By The Associated Press
- Today is Thursday, Feb. 18, the 49th day of 1999. There are 316
days left in the year.
- On Feb. 18, 1861, Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of
the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Ala.
- In 1516, Mary Tudor, the Queen of England popularly known as
"Bloody Mary," was born in Greenwich Palace.
- In 1546, Martin Luther, leader of the Protestant Reformation in
Germany, died.
- In 1564, the artist Michelangelo died in Rome.
- In 1885, Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was
published in the United States for the first time.
- In 1930, the ninth planet of our solar system, Pluto, was
discovered.
- In 1960, the Winter Olympic Games were formally opened in Squaw
Valley, Calif., by Vice President Nixon.
- In 1970, the Chicago Seven defendants were found innocent of
conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic national
convention.
- In 1972, the California Supreme Court struck down the state's
death penalty.
- In 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing
747, went on its maiden "flight" above the Mojave Desert.
- In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as the 104th justice of
the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Ten years ago: Author Salman Rushdie, under a death sentence
from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini for his book "The Satanic Verses,"
expressed regret for any distress he'd caused Muslims.
- Five years ago: President Clinton notified Congress he was
prepared to order bombing by U.S. warplanes in Bosnia. At the
Winter Olympic Games in Norway, speedskater Dan Jansen finally won
a gold medal, breaking the world record in the 1,000 meters.
- One year ago: President Clinton's foreign policy team
encountered jeers during a town meeting at Ohio State University
while trying to defend the administration's threat to bomb Iraq
into compliance with UN weapons edicts. Sportscaster Harry Caray
died in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at age 83.
*Happy Birthday*
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- Songwriter-musician Pee Wee King is 85.
- Actor Jack Palance is 78.
- Actor George Kennedy is 74.
- Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) is 72.
- Author Toni Morrison is 68.
- Movie director Milos Forman is 67.
- Singer Yoko Ono is 66.
- Singer Dennis DeYoung (Styx) is 52.
- Producer-director-writer John Hughes is 49.
- Actress Cybill Shepherd is 49.
- Singer Juice Newton is 47.
- Singer Randy Crawford is 47.
- Actor John Travolta is 45.
- Game show host Vanna White is 42.
- Actor Matt Dillon is 35.
- Rapper Dr. Dre is 34.
- Actress Molly Ringwald is 31.
- Actor Tyrone Dorzell Burton is 20.