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Feb 15 - when emperor Babur was born
On this day in 1864, Muhammad Ali became boxing champ.
Today is Tuesday, February 15, the forty sixth day of 2005.
There are 319 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1677 - England's King Charles II announces he has made an alliance with the Dutch against France.
1806 - Franco-Prussian treaty against Britain, whereby Prussia closes her ports to British ships goes into effect.
1898 - The U.S. battleship Maine blows up in harbor of Havana, Cuba, killing 260 seamen. The cause of the explosion is never determined, but U.S. newspapers use the incident to whip up support for military intervention against the Spanish rule on Cuba.
1942 - The British surrender the colony of Singapore to Japanese forces in World War II.
1944 - U.S. troops complete reconquest of Solomon Islands in Pacific Ocean in World War II; Nearly 1,000 British bombers pound Berlin, Germany.
1964 - Cassius Clay - who changed his name to Muhammad Ali - becomes the world's heavyweight boxing champion.
1965 - China's Foreign Minister Chen Yi says in Beijing that peaceful coexistence with United States is out of the question.
1970 - An Israeli oil pipeline is opened linking Eilat to Ashkelon.
1971 - Great Britain and Ireland switch to a decimal-based currency.
1973 - The United States and Cuba sign agreement calling for prosecution or extradition of hijackers of airplanes and ships.
1978 - Agreement is announced in Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe, to bring blacks into key roles in government of Prime Minister Ian Smith.
1988 - Austria's President Kurt Waldheim, accused of having a Nazi past, flatly rejects widespread calls for his resignation.
1989 - The last Soviet soldier leaves Afghanistan after a 10-year occupation.
1990 - Britain and Argentina restore diplomatic relations, broken off during the 1982 Falkland Islands War.
1991 - The South African government announces it will free all political prisoners and ANC agrees to end armed struggle against apartheid.
1992 - Heavy shellfire breaks out in Somalia's capital hours after warring factions pledged to end three months of fighting. At least 16 are injured.
1993 - Two car bombs shatter a downtown district in Bogota, Colombia, killing four and injuring more than 120.
1995 - A fire roars through a three-story nightclub in Taichung, Taiwan, killing at least 67 people and injuring 11 in Taiwan's deadliest fire on record.
1997 - In Kigali, Rwanda, three uniformed gunmen kill a Supreme Court justice, his driver and a neighbor in an attack on his home.
1998 -Nineteen explosions blamed on radical Muslim groups rock Coimbatore, Tamil nadu over two days, killing at least 56 people.
2000 - Stung by Britain's decision to suspend Northern Ireland's power-sharing government, the Irish Republican Army deepens the province's political crisis by breaking off negotiations on disarmament.
2001 - A Palestinian security official trying to infiltrate a Jewish settlement is killed in a firefight with Israeli troops, a day after a Gaza Strip bus driver plows into a crowded bus stop in Israel and kills eight young Israelis.
2004 - The US administrator for Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, opens the nation's first human rights ministry, saying it will investigate atrocities committed during Saddam Hussein's rule and will draft a human rights declaration and promote private groups that defend civil liberties in the country.
Today's Birthdays:
Galileo Galilei, Italian astronomer (1564-1642)
Babur, founder of Mughal dynasty in India (1483-1530)
AN Whitehead, English philosopher (1861-1947)
Jane Seymour, English born actress (1951--)
Hank Locklin, U.S. country singer (1918--)
Melissa Manchester, U.S. singer (1951--)
Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons (1954--)
Ali Campbell, British singer with reggae group UB40 (1959--)
