Today in History for Feb. 16, 2013

Today is Saturday, Feb. 16, the 47th day of 2013. There are 318 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight:

On Feb. 16, 1968, the nation’s first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala., as the speaker of the Alabama House, Rankin Fite, placed a call from the mayor’s office in City Hall to a red telephone at the police station that was answered by U.S. Rep. Tom Bevill.

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, the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee ended as some 12,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the nickname “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”

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 by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

In 1937, Dr. Wallace H. Carothers, a research chemist for Du Pont who’d invented nylon, received a patent for the synthetic fiber.

In 1945, American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II.

In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

In 1961, the United States launched the Explorer 9 satellite.

In 1977, Janani Luwum, the Anglican archbishop of Uganda, and two other men were killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an automobile accident.

In 1987, John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being “Ivan the Terrible,” a guard at the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. (Demjanjuk was convicted, but the conviction ended up being overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.)

In 1988, seven people were shot to death during an office rampage in Sunnyvale by a man who was obsessed with a co-worker, who was wounded in the attack. (The gunman, Richard Farley, is under sentence of death.)

In 1998, a China Airlines Airbus A300-600R trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board, plus six on the ground.

Ten years ago: More than 100,000 people demonstrated in the streets of San Francisco to protest a possible U.S. invasion of Iraq. Michael Waltrip raced past leader Jimmie Johnson to win the rain-shortened Daytona 500 for the second time in three years. Eleanor “Sis” Daley, the matriarch of Chicago’s Daley political clan, died at age 95.

Five years ago: President George W. Bush, on a six-day tour of Africa, made his first stop in Benin before flying on to Tanzania. John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, picked up a total of 50 GOP national convention delegates from Michigan and Louisiana. A car plowed into a group of street-racing fans obscured by a cloud of tire smoke on an isolated Maryland highway, killing eight people in the early morning darkness.

One year ago: A federal judge in Detroit ordered life in prison for Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a young Nigerian man who’d tried to blow up a packed Northwest jetliner with a bomb concealed in his underwear. New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, died of an apparent asthma attack in Syria while reporting on the uprising against its president; he was 43. Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter died in West Palm Beach, Fla., at age 57.

Today’s birthdays: Actor Jeremy Bulloch is 68. Actor William Katt is 62. Rhythm-and-blues singer James Ingram is 61. Actor LeVar Burton is 56. Actor-rapper Ice-T is 55. Actress Lisa Loring is 55. International Tennis Hall of Famer John McEnroe is 54. Rock musician Andy Taylor is 52. Rock musician Dave Lombardo (Slayer) is 48. Actress Sarah Clarke is 42. Rock musician Taylor Hawkins (Foofighters) is 41. Olympic gold medal runner Cathy Freeman is 40. Singer Sam Salter is 38. Rapper Lupe Fiasco is 31. Pop-rock singer Ryan Follese (Hot Chelle Rae) is 26. Actress Elizabeth Olsen is 24. Actor Mike Weinberg is 20.

Thought for today: “The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We have really no absent friends.” — Elizabeth Bowen, Irish-born author (1899-1973).