February 12

Today's Highlight in History:
One year ago, on February 12, 1999, the Senate voted to acquit President Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice. Clinton told Americans he was "profoundly sorry" for what he had said and done in the Monica Lewinsky affair that triggered the impeachment drama.

On this date:
In 1733, English colonists led by James Oglethorpe founded Savannah, Georgia.

In 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in present-day Larue County, Kentucky.

In 1870, women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote.

In 1892, President Lincoln's birthday was declared a national holiday.

In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was founded.

In 1915, the cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington DC.

In 1924, George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in New York.

In 1940, the radio play "The Adventures of Superman" debuted on the Mutual network with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel.

In 1973, the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place.

In 1993, in a crime that shocked Britons, two ten-year-old boys lured two-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping mall in Liverpool, England, then beat him to death.

Ten years ago: President Bush rejected Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev's new initiative for troop reductions in Europe, but predicted a "major success" on arms control at the superpower summit in June.

Five years ago: Jurors from the O.J. Simpson murder trial toured the scene where Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman had been slain, then visited the estate of the former football star.

One year ago: Swarms of anxious travelers were left stranded when American Airlines again scrubbed more than a thousand flights after its pilots defied a court order and continued their mass sickout.

"Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still."

-- President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972).