This Day in History - February 22

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Today's Highlights

2001: In a landmark human-rights decision, the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia find three Bosnian Serb soldiers guilty of raping, torturing and enslaving Muslim women during the 1991-95 ethnic conflicts between the Serbs, Croats and Muslims in Bosnia.

Other Events

1495: French forces under King Charles VIII enter Naples in Italy.

1630: English settlers in America discover how to make popcorn.

1759: French abandon siege of Madras, India, on arrival of British fleet.

1819: Spain cedes Florida to the United States.

1828: Peace of Turkmanchai by which Persia cedes part of Armenia, including Yerevan, to Russia.

1848: Revolt erupts in Paris due to failure of Louis Philippe's reign.

1862: American Jefferson Davis is inaugurated as Confederate President.

1879: Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a five-cent store in Utica, New York.

1924: Calvin Coolidge delivers the first presidential radio broadcast from the White House.

1942: Tribesmen in the Philippines wipe out a Japanese regiment during World War II.

1945: US Third Army crosses Saar River south of Saarburg, Germany, in World War II.

1964: Ghana becomes one-party Socialist state.

1966: Uganda's Prime Minister Milton Obote orders five cabinet members arrested and assumes full power.

1972: Qatar's heir apparent, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, overthrows oil state's emir Sheik Ahmed in bloodless coup.

1975: Military government of Ethiopia announces that 2,300 guerrillas have been killed in fighting in Eritrea.

1980: In a stunning upset, the US Olympic hockey team defeats the Soviets at Lake Placid, New York, 4-to-3.

1986: Philippines armed forces break with the government of President Ferdinand E Marcos, precipitating his downfall.

1990: Last Stalin statue topples in Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.

1991: US President George Bush demands that Saddam Hussein begin unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait by noon of following day or risk ground war with allied forces.

1992: Shiite militias in Lebanon agree not to fire rockets into Israel, ending a week of heavy fighting with Israeli troops.

1993: Artillery duels between Israel's militia and pro-Iranian guerrillas kill a UN peacekeeper and a villager in southern Lebanon.

1994: US authorities say that the CIA's former top Soviet spycatcher Aldrich Hazen Ames actually spied for the Soviet Union. He is later sentenced to life in prison.

1995: France accuses five Americans of political and economic spying and orders them to leave the country.

1996: Russia and the head of the International Monetary Fund reach a deal for a loan of more than $10 billion.

1997: Fleeing fighting, 30,000 refugees from Rwanda and Burundi leave their refugee camp in eastern Zaire.

1998: Tamil separatist rebel gunboats attack a 12-ship convoy carrying soldiers to northern Sri Lanka, killing up to 80 people.

1999: Fighting flares in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav army as the deadline for peace talks in France nears.

2000: Space shuttle Endeavor and its crew of six return to Earth with more than a week's worth of radar images that will be transformed into the finest maps of the planet.

2002: Angolan officials say government troops killed Jonas Savimbi, leader of the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, in a gun battle between soldiers and rebel members.

2005: Icelandic immigration authorities agree to grant the former American chess champion Bobby Fischer a special passport for foreigners that would allow him to travel to Western Europe.

2006: Insurgents disguised as police trigger bombs inside one of Iraq's most famous Shiite shrines, destroying its golden dome and triggering reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques.

2007: The UN nuclear watchdog announces findings that Iran has expanded its uranium enrichment programme instead of complying with a UN Security Council ultimatum to freeze it, clearing the way for harsher sanctions against Tehran.

2008: Turkish troops launch a ground incursion across the border into Iraq in pursuit of separatist Kurdish rebels, escalating Turkey's conflict with the militants.

Today’s Birthdays:

George Washington, first US president (1732-1799); Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860); Frederick Chopin, Polish composer (1810-1849); John Mills, British actor (1908-2005); Jonathan Demme, US director (1944--); Drew Barrymore, US actress (1975--); James Blunt, British singer (1977--).

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This Day in History - February 22