[Gravdigr]

February 15

1493 – While on board the Niña, Christopher Columbus writes an open letter (widely distributed upon his return to Portugal) describing his discoveries and the unexpected items he came across in the New World.

1764 – The city of St. Louis is established in Spanish Louisiana (now in Missouri, USA).

1879 – Women's rights: US President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.

1898 – The battleship USS Maine explodes and sinks in Havana harbor in Cuba, killing 274. This event leads the United States to declare war on Spain.;

1925 – The 1925 serum run to Nome: The second delivery of serum arrives in Nome, Alaska.

1933 – In Miami, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to assassinate US President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but instead shoots Chicago mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds on March 6, 1933.

1944 – World War II: The assault on Monte Cassino, Italy begins.

1946 – ENIAC, the first electronic general-purpose computer, is formally dedicated at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

1949 – Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.

1954 – Canada and the United States agree to construct the Distant Early Warning Line, a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic regions of Canada and Alaska.

1965 – A new red-and-white maple leaf design is adopted as the flag of Canada, replacing the old Canadian Red Ensign banner.

1971 – The decimalisation of British coinage is completed on Decimal Day.

1972 – Sound recordings are granted U.S. federal copyright protection for the first time.

1989 – Soviet war in Afghanistan: The Soviet Union officially announces that all of its troops have left Afghanistan.

2001 – The first draft of the complete human genome is published in Nature.

2012 – Three hundred sixty people die in a fire at a Honduran prison in the city of Comayagua.

2013 – A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1,500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. This happens unexpectedly only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.

Births

1564 – Galileo Galilei, 1797 – Henry E. Steinway, 1809 – Cyrus McCormick, 1812 – Charles Lewis Tiffany, 1820 – Susan B. Anthony, 1874 – Ernest Shackleton, 1892 – James Forrestal, 1907 – Cesar Romero, 1914 – Hale Boggs, 1914 – Kevin McCarthy, 1918 – Allan Arbus, 1918 – Hank Locklin, 1927 – Harvey Korman, 1928 – Norman Bridwell, 1931 – Claire Bloom, 1935 – Roger B. Chaffee, 1951 – Melissa Manchester, 1951 – Jane Seymour, 1954 – Matt Groening, 1955 – Janice Dickinson, 1955 – Christopher McDonald, 1957 – Jake E. Lee, 1957 – Jimmy Spencer, 1964 – Chris Farley, 1971 – Alex Borstein

Deaths

1965 – Nat King Cole, 1973 – Wally Cox, 1981 – Mike Bloomfield, 1984 – Ethel Merman, 1988 – Richard Feynman, 1996 – McLean Stevenson, 2016 – Vanity