TODAY IN HISTORY

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Today is Thursday, Feb. 17, the 48th day of 2022. There are 317 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Feb. 17, 1801, the U.S. House of Representatives broke an electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, electing Jefferson president; Burr became vice president.

On this date:

In 1815, the United States and Britain exchanged the instruments of ratification for the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812.

In 1863, the International Red Cross was founded in Geneva.

In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union ship USS Housatonic was rammed and sunk in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by the Confederate hand-cranked submarine HL Hunley in the first naval attack of its kind; the Hunley also sank.

In 1897, the forerunner of the National PTA, the National Congress of Mothers, convened its first meeting in Washington.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces invaded Eniwetok Atoll, encountering little initial resistance from Imperial Japanese troops. (The Americans secured the atoll less than a week later.)

In 1964, the Supreme Court, in Wesberry v. Sanders, ruled that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.

In 1972, President Richard M. Nixon departed the White House with his wife, Pat, on a historic trip to China.

In 1995, Colin Ferguson was convicted of six counts of murder in the December 1993 Long Island Rail Road shootings (he was later sentenced to a minimum of 200 years in prison).

In 2014, Jimmy Fallon made his debut as host of NBC’s “Tonight Show.”

Today’s Birthdays: Football Hall of Famer Jim Brown is 86. Actor Rene Russo is 68. Actor Richard Karn is 66. Actor Lou Diamond Phillips is 60. Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is 59. Actor-comedian Larry the Cable Guy is 59. Actor Denise Richards is 51. Country singer Bryan White is 48. Actor Kelly Carlson is 46. Actor Jason Ritter is 42. TV personality Paris Hilton is 41. Singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is 31.

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