Today's Highlight in History:
On February 23rd, 1945, during World War Two, US Marines on Iwo Jima captured Mount Suribachi, where they raised the American flag.
On this date:
In 1822, Boston was granted a charter to incorporate as a city.

In 1836, the siege of the Alamo began in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1847, US troops under General Zachary Taylor defeated Mexican General Santa Anna at the Battle of Buena Vista¹ in Mexico.

In 1848, the sixth president of the United States, John Quincy Adams, died of a stroke at age 80.

In 1861, President-elect Lincoln arrived secretly in Washington to take office, an assassination² plot having been foiled in Baltimore.

In 1870, Mississippi was readmitted to the Union.

In 1927, President Coolidge signed a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner³ of the Federal Communications Commission.

In 1954, the first mass inoculation⁴ of children against polio with the Salk vaccine⁵ began in Pittsburgh.

In 1965, Stan Laurel -- the "skinny" half of the Laurel and Hardy⁶ comedy team -- died in Santa Monica, California.

In 1997, scientists in Scotland announced they had succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named "Dolly."

Ten years ago: Former Salvadoran President Jose Napoleon Duarte died at age 64.

Five years ago: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above the four-thousand mark for the first time, ending the day at four-thousand-three-point-33. Administration officials said President Clinton would review dozens of affirmative action programs. Former US President Jimmy Carter arrived in Haiti to help prepare for peaceful elections.

One year ago: A jury in Jasper, Texas, convicted white supremacist John William King of murder in the gruesome dragging death of a black man, James Byrd Junior; King was sentenced to death two days later. Serbs agreed in principle to give limited self-rule to majority ethnic⁷ Albanians in Kosovo, thereby⁸ avoiding for the time being threatened NATO air strikes, but the two sides failed to conclude a deal for ending their yearlong conflict during talks in Rambouillet, France. The first of two avalanches⁹ that claimed 38 lives over two days struck in Austria.