Today is Saturday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2019. There are 318 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight: On Feb. 16, 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a-half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
On this date:
In 1868, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.
In 1945, American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.
In 1948, NBC TV began airing its first nightly newscast, “The Camel Newsreel Theatre,” which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.
In 1961, the United States launched the Explorer 9 satellite.
In 1996, eleven people were killed in a fiery collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a Maryland commuter train in Silver Spring, Md.
In 1998, a China Airlines Airbus A300 trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board, plus seven on the ground.
In 2003, more than 100,000 people demonstrated in the streets of San Francisco to protest a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Today’s birthdays: Jazz/pop singer-actress Peggy King is 89. Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 74. Actor William Katt is 68. Actor LeVar Burton is 62. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 61. Olympic gold medal runner Cathy Freeman is 46. Actor Mahershala Ali is 45. Singer Sam Salter is 44. Electronic dance music artist Bassnectar is 41. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 37. Actress Elizabeth Olsen is 30.
Thought for today: “There are two kinds of man: the ones who make history and the ones who endure it.”
— Camilo Jose Cela, Nobel Prize-winning Spanish author (1916-2002).
— Associated Press
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