Home Cartoonist On This Day in History – February 15 – Almanac

On This Day in History – February 15 – Almanac

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Injured inmates are evacuated after a fire broke out at a prison in the city of Comayagua, Honduras, February 15, 2012. File photo by Gustavo Amador/EPA

Today is Tuesday, February 15, the 46th day of 2022 with 319 to follow.

The moon is growing. The morning stars are Mars, Mercury, Uranus and Venus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Neptune and Uranus.


People born on this date are under the sign of Aquarius. They include: Italian astronomer/physicist Galileo Galilei in 1564; French King Louis XV in 1710; jeweler Charles Tiffany in 1812; the pioneering feminist Susan B. Anthony in 1820; British philosopher/mathematician Alfred North Whitehead in 1861; actor John Barrymore in 1882; illustrator Lillian Disney in 1899; songwriter Harold Arlen in 1905; actor Cesar Romero in 1907; Miep Gies, née Héroine Santruschitz, who helped hide Anne Frank and her family, in 1909; actor Harvey Korman in 1927; actor Claire Bloom in 1931 (age 91); astronaut Roger Chaffee in 1935; Football Hall of Famer John Hadl in 1940 (age 82); actor Marisa Berenson in 1947 (age 75); actor Jane Seymour in 1951 (age 71); singer Melissa Manchester in 1951 (age 71); The Simpsons cartoonist Matt Groening in 1954 (age 68); model/TV personality Janice Dickinson in 1955 (age 67); musician Ali Campbell in 1959 (age 63); comedian Chris Farley in 1964; astronaut Leland Devon Melvin in 1964 (age 58); actor Renee O’Connor in 1971 (age 51); actor Alex Borstein in 1971 (age 51); filmmaker Miranda July in 1974 (age 48); musician Brandon Boyd in 1976 (age 46); the musician Conor Oberst in 1980 (42 years old); filmmaker Matt Duffer in 1984 (age 38); filmmaker Ross Duffer in 1984 (age 38); actor/singer Amber Riley in 1986 (age 36); singer Megan Thee Stallion, born Megan Jovon Ruth Pete, in 1995 (27 years old)).


On this historical date:

In 1764, the city of St. Louis was founded along the Mississippi River.

In 1898, the American battleship Maine exploded in the port of Havana, killing 260 crew members and prompting an American declaration of war against Spain.

In 1933, US President-elect Franklin Roosevelt narrowly escaped assassination in Miami when multiple shots were fired at him, fatally wounding Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak.

In 1942, the British stronghold of Singapore surrendered to the Japanese army.

In 1953, Tenley Albright became the first American to win the world figure skating championship at the age of 17.

In 1961, all 18 members of the United States figure skating team were killed when their plane crashed in Belgium while traveling to an international competition in Prague. Among the dead were reigning U.S. champion Laurence Owen, 16, her mother, nine-time U.S. champion Maribel Vinson Owen, and her sister, couples champion Maribel Owen, 20.

In 1965, Canada adopted a new national flag with a maple leaf emblem.

In 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger capsized and sank in a storm off Newfoundland. All 84 people on board were lost.

In 1989 Radio Moscow announced that the last Soviet soldier had left Kabul, Afghanistan.

In 1992, a jury found Jeffrey Dahmer sane and guilty of murdering 15 young men and boys, sentencing him to life in prison.

In 1996, a Liberian-registered tanker, the Sea Empress, ran aground off the coast of Wales, spilling 72,000 tonnes of crude oil into the sea.

In 2002, the discovery of a human skull in a wooded area near a crematorium in Georgia led investigators to discover the remains of more than 300 bodies that were meant to be cremated but were instead piled up in sheds and in the drink.

In 2005, a US appeals court in Washington ruled that journalists do not have First Amendment privilege to protect confidential sources.

In 2008, Steve Fossett, the 63-year-old millionaire commodities trader turned record aviator, was pronounced legally dead five months after he disappeared while flying in Nevada.

In 2012, a fire broke out in an overcrowded prison in Honduras, killing 359 inmates and a visiting woman, one of the worst prison fire deaths in history. One of the convicts was suspected of having triggered the rapid conflagration by setting fire to his mattress.

In 2013, Russian officials said a shower of meteorite fragments hit the Chelyabinsk region, injuring more than 1,000 people, most of the victims hit by broken window glass.

In 2019, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on the US-Mexico border to divert billions of federal dollars to building walls.

In 2021, the World Trade Organization appointed US-educated Nigerian economist Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as its chief executive, making her the first African and first woman to lead the body.


Thought for the day: American suffragist Susan B. Anthony said, “Woman should not depend on man’s protection, but should learn to protect herself.