003

Millions of protesters around the world demonstrated against the threat of a U.S. war on Iraq.

2012

A prison fire in Comayagua, Honduras killed 360.