Today is Shrove Tuesday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2010. There are 318 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
On Feb. 16, 1960, the nuclear-powered radar picket submarine USS Triton departed Connecticut on the first-ever totally submerged circumnavigation by a vessel, which took nearly three months.
ON THIS DATE
In 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates.
In 1862, during the Civil War, about 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn.
In 1868, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.
In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen’s recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.
In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba about six weeks after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1968, the nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.
In 1998, a China Airlines Airbus A300-600R trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board.
In 2005, the NHL canceled what was left of its schedule after a round of last-gasp negotiations failed to resolve differences over a salary cap — the flash-point issue that had led to a lockout.
Associated Press
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