Shimla, Feb
2016
American jurist Antonin Scalia—who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, becoming well known for his strong legal conservatism—died in Shafter, Texas.
2008
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologized to the Australian Aboriginal peoples for abuses they had suffered under earlier administrations.
2002
The Scottish Parliament passed the Protection of Wild Mammals Bill, which made it illegal to hunt wild mammals with dogs, effectively outlawing foxhunting in Scotland.
2000
The last Peanuts comic strip was published in newspapers, just hours after the death of creator Charles Schulz.
1997
The Dow Jones Industrial Average first eclipsed the 7,000 mark, then closed at 7,022.44.
1960
France detonated its first atomic bomb in the Sahara desert.
1950
British musician Peter Gabriel, who was the lead singer of the progressive rock band Genesis before launching a successful solo career, was born.
1935
Bruno Hauptmann was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh; he received the death penalty.
1883
German composer Richard Wagner, whose operas and music had a revolutionary influence on the course of Western music, died in Venice at age 69.
1692
Scottish soldiers under Archibald Campbell, 10th earl of Argyll, slaughtered members of the MacDonald clan of Glencoe after their chief, Alexander MacDonald, missed the deadline for swearing allegiance to King William III.
1649
English author John Milton published his first political tract, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, in response to the execution of King Charles I.
1542
King Henry VIII of England had Catherine Howard, his fifth wife, beheaded on charges of adultery.
