Feb 23, when the Rotary Club was established

On this day in 1975 US decision to end arms embargo against Pakistan drew wrath of India, which cancels planned March meeting in Washington.

Today is Wednesday, February 23, the fifty fourth day of 2005.
There are 311 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1574 - Fifth War of Religion breaks out in France.

1660 - Sweden's King Charles IX executes leaders of pro-Polish party for treason.

1820 - Cato Street conspiracy to murder British cabinet minister is discovered.
1836 - Siege of the Alamo begins in Texas against Mexican attackers.
1854 - Britain agrees to leave territory north of Orange River in South Africa, allowing for establishment of constitution for Orange Free State.

1861 - American President-elect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington to take office after an assassination plot was foiled in Baltimore.

1901 - Britain and Germany agree on boundary between German East Africa and Nyasaland.
1905 - The Rotary Club is established in Chicago.
1927 - US President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.
1933 - Japan begins occupation of China north of the Great Wall.
1934 - Nicaraguan rebel leader Cesar Augusto Sandino, invited to meet with army leader and later dictator Anastasio Somoza, is abducted and murdered.
1938 - First oil discovery in Kuwait.
1942 - Japanese submarine shells oil refinery near Santa Barbara, California.
1945 - US Marines plant flag on Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, but it will be another three weeks until all Japanese defenders on the island are defeated.
1954 - The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1970 - Republic of Guyana, formerly British Guinea, ends association with Britain but remains within Commonwealth.
1975 - US decision to end arms embargo against Pakistan draws wrath of India, which cancels planned March meeting in Washington, DC.
1990 - Prince Sihanouk returns to Cambodia after 11 years in exile.
1991 - Military junta seizes power in Thailand after a bloodless coup.
1993 - Rallying behind red flags and portraits of Lenin, more than 10,000 pro-Communists march to the Kremlin to denounce Russian President Boris Yeltsin and urge the military to rise up against him.
1994 - Bosnia's Muslim-led government and Croat forces sign a truce.
1996 - Two sons-in-law of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein are killed by clan members after returning to the country after defecting.
1997 - Ali Abu Kamal, a Palestinian, fires a gun into a crowd on the observation deck of New York City's Empire State Building, killing one person and injuring six, then shoots himself to death.
1998 - Leftist guerrillas set off a mine in India, killing five soldiers sent to guard polling booths and raising the death toll related to parliamentary elections to 29.

2001 - Thousands of people flee brutal ethnic clashes on the Indonesian part of Borneo island as fighting between native Dayak people and immigrants from Madura island escalates, claiming at least 165 lives.
2003 - Opposition legislators walk out in protest after Bangladesh's Parliament passes a law pardoning soldiers involved in a three-month anti-crime campaign in which 44 people died on January 11.
2004 - At least 66 people die in weekend clashes among Colombian troops, leftist rebels of the United Self-Defense Forces or AUC, and right-wing paramilitary forces. The two-day toll is extremely high even by standards in Colombia, which has been engulfed in a 40-year insurgency.

Today's Birthdays:
George Frederick Handel, German composer (1685-1759)
George Frederick Watts, English artist (1817-1904)
Constantine Caramanlis, Greek president (1907-1998)
Peter Fonda, US actor/director (1940--)
Brad Whitford, guitarist for Aerosmith (1952--)
Howard Jones, British singer (1955--)
Kristin Davis, US actress (1965--)
Bhagyashree, actress

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