Today In History [15th February, 2016]

A chronological timetable of historical events that occurred on this day in history. Historical facts of the day in the areas of military, politics, science, music, sports, arts, entertainment and more. Discover what happened today in history.

February 15

1798		The first serious fist fight occurs in Congress.
1804		New Jersey becomes the last northern state to abolish slavery.
1862		Union General Ulysses S. Grant launches a major assault on Fort Donelson, Tenn.
1869		Charges of treason against Jefferson Davis are dropped.
1898		The U.S. battleship Maine blows up in Havana Harbor, killing 268 sailors and bringing hordes of Western cowboys and gunfighters rushing to enlist in the Spanish-American War.
1900		The British threaten to use natives in the Boer War fight.
1925		The London Zoo announces it will install lights to cheer up fogged-in animals.
1934		U.S. Congress passes the Civil Works Emergency Relief Act, allotting new funds for Federal Emergency Relief Administration.
1940		Hitler orders that all British merchant ships will be considered warships.
1942		British forces in Singapore surrender to Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita.
1943		The Germans break the American Army’s lines at the Fanid-Sened Sector in Tunisia, North Africa.
1944		American bombers attack the Abbey of Monte Cassino in an effort to neutralize it as a German observation post in central Italy.
1946		Royal Canadian mounted police arrest 22 as Soviet spies.
1950		Joseph Stalin and Mao Tse-tung sign a mutual defense treaty in Moscow.
1957		Andrei Gromyko replaces Dmitri T. Shepilov as the Soviet Foreign Minister.
1961		Eighteen members of the U.S. figure skating team are lost in an airplane crash in Belgium.
1965		Canada’s maple leaf flag is raised for the first time.
1967		Thirteen U.S. helicopters are shot down in one day in Vietnam
1974		U.S. gas stations threaten to close because of federal fuel policies.
Born on February 15
1564		Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer and mathematician.
1710		Louis XV, King of France
1726		Abraham Clark, signer of Declaration of Independence.
1797		Henry Steinway, piano maker
1820		Susan B. Anthony, suffragette and political activist.
1882		John Barrymore, actor, sibling to actors Lionel Barrymore & Ethel Barrymore, father of actors John Drew Barrymore & Diana Barrymore and grandfather of actor Drew Barrymore.
1905		Harold Arlen, composer, arranger and pianist (“Stormy Weather,” “It’s Only a Paper Moon”).
1954		Matt Groening, cartoonist (The Simpsons).