February 16th

Today's Highlight in History:
On February 16th, 1862, during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. (Union General Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant.")

On this date:
In 1804, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the US Navy frigate "Philadelphia," which had fallen into the hands of pirates.

In 1868, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was organized in New York City.

In 1918, Lithuania proclaimed its independence.

In 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.

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

In 1948, NBC TV began airing its first nightly newscast, "The Camel Newsreel Theatre," which consisted of Fox Movietone newsreels.

In 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

In 1968, the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Alabama.

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 1994, at least 217 people were killed when a powerful earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Ten years ago: Former President Reagan began two days of giving a videotaped deposition in Los Angeles for the Iran-Contra trial of former national security adviser John Poindexter.

Five years ago: Four people were killed when tornadoes tore through rural north Alabama. In a dark and defensive address to his nation, Russian President Boris Yeltsin berated his military leaders for big losses and human rights abuses in Chechnya, but insisted Russia had to use force to defend its unity.

One year ago: Enraged Kurds seized embassies and held hostages across Europe following Turkey's arrest of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan. Testimony began in the Jasper, Texas, trial of John William King, charged with murder in the gruesome dragging death of James Byrd Junior. (King was later convicted and sentenced to death.)

"I am content to define history as the past events of which we have knowledge and refrain from worrying about those of which we have none -- until, that is, some archeologist digs them up."

-- Barbara W. Tuchman, American historian (1912-1989).