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February 18 - the day in history
On this day in 1685, the first settlement on American soil in Texas was established.
Today is Friday, February 18, the forty ninth day of 2005.
There are 316 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1685 - La Salle, French explorer, establishes first settlement on American soil in Texas.
1861 - Jefferson Davis is sworn in as president of the Confederate States of America in Montgomery, Alabama.
1884 - British forces under Gen. Charles Gordon reach Khartoum in Sudan, but the rebel Mahdi rejects his offer to negotiate.
1885 - Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published in the United States.
1930 - American astronomer Clyde W Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto.
1945 - Battle for Iwo Jima begins in Pacific in World War II.
1964 - Earthquakes rock Azores in eastern Atlantic, and ships battle high waves to evacuate people from San Jorge Island.
1965 - African nation of Gambia becomes independent within British Commonwealth.
1970 - Young Filipinos storm U.S. Embassy compound in Manila, protesting U.S. military bases in Philippines and U.S. economic policy.
1977 - The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, goes on its maiden flight above the Mojave Desert.
1988 - Boris Yeltsin is ousted from ruling Communist Party Politburo in Moscow.
1989 - Afghan government declares state of emergency "to ensure peace and security" in war-ravaged country.
1992 - Libya produces two men accused of blowing up an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, but insists they'll never go to trial in the West..
1994 - Bosnian Serbs struggle with chest-high snow to try to beat a NATO deadline for pulling heavy guns from around Sarajevo.
1995 - Fighting ebbs in Chechnya as a fragile truce goes into its final hours with no word about resumption of peace talks.
1996 - Two car bombs explode near Algiers, Algeria, killing 12 and wounding 35 during the final hours of Ramadan celebrations.
1997 - Mexico's top anti-drug official, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, is dismissed and later sentenced for taking money from a drug kingpin.
1998 - Kenneth Kaunda, the former president of Zambia, is charged with concealing information about a failed coup. In June, the charges are dropped and Kaunda freed from house arrest.
1999 - Three Greek Cabinet ministers are fired after the government fails to protect Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was arrested by Turkey three days earlier while hiding in the Kenyan Embassy in Greece.
2002 - Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, the Russian navy's commander in chief, discloses that the Kursk, a nuclear-powered submarine that sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000, had been loaded with obsolete torpedoes that contained unstable fuel.
Today's Birthdays:
Alessandro Volta, Italian physicist (1745-1827)
Nicolo Paganini, Italian composer-violinist (1784-1840)
Milos Forman, Czech film director (1932--)
Toni Morrison, author (1931)
George Kennedy, U.S. actor (1925--)
Toni Morrison, U.S. author (1931--)
Yoko Ono, U.S. singer/John Lennon's widow (1933--)
Cybill Shepherd, U.S. actress (1950--)
Randy Crawford, U.S. singer (1952--)
John Travolta, U.S. actor (1954--)
Greta Scacchi, British-Italian actress (1960--)
Matt Dillon, U.S. actor (1964--)
Dr. Dre, U.S. rapper (1965--)
